Parking Rorts at Westfields

Windows7forever on 18/10/2015 - 11:52

Went to Chatswood Westfields yesterday. Watched a lengthy movie at the cinemas. Validated 2 hr ticket to get extra 'free' hour, total 3 hours of free parking. Tried to hussle up and get out as quickly as possible from shopping centre. Get into car to leave carpark but get stuck at boomgate and cannot exit without paying. Apparently I am in the 3 hrs - 3.5hrs range. Call on intercom. Parking guy takes $7 and lets me leave. Wow, $7 just for exceeding the free parking limit probably only by a few minutes.
This has never happened to me before. I normally use a timer or leave well before the free parking expires because I don't believe in paying to park my car, especially in a commercial environment that I am spending money within as a customer. Made all the more difficult with companions who are not as steadfast as I am and need to use the toilets and stop and look at things on the way out which took us longer.

It's bad enough that at Chatswood(& Burwood too, I believe) you need to physically 'validate' your ticket to get that extra free hour, whereas at most other Westfields it is a standard 3 hour free rate.
On a side note, if you are unfortunate enough to lose your ticket, it's a full day's rate or $40. Exorbitant prices just to park the car.

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Comments

  • Sxio on 21/10/2015 - 11:41

    I feel for you man. I don't park at the paid places because of this, I get something a few blocks over and walk unless I have the kids with me (not fun with 3 young children in summer).

    You might not believe in paid parking, I don't believe in paid parking, but unfortunately the owners of the shopping centre do. :(

    I can't blame them. It's a massive cash injection for them on a daily basis. But it sucks for the customers.

  • glam77 on 21/10/2015 - 12:21
    +1

    Westfield - West Lakes (SA) have a great rort going…..

    About 5 years ago during their renovations they built the new public transport bus terminal in the centre car park and launched a bit of a park-n-ride promotion in conjunction with local govt (ie park your car and catch the bus to the city to work).

    That's when parking was free.

    Now, since they introduced paid parking about a year ago, parking will probably cost you $40-50 a day if you chose to do that option now.

    I cant see haw that is not some sort of conflict of interest (ie having a public bus terminal in your centre, and then charging the public who want to use that facility to park there) To me that is just wrong.

    And its not as simple as parking 1 stop futher along and catching the bus there, as many of the busses are express from the bus terminal.

  • tc4101 on 21/10/2015 - 12:27

    Anyone just follow the car in front through?

  • congo on 21/10/2015 - 14:19
    +1

    Parramatta (Westfield) have 3 hours free parking. Burwood only has 2 hours.
    If you watch a movie, you don't get any free hours.
    Last time I watched a 3 hour long movie and the parking tix worked out to be more expensive than the movie itself :-(

    I need to leave the movie half way through to move the car, to avoid the parking tix.
    Westfield makes plenty of money. This is a joke.

    • ronnknee on 21/10/2015 - 14:21

      Doesn't Burwood have an extra hour validation? When did they stop doing it?

      • congo on 21/10/2015 - 14:57

        In the past they did.
        Not sure when they changed it.

    • DarkOz on 21/10/2015 - 19:49

      That's why we left the car home and walked the kids to Westfield Burwood to have lunch and movie during the last school holiday. 2 or 3 hours isn't enough sometimes but there are always some who abuse the free paring system. It's a very delicate balancing act for Westfield.

    • serpserpserp on 21/10/2015 - 20:14

      Bondi only has 2 hour free parking.

  • serpserpserp on 21/10/2015 - 20:13

    You should just do what people do in Wollongong who are too cheap to pay the $2 fee for parking at the new shopping center carpark. Just go nuts at the speaker like you are an ice addict on a bad comedown, get your partner in the car to also act like an ice addict and get out of the passenger seat and go over to the speaker and punch and kick it and scream bloody murder at it. About 10 minutes of doing that will get the gate open (only because of the 50 cars you are holding up.)

