To be annoyed at parking apps?

[antelopevalley]

Spent a lot of the day at the minor injuries unit with DD who has broken a bone.
The only parking space available nearby was a car park where you could only pay via a parking app. I have used the parking app that is common where I live, but this car park used a different one.

I spent 20 minutes downloading the parking app and trying to pay, only to get stuck on the pay screen whirring. I tried again a few times, each time I could not get it to go through. I gave up and asked a passerby for help about other parking and was directed to a small car park on a side street.

To make matters worse, as the entry and exit for the car park is controlled by cameras, I still had to pay for the first car park or risk a fine. There was of course no one I could talk to, so had to send a message on whatsapp. After a lot of back and forth, they gave me another way to pay for the parking I did not use.

It has just annoyed me so much today and made the whole thing much more stressful. Why can you only pay for parking via an app? How is this accessible, especially if connection or the app is poor so it does not even work!

DD is fine by the way, plastered up and on her tablet telling all her friends about her "ordeal".

Were you just sitting poised waiting for a new thread to start, so that you could make sure the first response was an arsey one?

Sorry, if I don’t agree with an OP do I need to wait until other people have posted ?

This is the newest bug bear of mine living in the Duchy l. Since covid anyway where they have just spring up over night

Beaches are notoriously bad for signal as is anywhere in Cornwall tbh. So why just have app parking in car parks

The card machines rarely work as well

Yanbu. I won't use them. Card payment only.

I have no payment details linked to my phone at all. All shopping is done via my laptop.

I dont like them either but how do you refuse to use them

If like the OP she needs to get to a hospital appointment or unit, no choice

If you're on holiday and you're going somewhere specific or a beauty spot or restaurant and the car park has it and no card options, then what do you do?

Carl, find something else to do today other than going on mumsnet to argue with the women.

bell I go to another car park. I've driven in and out of them before.

Well I suppose my point was that there wouldnt be another car park.

Hospitals tend to have no other car parks or providers of their payment systems, local streets are full of parking restrictions

Many beauty spots are in the middle of nowhere, we got caught out on this in Scotland, middle no where, cant remember where now, somewhere near the Trossachs and parking app didnt have signal. Awful. Causes me so much stress. No other car park and no where to park outside the car park.

I got a parking ticket in the space of time that it took me to open the app successfully, sit and wait for the app to open, update my debit card details and pay for the parking. I appealed successfully but that must have cost the company in terms of processing etc.

I have no idea why parking companies and councils use these apps when there isn't always the mobile signal to be able to access them. My parents only go places where there is the option of putting coins in a machine, my dads hands have a tremor and he struggles with apps.

They are a nightmare if you don't have the app for that particular car park, and they all seem to use different companies throughout the country. Great when they work, but a total pain in the arse when they don't

I do not care if they use apps as long as it is not the only way of paying. I now know to avoid YPS like the plague. Maybe okay if booked in advance, but not okay if trying to do it in the car park.

I’m with you OP, I don’t mind the apps as long as there are other ways to pay.
i recently had to get to a hospital in the centre of London in the middle of the night, no idea where I was, roadworks, road closures, lots of one way only roads, bus lanes to keep out of, double red lines, 20mph everywhere, no left/right turns and no car park at the hospital. Ended up parking in a street about a mile away as there was no clear way to get back out and I couldn’t even pull over anywhere to check the satnav or even have a proper look. Finally got out of the car and had to then download the parking app as it wasn’t one I had already used, photographed the location number so I could try and pay while I was running at breakneck speed to try and find the hospital, but needed the map
app open on my phone at the same time.
the whole thing was a fucking headache although I did manage it, would have been so much easier to just beep my card against a machine and go.
i just made it to the hospital in time - I’m still raging about the fucking parking app!!!

I do wonder how poor tourists manage in London if they've been mad enough to hire a car

Glad your DD is OK OP.

It’s scandalous, especially at a hospital when it’s likely you are already in a stressful situation. I’ve had similar - app not working, go to the reception with poorly DC in tow as was heading to children's A&E, and the machine in there is also not working inside (there was a card slot, but it was out of action).

I feel these things are actually designed to trip you up. All they need is a card slot. They must make so much money from people falling foul of unnecessary apps.

I like using an app to pay for parking and always pay by app if the option is available, but even I think it’s ridiculous for an app to be the ONLY payment option, especially at a hospital.

Oh I didn't notice the male username before. We've got a case of correctile disfunction, have we?

That sounds so stressful. I have had to do the dash to hospital in the middle of the night through roadworks and confusing road closures and bus lanes, but at least in Scotland where I now am, the parking is free.
This was a minor injuries unit with very little free parking.
@TheChosenTwo The issue is that these things just add to a very stressful time. As if you haven't got enough to deal with.

@Roundtoedshoes I am sorry you had a similar situation. When your stress levels are already so high, it is not a good time to try and deal with a dodgy or badly designed app.

They're really annoying. I live in a fairly rural, costal part of the UK. Some dimwit at the council decided to remove the coin operated P&D machines and replace them with Ringo. The problem is that there is didly squat signal on most networks at the beaches where the car parks are so you can neither download nor use the app to pay, nor use your mobile to pay by phone. Loads of tourists get caught out by it.

Parking apps are a pain our local one logs you out all the time and it takes ages and always seems to need to update
The one in the next county tbough is great and most of their machines also seem to have a card option
But i think I have 6 apps on my phone for the carparks we use

Also several of them now email me to tell me when my mot is due , except its not mine as i have used the app for other people and it always makes me think shit i thought it wasn't until xyz