'Unacceptable': Some of Windsor's parking meters are wrong — but people are still getting tickets

Syed Hassan says he doesn't like to complain much. But when his wife told him she got a parking ticket on Thursday night, he knew he needed to speak out. 

The parking meter on Wyandotte Street West said enforcement hours ended at 6 p.m. Yet when his wife returned to her car after a class at the University of Windsor, she and several other students had $30 tickets on their windshields. Hers had been issued at 6:17 p.m.

"I was just kind of upset that they were doing that to students, that's what really got me," he said. "I have a very soft spot for students. And I remember being very broke."

Hassan said he felt like the students were targeted because they'd all be in night classes.

"That's unacceptable. Taking advantage of people," he said. 

Windsor city council approved changes to parking fees and hours of enforcement earlier this year. 

Fees were set to rise from $2 an hour to $2.25, effective June 1, and hours of enforcement were extended by an hour to 7 p.m.

A spokesperson for the city said in an initial statement Friday that it had previously issued warnings to people who parked without paying between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., and has handed out 53 tickets during those hours since Tuesday. 

Pressed on why people were getting tickets at meters with the wrong times listed, the city said that "all 1,440 parking meters across the city have been individually updated to reflect the new pricing and enforcement hours. 

"While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, there may be a small number of meters that were inadvertently missed," spokesperson Michael Janisse wrote by email. 

But CBC checked out parking meters near the university and downtown, and didn't see any with the updated enforcement hours.

Downtown Coun. Renaldo Agostino told CBC that people who receive a ticket at a meter that hasn't been updated should "just send it in, call 311."

"The city's willing to work with everybody on this one," he said. 

Agostino maintains that all the meters still displaying the old enforcement hours are "all getting transitioned."  

"All that'll be fixed," he said. "You'll see stickers over things; you'll see information there. You may see some cover ups, but you're going to see it."

But Hassan says when he called 311 he was told to formally dispute the ticket using the process described on the back.

"311's like, 'We have no clue. There is no such thing. Nobody has told us to refund all the tickets,'" Hassan said. 

Janisse confirmed that people who get tickets in these scenarios will have to go through the formal dispute process. 

"In cases where a discrepancy exists, and the meter signage was not updated, the complaint resolution process would see the ticket cancelled," he said, adding that residents should report meters that haven't been updated to 311. 

But Hassan said the city made the mistake, so it should own up to it: He says it shouldn't be on residents who were following the posted rules to have to take time to go through the dispute process.

"Obviously there's a certain level of incompetence I expect from every organization, whether government or private," he said. 

"The problem is when you find out that you made a mistake, instead of giving people the run around, like I was told to call 311 and then I called 311 and they're telling me, 'I have no idea what you're talking about. You have to go through the dispute process.' That is where my problem lies."

At the end of the day, Hassan said, the city just needs to put stickers with the new enforcement hours on the meters. 

"It's the simplest thing," he said. "They don't have to go make a huge apology to anybody. They just have to go to all their meters and update them."