Give Me A Quarter
This Seth Godin post reminded me of something that happened to me last week:
Long story short, I pull into a downtown parking garage, make a full lap around the 4 stories, find no open spots and end up at the exit in a line of 5 or 6 cars that had all seemed to have met the same fate.
I get up to the booth after a few minutes, hand the guy my ticket, and wait for the gate to go up, assuming that there would be no charge for a 5 minute spin around a full garage.
Well, we all know what happens when you assume, especially in the parking-fee-police-state known as Boulder, CO.
The attendant punches in my ticket and demands a quarter - I begin to give him the “c’mon man, that’s crazy” routine and he immediately says:
You have 30 seconds to give me a quarter or I’m calling the cops.
He was clearly having a bad day, was somehow bothered by all the cars driving through “his garage” without finding a spot (yet not bothered enough to get out of his booth and walk the 5 feet to put out the “garage full” placard), and was taking out his frustration on the local tax paying citizens, knowing full well that he didn’t have to charge anything.
As you can imagine, I was pretty pissed and used the full 29 seconds before he hit the panic button to let him know what I thought of his abuse of “power” and how poorly it reflected on a city known for issuing tons of parking, photo red light, and photo radar tickets. Not to mention the over 8% downtown sales tax that is just the beginning of the nickel & diming that goes on around here.
So anyway, I begrudgingly pay the quarter, go find another parking spot, and spend the better part of the next 4 hours ranting to my friends about how such a small thing managed to really get under my skin.
Fast forward 3 days and I’m paying for a couple of hours of parking at the same garage. I ask the (much nicer) woman who is running the booth what the policy is and briefly explained what happened. She said, “you must be talking about John, people complain about him all the time. And no, we’re not supposed to charge people who can’t find a spot and just pull through.”
She then handed me an extra quarter back with my change and said “sorry he did that, I don’t think he’ll be working here much longer.”
That small, simple act on her part turned my attitude completely around and restored a lot of goodwill. As for John, the bitter under-performing parking lot attendant, I can only imagine his next stop.