Call Kurtis: Why can't I pay for parking over the phone?
SACRAMENTO — The City of Sacramento gives you the option of paying for your parking meter over the phone, but when the call went nowhere, a Sacramento viewer called Kurtis to investigate.
You see them everywhere, the city number you can call to pay for your parking space. This is for people who don't have credit cards or the app, but this is what people heard when they called:
"Welcome to Verizon Wireless. Your call cannot be completed as dialed."
Gordron Duff called the number on the meter, 916 SAC PARK, to pay for a parking space, but heard the message above. He let Kurtis know and wrote, "I wonder how many people will end up being disadvantaged or inconvenienced by a nonworking phone number posted on each of the meters and the city's website."
Sure enough, when CBS13 called the number, we got the same message.
So we reached out to the City of Sacramento, which told us "staff looked into the situation and discovered that the number was turned off due to inactivity as the City reviews all the numbers and locates the ones not in use."
But, as CBS13 knows, people were trying to use it. And a week after we reached out, the number was back online:
"Thank you for using the City of Sacramento Mobile Parking Payment System..."
And if someone got a ticket because they couldn't get through using the phone number, the city says that people "have the option to contest the citation within 21 calendar days."
Thankfully, Gordron Duff called 311 and was able to pay the meter that way.