City of St. Petersburg, Florida Gave parking ticket even though I tried to pay through Parkmobile app. Parkmobile wouldn't accept payment. St. Petersburg Florida

On Friday, March 17, 2017, I was at a conference at the Vinoy Resort in downtown St. Pete. It was the first time I'd been in downtown St. Pete in a while.

St. Pete contracts out its parking to a private company called Parkmobile, who makes parkers pay through a phone app or by calling a phone number.

The Parkmobile system was new to me. I did not have time or space on my phone to download the app, put in all my information, and activate my parking, so I called the phone number listed on the meter. The customer service was TERRIBLE. They charged me fees just for talking to them and giving them my credit card on top of charges for the parking meter.

Three hours later, I reactivate my parking after receiving a text message notification saying it was about to expire. The exact text message I received was:

PARKING SESSION DEACTIVATION REMINDER

Will deactivate:

3/17/2017  1:44 PM

Activated 3/17/2017

10:44 AM

Zone: 2006

Space: n/a

LPN: [redacted]

To reactivate, I just called the same phone number that was on the meter (it was already saved on my phone from earlier in the day), pushed a button, and boom - it was reactivated for another three hours. It took all of a minute to do this.

Three hours later, I received another text message saying my parking was about to be deactivated:

PARKING SESSION DEACTIVATION REMINDER

Will deactivate: 4:44 PM

3/17/2017  1:44 PM

Activated 3/17/2017

1:44 PM

Zone: 2006

Space: n/a

LPN: [redacted]

So, I did what I did three hours earlier: I called the same number to refill. However, this time, the recorder on the other side of the line said something along the lines of, "This meter is not taking payments at this time." I called them several times to see if it was a temporary glitch, and each time, it said it couldn't take my payments.

I left the conference I was at to go outside to manually feed the meter. When I walked all the way back to the meter, it wouldn't accept my credit card, so I had to go back inside the resort to break a few dollars to get quarters. When I returned to the meter, it wouldn't accept and translate my coins either. What was I supposed to do? There were no other available parking spots within a half-a-mile radius from where I was.

When I returned to my car about 34 minutes later, a fat "PARKING TICKET" was pasted between my wipers. After receiving the ticket, I spoke to a parking official, and he actually sympathized with me. He was cordial and personable and even took a selfie with me. He told me Parkmobile was screwing up a lot of meters and cars all day, so he recommended I call a phone number listed at the back of the ticket. He also told me to take a screenshot of my call log to show that I tried to pay but was rejected by Parkmobile. This parking attendant was far too logical for his job.

The next Monday, I spoke to a parking official for the city. She told me she sent an attendant to check out the meter I parked at the previous week and that the meter works fine.

I thought she was joking when she said this to me, so I responded back to her something like, "Can you get that parking attendant to enter a time machine and go back to last Friday at 4:55pm ET? That would be more relevant to this issue, since it happened last week and not one hour ago."

The official gave me her supervisor's number and told me to call him. I called him, and he was a huge jerk on the phone. He said that people can only reactivate the parking once, which is why Parkmobile wouldn't accept my money. I asked him how I was supposed to know about this, and he said I had to visit the Parkmobile site and read through their terms.

Why on earth would a major city make their parkers read through such nonsense? The city should have this info posted ON THE METER or Parkmobile should at least tell folks on the phone when refilling or in its app. I even went to the website to find this information, and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE.

The senior parking official didn't seem open to any of my suggestions. He didn't sound enthusiastic about his job. He didn't sound like he cared about people who visit his city.

I also sent e-mails to all the parking managers at the City / Government of St. Pete, and I didn't receive a single response - not even to this day.

My goal was not to weasel out of paying the parking ticket. It's a small sum of money that I paid off immediately.

I'm writing this because I know so many people who've been victims of government inefficiencies and stupidity.

The solution is simple: Fix the Parkmobile partnership, or get rid of it. I had a conference to attend. The last thing I wanted to do was waste one hour of my day activating parking. St. Pete and Parkmobile want people to spend an additional hour reading its terms of use, rules and regulations.

This is NOT efficient at all, and in the end, it makes it seem as if the City of St. Pete is manipulating parkers through the inefficiencies in the technology.

Lock in parkers through Parkmobile-->Parkers walk far away to takParkmobile e care of their business-->Don't accept parkers' payments through the app or phone-->Parking attendants swoop right in and ticket the vehicle