Dead Steve Jobs owed $174 by San Francisco parking ticket wardens Steve Jobs is owed $174 by San Francisco parking attendants. It's not just the deceased co-founder of Apple either. PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel is owed $170; Napster co-founder and Facebook's first president Sean Parker $320; Salesforce's Marc Benioff $94. But top of the pile comes, ironically, CEO of …
One thing we've learnt in the past week is that being wealthy, successful San Francisco residents they probably thought the ugly Interceptors were just the equivalent of slightly upscale cardboard boxes, sheltering an offensive minimum-wage loser inside - nothing to do with them. An outrage, frankly, that they should be forced to even see them as they went about their successful entrepreneurial lives! And in any case, spending their valuable time begging for a paltry $100 refund would just make them look like poor people themselves.
As far as I know, every parking ticket system in the world is supported by a particularly aggressive fine system where costs quickly rack up when the fine is not paid timely.
In the interest of balance it would only be fair to apply that to refunds, and I think I have just given myself an idea for the next incorrectly issued ticket. Not because I need the extra money, but because that would be an *excellent* precedent to establish for ending the tide of "mistakes" that just happen to make money. Making it cost could make a difference, and may prove entertaining to boot.
It's a shame I don't like publicity..
"They would never leave money on the table – even if it's $30?"
Whoa, hang on there, just slow down for second there...
Are you trying to tell me that a parking ticket cost $30?
These guys must have no testicles - Here in Australia, depending where, you could be knocked off for the better part of AU$500 if you dare park where you shouldn't (according to the council gods)
"Having lived in San Francisco for a number of years and suffered under the depressingly efficient little machines of Satan called Interceptors – particularly on parking days – we have a much more precise theory: crappy web design."
I have no idea what you mean by "particularly on parking days". What is a "parking day"?
I would imagine they are working days when everyone and his chihuahua are trying to find somewhere to park and hence the parking restrictions are in force. Like in the UK when it is free after 6 in most municipal car parks but you'll be charged before and fined if you overstay or don't pay.
Free after 6pm? You must live in a Utopia that is on a planet far, far away.
Here in N.E. Hampshire the parking charges are 24hrs a day every day. It is little wonder that people vote with their feet or rather steering wheels and shop outside the borough?
And the ALL effing Bus lanes are 24/7 and most of them are totally devoid of busses after 7pm.
Not even Boris Island (London) has 24/7 on every bus lane. No wonder our MP wants out of the EU.
@oddie - my mistake too. I read New Hampshire and thought Boris was wading into the Free State Project
Wouldn't put anything past the careerist bounder.
At Ohio State University, we had Football Days, when, if it was a home game, they would simply tow your car. The signs simply stated No Parking on Football Days. Any other time, there was no charge to park, and no other restrictions. My roommate used to lose his car at least once a month - who pays attention to if its a home or away game (cars only towed on home game days.)
It seems they just have names and licence plate numbers. You need to give them an address. Seems like the it's the perfect opportunity for ne'er do wells to get up to some mischief.
Also note that they don't give very long to apply - till the 3rd of March (or 4th of March, depending on where you read). After that they keep the money. Anyone would think they have an interest in making a inefficient error-prone claim-back service.
It always has been. Long time ago a group of abused citizens found out the name of their local "meter maid" who was particularly aggressive on the timing of meters. They got together and bought a complete junker of a vehicle and parked it on her route. They also blessed her with the title to said vehicle. Dutifuly the meter maid applied ticket after ticket to this parking outlaw vehicle. After a month of tickets, I believe that the vehicle was towed, but it had many many parking tickets (worth big bux) on it. Add on to this the penalties for not paying on time and towing fees, and the meter maid got her just rewards.
As for VC's they all live on Sand Hill Road (where parking is much more plentiful).
"Another question begging to be asked:"
You have my very sincere thanks for not misusing the phrase "begs the question". The inappropriate use of this much-abused phrase has become so common that you'd think it would stop irritating me by now, but alas not. I suppose eventually we traditionalists will have to give up and concede that a language is defined by its speakers/writers and the meaning has changed since my days in an undergraduate philosophy class. But I'm still fighting on this one...
I suppose eventually we traditionalists will have to give up and concede that a language is defined by its speakers/writers and the meaning has changed since my days in an undergraduate philosophy class.
The Oxford Dictionary of English states that the more general usage of the phrase has arisen "over the past 100 years or so" which begs the question of when exactly you were a philosophy undergraduate.
"The Oxford Dictionary of English states that the more general usage of the phrase has arisen "over the past 100 years or so" which begs the question of when exactly you were a philosophy undergraduate."
Let's just say it's been more than 1/3 and less than 1/2 of a century.
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