• Fighting Back When The Computer Says =?UTF-8?B?WW914oCZcmU=?= Wrong ...

    From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc,nz.general on Fri Sep 5 23:04:12 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    Rotorua Lakes Council contracted its paid parking to an Auckland-based
    company with a smartphone app called i-Park. Unfortunately, the app
    was plagued with problems. In this incident, it started affecting cops
    trying to park next to their workplace at the Rotorua Police Station <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotorua-policeman-wins-court-battle-over-70-fine-following-i-park-app-frustrations/DZJJYACJOFFCFO44DFHLGUBHWE/>.

    Like the methodical person he was, this particular cop carefully
    collected evidence of his attempts to pay. And then, when he was
    issued a parking ticket, his attempts to dispute that, and how he was
    fobbed off by the Council who told him to talk to the parking
    contractor, which was no help at all.

    He took the dispute to court as a private citizen, not as a police
    officer:

    OrCOSullivan told the court he had no choice but to bring the
    rCLfrustrationsrCY to court rCLon behalf of his colleagues, friends and
    the public of RotoruarCY, as he said the same problem had happened
    rCLmultiple timesrCY.

    He sent a whole dossier of evidence to the council over the issue, but
    it seems they neglected to pass that on to either the i-Park manager
    or the JPs who heard the case. Did they not care about putting up a
    proper defence?

    In any case, the court ruled in his favour, citing the rCLcritical
    elementrCY was that he did try to pay the parking fee. Therefore the non-payment could not be seen as his fault.

    Oh, and another happy outcome:

    Rotorua Lakes Council voted in May not to renew its contract with
    i-Park.

    I should mention one thing more: the amusing misspelling of rCLmeterrCY as rCLmetrerCY throughout. Seems someone cannot distinguish between the two different words ...
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