U-Park System

Do not park your car here. Our car was broken into badly and everything was stolen. Cops said that they have daily car break ins here since there are no cameras or attendants. Very dangerous in this area. Tourists beware and learn from our mistake!

NEVER PARK HERE YOUR CAR WILL GET BROKEN INTO AND THEY WILL DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP YOU. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS. I parked here on 1÷18÷16 and my rental car was broken into. The passenger window was completely shattered and the bar the criminal used was left inside. When the cops finally arrived they informed me that on average 8 cars get broken into in this lot a week but the company refuses to install security cameras or do anything to counteract this problem. The biggest issue is that one would never know not to park here unless they knew the area well so this is my attempt to help others avoid the horrible situation I found myself in tonight. Please, I beg of you, do not park here. Do not give this company your business. They do not deserve it.

This morning I parked my car in Lot#48. I paid using credit card, machine said «take your receipt» but there was no receipt. As a precaution I left a note on my windshield. I walked around to check other cars to see if they had receipts. There were three cars at the time with no receipts on them. Then I called them to give heads up. Someone got sent to the site. I received a call and the lady was asking me questions like if I actually paid for parking, if I swiped my card enter the lot number. She even had the audacity to ask me if I pulled the little window up to see if the receipt was in there.
About an hour after the call I went to check my car to see if there was a ticket on it or not at, because nobody called me back. I found a parking violation stating that I didn’t pay for parking. On the receipt it was handwritten «Printer is good».So this person obviously knew about the situation. So I called them again. She said «Only your car didn’t have a receipt. Printer is working.» Then she implied that I don’t know how to use the printer.
I checked my bank account. The U-​PARK SYSTEM transaction for $ 12 is pending. Obviously I will not pay the violation and once this is posted, I will dispute this violation. I sent them an email telling them that they lost my daily business. I received a response with no signature line, stating that «everybody else had a receipt/​permit» again «we are just doing our jobs!!» (yes, the exclamation points are from the original email!). No apology for the inconvenience or whatsoever!
Stuff happens. Devices act up. This situation could have avoided if it wasn’t a competent agent taking care of a customer. If only she called me back while leaving the ticket and said something like the following, I wouldn’t have been frustrated, and they wouldn’t have lost my business:
«We are sorry for the inconvenience. Sometimes devices can have such problems. Might be a one time fluke. In order to have a record of this incident and allow tracking, I am going to leave a violation notice on your windshield which has reference number on it. Once the payment goes through in your bank, please send us a copy of your statement and the reference number on that notice so that we can take care of it for you.»
Trick? Well, here is the trick, by making such a statement 1) You are still doing your job 2) You are not indirectly calling the customer an idiot 3) You are covering your grounds by asking for a statement. So, at the end of the day, everything remains the same. This is called CUSTOMER SERVICE.

ZERO STARS
Avoid at all cost parking in a U-​Park lot.
I recently «tried» to park in a lot close to the stadium area. The rates were hiked up to $ 30 for event parking. I only had cash and when I tried to pay the machine took the first $ 20 and froze up. Then it reset with no refund of the first bill and would not accept any others. There is NO number on the machine to call when it fails. For reference, we eventually found it– if this happens to you, call (206) 284‑9797.
Eventually, we got a hold of someone who informed us a tech was on their way. They wouldn’t say when he would get there. I asked if they could avoid placing violation notices on cars in that lot until the machine was fixed. The agent informed me I needed to pay for parking to avoid a violation– which was impossible because the machine was broke (something the agent was not understanding at all). I was forced into waiting about an hour for the tech to arrive to fix the machine and make sure my $ 20 was not lost.
I cannot emphasize enough to avoid U-​Park at all cost. The parking machines are unreliable, the agents are not helpful and their rate hikes are predatory. Park elsewhere!

On June 16 2015 I received a letter/​notice saying that I owed this company 70.00 for parking at 2120 1^st Ave Seattle WA. What a joke/​scam. I have only been in Seattle one time in the last 2 years, avoid that place like the plague.
The one time I did go their was on Mothers day May 9 2015 and used the lot next to Uwajimaya Grocery the corner of 6^th ave s and S lane. Payed the parking fee that day also.
Never received an initial notice of any type of which they wanted to charge me 35.00 for then they want to add additi0onal $ 35 for a late fee not payed in 14 days. Total scam going on here. They don’t even put their customer service telephone number on the notice they mail. Guess they think you will just comply like most of the good little peons in this country and mail it in. Ha Ha
In the future I will make sure I avoid this company like they have the plague.

