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It’s not easy to pay our share

Editor: I have been using the Surrey Park and Ride since it opened years ago.

Editor:

I have been using the Surrey Park and Ride since it opened years ago.

Recently, TransLink introduced pay parking. I don’t have a problem paying the $2 – if the two parking meters worked.

The following are the daily issues:

• You try to make a payment. It asks for $2. Put your toonie or two loonies in, and it continues to ask for $2 and will not give back the money you have already placed in it. This morning, I sunk six $2 coins into the machine and nothing happened.

• If the meter allows you to make the payment, it takes approximately five minutes to process the request.

• You don’t receive a receipt to prove you have paid.

• I have to leave 30 minutes earlier in the morning for the privilege of waiting in line to pay to use a spot.

I got really fed up and tried calling Impark. There is no customer service number. I waited on hold for the ticket payment office for five hours with no answer.

Finally, days later, we connected and Impark let me know that the meters are solar-powered and that they worked when tested at 1 p.m. That doesn’t help when they’re not charged at 6 a.m.

People are now frustrated and are no longer paying for their parking, as it seems impossible.

I’m sure the next step for them is to ticket all of us, even though we have tried to be good citizens and pay for the service.

Allison Bourne, Surrey