Park-It Place

I am aghast. I am visiting ABQ for the summer and don’t usually have a car, but occasionally I’ll rent one so that I can frequent places otherwise not easy to get to. A couple weekends ago, I went to Satellite on Central and Yale, in the Brick Yard complex.
I parked in a PRIVATE business lot, in front of a sign marked for Satellite. Due to some confusion between myself and a friend I was scheduled to meet, the time was changed, necessitating me to return to the café. My rental car was tagged for being parked over the 1 hr.
Now, obviously this was ridiculous, as I had been a customer during both periods when I was parked, and the whole point of having the lot is to provide parking for customers of those businesses, but deter those who are not.
I figured, no problem. I sent an email, as instructed on the «ticket,» referring to my 2 receipts by number and offering to send copies, if needed, to show my patronage.
I received an email back saying that they had pulled the video and determined I had not moved the car. Forward several emails later, and come to find out, that had been a bluff (lie) on their part, but they were offering me the «fair compromise» of paying only $ 10…instead of the original $ 12 for the ticket.
Keep in mind that this is not a city ticket — just some parking company assigned to monitor the lots and collect, apparently, money. I would have blown it off if the car hadn’t been a rental, as the company has no actual authority. However, I didn’t want the rental car company ALSO charging me mega bucks for «handling» the ticket.
Way to go, ABQ locals. I will now never go to that location of Satellite or any shop in that shopping area again, because now that I’ve paid $ 30.50 ($.50 being for the «service fee» of the $ 20 after 5 days — as if that makes any sense) for essentially a couple cups of coffee and a couple of treats, there’s such a bad taste in my mouth, it’ll never be worth it.
Good work. Alienating a regular customer (who typically comes by bike) is a great outcome of the parking strategy.