BBB receives reports of unethical booting by Parking Solutions in Salt Lake City
By Britta Clark
Consumers are telling the Better Business Bureau (BBB) about the questionable business practices of Parking Solutions Utah, LLC (Parking Solutions), a company that has been booting cars in Salt Lake and Utah counties. BBB has received complaints, reviews, and BBB Scam Tracker reports describing unethical behavior by Parking Solutions.
Jenn Davis, a Salt Lake City resident, told BBB how Parking Solutions put a boot on each tire of her car—four boots total—while her 18-year-old son sat in the passenger seat. The two were coming from the hospital and decided to stop for drinks at the Jamba Juice on 4th South in Salt Lake City. Unable to walk, her son stayed in the car with his smoothie while Davis walked across the parking lot to get him a Jimmy John’s sandwich.
Jared Law, a Parking Solutions employee, pulled up next to Davis in an unmarked Toyota Corolla as she walked back to her car. He asked where she parked. Davis assumed he wanted to grab her space in the crowded lot, but Law instead drove up to her car, parked horizontally behind it, and got out to boot her. Her son was still inside.
Davis reports that Parking Solutions refused to take a credit card, asking her to get a cash advance from a local payday loan place around the corner when she told him she didn’t have any other method of payment.
In a 90-second video recording Davis sent to BBB, Law states at least 10 separate times that Parking Solutions does not accept credit cards.
“Debit or cash. Debit or cash. Debit or cash. Ma’am, I’ve made it clear we only accept debit or cash,” Law says in one section of the video. He then said he would tow her for refusing to pay immediately.
“Can you tow a car with someone in it?” Davis asks in the video. Law doesn’t explicitly answer, instead rolling up his window while a clearly upset Davis repeatedly asks him not to call the tow truck.
Utah Code 41-6a-1409 Subsection (4)(e) states that “a vehicle immobilizer shall accept payment by cash and debit or credit card for the removal of a vehicle immobilization device or any service rendered, performed, or supplied in connection with the removal of the immobilization device.”
Davis called over a nearby police officer, an action she says caused Law to admit he could get “special permission” to accept a credit card after all. Even so, he made her sign her name on the receipt eight times until he was satisfied that her signature on the tablet matched the one on her card. He charged her $75 to remove the boots.
Davis, who researched the company on BBB and other websites after her experience, said that while she feels what she went through was appalling, she came to realize her experience is “not that crazy of a story. This kind of thing happens all the time.”
Jimmy John’s confirmed Davis’s statement. Travis Taylor, the HR Manager, hired employees specifically to sit in the lot and caution consumers. He told BBB that the 4th South location has someone from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., warning drivers about Parking Solutions’ unethical behavior. By Taylor’s report, these efforts have stopped over 400 consumers from getting towed in the last two months.
“I think I shook for two days,” says 81-year-old Violet Wilson to BBB. She reports that a Parking Solutions employee called her a criminal before demanding cash or debit to remove a boot in the same lot earlier this month. She was warned by a Jimmy John’s spotter, but Parking Solutions still booted her faster than she could move her car. Wilson did not get the name of the Parking Solutions employee, but his description did not match the one given by Davis. “He kept repeating that I was a criminal and criminals deserve to pay.”
BBB has attempted to contact Parking Solutions about the complaints and reviews we have received. The company has yet to respond.
Britta Clark is director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Utah.
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