LEBANON, Tenn. (WTVF) — A mid-state woman was shocked when she got a text saying she just parked her car in a downtown Nashville parking lot — she says she was nowhere near it.
Did a parking lot license plate reader misread her license plate, prompting the confusion?
Gloria Lopez said the text she received from Metropolis Parking claimed she had just entered the Elliston Place garage on Louise Avenue in Nashville. She said she is generally a very positive person, but this text tested her.
"I got it and I was like, 'well that must be a wrong text,'" Lopez said. "A couple hours later I get an email saying 'thank you for staying with us and here's the bill.'"
Lopez said she hadn't parked there at all, but because she previously parked at a different Metropolis lot, the company already had her credit card information so it auto-charged her for the Elliston Place garage visit that she never took.
Lopez provided NewsChannel 5 with messages she sent to Metropolis.
While a customer service representative initially responded, Lopez's latest messages have gone unanswered.
NewsChannel 5 has spent more than a year following stories involving Metropolis Parking, with the most common complaint from drivers surrounding the company's License Plate Readers. The LPRs appear to misread a plate that enters their lot. In some cases, the company then sends a violation notice to someone who may have never actually been in the lot in question.
While there's no confirmation from Metropolis that this is what happened in Lopez's case, she said she thinks people, not automated cameras, should be playing more of a role.
"I think they should at least have to have people there, not just expect to have a computer do what people should do," Lopez said.
Watch the video above to see Lopez's positive personality shine alongside her two dogs.
Representatives for Metropolis Parking have told us in previous stories that parking violations are sent to the addresses on file associated with a car's license plate, and people who get tickets can dispute them either online, through email, or by calling 888-359-0089.
NewsChannel 5 reached out to Metropolis for comment on Lopez's case. The company did not respond right away with a comment.
Editors Note: A spokesperson for Metropolis Parking reached out to NewsChannel 5 Thursday morning to provide additional comment and details about the incident:
Metropolis Parking told NewsChannel 5 "nearly 100 percent" of parking sessions with customers "happen seamlessly."
"In fact, our support team receives calls on less than one percent of all such sessions," the spokesperson said.
"Moreover, this particular incident involved the rarest of rare circumstances," the spokesperson said. "We have two license plates in our system - both vanity plates, both bearing the term 'MWAH.'"
"Once we determined that the system confused two very similar plates, we refunded the charge to Ms. Lopez," Metropolis said.
"As you might imagine, this is an extremely rare occurrence."
The company also spoke to the use of license plate reader technology to determine the cars moving in and out of its lots.
"Like most consumer technology, our technology is consistently evolving. Just as computers push out operating system updates regularly and cell phones improve from one version to the next, our technology is constantly getting smarter," the spokesperson said.
"But again, the circumstance upon which your story was based is extremely rare - occurring barely a fraction of one percent of the time," the spokesperson said. "To represent it as some sort of fundamental flaw is both erroneous and deceptive."
