Not a typo, but my feeling after a, so far, near miss scam. I hate bloody car parking via app. Add in a car park that, pre-app, has always been out to annoy, namely the one in central Keswick, and I’m angrier still.
Trying to park yesterday, I saw they now use a “ MiPermit” system, necessitating downloading the app. In so trying to do, I later encountered numerous websites claiming to be, which should have been warning sufficient. But, first time in, mindful of not wasting time, I dove in the first. It seemed kosher, my bad, going as far as details etc. Then it “crashed”. Trying again, I did then get the app up and running, but my bank declined the fee. I gave up and went to the Booths car park, where they have a far simpler system.
On return to our holiday let, I checked my account, as I always do, lest any jiggery pokers had ensued. Nil and phew. However, an e Mail soon announced my 3 day trial in some travel webpage was now running, to be followed by £60 subs per month. I unsubscribed stat and received acknowledgement. Today I have a 1 day trial for a beauty website and that, too, has been cancelled. As has my bank card, by me, lest further shenanigans unfold.
It seems MiPermit are used by many councils, and it seems this scam is well known and well practised. Be warned. I have lost no money but a fair bit of pride.
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I was in Manchester this week and the open air NCP had a sign warning against QR codes. You can only pay by card or the app as so many scam codes are put up. NCP app via App Store rather than a website.
We parked up the other day in a local car park and I noticed on the sign that it said no QR codes are attached to the sign.
I imagine that it’s another scam in use by fraudsters attaching fake QR codes to catch people out.
It’s also a growing concern that fake QR codes are stuck over the top of genuine ones.
I’m fairly IT literate but often struggle to park a car these days. If you have the App already installed and have used it before then it’s usually workable (assuming there’s enough 4G), but arrive somewhere with a very local council arrangement then all bets are off.
There must be people less IT literate who have no bloody chance.
I was in Aberdeen last summer, parked where I’ve always parked since the combustion engine was invented. No ticket machine, just a sign saying “Use the app or ring this number”. No app of course and, guess what, no phone signal this far underground. Gave up in disgust and drove into Union Street. “Doesn’t seem many cars here” I mutter “and why is that bus driver making obscene gestures at me?”.
A week later, an email from the car hire company ” Thirty quid fine for driving in a bus lane and another forty five smackers admin costs.”
Sums up the modern world if you ask me. Instead of apps and phone calls to India, what’s wrong with paying some bitter & twisted chappie who’s always wanted to wear a uniform to patrol the car parks and slap penalty notices on heinous offenders? Eh, eh ?
I don’t believe it’s legal to oblige the user of any car park to use an app to pay for the parking fee. There has to be a cash or card option in all cases.
Personally I refuse to use my phone for ANY financial transaction at all, and firmly believe that’s the best policy for anyone to adopt.
Re phone transactions: why?
Wait until you lose your phone one day. All those folk who wave their phone at the till. Easy prey.
Google Wallet requires biometric confirmation every time thankfully if annoyingly. In that respect it’s more secure than your credit card.
Not if those bastards have cut your finger off – they’ll do anything to get free parking …
They’d need to cut my face off – no fingerprint stuff on iPhones. Mind you. I’d probably give them my pin code if they threaten to cut off my face.
Ewww! Images of Cage/Travolta…
I love that movie. Preposterous but Travolta is astonishing mimicking Cage.
@twang.
Indeed. I’ve got my Android phone set up for PIN entry only. And the wallet only works if the phone’s been opened.
Any technology is dangerous if you don’t use it safely. Someone could wave your bank card at a till more easily.
Yes mine needs my fingerprint to use. If I left my plastic card somewhere, somebody else could tap away with it until I discovered it was gone.
The only times I have been scammed/lost money it has been with physical cards/cash.
My debit card was cloned about 18 years ago (pain in the neck as I couldn’t pay to get out of a car park becasue I couldn’t get cash out). Sorted out by telephone banking but thought I was going to be stuck in Solihull.
I have once, idiotically, left the money in the cash machine and just walked off with my card. It wasn’t there when I went back within 2 minutes.
