Parking tickets used to fill me with the fire of 100 suns. Now I just see them as a woeful inevitability of the world we live in. Maybe it was the particularly unjust way I used to get ticketed while parking in a car park I was entitled to park in with a permit letting me park there that used to bother me.
Anyway, yesterday morning I was ticketed because I'd parked, overnight, in a bay which has a 2 hour max wait period between 8am and 8pm, and which I hadn't realised had a "no parking at all" the rest of the time (except for permit holders). Given that my drive had been blocked from entry by a Volvo driver, I was desperate to park somewhere and didn't realise. So I was ticketed. I wasn't happy, but I accepted that, excepting the fact that I have a drive I can park in, which I hadn't intentionally blocked myself, it was ultimately my mistake that had resulted in the ticketing.
The process of paying the ticket was annoying. I rang an automated line which took my details and then told me to ring back to find out if it had been paid. I rang back a few hours later (it suggested 5 minutes) to be told that the ticket wasn't even on their system. Given that the tickets are half price if you pay quickly, you'd think they'd have a system for fasttracking. Personally, I'd have loved to have demanded that I should be exempt from paying it for some reason, but I couldn't think of that reason.
So, I rang back today and found out that it was on their system, it was paid and I can get on with my life. I should feel relief. I don't. I should feel anger at Volvo person, whose windscreen I put a cardboard note on explaining that they'd blocked my drive and telling them not to park there again. I don't even feel the anger. I found my note waiting for me on my doorstep, marked with the driver's response:
Awwww. I can't stay mad at you, with your kooky pigeon English. Seriously. I'm not being sarcastic, it made the driver sound like a poor simple minded and genuinely apologetic person who simply hadn't grasped the inconvenience they'd caused. Bless. Aaahh. That's worth £30 of my money any day.
So, who else wants to park in my drive?
Anyway, yesterday morning I was ticketed because I'd parked, overnight, in a bay which has a 2 hour max wait period between 8am and 8pm, and which I hadn't realised had a "no parking at all" the rest of the time (except for permit holders). Given that my drive had been blocked from entry by a Volvo driver, I was desperate to park somewhere and didn't realise. So I was ticketed. I wasn't happy, but I accepted that, excepting the fact that I have a drive I can park in, which I hadn't intentionally blocked myself, it was ultimately my mistake that had resulted in the ticketing.
The process of paying the ticket was annoying. I rang an automated line which took my details and then told me to ring back to find out if it had been paid. I rang back a few hours later (it suggested 5 minutes) to be told that the ticket wasn't even on their system. Given that the tickets are half price if you pay quickly, you'd think they'd have a system for fasttracking. Personally, I'd have loved to have demanded that I should be exempt from paying it for some reason, but I couldn't think of that reason.
So, I rang back today and found out that it was on their system, it was paid and I can get on with my life. I should feel relief. I don't. I should feel anger at Volvo person, whose windscreen I put a cardboard note on explaining that they'd blocked my drive and telling them not to park there again. I don't even feel the anger. I found my note waiting for me on my doorstep, marked with the driver's response:
I sorry
Awwww. I can't stay mad at you, with your kooky pigeon English. Seriously. I'm not being sarcastic, it made the driver sound like a poor simple minded and genuinely apologetic person who simply hadn't grasped the inconvenience they'd caused. Bless. Aaahh. That's worth £30 of my money any day.
So, who else wants to park in my drive?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home