Coastal Parking Management

I am very disheartened that I was scammed by Coastal Parking Management this past weekend. I parked at one of the company's lots on the corner of King and Morris Street. I inserted $6.00 into the parking box at 7:30 p.m. before enjoying a wonderful evening in celebration of my friend's birthday at Chai's. To my surpprise, when I returned to the car around 10:00 p.m., there was a bogus invoice on the car and a boot. My car was the only car booted, and it was the only new and expensive car. The notice instructed me to call a phone number and I reached a young man who told me that he'd be there in 20 minutes and would tell me what the problem was. I was expecting that maybe I was not parked in the right spot, but definitely never thought that it would have to do with payment as I took care of that before leaving the lot. To my surpirise, someone pulls up in an SUV (not a tow truck). The young man was very uneasy as I read him like a newspaper. He walked to the box, opened it, and had no other explananation besides ""my supervisor said that he dropped the box at 9 and there was no money in there."" My money was still hanging from the slot as I told him it would be. He said that I must have just put it in there which he knew was a lie. I called the police who could not do anything for me because it is a civil issue. After abouth 20 minutes, the supervisor, an older guy with a ""nasty"" attitude pulls up in a white pickup truck. He was very rude, and did not want me to speak with him as he seemed very upset to learn that I had called the police. He walked to the box and as I assumed that he would try to alter the paperwork and remove the money so I jumped from my car and followed him. He was very disgruntled that I was taking pictures of him and would not leave. I paid the money with my credit card as I figure these guys do this every weekend for every cash and split the money. I refuse to let them gain any capital from my hard earned money!!! I would advise anyone who parks in these lots to take photos of yourself inserting the money snapping something indicative of where you are so that you will have a time /date stamp for your protection, or simply DO NOT park in these types of lots. more

Parked at the lot on Hasell between Meeting St and Maiden Lane on the south side of Haskell operated by Coastal Parking Management to have dinner at Fig. It is an unattended self serve lot where you have to pay at an automated machine, get a ticket and place it on your dash board. The machine wasn't working and a flashing sign it wasn't accepting cash (the only form of payment). There were 3 people waiting to pay and one called the number to report that the machine was malfunctioning. Whoever answered told the person not to worry and someone would come to fix it and we'd be able pay when we returned. We had a wonderful meal at Fig only to arrive back at our car which had been booted. We called the number to have the boot removed and explain once more why we couldn't pay when we entered the lot and that a call had been made to the company to notify it of the broken machine. Long story short I first talked with and then met a very unpleasant young man driving a white pick up truck who just wanted his 35 bucks to remove the boot. In my humble opinion, this operation looks like a pretty shady operation and one to be avoided unless you want to be subject to what I would characterize as unsavory and unethical business practices which is contrary to the usual warm and hospitable nature of Charleston. STAY AWAY!! Cons: My car was booted more