Have you seen extra parking charges on your bank card statements from City of Buffalo parking meters? One Buffalo woman says she has been overcharged for parking.
Amanda Pitrelli pays for street parking downtown during the winter months, but hasn't used Buffalo parking meters since February. She says Wednesday night, she was charged 15 times for parking downtown," Pitrelli said.
Pitrelli says she knows of at least two other people who have been charged similarly, all at one time, for parking they never used.
We took Pitrelli's concerns to City of Buffalo Parking Commissioner Kevin Helfer who says the electronic parking meters in Buffalo work off 2G and 3G signals. Helfer says the 2G signals have been having issues recently. He says sometimes the meters don't communicate the charges on the day they are used, and that's leading to stacked charges.
Pitrelli says she's certain, all those charges aren't hers.
"I've had to cancel my ATM card and I'm waiting for my other card to come because my card could have been hacked into somehow through the parking system."
Because of this issue, the city plans to replace all the 2G electronic parking meters to 4G. Helfer says over the next six weeks, 128 machines will be replaced throughout the city.
"I hope that people who use these city pay stations will check their bank account," said Pitrelli.
