A Wonderful Day RUINED by Parking
By Catherine, 12/14/09
My husband and I only had one day to sightsee Philadelphia and all it's historic radiance. We were having a wonderful time despite the rain and cold weather. My advice to everyone who plans on visiting Philadelphia's Independence Hall is to NOT park underneath the Visitor's Center. Although it may be convenient, the hassle of dealing with the Parking Company's employee's incompetence were more than enough to ruin our entire trip.
After spending over 3+ hours taking every possible tour and picture, we headed back to our car which was parked in the underground parking garage where he Visitor's Center was located. The parking facility was managed by Philadelphia Parking Authority, which has signs everywhere telling you not to forget to pay before you leave. My husband paid at one of their machines by credit card as soon as we descended the elevators, received our receipt but the ticket was never dispensed. We tried to exit the lot but without a ticket, the gate will not open. We pressed the Help button on the machine and the lade on the other end of the intercom was rude and said that we need to get out of the car to her office. I took the receipt with me planning on showing as proof of payment, but she didn't even glance at it and told me that I have to run back to the ticketing machine to retrieve the ticket, in a very rude tone. I replied and said that there was no ticket. She did not listen and sent me on my way. I ran over there and there was no ticket. She followed shortly after in her slow walking pace, and said that it's not there and told me to go back to my car. I thought she was going to open the gate for us after returning to the car, but it was a misguidance and she continued doing so by motioning us to move the car forward, then backward then forward again. Tired of playing her tricks, we backed up and parked again. Again, I tried showing her the receipt of proof of payment and she disregarded it and said that anyone can show a receipt and that it doesn't mean anything. She told us that we had to pay an additional $18 for losing our ticket, on top of the $16.25 that we have originally paid. We disputed and wanted to speak to her manager. She tells us that there is no manager on duty and we would have to wait til Monday. I asked her how we go about paying for the additional charge, and she pointed us back to the machine. When we tried the machine that has a button for lost ticket, it did not work. We were frustrated beyond words. We felt that we were being held hostage in the parking garage and the only way out was them stealing money that has already been paid. The women on duty was nothing near being helpful, considerate and lack customer service skills. She even told us that she's called the cop on us as if it's our plan to be stuck in their garage or attempt to deceive them without paying for parking when we had proof of payment and which they also have a video camera that shows that evidence which she chose not to validate.
I have attempted over three calls to contact the parking company for reimbursement the next business day but was only able to leave messages that were never responded to.