    • congo on 21/10/2015 - 20:35

      lol… won't be setting a good example for the kids :-)

    • DarkOz on 22/10/2015 - 06:58

      People who does that are probably on ice anyway. No need to pretend.

  • Geryatric on 22/10/2015 - 11:03
    +2

    Not quite sure what your complaint is or why you think this is a 'roit'
    Its 2 hours free parking, with +1 hour if you validate in Westfield concierge or the Cinema.
    You went over the 3 hour free parking time limit and therefore had to pay.

    "Exorbitant prices just to park the car"
    If you parked on the street is $7 / hour to Chatswood Council so $28 for 3.5 hours, and if you go over you ticket time its a $106 fine, whereas you paid $7. You got a bargain

    • Windows7forever on 23/10/2015 - 08:57
      -1

      roit? Should've gone to Specsavers ;)

  • baker bob on 22/10/2015 - 13:22
    +2

    Look at all the Aussies brain washed into thinking paying for parking at a shopping centre you are spending money at is OK. The parking should be complementary if you are dropping coin at a shop, after all that money filters through to Westfields in the form of rent and I'm sure Westfields would want their tenants to remain in business.

    Put a minimum spend on it if you want to avoid abuse but paying for parking is ridiculous

    The council must have gotten tips from Westfields as they have put time limits on motorcycle parking spots on the road, not even City of Sydney does that. Well done you greedy #$%^

    • eatwell365 on 22/10/2015 - 20:24

      Agree re greed.

      Not sure what the others think, BUT
      Sydney Tower has become one of the ugliest if not the ugliest icon in the world since the Westfield sign is added.

      Would you like to see McDonald's sign on Harbour Bridge? If the price is right.

      • MrFrugalSpend on 23/10/2015 - 00:21
        +1

        I agree it would be better not to have the logo, but its a free country and its not quite the same thing as putting a sign on the Harbour Bridge, the Harbour Bridge is a public piece of infrastructure, whereas Sydney Tower is a privately owned building. It would be a sad day if we sold out the bridge.

        Lets not forget the tower was often called "AMP Tower" with the AMP logo on it in the past, and Westfield changed it to "Sydney Tower" when they changed it to their logo upon taking over the building. I don't think it qualifies as greed to want to proudly display your corporation's name on your building. As for being ugly, not sure its that bad, but I think the tower's is just starting to show its age as well.

        As for Westfield, its a great Australian success story, yes their reputation is not entirely squeekly clean, but Frank Lowy's story is fairly remarkable one of 'rags to riches', having suffered through WWII where his father was killed in the Holocaust, coming out to start a small business in Western Sydney, growing it to owning a heap of stores in various countries. Yes they make a lot of money, but they have built a shopping centre empire from scratch which takes a lot of vision and hard work, its not from parking fees. The 'pay for parking' thing is just to try and keep spaces free for us to go and shop, the tenants subsidise the parking and they want to keep the customers coming, Westfield's money doesn't come from parking fees.

        • eatwell365 on 23/10/2015 - 05:56

          Thank you for many valid points esp re Frank Lowy's story who I respect.

          1. Googled "AMP" Sydney Tower and looked at the images. You are right. There were photos without logo, with AMP and Westfield. The word AMP is shorter and blue and probably less obvious that "Westfield" in red.

          2. My apology my point was not clear enough. I agreed existence of "corporate"/"society greed" nowadays that things may not make sense and/or right is taken away from people for money. Not directly to Westfield and parking fee. You are right - fee is a mean to control traffic flow. Only when fee becomes too high and people are denied alternate reasonable choice to access the area eg cheaper parking/public transport - then it is an issue,

          3. You are also right to differentiate public vs private property. Government has been privatised assets once owned by our people. yes it will be a sad day if Harbour bridge is ever privatised, so as Opera House.

      • Windows7forever on 23/10/2015 - 08:59

        They don't even have a Westfields inside!

    • Windows7forever on 23/10/2015 - 08:58
      +1

      Agreed, Paying for parking is not normal. Gullible sheep consumers just learn to accept it over time as the 'norm'.

      • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 26/10/2015 - 08:11

        Gullible sheep? People will always pay extra for convenience. That applies to nearly every industry.

  • MrFrugalSpend on 22/10/2015 - 23:53
    +2

    Whilst as a bargain hunter I hate paying for parking, one other thing many people don't realise, is that providing parking actually costs a lot of money.
    I work in commercial property development and management, and can tell you that carparks are expensive. The value of the large area of real estate that carparks occupy, and large capital cost of the parking buildings is huge, not to mention operating costs, rates and land taxes (yes commercial property owners pay huge land taxes additional to rates). So it really costs a lot of money to provide parking, and they need to make sure it benefits the retail tenants who are paying for it through their rental payments only. Cost of parking is usually heavily subsidised by the other activities on a site (rent) or the Council. It is almost never truly 'free'.

    • retiredfeline on 24/10/2015 - 10:54
      +1

      Plus this shopping centre, like many others, is near a train station and if parking were free, it would immediately be rorted by commuters leaving the car there for the day, leaving no places for genuine shoppers. Really, some posters can't see beyond their own viewpoint.

    • eatwell365 on 25/10/2015 - 07:02

      Want to know your view on these parking arrangement: do you think it is fair:

      A Beach Council is about 40 mins away from Sydney City. All immediate parking around the beaches are charged $6 per hour from dawn to dusk. All day is $26. Residents in local area can park for free.
      Councils use parking fee to maintain the environment around the beaches area.
      But people cannot afford it, they are not likely to be able to visit.

    • eatwell365 on 25/10/2015 - 07:16

      Another situation - Waverley Council has street meter parking $8/hour from 8am - 10pm. Closed by is office. After office hours, the street normally becomes quiet and does not have much traffic, Seen rangers come and book cars at 7 pm even only about 5 cars in a whole street of 60 parking spots available. Alternatively, free parking in Westfield down the other end of street.

      Street parking fee was to control traffic or should it be a revenue tool.

  • burningrage on 24/10/2015 - 10:43

    Bad news guys. The Eastland system is about to happen at Westfield Doncaster.

    http://www.westfield.com.au/doncaster/announcements/615

    And do remember if u visit once for 5 minutes say… you will have used up your 3 hours free parking entitlement as this has shown so you cannot come back for the rest of your free hour entitlement

    http://m.couriermail.com.au/news/brisbane-paid-parking-indoo…

    • hawkers8905 on 26/11/2015 - 12:34

      And the problems have started…

      http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/quicker-and-e…

      You can return after being away for 2 hours and get another 3 free hours

      • burningrage on 26/11/2015 - 19:28

        Yes but it works something like this.

        The moment you enter the car park, 3 hours start ticking, your time to find parking and your time to exit the car park are counted towards the 3 hours so if you're in bad luck, your shopping time could be as low as 2 hours.

        Then if you exit the car park under 3 hours, the balance DOES NOT roll over. If you quick enter the car park for 5 minutes and exit, you will have used your 3 hour block. This is the different I think compared to other states where you have (I was told) 3 hours per day. In Westfield Doncaster, you get 3 hour in BLOCK.

        If you attempt to reenter the centre under 2 hours, you will be considered as maintaining the parking continuity. That is why if you read the comments they got stung even though the car wasn't in the centre. The two hour window starts when you exit the car park before you can reenter for another 3 hour block.

        In other words, once you're in, stay in for 3 hours and then exit, then come back 2 hours later for another 3 hours.

        The mother of all this is you cannot be sure if the system works as intended or not. You were asked to give your credit card and register online and people can just get charged without they knowing and by the time people disputing it, they have already taken your money and hold it close (earning daily interest).

        So I have been telling friends NOT to register the credit card and if they get stuck at boom gate, just press intercom and they will let you go if not eventually because that's what the staff told me. They said it's a bit idiotic introducing things like this on busy Christmas period. Perfect timing to piss people off.

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