Empire Parking Services penalizes the victims of a scam by booting their cars and blaming them for Empire's lack of oversight. My husband pulled into their lot on Harris Street and was greeted by an attendant in a dark blue jump suit. He was told it was $15 to park all day, paid cash and was handed a receipt and told to put it on his dash. He found the stall number on the receipt, parked and went about his business.
When he returned to his car a couple hours later, he found a security vehicle there and the car booted. He asked why he was booted as he had paid the daily rate. The technician asked him if he had the credit card used to pay. My husband explained he had paid the attendant in cash and the technician sighed. He then asked my husband to describe the attendant, which my husband did. The technician explained that this was happening a lot - that scam artists are getting receipt tickets from patrons as they leave the lot, then selling them to unknowing victims coming in to park. The victim returns to find their car booted and is forced to pay $75 to have it removed or is threatened with being towed.
When my husband explained that he had no way to know this, the technician said he had no way to know my husband didn't just ask for someone's receipt as they left. So now, my husband is being called a liar, after JUST being told how this scam has been happening and it is KNOWN by an employee of EPS. There are NO warning signs up in the lot to let patrons know about this.
So, what I want to know is how we, the VICTIMS, don't know that this is a set up by Empire Parking Services to get more money for their company? They could very well hire people to stand in as attendants and hand out these receipt tickets and then conveniently be able to boot cars and claim the victim has perpetuated some kind of scam themselves. Blaming the victim is a VERY poor business model.
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