Legal Talk with Alvin Finklestein

[Alvin Finklestein]

Question
Alvin, I recently parked in a city-owned airport parking lot, where you pay upon exit. Unfortunately, since it was Labor Day, there was a massive number of people trying to exit at once, and a huge line snaked throughout the lot to get out. The lot was not prepared for this, and in fact not all of their exit stations were even open! I ended up waiting for over 2 hours to exit the lot! At one point I went to the front and said that they couldn't keep me prisoner indefinitely in this way, and they told me that if I dare drove out without paying, they would call the cops and have me arrested. What were my rights here?


Before I answer, I will let the fine posters of this forum take a shot at this one.

[unchainedghost]

This thread sucks. If you got nothing to hide then take off pussy

[Belly Buster]

In the interests of customer service they should open the gates and let people out.

On the basis this didn't happen, once you are at the front of the line it is quicker to pay than to argue the toss. I suspect the barrier is staying closed until you pay and your rights (such as they may be) don't count for shit.

[shortbuspoker]

At one point I went to the front and said that they couldn't keep me prisoner indefinitely in this way

I would have told you in the nicest possible way that you were free to park you car at any time and walk out and thus were not being kept a "prisoner". Then as you walked away I would roll my eyes derisively and cussed under my voice. Then I most likely would have actually started to work even slower so that you in turn had to stay even longer.

But I'm a dick so who knows what rational people would do.

[BeerAndPoker]

[Alvin Finklestein]

BUMP

Apologies for taking over a year to answer. An ethical violation for sure!

In the above situation, the customer has a right to exit immediately after approaching the booth (presumably on foot) and offering to pay. That is, the customer is required to give them a chance to take his money. He is NOT required to wait in an unreasonably long "exit" line, when the bottleneck is due to poor staffing or logistics on the parking lot's part.

The customer's car cannot be held hostage for an unreasonable amount of time, simply because the parking company cannot properly handle his payment. If the company is having issues accepting payment in a timely fashion at exit, they are expected to give up on collecting payments and simply let people out for free.

Keep in mind that this is different than if the customer has already paid, but is stuck in a traffic jam getting out. In that case, he just has to wait his turn and deal with it. This is a case of an artificial delay caused by payment at exit.

But how long is too long?

There is no absolute rule on this. Something like 20 minutes is clearly not too long. Something like 10 hours IS clearly too long. But what about two hours? Is that too long in such a situation, to where the customer should be able to legally exit and refuse to wait on the payment line? In most cases, yes. The one exception would be one where the customer enters an event where it is known there will be a huge logjam of cars getting out at the same time, such as a concert. In that case, it could be legally argued that the customer knew what he was getting into when he entered the pay-when-leaving lot, and that a long wait could be expected. However, in an average parking lot, this is not true.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, and the staff is uncooperative, I would suggest doing the following:

1) Get your cell phone ready and record your actions

2) Approach the pay booth. Tell them that you have been held for an unreasonable amount of time, and that you are offering to pay now.

2a) If there is a way to exit, leave them the money (on video) and drive out, even if they don't agree. You have done your legal duty by paying them. There is no crime in leaving and paying out of turn.

2b) If they have control over your ability to exit, demand that they take your payment and let you out. If they refuse, call the police.

Do NOT let them convince you that you are committing a crime by leaving the money with them and exiting without "waiting your turn", and do NOT feel about about "cutting the line" here. It's the lot's problem, not yours.

[herbertstemple]

It was a holiday. Its unreasonable for the customer to think things should work the same regardless of the situation. He should have found a better place to park if he was worried about leaving in a timely manner. Does every business have to change its rules because some people don't have the ability to think things through before the fact?

I don't believe the 2 hour wait part of the story. Think dude is cooking some numbers here.

[Alvin Finklestein]

It was a holiday. Its unreasonable for the customer to think things should work the same regardless of the situation. He should have found a better place to park if he was worried about leaving in a timely manner. Does every business have to change its rules because some people don't have the ability to think things through before the fact?

I don't believe the 2 hour wait part of the story. Think dude is cooking some numbers here.

The 2 hour part was true. My client took cell video starting about 20-30 minutes in, when the line was still super long and not moving, and he realized he would be stuck there.

Obviously the difference between 2 hours and 20 minutes is huge here. If it were 20 minutes, the customer would be in the wrong. However, given the two hour wait, the customer does have a right to take matters into his own hands in order to leave.