Houston downtown parking scams

This is how it all goes down.

We get tickets to the Aeros game last night @ 7:30PM, so we head out to the Toyota Center and start to look for a parking spot. After driving around for about 5 mintues we decide its probably easier overall to park in the $10(yes I said it, $10) paid parking in just across the street from the arena. After getting the spot we’ve been looking for, we start to walk around to look for the guy that normally handles money for these situations. Just then we see a black guy wearing a parking company jacket who a couple of people are talking to and paying for the parking so I figured thats who I needed to speak with. After paying him the $10 to park he handed me a ticket and we were on our way.

The game was ok, Aeros lost going all out with no goalie for the last 10 minutes or so. blah blah blah

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The games over, we start to head out to the car and think about maybe enjoying some other downtown destination, that is, until we see the boot and an orange sticker on my window. I about went nuts. After calling the number on the sticker, they tell me to wait for the guy to show up within 20 minutes. By this time I wanted a refund no matter what, I was furious. Then this other black guy comes rolling up and stopping suddenly behind my car coming out with the SAME jacket as the guy who I had paid and asks me for the parking ticket. I start to pull out the ticket and he just laughs and says, "that aint our ticket", which basically left me standing there straight up ripped off and ready to go bonkers. I tell him, "well the guy that I paid had the same jacket" and he replied with a stupid grin on his face "naw, it wasn’t the same jacket". We argued a little while over the fine with my "fake" ticket in hand and there was no way out. So this thing was going to cost $100 for the booting fee, $10 for the parking fee, and $8.25 for tax, holy crap! $120 essentially to get my car back for 1 hour of parking. We paid the fine on her credit card and the guy starts accusing me of trying to falsify information because I tell her to scribble it. HOW?!?! I CANT FALSIFY SOMEONE ELSE’S INFORMATION WHEN THEY’RE RIGHT THERE GIVING IT TO YOU MORON. So he proceeds to tell me how I shouldn’t live my life falsifying information and I was almost going to tell him he aint getting very far in life being a parking maid. He makes sure to let me know that the"microphone" is running and that he is a witness to it all as if it really made any difference.

Money for me wasn’t really the issue, my problem was that we went out for a low cost night and ended up getting "jacked" for our money, might as well have been held up at gun point. To me it shows how evil people really are when it comes to money. Yes I say people because even if it is a corporation, someone is running it and someone is reaping the benefits and rewards, it doesn’t just run itself.

I don’t see how the city can even allow this, I will never go to another sporting even in Houston for all I care, especially free ones. Houston has definitely shown its dark side to me last night and it really makes me wonder what the city’s worth to me. I do plan on writing the governor and giving him a piece of my mind about this topic but I’m sure this will do nothing but get me a typed up signature stamped generic letter stating that the governor has read my concerns and that they are working on it. Whatever, they just keep feeding crap to everyone and people readily slurp it up.

What I would like to see be done about this, not for me, but for EVERYONE’s sake:

Security cameras, if people are paying $10 per car, why do we need to feel unsafe? o
Someone working the entrance, to let people know that the lot is a machine pay lot and to warn about scams.
Security Guards?!?!?!?!?!?! cheap asses.
Better lighting, I actually couldnt see the parking machines or much of the parking lot at that.

So lets see, if it were a normal couple going out to the game, at the rate of everything last night: