Mafia style parking
Mafia style parking. Yes this hospital uses a Mafia style parking company to collect additional fees and extortion payments after the fact. It is base on a business model where they harvest the persons ID so they can track down the individual and use known modern day techniques to hold a person for ransom else they will spoil the individuals credit rating if they don´t pay up. We are not talking about a small parking fee but the significant ransom that will follow. This parking service typically pray´s on the sick and elderly which frequently visit a hospital and of course most Swedes pay these ransoms to avoid any hassle. It does not just affect Swedish nationals but also foreigners who don´t have a Swedish ID to submit a valid SMS request. In those cases you can expect a 600 kr fine for not submitting a correctly formulated SMS request. A valid vehicle license plate number alone is not sufficient information to activate the parking ticket.
There is a smart app you can download to your phone assuming you have the right phone to support this service which will enable a smoother registration and facilitate the harvesting of the personal ID. Once you have successfully used their service you will have to wait until the following month to pay the invoice. The invoice by default will be mailed to your address and include the first 25 kr ransom plus the parking fee. Assuming this document does not arrive for whatever reason you will receive a second reminder and a new ransom for 60 kr plus the parking fee. Assuming you never got that document either I can grantee the third letter will arrive from Inkassokrav and the extortion amount will be significant.
The odd thing about this company is it does not use SMS to inform the person about a pending invoice payment else they would never be able to collect the ransom.
Personally I think this is a brilliant scam and 100% legal according to Swedish law.
However, the fact that Carlanderska has used their services to facilitate their private parking lot is disgusting. Imagine how many clients have left the hospital to find a 600 kr fine because of issues related to SMS services. And think about all the clients who endured such heartache after the fact that they have missed a payment that never arrived in the first place. And worse yet the distress these clients might endure trying to formulate valid SMS to obtain a valid parking ticket.
What happened to customer service and a simple parking meter that everybody can use?
What about issuing a parking permit to the sick and elderly when you mail out the appointment? Do you really want these people to endure such a challenging task to obtain a parking ticket?
Next time you do a survey don´t forget to ask your clients about their parking experience.
BTW. This is really good hospital that I will never use again unless management does something about this scam.