Oshawa Hospital parking lots recently changed, and I wasn't aware of the change until I ran into several problems. I encountered two problem situations;
1. The north outdoor parking lot exit-lane payment machine now has no slot for reading a credit card. My credit card "tap" function is not working, so I had to use a "backup" credit card with tap function. That problem requires I spend more time bookkeeping and reimbursing myself for the parking expense. Then the machine accepted my payment and opened the gate, but it did not issue a payment receipt. It ate my parking tag and unexpectedly didn't give it back. I require receipts for payments, so I can be reimbursed. I found an intercom button on the payment machine, and used it to contact the parking attendant, who told me to come to the office. I had to go out of my way, located the parking lot office, illegally park, and ask for a hand-written receipt.
2. A few days later, I parked at the same hospital, but in the south parking garage. When I walked out of the hospital, I tried to pay at the payment machine before walking to my car, but there was a sheet of paper taped to it, indicating the machine was "offline". I spoke to an attendant by remote audio, and was instructed to use my payment card to pay at the machine when driving out of the lot. I tried to do that, but the exit machine has no proper card reader (has tap only), and no receipt generating capability. I got out of my car and went back to the payment machine, and called the attendant again, leaving my car blocking the lane. I was told since the payment machine was "down", there were no receipt, and if I wanted a receipt, I had to drive to the north end of the hospital, locate the parking attendant's office, and get a receipt. I went out of my way and did that, and obtained a hand-written receipt. I also complained to the attendant, that a colleague had parked here a few days ago, ran into the same "no receipt" problem, and was stuck paying out of pocket, because a receipt wasn't issued.
Today while doing my accounting, I found the parking lot company name "IMPARK00090501U" and parking charges on my credit card statement. I went to the IMPARK website, and tried, but there is no way to report this problem, because a) the list of "lot feedback categories" is incomplete, and all categories (I tried several) take the user to key in "Lot Number*" (mandatory field). Now how am I supposed to remember the Lot Number for an incident that happened in October? And why is there no other way for reporting this problem? I searched far and wide, and concluded IMPARK doesn't want to take customer calls, because their phone numbers aren't posted anywhere. I found the same for REIMAGINED PARKING (who are somehow connected to this situation).
What the hell is wrong at IMPARK and REIMAGINED PARKING? Does nobody who works there understand real-world situations like equipment failures? Or that people require receipts? Consider these common-sense suggestions:
1. Never inconvenience your paying customers.
2. Provide receipts always.
3. Use reliable equipment.
4. Design workflow to handle equipment malfunction.
5. Use a SIGN to notify customers of changes.
6. Provide a phone number for customer support.
7. Don't make LOT# mandatory on reporting forms.
8. CITY is also a mandatory field, but OSHAWA is not on your list!
Claimed loss: N/A
Desired outcome: See above.