Imagine parking in a paid parking lot but forgetting to buy a parking ticket. What would you do if you came back to your car and discovered a parking ticket on your window? Would you pay the fee or fight it?

In this story, one person is in this exact situation, and he realizes he messed up. He’s okay with paying the parking ticket for his forgetfulness, but he’s not okay with how much they’re charging him, especially after he looked closely at the signs in the parking lot.

Keep reading to find out how he tries to fight the ticket and if he’s successful or not.

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.

This is interesting.

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.

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

But OP didn’t give up.

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 still didn’t give up.

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 tried to be reasonable.

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====

He was determined.

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 maybe they wouldn’t have to go to court 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.

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

Success!

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.

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 was glorious! This is a great example of the saying persistence pays off.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person loves how the story played out.

Another person thinks OP handled the situation well.

This person offers praise and asks a question.

Everyone seemed to love this story.

All OP wanted was the $10 to go away, but he escalated the situation to the right person, who forgave the entire ticket just to avoid going to court.

Yes, it would be silly to go to court over $10, but it’s the principle of the thing.

I hope they updated their signs.