Republic Parking System

Yesterday (12-14-14), our family attended the 1 o'clock free showing of "It's A Wonderful Life" sponsored by Home Federal Bank at the Tennessee Theater.

We parked about 12:50 pm in the Republic Parking Systems lot on the corner of Church St & Gay St. about a half block down from the Theater. The machine where you pay shows $8 for 2 hours and $10 for all day parking. My husband paid $8 by credit card thinking we would be done within the two hour window. Unfortunately, the movie lasted more than two hours. Our 18 year old son arrived at our van first to start it up & turn on the heat. While waiting for us, an employee of the lot got his attention & pointed out a slip of paper on the windshield that turned out to be a ticket for $30! She then accused us of not paying at all -- I'm so glad we chose to pay by credit card & had proof of payment. When my husband arrived he also spoke with her & was willing to pay the $2 balance due since the show was longer than we anticipated. She informed us that she couldn't do that since she'd already entered the ticket into her device. But, if we would call on Monday, she would take off the $8 that we had already paid. Our ticket shows the time it was entered was 3:10 pm. Looking around, we noted that nearly every auto in the lot had a ticket on it!! She must have started ticketing exactly two hours after the show started to have given so many tickets by the time the show was over.

I believe Republic Parking Systems is baiting people to assume they will be finished within the two hour window so they can take the opportunity to turn a maximum $10 per day parking space into $30. While they may be barely within their legal right to have a policy like this, it is an unethical practice & their motive is one of greed. Fortunately, God has blessed our family with the means to pay this ridiculous amount, but I'm sure there were others in attendance that may not be so blessed. While Home Federal Bank was giving back to the community, Scrooge....uh, I mean.....Republic Parking Systems moto was "Bah Humbug!"