Man charged over €6000 for parking 30 minutes in Amsterdam parking lot
One man nearly had a heart attack when he went to pay his parking after 30 minutes of shopping in Amsterdam. The parking meter at Q-Park in Bos en Lommer told him that he had to pay over 6 thousand euros, RTL Nieuws reports.
"I thought: What the fuck?!" Vincent Everts said to the broadcaster. "I inserted the parking ticket several times, but the machine kept showing that I had to pay 6,058 euros."
He stalked off to the Q-Park office to get an explanation and on the way realized he may have made a mistake. "I went through all my pockets and found another parking ticket." Turns out Everts put an old ticket in the machine. "Normally the ticket is swallowed, but this is a garage where your license plate is scanned. I just took the wrong ticket. It was my own stupid mistake."
Everts eventually had to pay 1 euro for his parking. "I'm glad I'm not out 6 thousand euros. And I want to apologize for the negative publicity for Q-Park. That was not the intention.
Last week association Eigen Huis revealed that Amsterdam is the most expensive city to park in, charging 535 euros per year for a parking permit. Earlier this year RTL Z discovered that a parking spot in Amsterdam was listed for the same price as a Friesland home.
Parking in the Dutch capital will only get more expensive as of April 1st next year, when the municipality is hiking parking rates in the whole city. In the city center parking rates will increase to 7.50 euros per hour, compared to the current 5 euros. In the ring around the city center, motorists will pay 6 euros per hour to park their car. Parking rates are also increasing in areas with less traffic.
