The Right to Intimidate?

<p> For many of us parking in Cape Town is a daily struggle we face. After a long day of work we return to our cars, dreading the traffic ahead, only to find a parking attendant appear out of nowhere to hassle us for a rediculous amount of money.</p> <p>Now imagine you are four students that have to attend an open day in town. You have found a parking relatively close to where you are suppose to be, it is 8:15. Everyone gets out of the car, looks around to find a parking attendant in order to know what the parking rate is, and if it is too expensive, get back in the car and search for cheaper or free parking. But there is no sign of an attendant (please note they are to report for duty at 08:00).</p> <p>After the open day everyone heads back to the car. Once in the car, the parking attendant runs out of nowhere to give a very expensive parking ticket to you. When you refuse to opay the full amount as she was not on her post when required and you would have never parked there knowing the rate is that steap, she threatens you with a even steaper fine. You kindly ask to see her superior to come to some sort of agreement.</p> <p>(In your knowledge, the attendant comes to your car when you park, not after, to tell you the rate, then you either pay your estimate time and settle the rest later or pay the full amount when you have returned)</p> <p>When the superior arrives, the parking attendant lies to him saying that she was there when we parked (across the street) when we all know no parking attendant was in sight. The superior only listens to her side of the story, barely hearing you out. Then he calls up all his parking buddies to form some cluster by the car, and the parking attendant publicly discusses you to random people walking past. They laugh and ridicule you.</p> <p>So we phone law enforcement to clarify our rights and come deal with the situation. We inform these attendants that law enforcement is on their way and will be a mediator, as they are clearly ganging up on us. Without even waiting for law enforcement, the superiors call on another attendant to clamp the wheel, and a parking attendant hits the car's back window and boot (setting off the  alarm), taunting and scaring us into paying the ticket, just to get out of this horrible situation.</p> <p>Furthermore, it all occured in the midst of the student protest close to the parliament building, with students streaming down the street we were in and police firing rubber bullets (the parking attendants, whom should be public servants of safety, trapping us in the threatening situation). </p> <p>I completely understand that when you park in most areas of town, you have to pay. but no one was there to inform us of the rate and due to that some sort of agreemnet could have been reached to pay half.</p> <p>But, this is suppose to be a profesional company that provides a service. In no way did these employees treat us with respect. They threatened and intimidated us, and ganged up against four girls. They refused to obey to higher authority (the police) by not waiting for their arrival,  even mocking the police's authority. </p> <p>On the company's website it clearly states conflict resolution, customer service, and a safe parking environment as part of their training and values. Therefore I ask, where were those training and values in the way we were treated. Since when is indimidating, threatening, and endagering people acceptable behaviour???</p> <p>Should we allow this treatment or is there something that can be done about it?</p> <p>I hope if this has happened to other people, that they would also take a stand.</p>