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>Some, like Home Depot, have websites that are terrible and battery-draining enough to make the app nominally useful by comparison. I don't take this as a sign

>Some, like Home Depot, have websites that are terrible and battery-draining enough to make the app nominally useful by comparison. I don't take this as a signal to install the app. It is a signal to avoid the store. They clearly don't feel like they need to work to gain your business, and instead take it for granted. You can see this indicated by their actions - they clearly feel that it is more profitable to inconvenience you for a token amount of tracking data than to serve your needs. Why continue to use them?

mikepurvis 1mo ago
There are a lot of businesses that have a semi-captive hold on a market. Like a recent example was I drove my daughter and I to a stage play, and to pay for street parking I had to install an app, make an account, and add a credit card. A thing that should have been scan the QR code and click one button to mobile pay became a five minute ordeal. In theory we could have gotten back in the car and looked for parking elsewhere but the curtain was in 30 minutes and who's to say they didn't have a contract with the city that covered all the parking? Overall a very hostile experience and I was annoyed about how little I felt I had a choice in it.
- inigyou 1mo ago
  It should have been put coins in a slot.
  - mikepurvis 1mo ago
    Ehh maybe. I mean, it was a three hour show and I don't carry coins any more. So that would have been ATM -> go to a store and break a twenty -> put in a few bucks -> remember to go out at intermission and put in more money. Paying by phone is a step up from that old world; I just want it to be one tap, not a whole sequence that tries to upsell me on a monthly pass or establishing an in-app "parking wallet" or whatever.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      Not carrying coins is your own fault, not the system's. You can't refuse the analog solutions and then complain the digital ones are too digital.
      - mikepurvis 1mo ago
        I guess, but no one carries coins, and the machine doesn't accept them. Me not having coins changed nothing about this situation.
        inigyou 1mo ago
        You not having coins is one half of the problem. We can't pretend we don't tolerate the abuses of the digital money system, while not carrying analog money - it's completely hypocritical.
      - stackghost 1mo ago
        Digital solutions don't have to be abusive. Where I live the city commissioned its own mobile app for parking, and all numbered parking spots in the city use that app. There are private lots that use Honk or Robbins or whatever, but the municipal lots and all parallel parking spaces downtown all use the same single app and the revenue goes to the city. The city parking app works reasonably well, no ads, it just does one thing. If you leave early you open the app and hit "stop parking" and it only charges you the 37 cents or whatever that you actually consumed. It sends you a push notification when your parking is about to expire. And if you don't like the app for whatever reason, you can still pay with a card at the pay machines on every block. It's unglamorous, but it's fantastic technology.
        inigyou 1mo ago
        That's still one more app, that's not any better if the problem is needing an app.
        1mo ago
  - bigstrat2003 1mo ago
    Or use your card on the machine. We had that for a while, but then these stupid parking companies started to get traction.
    - mikepurvis 1mo ago
      Yes, just a plain tap-to-pay on the meter itself (or a nearby kiosk) is the obvious solution. I think doing it on the meter is awkward because then they all need to be online, so you're either dealing with individual M2M cards or some kind of local mesh network, not to mention powering them all. The kiosk is another thing to have to install and maintain and power. And doing a plain tap would have no way of inputting how long you wanted to pay for. All that to say, I can fully understand how we ended up with "here's a sticker with a number on it, pay on your phone"; it's just, the pay on your phone option should be a one step apple/google pay webpage where you at most have to enter your license plate, and it certainly should not be collecting credit card details within the app.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        And what if I don't use Apple Pay or Google Pay?
        brewdad 1mo ago
        Enter a credit/debit card number then. They are under zero obligation to allow you a cash payment method.
        inigyou 1mo ago
        Well they should be. The government should be obligated to support the use of government services without any third-party megacorp dependencies.
- a2tech 1mo ago
  Just don’t pay. I stopped paying for street parking a long time ago (around the time they started insisting on apps). You get a ticket once and awhile but it all works out. Mail in a check a few times a year and park whenever you want.
  - mikepurvis 1mo ago
    Valid, though I expect this being down the block from the festival theatre, it probably was being actively patrolled. I was a bit shaken by a prominent sign threatening a $400 fine for illegal parking, though having just checked the website for the City of Stratford, it looks like the standard municipal parking ticket is $40 if paid promptly, so the $400 fine was probably specific to parking in the theatre's dropoff zone or fire access or something. All that say, I think you're probably right... next time instead of using my phone to install and sign up for a parking app, I'll just use it to check what the fine is and wipe hands on pants.
    - a2tech 1mo ago
      Yeah usually that’s for fire parking etc. loading zones don’t usually get the super high fine treatment.
  - dredmorbius 1mo ago
    It's all fun and games until your ride gets towed.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
- rovr138 1mo ago
  I have like 5 parking apps. It's exhausting. The worst part is not that, but.. _which is the app for this area?_
  - mikepurvis 1mo ago
    It's definitely a case where I see the value of the Asia-style super apps, where you just attach transactions like this to LINE or Grab or whatever, and everyone knows what to do with it. The only thing remotely comparable in Toronto might be if Presto (payment app for multiple transit agencies in GTHA) took on parking payment, but the Presto network now supports just tapping a credit card so I don't know how many people would be getting cards or using the app for that either.
  - nunez 1mo ago
    SpotHero and Parkmobile tried to solve this. Parking is a weird industry.
nunez 1mo ago
Avoiding HD is basically impossible here in the US if you own a home. It's either them, Lowe's or, if you're lucky, some third party mom and pop that will have an even shittier website and probably not what youre looking for. But generally you're right.