Horrible customer service. Barely let me explain the situation, and barked out questions (how does number = lot location u-​park?), and then hung up on me mid sentence. On top of that they need physical proof your parking ticket if the attendant misses it on your dash board. I could understand if you didn’t have anything that individualized the tickets, but they have ticket numbers. U Park won’t look up the ticket number to verify the info associated with it. I email them about the problem (with the ticket number and an S/​N number) ~2 weeks after I received it, I didn’t hear anything back from them until 3 months (plus a week or so) after with a collections notice. If I had gotten an email back even ~2 ½ months after I received the ticket I still had my original paid for tickets. I really wish I could give zeros stars.
Edit:
The after hours answering machine girl she can have the one star, she was at least polite.

Machine took $ 10 from me and did not give me parking pass, basically stole $ 10 from me. Called and left a message, they never called back. Called again and talked to someone. They told me I have to send them a letter. I’m sure they think that most people will not take the time to do that for $ 10.
They may have stole my $ 10, but at least I got to leave them a bad review.
Theives!

I parked in a U-​Park in Downtown Seattle in February of 2013, and paid an attendant that approached the vehicle for our parking spot. I posted the receipt in the window as required. When we returned to the vehicle after dinner, there were several men hanging around the lot asking for receipts that they could hand off to other people coming into the lot– strike one. I declined to hand off the receipt as we left.
About a month later, I received a notice in the mail that I owed U-​Park $ 35 for a parking violation– strike two. I had never been notified of any violation prior to this point and had certainly not kept my receipt for two months to prove that I had parked legally. I called the number on the notice and was told «We’re very sorry, must have been our mistake, we’l cancel the bill.» I hung up satisfied that while U-​Park didn’t keep great records, at least they were helpful when I called.
I assumed the issue was resolved, and frankly forgot about it. Then this January– nearly a full year after the night I legally parked in the U-​Park lot and paid for it– I received a collection notice from an agency claiming that I owed U-​Park $ 78 for a parking violation. When I called the collection agency, I was told that unless I had a copy of my receipt– a parking receipt from 12 months ago, mind you– that the collection claim was valid. My choices were to pay the fee or have the collection reported against my credit rating. Since I maintain an excellent credit rating, and don’t typically keep a parking receipt for a year, I paid the fee. Successful shakedown, U-​Park– strike three. I will be actively warning everyone I know that they park in any U-​Park lot at their own risk, and I’ll walk to every event, restaurant, or store I have to in order to avoid giving another cent to this company.

I am upgrading my review of UPark because I asked to speak to the owner of UPark about my issue and he called me back the same day, listened to my issue and said he would look into it as a general policy. To wit…
My issue revolved around being charged an extra $ 3 to pay a $ 7 parking fee online, necessitated because their on premise payment machine was broken. He said he did not realize that they were doing that for online payments of small amounts.
Anyway I had already paid it but I imagine Ken would have waived it if I hadn’t.
Mellow guy who runs a tight, local business. His customer service rep, Vicky is great too per the other review.

Wrote me a bogus $ 35 ticket even though I paid. Avoid their lots and bogus 5 star reviews

Upark rocks!
If it wasn’t for Vicky and her diligence and kindness,
I would have had to pay for a $ 35.00 ticket, after I forgot to put my receipt on my dashboard.
Upark was willing to void it out after I pleaded my case, and they realized I had paid to park.
Thanks so much!

I was all set to write a negative review here, but I guess I have to sing U-Park’s praises instead. On Saturday, we parked in the lot on 1^st and Thomas, put our $ 10 in the slot and went off to enjoy Folklife. That evening I came back to move my car (before the 10 hours was up) and found a yellow collection envelope under my windshield wiper. I sent off a response to the email address on the ticket, imagining all sorts of ways the situation could get worse. On Tuesday morning, I got a response – they voided the ticket. I can’t say that I’m happy that they ticketed me in the first place, but I’m definitely satisfied with how quickly they resolved the issue.

THEY WOULD NOT ACCEPT MY CREDIT CARD!!! I parked for several months at the Terry Ave lot between Stewart and Virginia. One day they declined my credit card, and I called the bank and the bank said nothing was wrong. I tried a second card, it worked for a few days, and then UPark declined that one too.
Diamond Parking on the next block over will gladly accept my credit cards, but UPark won’t anymore for some reason. I emailed them to inquire and I didn’t even get a response. I also tried calling and the parking lot attendant yelled at me and said they didn’t owe me an explanation and that I «had issues». Really?

On a Friday evening, I parked in a spot managed by U-​Park System. I noted my parking spot and paid the appropriate amount to the unattended parking fee collection box (one of those boxes where you shove dollars into a little slot). When I returned to my car, I had received a «No Payment» violation, as had every car parked in that area. I double-​checked the fare guide to make sure I paid the appropriate amount based on the time I had parked there, and I had.
My suspicion is that since the system they use is not computerized and they have no way of knowing if the money in the box was actually paid by the person currently parking in the spot, they simply ticket all vehicles on the street in the hopes that those that didn’t pay will not question the fine and simply pay it, and those that did (like me) will dispute it. This suspicion was reinforced by how simple it was to get them to overturn the fine — when I called their office they quickly removed the fine without asking any questions.