Unified Parking Partners

I’m sure none of you will see this until after you’ve been screwed like we were, but just in case… after paying our $ 14.00 for 2 hrs of parking in the safety and comfort of a downtown lot in Portland, our dinner went over by an hour. Much to our surprise, we returned to find a boot on our vehicle. After calling the company we had to wait for an attendant to show up and remove the boot for the price of $ 70. That’s extortion. Park on the street. Do not use this company’s lots. Ever.

Wankers:
a) Overpriced — $ 14 for 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon. I have small children so hunting around for on-​street parking is not something I have the time for.
b) Their fabled app — they don’t have the url or details of how to get the app on the UPP website — had to go and find it on the parkbytext website
c) When I try to register on parkbytext it tells me my perfectly valid reg is invalid. Not UPP’s fault obviously, but if you’re going to partner with someone, make sure it works.
The overpricing I could reluctantly stomach — seems to be where Portland is going on its gentrification journey — but the lack of attention to the customer experience indicates a contempt for the people who use this service — sorry — who are forced to use this service.

Portland should be ashamed of themselves. Absolute embarrassment to such a fine city otherwise. Paid for 2 hours of parking in a gated lot, no signage, admittedly went over but simply figured I would pay for an extra hour of time etc., but no, Portland’s Parking Pirates figure a $ 70 boot is the way to treat a good customer. Taking my business and money to South Portland!

I thought it was city parking because their signs make it look like it is. Seems intentionally misleading. Got booted and had to pay $ 70. If it were city parking like it looked like I was, it would have been a $ 15-​$ 20 ticket. Not ok.

Must admit, I’m a little surprised by the low ratings this parking facility received. My experience was very different. After the public lot was full, we chose to park here and take the ferry to Peak’s Island (worth going to btw). The lot was safe, provided easy access and was reasonably priced (not cheap, but reasonable) for the time we needed. It seems several of the posts talk about what happens in the event of exceeding the time purchased — REMEMBER, THIS IS A PRIVATE LOT and the cost of exceeding that time, while clearly marked, is expensive. Don’t exceed your time allotted and you will be very happy parking here.

Horrible service.
When we were leaving the gate closed on the rear of my girlfriends mothers car. The manager, was called over by the gate attendant and preceded to yell at us and told us we couldnt park there, ignoring the fact that the gate damaged our car. Instead of attempting to resolve the situation and apologize, he treated my girlfriends mother and myself horribly and extremely disrespectfully. He was unbelievably rude and did nothing for us. This place is a scam. The only nice one there was the gate attendant. The manager should learn from him on how to have some manners. Not only do they charge people a ridiculous amount but they treat people horribly.

No stars, if possible. Predatory business practices that deter both locals and tourists from visiting nearby businesses. Your errand ran MINUTES longer than expected? That $ 10 purchase just became an $ 80 purchase. The company might be unethical enough to live with this, but the city and area business should not tolerate it.

Not only is this parking lot overpriced but they have horrible customer service. The lift gate slammed into the back of my car and the first words out of AJ McGowan, the manager, was «you can’t park here,» dismissing the fact that we were parked for a reason. Park anywhere else but here. This place will damage your car, empty your wallet, and ruin your day. $ 30 for 4hrs and 44min, what a waste.

Unified Parking Partners. Unified Parking PIRATES is more like it. We drove into town and went into a lot where a guy flagged us down. We paid $ 8.00 for 2 hours. We were late getting back by about 90 minutes. We expected to pay for the extra time. We were shocked to find a boot on our car and ended up having to pay $ 70.00 to have the boot removed. Seriously? Paying $ 19.50/hr for parking in Portland Maine is ridiculous. Just because it’s a private lot does not give you the right to charge unreasonable fees. Not likely to drive four hours + to visit again. Well done pirates!

Avoid this company’s lots unless you are very sure of the time you will need for parking. It seems a big part of their business is booting cars and charging penalties for any overage (instead of simply collecting the additional parking fee). Had to rescue my poor daughter who lost track of time on one of her first nights out with the car in an unfamiliar area.

This is a predatory company who scams their customers. I was on my way to a wedding on Peaks Island, and parked in the lot at 68 Commercial Street. The attendant assured me that the $ 35 I paid was enough to ensure that I would «be just fine» taking the 10:30 ferry back, because of the grace period. When I returned to the lot, at the time I had expected to, there was a boot on my car that the company would only remove for a $ 70 fee. The man who showed up to collect the fee made a point to be intimidating, and even threatened me that I would go to jail for ‘tampering’ with the boot, which I had not done.
After looking around the internet a bit (there are many stories just like mine), and talking to the local police department (who say they receive similar complaints regularly), it is clear that taking advantage of customers with unfair boot-​removal fees and intimidation is simply their business model.
I’ve reported these dishonest practices to the Portland visitors bureau, the city clerk, the city manager, and the local police. I will also be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and writing to City Council. Others who have been victims of the racket they are running might want to consider taking similar actions.

Awful. Avoid these lots. Park at your peril. If you go over by even a few minutes you get booted! 20 minutes later, finally getting someone there, dealing with nasty employees, it costs you 40 $ to reclaim your car. And their rates are higher than the easily available city parking. The company ignores you afterward when you try to contact them. Just awful. Do. Not. Give. Them. Your. Business!

My husband and I recently stayed at The Westin in Portland, ME and wanted to give accolades to the fantastic valet/​bell/​and front desk serice we received during our stay. From the moment that we arrived, everyone was polite, timely, and willing to answer any questions we had. Everyone went above and beyond to make our stay wonderful. We love Portland and will most certainly be back soon!

A disreputable company. Three of us returned from a dinner about 20 minutes after the stated time on ticket (7:31). There was a threatening message on the car warning that removing the boot would result in criminal penalties. No one would expect a car to booted after 20 minutes. Their employee wanted to prove that it had been more than half an hour by showing an I-​Pad photo but was unable to do so. He told us that as a courtesy he did not boot immediately. He wanted us to know that as a private company they could do whatever they pleased. We were told that we would be towed and charged more money if we didn’t pay the $ 40 immediately. I suppose they were courteous not to destroy the car. I’ve notified the BBB, my credit card company, and other customers who were thinking of parking there that evening. The city is next.