Hello Windsor Residents,

I want to make Windsor residents aware of a potential scam at a private parking lot directly in front of the wonderful facility, Adventure Bay/ Windsor Aquatics Centre, by sharing with you my personal experience from this past Tuesday November 11th. apologies for the length of this account, but I wanted to give you all of the facts.

Help/ Beware/ For Your Information:
Yesterday I had an interesting experience with a friend. We are left to imagine that it is some sort of scam that we have found ourselves wrapped up in. We can't figure how to get out of it... we can't figure how we got in to it... we can't figure out what we did wrong because we followed the rules.... insight and help is very much appreciated.

If you can't help then take notice and please amend your parking options accordingly in both London and Windsor.

My friend Cori-Anne and I car-pooled to Adventure Bay indoor water-park (Cannon Cove) in Windsor with our three kids, collectively.

We parked where we have parked before right in front of the facility on the corner of Bruce Avenue and Riverside Drive. It is a large parking lot and one would assume (we didn't pay attention or didn't care to notice) was a city parking lot.

The parking lot was in fact a private lot called Compark. We paid the $5 for the parking chit/ voucher that was valid for 10 hours starting at 9:55am. We were in the water-park until 2:30pm. We were ticked at 10:35 by the private parking lot's enforcement officer with a ticket for failing to display a parking chit on our dash for almost $40... less if we paid right away.

The problem is WE DID HAVE OUR PARKING CHIT IN THE CORRECT PLACE ON OUR DASH ABOVE THE STEERING WHEEL JUST UNDER THE WINDOW. Two ladies with three kids under three all ready to eat and nap aren't really going to waste our time/ energy argue for nothing.

We immediately called the phone number on the back of the ticket and drove to their office so that we could explain this misunderstanding and show them both the ticket and the chit, we paid them to park in their lot. No problem. We followed the rules.

They were completely inflexible and most un-cooperative. They said they had photos to prove that we had not displayed the chit properly. So we waited for photos (most puzzled as we knew it was visible). The photos showed no view of the chit from the angle the photos were taken. (The photographer must be good at this.) The ticket was not going to be reversed/ cancelled. They were standing their ground. We asked for our other options. What could we do now? Could we go to court to argue it there in front of a judge?

They were most uncooperative and unwilling to share with us any further options or even listen to our argument. It just wasn't making sense. Don't we have a right to go to court? We took photos from the same angle of the van with the chit in the same place and got the same non viewing photos as they did.

So we called the non-emergency police phone number and inquired as to our options. They policeman called the Windsor Compark parking office and was reassured that we could go online and file a complaint there. Funny, we weren't given that option when we asked what options or recourse we had. But after looking into the online option... there really wasn't one. Again, this seems like a well rehearsed scam. Pass the buck!! We were hitting road blocks everywhere we went.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we called the head office in London and were met with even more bullying and terribly aggressive and demanding behaviour.

We looked in to the Better Business Bureau. Guess what? They have a rating of an F. No surprise there... so now what?
Here is a link to the Better Business Bureau report on them:
ww.bbb.org/ western-ontario/ business-reviews/ parking-facilities/ compark-complete-parking-services-in-london-on-1053986

Here is a list of the Compark parking lots in the area, both in Windsor and London. DO NOT PARK IN THEM!
http:/ / www.comparkservices.com/ lots.html

Here is the parking lot that we parked in:
https:/ / maps.yahoo.com/ place/ ?lat=42.31735240088182& lon=-83.04895877838135& q=491 Riverside Dr W Windsor, ON N9A Canada& bb=42.31995443,-83.0554229,42.31475026,-83.04249465& addr=491 Riverside Dr W Windsor, ON N9A Canada

Any ideas? The police say that we could try to call the judicial system. We called there and they said they don't deal with this, call the parking enforcement. We call them and they say that it isn't their responsibility as it is private property to call a lawyer.

This doesn't make sense. Any ideas?

Have you heard of this before? Has anything like this happened to you?

It's certainly left a sour taste in my mouth, and it isn't even about the $40 fine.... This really seems like a well rehearsed scam!!! How many people/ Windsor residents has this happened to before, and how many will it happen to in the future? Parking in Windsor? Beware!!!!