Blog: Parking

The NYPD has turned into just the sort of police force any dictator would love. Last year they gained the ability to arrest people for walking or biking in a group; now, they want to stop people from checking their own air quality. Dancing is already illegal. Meanwhile, many officers don't believe they should be forced to obey the law at all.

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Josh Marshall, author of Talking Points Memo, had his car stolen from a Central Parking lot recently. Apparently they left the key in the car, and simply allowed someone to get in the car and drive out without demanding the ticket.

Mistakes happen, and it's not necessarily cost-effective to install proximity card security gates at every lot. But Central Parking seems to have chosen to deal with their lapse by refusing to respond to calls. After repeated complaints by Josh and his wife, they decided to claim the car wasn't worth very much, partly because it had scratches on the side - only the scratches were there because Central Parking employees had hit it with another car a few months ago!

I have also had firsthand experience with Central Parking's customer non-service, though not nearly to the degree of Josh's. When I lived in Hoboken, the garage in my building was managed by Central. The month before I moved out, they accidentally charged me twice for one of the months. I called to get it reversed and to cancel (since I was moving out), but every time I would reach a human, they would transfer me to a voicemail box that had no name (the message would say "I'm sorry, is not available") and from which I would never receive a call back. Once I got a call from someone named Carmen, who left a message, and then never returned another call. After leaving repeated messages over the course of several weeks, none of which were returned, they automatically charged me for yet another month.

In desperation I tried opening a customer service ticket on their Web site, which got an immediate response - but just "someone in Accounts Payable will follow up and call you" which never happened. Fortunately, the person closing the ticket did include a contact person's name and phone number, Joe Mula, who did indeed answer the phone when I called. His assistant, the aforementioned Carmen, then followed up once, at which point I discovered she only had processed the refund for one of the two spurious charges. Carmen continued to not return phone calls as I tried to sort out the confusion, until one day magically the correct refund arrived in my mailbox.

I now park with Icon Parking, another company with hundreds of garages around the city. So far they've been better. Though now it makes me think: how easy would it be for a thief to steal my car?