I park at Mandela Square regularly and have found another rip off happening right under our noses.
The Parking. Yes, I know you think the prices they charge are a rip-off (and they are). But, that's not what's raising my ire. It's that the parking company is blatantly stealing R1 every time I pay for my ticket.
It appears that the ticket machines can't dispense R1 coins when it comes to giving back change. So, for example, if you have to pay R9 and put a R10 note into the ticket machine, you don't get the R1 change back.
Of course, they have covered themselves by saying that if you don't get the correct change back, you can take your receipt and go and collect your R1 from the ticket office.
That's OK in theory. However, it's Ok if you're parked near the ticket office (close to the Nelson Mandela statue - one floor down - near the dry cleaners), but if you're parked on the hotel side, it is such a mission to walk to the ticket office that it is not worth your while to take another 5 minutes to collect R1.
So, you're prepared to take the knock.
It occured to me that the parking company is making a small fortune on the side. I've already left R5 over five visits on the table because it was too much hassle to go and get my R1. Just last Saturday I stood behind someone that also didn't get his change. He sighed and said, "It's only R1", and left the change behind. That's when when I realised that we had a problem.
Now imagine if 50% of the thousands of people that park there every day say "Its only R1"? This means that the parking company could be raking in an extra R1 000 to R2 000 per day or even more. That could be anywhere up to R60 000 a month that they're skimming from the public. Oh, and by the way, this R1 rip-off has also happened to me at Sandton City. So, I may be underestimating how much extra they really make.
They could argue that me and other's like me are just being lazy and it's our own fault. Let them try shopping for 3 hours, with crying and hungry kids and see if they're going to worry about going to fetch R1 from the hotel side ticket machines. I doubt it.
My questions are:
- Why can't the fix the ticket machines (this has been happening for the last 3 months and probably longer) so that they can dispense R1 coins? I've been to other parking lots with similar ticket machines and they don't seem to have this problem.
- If they know that change is a problem, why don't they have a parking attendant stationed at each ticket machine to dispense the correct change?
- What are they going to do with all the extra money they've made? They're certainly not going to be able to reimburse anyone. I think the most honourable thing to do is to give the extra money to a charity or pass it on as a bonus to their staff. AND, OF COURSE, FIX THE PROBLEM.
Jacques de Villiers is a professional speaker tired of being ripped off in Sandton.
