Service excellence doesn’t seem to apply when it comes to parking in downtown Kamloops. I remember the good old days of the coin parking meters. Quick and simple. Put the coins in and you got what you paid for; a rented parking spot. If you didn’t need to use all the time you paid for, you could leave the rest behind for someone else to benefit from.
Parking Meters Evolve
I also remember when the fancy new meters came out to replace them. Hated them from the start and still do. When they do work, they are so slow to process the transaction. Including the walk to the closest pay station, from start to finish, you have plenty of time to appreciate the technological advances in paid parking.
Your appreciation may vary depending on whether there is someone ahead of you at the pay station, or if you’re in a hurry, or it’s raining or snowing, or it’s cold and windy. You may also start asking yourself why you’re now paying more for a service that hasn’t improved. After all, the parking spot doesn’t look any better, or offer any increase in benefit to you.
As a Kamloops resident and taxpayer, I don’t appreciate paying more for less. As a result, I have developed a tendency to avoid the downtown area when paid parking is in effect. On the rare occasions that I do go downtown, it’s usually for a dentist appointment, and I’m in a hurry after spending time looking for a decent parking spot.
Using the Parking App
As our cashless society develops, I rarely have cash on me. Fortunately, one of the other advances we’ve made is the ability to use an app to pay for parking. There’s some that won’t use parking apps due to privacy and security concerns, but I decided to embrace it. I’ve installed the Flowbird app and used it a handful of times.
It didn’t take long to realize the app comes with its own issues. When I had no internet, I had to wait until I got into the dentist’s waiting room to enter my parking info. Luckily, I never got a ticket during that time. There were a couple times when I walked in and was quickly ushered into a chair and didn’t get a chance to get my parking info entered. I wasn’t always as lucky in those cases, and did get a ticket at least once.
When the Parking App Doesn’t Work
Last summer, I was at the dentist and for some reason, I couldn’t get the Flowbird app to work. As the hygienist appeared and ushered me in, I was still trying to get the app to work. I put my phone away and took my chances. If I got a ticket, I knew I’d be complaining loudly. Luck was with me and I didn’t get a ticket.
Last week, I had another dentist appointment and I gave myself some extra time for the app. Try as I might, I could not get Flowbird to show me a parking meter to select. I went over to the kiosk to see whether the city is using a different app now.
There is was, in the top right corner on the front of the station:
So, now I need to use the Woosh app. While walking, I enter whooshstore.com into Google Chrome and it takes me to flowbirdapp.com. Well that didn’t get me anywhere did it?
By now, I’m in the waiting area. I do some googling and stumble on the city parking page, where I see a notice that they have changed apps.
I don’t recall getting any notifications in the app or via email. Did you get one? How did everyone else find out? Did each of us have to go through this painful ordeal on our own?
Although I managed to download the new app, create an account, and enter my vehicle, I still had to enter a credit card. By then, I was in the hygienist’s chair and out of time. Again, I’m taking my chances on getting a ticket through no fault of my own.
Service Excellence and Downtown Parking?
Does this align with the city standards of “service excellence”. I doubt it. As a local resident, I managed to get this figured out on my own. Would other residents be as fortunate?
And what about visitors to Kamloops? I can just imagine how impressed they must be that the kiosk says they can pay by phone, but when they try, they can’t. Of course they could use their credit card at the kiosk, but what if they don’t want to?
Maybe they don’t want to be standing on a corner with their credit card out. Maybe it’s the sketchy looking people staggering around. Or maybe it’s the stories they’ve heard about scanners that criminals may be using, like the ones reported at some gas stations. And maybe it’s that Kamloops gained the notorious reputation of being the crime capital of Canada.
My conclusion is that service excellence doesn’t apply when it comes to parking in downtown Kamloops. I give the city a failing grade on this.
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