Customer Demands "Common Courtesy"

[EricKei]

In my town if you cross at a spot that does not have two white lines designating it a crosswalk you can and friends have been ticketed for jaywalking.

That's...odd. Here, all intersections are treated as legal crosswalks, whether they're explicitly marked or not.

Even without them, you can't legally park within a certain distance of a corner, markings or no.

[Fast_Eddie]

Nothing to add related to parking, but I do have a good FedEx/UPS story.

This was a little over 5 years ago, when my wife and I first got married. We lived in a townhouse in an apartment complex; because our apartment was a townhouse, we had our own building number. So, our address was just 1234 Some Village Drive, not 1234 Some Village Drive, Apartment 56.

Anyhow, FedEx called one day to let us know they had a package for us, but couldn't deliver it because they didn't have a complete address. Turns out this was one of our wedding gifts; we had been receiving packages off and on for a few weeks from both FedEx and UPS, as well as USPS. I asked the woman on the phone to give me the address on the package; she read it off and it was exactly right. I told her so, and she said "OK then, we'll deliver it tomorrow."

The next day, it didn't show up. The day after, still nothing. The third day, they called again, and we went through the entire rigamarole from the beginning. After I informed them that they had the correct address, they promised to deliver the following day.

A couple days after that, still nothing. Eventually, they call for a third time and, once again, inform me that they can't deliver because they don't have a correct address. Not only that, this time, but I'm also told that their records show that they've called twice to get the correct address and we've refused to give it to them. She then had the audacity to ask me if I would drive to the FedEx hub at the airport 30 minutes from home and pick it up.

I told her no, and that I had a better idea. Tomorrow morning, how about you send your idiot driver to the UPS store and have him ship the package to me via UPS? They can find a valid address without any problems, which apparently sets them apart from FedEx.

Thing was on my doorstep at 9 AM the next day.

[trunks2k]

I have gotten ticket notices in the mail for tickets I never even got on my car.

I've had that happen to me too. I've gotten a few parking tickets in philly, and 99% of them were legit tickets, usually me trying to push my luck. But one ticket I got was totally undeserved - I was in college and my car was still registered in CT, not PA. At the time, CT had stopped doing emissions inspections for a couple years as it worked to totally overhaul the system. So that meant that my emissions "expired". The PPA gave me a $150 ticket for it.

So I called up and said "i'm from out of state, you gave me a ticket for expired emissions, which I doubt you could do even if my state HAD emissions testing any more". The girl on the phone said "You're right. You need to go to XXXXX and ask for an expedited hearing, here's a reference number". So I figured that it'd all be good and head down to address I was told to go to and talk to the PPA person at the desk, his reaction? "What the hell do you want me to do about it?" (word for word). I told him that this is the address I was told to go to, and he said no, you need to go two doors down. So I go two doors down and request a hearing, I tell the guy I was told to ask for an expedited hearing and he says "There's no such thing as an expedited hearing". I just roll my eyes and get a hearing date, which is SIX MONTHS later. Good thing I was going to school there and wasn't just visiting.

I later found out that there is such a thing as an expedited hearing and I should have been able to get a hearing immediately.

[Andara Bledin]

I told her no, and that I had a better idea. Tomorrow morning, how about you send your idiot driver to the UPS store and have him ship the package to me via UPS? They can find a valid address without any problems, which apparently sets them apart from FedEx.

Thing was on my doorstep at 9 AM the next day.

This tells me that the driver saw a townhouse complex, decided that since there was no unit number, the address must be wrong, and didn't even bother to check the building itself.

Although, you could have just said you were "unit 1" since you're the only unit at that address.

^-.-^

[WageSlaveofDoom]

All hail the PPA

This thread reminds me why I love watching Parking Wars so much.

I live in Philadelphia. I do have a license, but no longer own a car as city living really doesn't make it necessary. I have a very lintense love-hate relationship with the Parking Authority for a number of reasons, but overall I can appreciate most of what they do and why they're so neurotic about it.

One of the main streets out of town becomes "No Parking" during rush hour, and there was no small joy to go out for a cigarette at that time, to watch the snarky better-than-you business suits park in front of City Sports to buy a pair of running shoes, only to find that in the scant seconds they were in the store, their shiny BMW was towed away. Oooh, the phrases they would use to express their discontent! *sigh*

On the other side, my roommate's pickup was ticketed multiple times for dropping me off at work. Their reason? He would pull up to a "Passenger Loading Zone" and his vehicle had truck plates. Not regular car license plates, but truck plates. Because it was a TRUCK. Which made it apparently incapable of holding or dropping off passengers, and thus was not allowed to park in the PLZ...

The funniest thing of all is that I live in deep South Philly, where the Parking Authority main lots are(if you watch Parking Wars, it's where the cashier dispenses logic, and the Springer-esque drama really takes place). Jjust around the cornern, people park in the median spaces between lanes, on sidewalks, and even double park - as in two layers of cars parallel to the curb before you see sidewalk-don't ask me how it works!).

And people wonder why I just walk...

[Jay 2K Winger]

I live in Philadelphia. I do have a license, but no longer own a car as city living really doesn't make it necessary. I have a very lintense love-hate relationship with the Parking Authority for a number of reasons, but overall I can appreciate most of what they do and why they're so neurotic about it.

The funniest thing of all is that I live in deep South Philly, where the Parking Authority main lots are(if you watch Parking Wars, it's where the cashier dispenses logic, and the Springer-esque drama really takes place). Jjust around the cornern, people park in the median spaces between lanes, on sidewalks, and even double park - as in two layers of cars parallel to the curb before you see sidewalk-don't ask me how it works!).

And people wonder why I just walk...

This is why I'm very careful when I have to park somewhere when I go to Philly for a wrestling show. When ROH held their shows at the National Guard Armory in North Philly, parking was a gorram mess, so I tended to park a block away at a small office strip. Now when I go to The Arena in South Philly, I park in The Arena's parking lot behind it, under I-95. I don't trust parking anywhere else.

[Hon'ya-chan]

I think this Flickr group is relevant: http://www.flickr.com/groups/stupidparking/