Imagine forgetting to pay for parking and ending up with a parking ticket. Would you try to fight the ticket or realize it’s your fault and pay for it?

In this story, one person is in this situation, and while he’s willing to pay the parking ticket, he realizes the amount of the ticket is incorrect.

Keep reading to see what he has to do to get the situation resolved.

How I complied my way out of a parking ticket

A few years ago, I parked in a paid parking lot, but forgot to buy a parking ticket.

When I came back a few minutes later, I discovered an $80 ticket on my dash.

While I was frustrated about my own forgetfulness, the ticket itself was fair. However, I came to discover that the amount they had charged me was not.

Here’s the problem…

Before leaving the lot, I noticed a small detail on the terms and conditions sign at the entrance of the lot.

It said that a failure to pay for a parking ticket would result in a $70 ticket, not the $80 that I was charged.

While I’m no lawyer, I do know that those signs essentially create an implicit contract upon entering the lot, therefore the company was technically violating their own contract by charging me extra.

The customer service department wasn’t helpful.

I appealed the ticket, stating that I would be happy to pay the agreed-upon $70, but it was rejected.

I then reached out directly to customer service, explaining the same situation.

They rejected my request to pay the valid $70, because their “ticket amounts are non-negotiable”.

Cue the malicious compliance.

OP had a valid point, but the supervisor didn’t want to hear it.

I realized that by their own words, they are the ones attempting to negotiate the price by charging me an extra $10, so I called up the supervisor of their claims department.

She was already aware of this dispute, and immediately attempted to shut me down, saying “the signage is not up for discussion”.

I reminded her that their company’s policy states that “ticket amounts are non-negotiable”, and that given what the terms on the sign stated, they were trying to negotiate a higher price.

Once again, she shut me down stating the signage is not up to discussion.

OP asked an important question.

The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So where can I escalate this from here?”

Her: “There is no more escalation, next stage is court.”

====Cue more malicious compliance====

If it has to go to court, it has to go to court.

Me: “Seems silly to go to court over $10, don’t you think?”

Her: “Yeah, it does.”

Me: “Ok, well I’ll begin the small claims court process over the non-negotiable price issue then.”

Her: “Ok.”

But not so fast. There is one other person to escalate it to after all.

I was having fun at this point, and was fully ready to start taking legal steps over this $10 on a matter of principle (and knowing that if I did the company would immediately cave).

Before doing that however, I sent one final email to the Vice President of the company. I explained the whole dispute, explaining the signage, their “non-negotiable” policy, and how the appeals supervisor told me my next step was to take it to court.

I offered them the opportunity to resolve this civilly before going onto that stage.

It worked like a charm!

Not even 3 hours later, I got an email back, stating that my ticket had been fully cleared as a courtesy.

I called their bluff, maliciously complying to the contract and the “take it to court” attitude, and it worked!

As an added bit of pettiness, I replied thanking them, and CC’ed the appeals supervisor.

I then directly addressed her, telling her that this is how easy it could have been resolved if she would have actually addressed the signage issue.

This is the takeaway…

The moral of this story: Push back against parking lot companies.

They use shady practices, and try to scare people into paying unjustly.

Often a simple, but credible legal threat will make any issue disappear 🙂

That worked out really well. I’m glad OP happened to notice the discrepancy between the parking signs and the amount on the ticket.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Yes, the VP understood the math better than the supervisor.

This is a good question.

Another person makes a good point.

The supervisor really messed up.

There’s always another option.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.