Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  04/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Im filing a complaint against University Parking Enforcement. I run a care service company for people with disabilities. I have two apartments at the Concord of Geneva apartments that I send staff to assist individuals with disabilities that need full time supervision. My staff are given passes to hang in their mirror or put on the dash back of window. Weve been at these apartments a year and a half and have paid more than 10 boot fees in that time. Switching passes between staff when they dont give us enough to begin with is a tough process and if someone is new or covers a shift sometimes other staff get someone to take their spot that hasnt been informed of how theyre supposed to display a pass. That has been the majority of situations where right away between 10pm and midnight were immediately given a obscene fees that far outweigh the consequence. Our industry is heavily underpaid and understaffed to the point that its become a statewide crisis. The incredible humans that come work with us are typically severely underpaid college students that do incredible service oriented work that few people could handle doing. As I said Ive paid more that 10 boot fees to this predatory company that has no morals or common decency. Giving boots at 10:30 pm, this could very easily be given to parents that come drop off their son our daughter with disabilities while they walk them up to their apartments. I still need to get paid and my staff still need to get paid Im not going to let them pay the **** even if its their mistake they dont make enough money. Instead it comes from the money thats reinvested in improving the quality of lifes of the people with disabilities. Thats there activity money, money that pays for our staff to enter buildings like the aquarium, movies, plays etc. the people with disabilities are directly being affected by these predatory parking enforcement. Recently theyve been booting cars with passes saying theyre not clear enough.

  Business response

  04/18/2022

  I understand your frustrations with your employees and parking permits, however I don't understand the aggressive, threatening, and disrespectful way in which you've behaved towards my company and employees.  A manager was kind enough to allow you to review the evidence video of the parking violation by your employee, clearly showing that there wasn't a permit visible at the time of enforcement.  You showed complete disrespect on the phone, in our office, and followed that up by standing outside of our office building screaming obscenities at the top of your lungs towards this parking manager.  This is not appropriate behavior for a business owner or company manager.  
  
  University Parking Enforcement is contracted to enforce over 700 properties in **** County.  UPE employees check tens of thousands of vehicles for permits in a night and would not be able to distinguish your employee vehicles from any other unauthorized vehicle to the property, without a valid parking permit displayed.  This is the first time we've been notified about your business dealings and care service company at Concord.  The property owner has set the time of enforcement, the parking rules, posted warning signs, and has contracted specific enforcement to protect their parking lot and reserve parking for authorized residents.  If you have been issued permits for the property, you have been notified of the permit requirements for parking authorization.  Parking permits are required by the property owner after 10pm at this complex.  

  UPE provides 24/hr customer text support and would be happy to work with your employees in emergency situations, to avoid being booted or towed again in the future. You, however, have been trespassed from the property and blocked from any further contact.  Please feel free to have the property owner or your staff reach out in the future with any special circumstances they need assistance with.  

   

  Customer response

  04/19/2022

  Complaint: 17048391
  
  It was the first you have heard of my company because as I said before the times weve been booted before because mistakes were made under difficult circumstances where my staff didnt have a pass on there car. It upset me then as well to feel like the victims of predatory parking enforcement but they didnt have a pass so we paid them all without any complaint. What was different this time was that my staff had two passes on his car. The one on his dash had slidden over to the point where it was in the crack and hard to see. Thats understandable if your guy didnt see the one in front. That is besides the point that he had one in his rear window as well. The passes have blue with a thin white edge. I could see something in the video that resembled that edge. When you guys have complete control over the filming over course you can leave out what you want. I believe fully that it was his pass in the rear. 
  
  On my phone call with your manager I had a very kind professional tone as that is my natural self. I became upset when your guy started calling my staff a liar. My staff has no reason to lie. He knows Ill front the **** and I said to him hey if I call him them up to fight this I need to know did you for sure have the pass on your rear window. Its totally ok if you didnt have it, Ill pay for it I just need to honestly know. He said basically no ***** I promise you the one in the front has slid over yes but the one in the rear window he did not move.
  
  So to have you guy just start accusing my staff of being a liar really upset me. Furthermore when I came it and disagreed he basically made it clear that my opinion didnt matter. He kicked me out of his office while he got to do whatever he wanted with the video first I found that odd. When I saw what looks just like the edge of the pass I asked can you zoom in the that he said no and let me know my opinion didnt matter and that theres nothing I could do. He was super rude to me after calling my staff a liar I was upset. What can be done if youre in my shoes? Take it to court and pay thousands of dollars? People dont have the money and time for that so you guys can get away with doing what you want and only your opinions matter? Your behavior was not any better than mine and if any l thing I felt that you escalated things when I asked your name (I thought Id been dealing with the owner the whole time and clearly Id have preferred to talk things out with you. I dont know if you would have had the same language with me on the phone as your guy but falsely accusing people of lying isnt the best way of establishing a professional dialogue. And you basically told me to F off and came at me like you were going to physically do something to me. You were being protective of your staff and I understand because I was there to stand up for my staff too. The only thing I wanted was our money back. The only threat I had was to get you guys out of our neighborhood. The whole situation couldve been handled so much better had he kept the conversation professional saying something like (hey Im sorry that you guys believe you had a pass visible but I dont believe from our footage your pass is there I dont take kindly to having my staff being falsely accused of lying and I dont think you would either. My staff are the most incredible people youll find. The underpaid work they do is borderline angelic. (Unfortunately the state determines their pay not me)
  
  If you would like me to compile a list of all the boot charges from mine and my staffs credit cards (sometimes they pay first when they cant get ahold of me then I reimburse them) Im happy to show you that. What other motive would I have to come and dispute this particular incident when Ive clearly paid a lot of your boot fees without you hearing a word from me. I have no reason to lie. If I had to guess theres someone fairly new or different patrolling the neighborhood than before because we only got booted when we didnt have a pass before but maybe Im wrong.
  If your offer about letting my staff text you about a situation if you could please provide that number. The following night or two you guys booted another one of my staff that also had his pass up. Again all I asked was his honesty and he said he has two passes hanging up one from the place he lives at at one for concord of Geneva He said his other pass covered about half of the concord pass but that it was still obvious he had a concord pass. You guys dont provide anyway to dispute the charges we just have to pay it first and then good luck getting your money back. So if your offer is genuine please refund the boot you did on ***********************. If you need the exact date I can provide that. Its a shame you and I (the business owner) couldnt talk things out Im still open to that you can call me anytime. If my staff and I are treated with respect I reciprocate that respect 100%
  
  As for this dispute Id already called and left a message to drop the case this morning before knowing that you even got the complaint. I wish there was a god that could come down and say whos right or wrong about wether we did or didnt have passes up. I would put a lot of money on my staffs honesty and if they were both lying I would apologize profusely to you  unfortunately thats not going to happen. It seems as though we housed our guys in the wrong neighborhood and its not a safe place for us to park. Ill be looking for a new place for our guys to live so we dont have to find ourselves in these situations. I just wanted you to see things from my perspective but I dont imagine that what I said means anything to you  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