Of Parking and Lost Tickets

I guess it must happen to you once (for me twice) where you parked your car in a shopping mall, went up to do your shopping and by the time you wanted to pay for your parking fee... you discovered that you have lost it!! I mean you looked high and low, ask your wife, ask your kids, ask your friend, anyone that were with you to help you find this little piece of paper because you know, unless you find it, you have to pay alot of money to get out of the mall/hotel/etc...

It happen to me yesterday after my shopping in Care****. I was with my kids and by the time we wanted to go out, I discovered that I do not have the parking ticket anymore. The feeling of paying RM50 entered my mind immediately and let me tell you, that is not a good feeling - you can do a lot for RM50, especially during these 'recession prone' period that we are having.

Although the parking operator has declared this piece of information before your enter the parking lot, I believe that this matter need to be challenged. You see, the parking for at places like this is about RM1 for the first 2 hours (free if you buy someting from the main tenant of the mall), and RM1 for the next hour. By right if you clock in at 9:30 am by the time they opened and clock out by 10:30 pm when they close, you are suppose to pay RM13 for the whole day parking. Where on earth did they get RM50? Is it by default that since these operator do business in hotel where they charge you parking at RM3 per hour, they can immediately can apply the same rates to people losing their parking tickets in the shopping malls?? Is this sensible?

Furthermore, you should notice that these operator would deny any responsibilities if something happen to your car or its content. You got banged, you lost your laptops, someone scratch your car, sorry they say - your parked at your own risks. But if you lost your ticket, you have to pay us, a lot..

I believe this sort of relationship need to be seriously look into, like the amount of toll that we have to pay using the highway. We as a consumer can be penalized for our forgetfullnes or our tendency as human to misplace things, but not to such extend. It should be logical and defendable and for the parking operator to charge us based on their whims and fancy are just unjust!

So, please - next time you parked your car in those parking malls, do treat that piece of parking ticket like a RM50 note...