Parking going cashless

“Why do we have stories of shops closing and yet more council organized scams like this to rip off the motorist/customer?
Not hard to figure is it!!?”

“I shop at Tesco mostly, because it's the nearest by several miles. Whenever I only have a few items I always queue to pay a real person. When asked if I want to move to a self-service till with no queue, my response is "No thanks - I don't want to do anyone else out of a job".”

“The world seems to be conspiring against those who just want to pay simply for the goods or service required. Self service tills are springing up everywhere too. WH Smith in Gloucester have just introduced them and today 2 of the 3 were'nt working properly. Even when they do work they ask far too many pointless questions. Let's create a system where you select your item, hand over money for it and leave. Oh! Wait a minute that's what they used to have, it's called staffed tills!!!!!”

“Its a disgrace Bonkim, no doubt it will cost to make the call in the first place which will go on top of the parking costs. Also not everyone is clued up on how to use mobile phones, apart from making a call or text. Me and Mr Bonza are only in our 50's and you should see us trying to answer a call on these new phones, you have to use your finger to swipe through the call box to answer, by the time we have frantically done this several times the caller has hung up. I am sure we will master it. But wha about people in there 70's and 80's this is too much for many of them to contend with. Not everyone is hot on technology, so its not really at all user friendly. Like you said a con.”

“Yes bonzaharris1 - not everyone may wish to use their phone to make payments, etc, and why should one have to pay the call or service charge and waste ones time to pay a parking charge. It is the IT industry making work for itself at the expense of customers to increase their revenue. See the comments of others on the same theme. I bet the selling point to the council was lower transaction/ticket charges - at the expense of Joe-motorist.

Repeat - this is a con-trick to get the users to pay the transaction charge over and above the parking charge and everyone know mobile transactions re a rip-off.”

“Bonkim, what about those who have a mobile phone, but couldn't work out how to pay by mobile phone. I have just upgraded to a smartphone, and its too bl**dy smart for me !!”

“My friends and I parked in Bristol last night and had to pay via mobile phone. It took half an hour for us to complete the transaction. The sign gave very poor instructions, the voice recognition system had difficulties with both french and english accents, we didn't trouble it with the scottish accent! A nightmare! We paid £4.50 for 4 hours parking only to be told by a friend that he had just paid £2 for full day parking in the same car park, to go to the same concert. Rip off merchants out to catch the stressed, the naive and the not very bright! We could have bought a ticket with coins from a machine in seconds and not been left feeling very stupid!”

“Last time I looked it was more expensive to park cashless than by paying money in the usual way. If the council wants people to use this service then it should give an incentive and make it cheaper...”

“Not a problem for me. If I have to pay to park I go somewhere else!”

“I suppose easier to control for the council - but what are the provisions for casual visitors who don't have a mobile phone or credit card? Will there be a transaction charge benefiting the ticketing Co or mobile phone operator? Is the council simply putting the management costs on to the user thereby increasing the parking charges? The real question - same as replacing office staff with call centres - for whose benefit? I bet the contractors sell their system by pointing out the benefits for the council admin rather than the user.”