Ticket question (and a rant)

A few weeks ago I parked my car in a metered space and started putting coins in the meter. The meter took my coins but didn't register any time on the meter. It kept flashing 0:00. There weren't any empty parking spaces to move to so I called the number on the meter to report the problem. I was told I could park there and if I got a ticket I should just send it back with a dispute. I asked how the city would know I called to report it and was told there would be a work order submitted to repair the meter.

So I go to class and come back and find a ticket. I took the ticket and did what the woman told me to do and included the meter number, discription of the problem and the time I called the city.

Yesterday I get a letter from the city denying my dispute saying there wasn't anything wrong with the meter. If I wanted a hearing I had to submit my fine along with EVIDENCE and I could have a hearing. Evidence??!!! What kind of evidence am I supposed to submit to prove a 3 week old parking meter failure? I called. I did exactly what I was told to do. Now I have to pay the fine and provide evidence before they will even talk to me. :wtf:

The ticket is $30 which isn't the end of the world, but it's the principle of the thing. The meter was broken. Maybe the next person who parked there kicked the damn thing and got it working. I don't know, but it didn't work for me.

Damn city. No wonder people take hack saws to parking meters.

What would you do in this situation?

Mz Pip
:dem:

because you're definitely not the only person who got burned by that meter. Make them take you to court and tell the judge just what you told us and ask him to request the history of that particular meter.

That's if you're mad enough. If you're not, pay the thirty bucks with a nasty letter.

Oh, and keep your camera with you, even one in a cell phone. The next time a meter screws you out of money, cram something into the slot and photograph it. "HERE, THE GODDAMNED THING IS BROKEN NOW!"

One was where they force you to pay the ticket first , the other is a dispute claim . They put up no parking signs on one side of the street where none existed before and they did this after people who parked there for years parked that morning and everyine got a ticket . Then I get a letter in the mail saying they never got my dispute form , it must have evaporated in their shreader . $35 gone for nothing .

...is a failure to communicate!

Does the PD have a call log? See if they have a record of the call.

MAke a copy of the logged call.

Go back to the parking meter in question

Tape the copy of the logged call to the parking meter pole

Tape 1 stick dynamite to pole

Light fuse

Run like hell!

But I'm assuming you called from a cell phone. Your cell phone bill will have documented the call. I call that evidence.

And I'm with you on fighting this.

If it is, request the repair order. If it's not, take the pictures now and go to court. If you have the time, it would be helpful for you to follow up. Poor people don't have the credibility or can't get off work. Rich(er) people don't care, it's not worth the $30. So nobody challenges this stuff.

and henceforth keep careful notes of the clerk's name you spoke with, the time you placed the call, the advice you were given. then pay the fine and submit all that stuff as evidence. i would not recommend violence such as buying a tube of one-part epoxy glue and using it to gum up the coin slots of the next ten or twenty meters you park next to. the expense of cleaning out that gunk would surpass the 30 buck tax you had to pay. in my city there's a prohibition against using public street space to park in the early morning hours. the city hires a private contractor equipped with high-speed devices that issue 30 dollar parking tix in a few seconds. one operator can cruise several blocks and rake in hundreds of dollars a night from apartment dwellers whose landlards don't put in sufficient spaces, forcing tenants to take the risk and pay the 30 dollar tax several times a year.

"Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp<1> who refuses to submit to the system. His inability to conform drives the plot of the movie, in the same vein as characters such as Winston Smith from Nineteen Eighty-Four, Randle McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Holman in The Sand Pebbles.

Luke is sent to the prison camp for cutting the heads off parking meters one drunken night, and when asked what kind of thing that is for a man to do, his explanation is "Small town, not much to do in the evenin'. Mostly just settlin' up old scores." His unquenchable spirit makes the other prisoners idolize (and idealize) him, and leads to his Christ-like martyrdom at the hands of the authorities.<2> There is occasional Christian imagery and reference throughout, notably in the closing pullback shot of roads forming a distinct cross and of a bloated Luke laying with outspread arms on the table, abandoned by friends after eating fifty eggs."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Hand_Luke

You might buy a pipe cutter...but then again, you may just want to conform rather than taste that sweet revenge.

Another bit of creative revenge is something a local guy does each Christmas. He sends out kids armed with bags of quarters to scout out meters about to expire; the kids are paid to keep those meters from expiring. The city loses a lotta dough that way, but this guy seems to be a thorn under their blanket !

"The Anti-Grinch:

"I've never done anything I enjoy more," says Gene Crozat, the instigator of the merry band of "meter beaters" who have once again taken to the streets of downtown Santa Rosa, determined to stay a step or two ahead of the city's parking patrols. The owner of G & C Auto Body, Crozat has been bankrolling the elfin crew for six years now, earning the enmity of the city and the affection of a city-full of shoppers. The eight meter beaters began their seasonal duties last Saturday, and will continue through Dec. 23, spending $600 to $800 a day in small change to ward off parking citations for the unwary. "They're actually getting pretty good at it," Crozat says of his current crew, which includes a number of repeat student workers. "They're getting on their walkie-talkies to stay ahead of those gals." As a lighthearted way of expressing his contempt for city hall, Crozat says, "You can't have more fun for $600 a day."

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/12.21.95/public-eye-9551.html

I don't know if your city has pissed you off this much but by all means, be creative ! Merry Christmas !

but I sure appreciate the sentiment. :mad:

THe City of Berkeley has had a lot of problems with people vandalizing the meters and I believe a number of them were hacked off with saws.

This letter just really pissed me off and I don't want to pay the damn fine because I was told I could park there.

Mz Pip
:dem:

http://www.judgejudy.com/home/home.asp

or a local tv/radio show's consumer reporter. They'd love to do a segment on how to fight city hall.

I'd say, go to court, the judge will likely dismiss it upon hearing your story.

You will miss a few hours of work and be out those wages. And you'll probably have to park at a parking meter while in court, and wait a few hours for your case, as your meter runs out and your car will be given a parking ticket.

http://www.albanyca.org/

December 03, 2007
8:00PM
Council Chambers, City Hall
1000 San Pablo Avenue

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Commission Composition:

Members/Term: 5 Council Appointees - Members serve for two years, until the next Municipal Election.


Police Chief, Fire Chief and City Engineer - Serve as ex-officio members

The Commission members select one member to serve as Chairperson.
David Madson
Ray Anderson
Richard Treat
Marsha Atkinson
Lubov Mazur

roster updated 12/12/06

Meetings: Fourth Thursday of the month, 7:00 p.m.
Albany City Hall Council Chambers
1000 San Pablo Avenue

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http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/traffic/info.htm

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http://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/LES/citation_info.htm

Also I am told the parking meter was invented in ND.