I have lost cash (and found cash). When I worked in Sainsbury’s, I found someones pay packet on the floor near the entrance. They were very pleased that they got it back.
Apple Pay doesn’t even use my card numbers – it creates a different one that is used specifically for Apple Pay. And it is all encrypted. If someone wants to do some dammage with my Apple Pay, they will need my face or my pin code. If my phone is lost, I can cancel it all in one go. I feel this is much more secure (and seriously more practical) than cash and cards.
@Leedsboy
If you had been stuck in a Solihull car park, Steven Spielberg might have made a movie of you. The big question is would you have changed your name to Solihullboy?
Solitude in Solihull? It was the Touchwood car park as I recall. I would probably go with TouchBoy. Times were simpler then.
Yes you can have have too with Google pay. I’ve just got out set on dinner.
Both my credit cards have different numbers for contactless by default, done by the bank I guess.
I’ve watched a bunch a movies recently where the baddie knocks out/kills someone then sticks the face in front of the phone to unlock it. Sounds precisely the kind of thing that would happen in a car park in Solihull
Heading to Solihull on Friday, I’ll report back.
That Soiled Hill can be right rough at night, when the Chelmsley Wood Crew are in town.
Luckily I’ll be with you @retropath2 dodging the rubbish in brum centre.
I’ve been re-reading your first sentence above, @Twang –
and I have to ask: eh?
Dear me. Autocorrect gone mad. Translation…
Yes you can have face too with Google pay. I’ve just got it set on finger!
Many thanks! Reference to “dinner” rather threw me…
Finger & Snack for me.
Mmmm!
Booths. It’s always the right answer.
You are not wrong. It makes Waitrose seem like Farmfoods.
Every time I’m in Lytham for a few days, that’s my first port of call.
I used to go camping and walking in the Lake District. Booths in Keswick used to have a deli salad bar where you could cram as much coleslaw and other salad delights into a tub as you could for a fixed price. It was probably the best salad I’ve had anywhere. Soul food for the hungry walker. Happy days.
I used to work on a building site, laying drains in the heat of summer. I had a tin mug with bits of concrete and brick dust. Best cup of tea I’ve ever tasted.
That’s the start of a Springsteen song, isn’t it?
Of the many (5 or 6) Car Parks in the Town Centre, 2 are ticket pay as you leave at the machine, another couple are scan QR code/pay on the app, only 1 is scan card on way In/Out.
That’s the one I go for – no hassle, no QR code, no chance of scam
note:
“no hassle” – except for some reason the machine refuses to recognise my NatWest Debit Card
“no chance of scam” – unless someone rigs up one those card readers that were used on cash machines (unlikely as the car park is behind solid gates and controlled entry)
I hate QR codes. I had a similar experience to the OP when I needed to have been somewhere 5 minutes ago, and HAD to get there. Spotted, and no money lost, had to talk to the bank when that’s hard enough, and on a difficult day. Bastards (the QR fraudsters). I also leave restaurants that require you to access a menu from them. Gimmicky enshittification.
I refuse to use QR codes in car parks. Also in restaurants – if they want my custom they can give me a bloody menu. Modern world bollox.
I hate them now!
I like parking apps. The days of having to queue to feed pound coins into a machine at the railway station and one would fall through as your train time gets closer a long gone.
The technology is fine. I get a countdown on my phone and watch and it’s pretty simple to extend without having to go back.
The issue is with scammers taking advantage of people who are in a hurry and preoccupied. QR codes in an outside space are best avoided.
I’ve only ever used RingGo, which seems to be used pretty much everywhere round here, no problems whatsoever with it. But I loathe paying to park anywhere, and it does niggle that there is now seemingly zero choice. I bet less able folks really struggle to park these days.
Southend has an app for all its council-owned car parks. Pay a yearly sub and parking anywhere is free for 6 hours a day. Book via the app in advance, no waiting around. It’s ace.
Yeah I like parking apps too but always use my phone where my details are already registered and never a QR code.
