A Carleton student is complaining the university’s text-to-park system doesn’t always record payments she makes for parking on campus.
Fourth-year English student and frequent user of the text-to-park system Kiara Graham said she gets a ticket at least once a week even though she paid via the text-to-park system.
Founded by Carleton computer science professor and CEO of Espirity Inc. Dwight Deugo, the system called iParked.ca allows people to register their vehicle and payment information on the website.
Once registered, customers can text their desired parking time to the short-code “PARKED,” after which they will get a text message and electronic receipt confirmation. The service costs $0.50 per transaction.
“It appeared as though parking services had even locked me out of the online system, which allows you to appeal tickets,” Graham said via email. “When I emailed them to inquire about appealing in person I was told that you can only appeal tickets online.”
Brian Billings, operations manager of the department of university safety said while they do get this problem, for the most part it has not happened because the ticketing officers carry wireless handheld devices, which pick up messages sent from the customer saying that they have paid for a permit.
Sometimes the area that the officer is in has a bad connection to wireless services in Carleton, Billings said, adding that in Graham’s situation it would have been an area where an officer wasn’t able to verify that there was a booking for that vehicle.
The wireless connection is “certainly better in lot one than lot two because there’s buildings basically all the way around lot one which have wireless access points,” Billings said.
Graham said it makes her life at Carleton “extremely unpleasant.”
For students who have paid and still get tickets due to poor reception, parking services reacts “as quickly as possible,” Billings said, “they are not looking to penalize students for a mistake.”
He said there are some wireless problems in parking lot two.