Balmain is one of those suburbs where the parking meters are thick on the ground - so thick, they look like an invasion of Daleks. Most of the time though, if you can be bothered parking one street back from the main drag, you can avoid the meters.
When we lunched today though, we found that the backstreet was metered. So I went to the first meter, plugged in some coins and it refused to issue a ticket. It also refused to give me back my $2. It just sat there with a "smart cards now accepted" message on its face and did not respond to any input.
Useless pile of crap.
Knowing how evil the parking inspectors are, I went to another meter and fed it my remaining $3 in change. It seemed to accept it quite happily, but also refused to issue a ticket. Sounded like it was out of paper.
Each machine had a lovely label on it saying, "in case of problems, call this number and quote the machine ID". Of course I had not taken my mobile with me, as I was totally uninterested in taking any work related calls, given that my head was partially splitting from a headache.
It's time like those that I wish I had a large sledgehammer in the car. I was worried that if I didn't call the fault in, some bastard would come past and issue me with a ticket. But I was stuck, so we said what the hell and had lunch.
And returned to find a windscreen devoid of tickets. I think I would have gone postal at the Balmain council offices if I had been issued a ticket.
If councils want to take your parking money, they can at least ensure that the bloody meters are in proper working order.
Useless sods.
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