University Parking Enforcement in Provo is the WORST!!!

For those unfamiliar with University Parking Enforcement in Provo, it isn't BYU parking. It's a company hired by many of the apartment complexes around BYU to enforce parking. By and large, people that work for University Parking Enforcement are jerks. You may think that they just have a bad rap, but it's true. Here's why:

At the very end of August I saw a note on my door. "Parking passes will be handed out on August 29 in the parking lot between 9 and 11am and between 1 and 3pm." Of course it was during a time when I was going to be in Salt Lake. The note continued, "If you do not have a parking pass you will have to get one from University Parking during your own time. All cars and bikes must have parking passes by September 15, 2009 or they will be booted."

Imagine my surprise when yesterday, September 10, my roommate came into the apartment and said, "Bob, is your car the green Nissan parked in the back lot by the bikes?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Dude, the University Parking people just put a boot on your car. The guy said they're cracking down on expired permits, but if you go out right now he'll take it off for $25 instead of $50."

Apparently the scumbag waiting out in the Jeep thought giving victims $25 off of something they don't owe is supposed to make them feel special.

I went outside to talk to the guy. I maintained composure and asked him why there was a boot on my car.

"Your permit is expired," he said.

I explained how the note on our door said that we had until the September 15th to get our parking passes renewed, but he said, "That's not my problem. Plus, I don't have the authority to take off the boot." Oh really? Because I'm pretty sure you're the one who put it on!

He then went on to tell me that he would take the boot off for me if I paid him $25.

"Okay, I'll pay you," I said. "But first, can you please explain to me how it's ethical to tell people they have until the 15th of the month to get parking passes and then start booting cars on the 10th?"

"I'm not gonna do this!" the guy said, and he started getting back into his Jeep. "Explain how this is ethical? I don't have time for crap like that!"

"That's because you're being a jerk!" my roommate said. "You're totally being unreasonable."

"Dude! Do you want me to put a boot on your scooter?!" the guy yelled at my roommate.

"You can't put a boot on my scooter, I'm getting on it right now!"

The guy was a total prick. I told him I would pay because I obviously wanted to get the boot off of my car. I was livid though. He told me that it was the fault of the people that manage my apartment because they were the ones that called him to come put boots on cars and that I would have to go through the appeals process. I told him that I was sorry for getting mad at him and that it must be a hard job since everybody is pissed off when they talk to him. "No, I can actually handle that part all right," he said. Right. Ethically, too.