mikepurvis 1mo ago

There are a lot of businesses that have a semi-captive hold on a market. Like a recent example was I drove my daughter and I to a stage play, and to pay for street parking I had to install an app, make an account, and add a credit card. A thing that should have been scan the QR code and click one button to mobile pay became a five minute ordeal. In theory we could have gotten back in the car and looked for parking elsewhere but the curtain was in 30 minutes and who's to say they didn't have a contract with the city that covered all the parking? Overall a very hostile experience and I was annoyed about how little I felt I had a choice in it.

inigyou 1mo ago
It should have been put coins in a slot.
- mikepurvis 1mo ago
  Ehh maybe. I mean, it was a three hour show and I don't carry coins any more. So that would have been ATM -> go to a store and break a twenty -> put in a few bucks -> remember to go out at intermission and put in more money. Paying by phone is a step up from that old world; I just want it to be one tap, not a whole sequence that tries to upsell me on a monthly pass or establishing an in-app "parking wallet" or whatever.
  - inigyou 1mo ago
    Not carrying coins is your own fault, not the system's. You can't refuse the analog solutions and then complain the digital ones are too digital.
    - mikepurvis 1mo ago
      I guess, but no one carries coins, and the machine doesn't accept them. Me not having coins changed nothing about this situation.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        You not having coins is one half of the problem. We can't pretend we don't tolerate the abuses of the digital money system, while not carrying analog money - it's completely hypocritical.
    - stackghost 1mo ago
      Digital solutions don't have to be abusive. Where I live the city commissioned its own mobile app for parking, and all numbered parking spots in the city use that app. There are private lots that use Honk or Robbins or whatever, but the municipal lots and all parallel parking spaces downtown all use the same single app and the revenue goes to the city. The city parking app works reasonably well, no ads, it just does one thing. If you leave early you open the app and hit "stop parking" and it only charges you the 37 cents or whatever that you actually consumed. It sends you a push notification when your parking is about to expire. And if you don't like the app for whatever reason, you can still pay with a card at the pay machines on every block. It's unglamorous, but it's fantastic technology.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        That's still one more app, that's not any better if the problem is needing an app.
        1mo ago
- bigstrat2003 1mo ago
  Or use your card on the machine. We had that for a while, but then these stupid parking companies started to get traction.
  - mikepurvis 1mo ago
    Yes, just a plain tap-to-pay on the meter itself (or a nearby kiosk) is the obvious solution. I think doing it on the meter is awkward because then they all need to be online, so you're either dealing with individual M2M cards or some kind of local mesh network, not to mention powering them all. The kiosk is another thing to have to install and maintain and power. And doing a plain tap would have no way of inputting how long you wanted to pay for. All that to say, I can fully understand how we ended up with "here's a sticker with a number on it, pay on your phone"; it's just, the pay on your phone option should be a one step apple/google pay webpage where you at most have to enter your license plate, and it certainly should not be collecting credit card details within the app.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      And what if I don't use Apple Pay or Google Pay?
      - brewdad 1mo ago
        Enter a credit/debit card number then. They are under zero obligation to allow you a cash payment method.
        inigyou 1mo ago
        Well they should be. The government should be obligated to support the use of government services without any third-party megacorp dependencies.
a2tech 1mo ago
Just don’t pay. I stopped paying for street parking a long time ago (around the time they started insisting on apps). You get a ticket once and awhile but it all works out. Mail in a check a few times a year and park whenever you want.
- mikepurvis 1mo ago
  Valid, though I expect this being down the block from the festival theatre, it probably was being actively patrolled. I was a bit shaken by a prominent sign threatening a $400 fine for illegal parking, though having just checked the website for the City of Stratford, it looks like the standard municipal parking ticket is $40 if paid promptly, so the $400 fine was probably specific to parking in the theatre's dropoff zone or fire access or something. All that say, I think you're probably right... next time instead of using my phone to install and sign up for a parking app, I'll just use it to check what the fine is and wipe hands on pants.
  - a2tech 1mo ago
    Yeah usually that’s for fire parking etc. loading zones don’t usually get the super high fine treatment.
- dredmorbius 1mo ago
  It's all fun and games until your ride gets towed.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
rovr138 1mo ago
I have like 5 parking apps. It's exhausting. The worst part is not that, but.. _which is the app for this area?_
- mikepurvis 1mo ago
  It's definitely a case where I see the value of the Asia-style super apps, where you just attach transactions like this to LINE or Grab or whatever, and everyone knows what to do with it. The only thing remotely comparable in Toronto might be if Presto (payment app for multiple transit agencies in GTHA) took on parking payment, but the Presto network now supports just tapping a credit card so I don't know how many people would be getting cards or using the app for that either.
- nunez 1mo ago
  SpotHero and Parkmobile tried to solve this. Parking is a weird industry.

nunez 1mo ago

Avoiding HD is basically impossible here in the US if you own a home. It's either them, Lowe's or, if you're lucky, some third party mom and pop that will have an even shittier website and probably not what youre looking for. But generally you're right.