PayByPhone Parking

I love this app. It’s the greatest type of app because of its simplicity and time savings. The first time I used it, setting up my account (entering car license plate and cc number) took less time than if I had walked to the pay station. The second time I used it, it took me approximately 10 seconds to open the app, enter the location number, select my time needed, and hit pay. Plus, it’s saving me money because I don’t have to do the max time “just in case.” If I need more time, I just add it. And I get reminders right beforehand. I wish more apps were as simple and intuitive as this. It actually DOES save me time. And the interface design is really nice. I really like the clean white and green color scheme. Congrats to Seattle for choosing the perfect app.

The commuter rail station I park at is in a small town an hour outside Boston. Cell service is fine except for when it hits high saturation levels as is the case in the 10-15 minutes prior to an inbound train arriving. That’s when this app doesn’t work at all. It seems like it always has to talk to a server for every step of the transaction: pick location, pick vehicle, retrieve parking rates, make financial transaction. However, my banking apps, train ticket app, other apps still work in the same situation, although slower, but still work! I have to wait to do my parking transaction until the next train stop which is at a bigger city center and had more cell service capacity. Seems like work needs to be done on the app to make it more efficient on the backend. If I mark a location as a favourite (spelling intentional) then why isn’t the favorites tab presented to me first? And when I pick a favorite location why does the app have to go verify the location exists? Maybe you need to work on your analytics and caching.

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App wouldn’t process my transaction when I was parking. Tried different cards, but to no avail and despite many repeated attempts. Verified my information was correct, but my transactions would not go through. Tried my cards out in the store late and they worked just fine. Had to scrounge up cash and was lucky I had any. (Paying with cash turned out to be another little nightmare, as the kiosk kept rejecting my dollar bills that were not perfectly flat. I had to keep ironing out a tiny crease. I know the kiosk’s temperamental nature is not at fault of this app, but it certainly didn’t help the situation. If this app was an option and this app is supposed to be smart, convenient, and useful.... well, it wasn’t this day.) Really disappointing. The interface is just short of pleasant and intuitive. It ran slowly. I also wonder if the app struggles to process payments, then how it would do when you need to quickly park and move on, or when you need to modify your parking transaction. This app has left a very poor impression on me.

It works pretty well, but why am I always typing in codes? It knows my gps. Just show me the map and I can pick the pay station with one tap! Or QR codes on the signs - especially now that iOS supports QR codes natively in the camera app. Could be so much faster to use. The other annoying thing is I usually want max time - and unless you can calculate the exact total minutes, it’s a lot of taps to switch to hours and then type in the correct hour. Could be just one tap! Ironically, the physical pay meters are easier to use in this way - they have an add-time button. A few taps and you are at max time.

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Had to update my review because the latest updates keep going further and further in the wrong direction. I park in the same place with the same car and use the same credit card every work day; this app has always made that a chore and it has only gotten worse with the updates. Two big problems, one; even though they have a captive audience (most locations force you to use this app and only this app if you want to park), the makers continue to try to force you into using location services -presumably to sell your location data. This is clearly bogging down their servers at peak times. Problem two; the designers of this app have no clue about frictionless design and require the same inputs day after day instead of being smart enough to consolidate those inputs into one “repeat previous” button.