Here in Horsham, the main council car parks are ANPR driven; drive in, park, check the machine and pay prior to exit. Straightforward enough, you might think, but ’tis rarely so. Confused visitors abound and delays ensue.
However, for residents, there is a wrinkle. If you sign up on the council website – no QR codes to be seen – then the whole thing is automated. Drive in, park, drive out and the appropriate charge appears on your credit card. Zero hassle of any kind and a boon to the hurrying motorist – often me!
QR codes are, of course, the work of Beelzebub.
When my mum was in hospital I installed my first parking app, seething with irritation at the bollocks of it all, but…. but…. it worked really well. No more finding a working machine, searching for change etc, you get a reminder text to top up the payment etc. You do have to be careful with the location code – a typo meant I once bought a day’s parking in the West Country when I was parking in Hertford but fortunately I spotted it and didn’t also get a parking ticket. I also once bought parking for 3 hours for my motorbike (at home in the garage) rather than the car (in the actual car park). I now have five bloody parking apps on my phone and the thrill is wearing off somewhat.
One of the many pleasures of riding a motorbike is that parking is generally free as there is nowhere to put your little paper ticket. Parking apps remove this modest benefit which is annoying.
I think parking apps are on that list of things that people are suspicious of becasue its another thing on their phone. I have distant memories of having to go and get cash out to park, buying bottles of water to get change and getting parking tickets becasue I was a few minutes late returning.
Too many niche apps is a pain. I group the apps in one folder and search by the appp name and its pretty straightforward. RingGo is King(Go) with MiiPermit an honourable second. Also, most of them allow me to use Apple Pay so I don’t need to set accounts/cards up for each one.
And they make the act of claiming expenses for parking super easy as well.
I find Paybyphone works well but they all have their quirks. Apcoa is the one which seems to be the most hassle which is stressful as that’s the one at the station when you are inevitably under time pressure. Handy too that I can put time on Mrs. T’s car when she’s out shopping.
Folder tip now implemented, ta.
APCOA – the C stands for something rude.
@Vulpes-Vulpes
As does the A and the P
NCP is good, once set up and very easy to get receipts from.
In my last employment before I retired (Hooray!), it was necessary to drive between jobs in various London boroughs. At first we had to pay for street parking ourselves and claim parking fees back, but then the firm got their act together and opened accounts with both (or was it all 3?) of the major parking companies used by the various boroughs. Didn’t use QR codes back then (2016), you had your work phone and vehicle reg. pre-registered with the parking company and you just had to enter the correct numerical location code (on a sticker on the parking machines) for the set of parking bays that you parked in.
At a few off-road parking spots on private land we were obliged to use, it was necessary to call the parking company and state your company, vehicle registration and location or a fine would be issued, which our firm would deduct from your wages.
Westminster run a trade parking permit scheme: book online for the correct zone, find space, park. Have to be careful of resident bays as they finish at 5pm but otherwise it allows all day parking on metered bays in some very central spots.
I can no longer drive. The bus manages to park quite satisfactorily.
You may have opened a discussion on bus apps though. The Stagecoach one is unpleasant to use.
East Midlands based bus company person at your service…
Not Stagecoach, to be fair.
I can drive, but for such reasons as well as congestion everywhere I mainly use the train when I am in the UK these days. Will have to drive next time though for a few days 🙁
Christ on a bike. Buses? What are they? Oh yes, those big vans with lots of windows. One of them comes through our village each day I believe – I’ve never seen it.
I had to get a bus the other day and was astonished when it actually turned up and went where it was supposed to! Who knew?
When I lived in Paris I got the bus all the time but they work there.
My father in law can no longer get a bus to the shops, 2 miles away along a straight road. He has to get a bus in a different direction then change. Don’t even think about him getting a bus to the train station. Crazy talk!
Talking car parking, here in Exmouth we have the absurd situation on the sea front where the parking meters on one side of the road are run by Devon County Council and on the other side by East Devon District Council. Woe betide you if you pay at the wrong meter for the other side…if you see what I mean. Bonkers.