Parking ticket from Municipal Parking Corporation

Please link to this post. See this link for the details. A few of my friends have received one of those fake parking tickets from Municipal Parking Corporation in the last year, hot spot being Sheraton Parkway. "The good news is, by law, you don't have to pay them," according to CityNews interviewing the Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley. Despite of that, the corporation keeps sending out mails from their collection department claiming that they have the right to do all kinds of things to you. Here I put together everyone's experiences.

• Don't bother to call the "General Inquires" number on the back of the ticket to fight the ticket. It's just a machine asking you to key in your credit card number.
• Don't need to go back to the shopping mall to ask the ticket to be waived. The only people who can void the ticket is the landlord.
• Don't even bother to send in a dispute. They require you to send by register mail which is like $10 to start with. Nobody received any response so far.
• Don't use the payment website. If you have decided to pay although it is not legal, you will get an internet purchase receipt. Congratulations! Yes, you've just made a purchase, not fine payment. However, they have your credit card and the 3-digit security number now. You always have the option to send the payment to their P.O. box though. There is no real address.
• Don't be freak out by those letters or calls claiming that they can do all kinds of things to you. There are calls like those machine telemarketers which stops after a month or so. Just hang it up gracefully like what you usually do to the telemarketers. Nothing had ever happen to anyone.
• Don't setup a campaign to boycott the shopping mall or anything like that. Come on, it doesn't worth the afford.

In closing, Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley is working on closing the loophole. Instead of wasting the time on the ticket, you may want to reflect your concern to your local MP and ask for an update on the fake parking ticket issue and confirm that you don't have to pay. A simple email or call will do.