GRAND RAPIDS CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The Motu parking app was brought to Grand Rapids around one year ago, but now some users say they got wrongfully ticketed during their paid parking sessions.
Grand Rapids Parking Service said the organization hasn't seen an alarming number of cases overall, but are eager to help rectify any error through the app.
"If anybody feels like they have received a ticket in error and have valid proof of payment, the ticket information has all of the information on it to contact all of our great customer service folks at the city treasurer's office to be able to dispute the ticket. Show the proof of payment and then we can then look at the system to then see what was the problem, what was the issue associated with it," said Josh Naramore, Director of Mobile GR and Grand Rapids Parking Services.
Naramore added that the easiest way to correct an issued ticket is to provide proof of parking payment and present it to the city's treasurer's office.
The parking app allows users to create an account with their payment information to pay from their phone. Users can access their payment logs by clicking on the menu in the top left corner and selecting the 'Parker's History' tab. Users can choose to email receive an email of the session. Naramore said presenting that evidence is essential to getting a ticket removed.
Users can also call the customer service line at 311 for further assistance or email GR Mobile directly.
While the parking session will display a time limit within the app, a time may not display on the meter in the corresponding parking space. Naramore said while users may be nervous to get ticketed because of this, parking verification is done on the back end of software configuration.
"The meter may look like it’s expired. Our enforcement software on the back end sees all the transactions, whether it’s at a pay station, at a single space meter or it's via a Motu application. So you can see any sort of active parking session. Not all of them show that if you’re paying via Motu," Naramore said.
Naramore said while there were parking issues when Motu launched in the city, most of those have been corrected and his team is committed to providing customers with a good experience.
"We're actually in the process of doing some metrics and evaluating (Motu), so we can see how many complaints we're actually getting about the tickets. Are they concentrated in specific areas? Are they related to signage? How are we trying to make it as easy as possible," he said.
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