r/Montclairnj • u/Swingline1234 • 9h ago
ParkMobile is ridiculous
I usually prefer to park in a free spot and walk a few blocks; hence, I rarely park at the meters.
Today I was in Upper Montclair by CVS and parked at a meter to get a coffee. The meter was "dead": nothing on the LCD screen; so, I couldn't pay with coins. It had a sign on it saying that if it was broken, I was still obligated to pay for parking using the ParkMobile app, or by calling a number.
So I jumped through the hoops and downloaded the app. I quickly bought the parking and went to get my coffee, then started to think about it. I paid $.70 for 10 minutes of parking on the app.
Looking at it again, half of that was a $.35 fee for using ParkMobile. I understand that fee is the same if I park one minute or one hour, but what upsets me is that there was no other option. The meter would not accept coins, for which there was no fee. I didn't call the number to pay for parking because that seems absolutely ridiculous, but I assume there is a fee if I do that as well.
Quite frankly, Montclair should be ashamed of themselves for employing this type of putative system. Having hardware that doesn't work, requiring people to pay anyway, and then charging them a fee on top is insulting.