FYI: beware fraudulent Diamond Parking tickets and rude agents who hang up on you on the phone

I parked at the outdoor lot at the Roosevelt Square mall on a weekday evening and went to the LA Fitness, which is open until 11 Mon-Thurs. I got there at around 930 PM, at which point it’s free. I was ticketed at 10:57 PM. The ticket doesn’t explain anything, simply saying “unauthorized vehicle”.

I called, and the agent on the phone didn’t know what the violation was. I said I was there for less than 3 hours, and he asked if I have proof of that. I answered that the burden of proof should not be on me. He said that he’ll contact the lot manager and see if they can void it.

I also sent in an email to ask about what the violation was. I received a response with the following:

“your appeal has been denied due to there are no businesses open in the Roosevelt Square complex at 10:57 pm”.

This was infuriating since it’s blatantly false, since the LA Fitness is open until 11 Mon-Fri.

Being angry, I wrote back something kinda rude, mentioning that the ticket is fraudulent and that they owe me an apology. Naturally they never replied.

Then I called back again, and the agent dug up my email, and then started talking about how it’s not surprising that when you write something like this, people won’t help you. He also said that they’ve done everything they could by sending it to the lot manager. He then ranted about how the signs say there’s no overnight parking while ignoring what I said about me using a business that was open until 11. He also claimed I wrote something in my email, sounding as if I had admitted to something, without explaining what I said. I asked what I said in my email. And he literally said, “I’m done” and continued with something about not parking overnight and then hung up.

I called again a third time and talked to a much nicer lady, and I explained again that I was at LA Fitness, which was open until 11 that day. She emailed the lot manager again, and the lot manager replied right there and then to say that they will do a “one-time courtesy” whatever that voids my ticket.

LOL. One-time courtesy??? GTFO, scammers. I followed all the rules, so it’s not a courtesy and it’s not one-time.

PS: I asked the last agent what the consequences are for not paying. There’s actually none unless you accumulate 3 of them. Once there’s 3 tickets against you, they are authorized to tow you.