We gave the clerk the entry ticket we received along with the cash and he looked a bit anxious which I thought was being of the queue.
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So this was a weird experience as the last place you expect to get scammed* is in a well reputed mall but I guess this is what the world has come to.
My parents and I decided to go shopping and which place is better than a mall for that sort of stuff. Well let me spare you from the boring details and let us get to the meat of the story.
We left for Phoenix at around 7:15pm in car but certainly not any time before 7pm.
This was around peak hours so keep in mind that despite being around a 8-9km drive, it usually takes upwards of 30-45 minutes. Entered Phoenix and the guy who gives us the parking ticket (people who have been to know the mall know what I am talking about) gave us the ticket and right about this time I got a call which I could not pick up as I was driving. Parked car and went about our business and decided leave around 9:30pm as this was when all the stores were starting to shut stop.
Got into the car and as we were leaving, there was a relatively long queue for the car parking fees counter and we could hear a few people get restless (started honking etc) so I decided to rush a bit and pay by cash to avoid the UPI delay (BIG MISTAKE). We gave the clerk the entry ticket we received along with the cash and he looked a bit anxious which I thought was being of the queue. He returned the change and as I was about to drive away my dad asked him for the receipt. He looked a bit lost but gave us a receipt and realized something did not add up.
We gave him a 100 rupee note and got back 10 rupees in change.
90 rupees for 2 hours barely did not make sense. For context, the parking rate at Phoenix is as follows- 50 rupees for the first hour and an extra 20 for every hour after that. The time in the receipt we got showed an entry time of 7:06pm.
Now I am a brisk driver sometimes, hell I am a Team BHP member but even I am not a good enough driver to cover 8km in Bangalore traffic in less than 6 minutes and at worst, if I did leave at 7:15pm, time travel back 9 minutes into the past. Dad got out of the car to talk to them while I remembered the missed call I got. 7:46 was when I received the call just as I entered the mall.
When we confronted them about how this was possible, they first initially feigned ignorance and told us there is no possibility of this happening and we had no proof but when my dad asked for the entry ticket the clerk took from us a few minutes before, They told us he tore it and they cannot. Dad pushed on and told them he does not mind searching for it himself and they did not like that and would not have it. The parking coordinator then tried to appease us by telling us it is only 20 rupees extra and he would return the amount to us but at this point, it is not about the money. The fact of the matter was at best this was a pretty horrendous technical glitch and at worst, it is a fairly massive scam considering the amount of people who visit the mall.
About proof, thankfully we got the exit bill back from him and realized that the bill by nature does not have the number of the car being charged. It is literally a ticket with a bunch of numbers which can be given to anyone and I know a call I received is not exactly solid proof but thankfully my apartment has CCTV cameras and I can provide the footage of us leaving the apartment along with the time stamp if this post gets enough traction and interest.
*I will refrain from calling this out to be a certain scam because yes, there is always a chance this was a technical glitch but something about the entire series of events did not feel “correct”. From the clerk’s nervous behavior and hesitation in giving us the receipt to the parking coordinator’s (No clue what his designation was but he did seem to have some amount of authority) statement of “It is just a matter of 20 rupees”.
It is not. A theft of 1 rupee from a person is still wrong.
I have tried to be as unbiased as possible so as to give you guys as accurate of a description as I can. I have nothing against Phoenix because I do still want to believe this is a technical glitch that the parking management had no clue was even a thing
The point I want to make before I end this is to:
ALWAYS ASK FOR A RECEIPT.
Keyword: Got overcharged for parkng in a mall: How I stood my ground