Diamond Parking, Ltd

I’ve seen these ‘lot attendants’ all they do is record every car on the lot and drive away. DPS doesn’t even have machines that ask for your plate number.
This company is a complete scam and should be avoided. There were even times when i never parked on their lot and got a ticket wth?!
Tickets aren’t from the city so u don’t need to pay these crooks. Fk them.
Here’s a link from CBS who did a story on them and a lawyer advising not to pay.

Parked at the lot on Davie for the last 10 months. Location was convenient for work. Price was cheapest around but I got what I paid for in dealing with their customer service. Rude and condescending when inquiring about late night parking options since I was working until 12:30am some nights and wanted a safe place to park and not get towed. The hours were inconvenient as the lot was not open 24-​hours or even passed midnight. There were often shady people hanging around late in the evening and I even saw a guy urinating in the parking garage in broad daylight. Lots of pigeons everywhere and, also, their poop. My boyfriend and I lovingly referred to this garage as «the pigeon parking.» It served its purpose but I’m happy to be done dealing with this company. Remember to give a 30-​day cancellation notice if you plan to park there monthly. Otherwise they’re happy to take your money for an extra month.

THIS IS WHAT I SENT TO THEIR APPEALING EMAIL AND GOT NO REPLY. EVENTUALLY WE PAID AND WE WILL NEVER GO BACK TO WHOLE FOODS AGAIN.
AVOID DPS AND THEY SHOULD BE BURNED.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Hi,
I received this ticket attached below at 1657 Robson Street, Vancouver on the 28^th of June. We left the car in the parking lot at 7:37 pm and got some snack from a nearby eatery, since we are going to the Whole Foods market anyway, we assumed that we have an hour to park in there. 20 minutes later, we returned to the grocery store and got what we needed. We left the store at 8:45 pm according to the receipt due to the high volume of customers waiting in line in the store.
I understand that it is our fault that we left the property after we parked in the parking lot, and its also our fault that we came out late for a little over the posted time. However, I think that a $ 63 fine is a little bit too harsh on us. This was our first time parking in a Diamond Parking’s parking lot and certainly will not be the last time since we really enjoyed the organic products from the Whole foods. We are both university students and budgets are really tight in our hands. Is there anything that you could help here? Please reconsider the ticket and thank you for taking care of our car.
Sincerely.
The car Owner
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

One of the reasons why I am thankful I have a phone from 1999, an excuse for not having to pay for parking on the phone. My GF did and even though she paid, it somehow didn’t register on the system on their end and she was towed/​ticketed. I’ve had fights with their machine when trying to pay for parking. It’s highway robbery that to shop at Safeway as their customer I have to pay for parking in their lot? Really… f*ck you. This is why I would rather take the bus and walk with the groceries. The one time I did park they accused me of a park and walk.

Somebody needs to sue this company.
1) For accusing people of violating absolutely nothing.
2) This family owned business only cares about money and will try their best to give you a ticket for violating rules you are not aware of.
The customer service representatives are uneducated rude, and ignorant… I was hung up on for explaining my situation. How rude.
If you get a ticket, do not pay for it. This company is BS and should be shut down.

I am currently a student attending UBC and new to Vancouver, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I received a strongly worded «final notice» letter upon my arrival home (Northern BC) this Christmas demanding that I pay an $ 80 fine for exceeding my time limit in downtown Vancouver. As one might imagine, this is not how I expected to be welcomed home.
The letter stated that I was parked in a private place, which I don’t recall, and that they placed a ticket on my car, which they never did. So, unless there is a ticket fairy who runs around stealing tickets from car windshields, I never received an initial ticket, yet they’re now demanding that I pay $ 80 which is outrageous.
As stated in prior reviews, the letter provides no recourse for disputing the ticket, nor does it provide a name for whom I can contact. Thus, I suppose I am expected to spend my Christmas break calling back and waiting on hold until someone decides to pick up the phone. If they want more stars for their service, I suggest they improve their customer service and letter writing etiquette. No one appreciates being threatened and I might have considered paying the bogus ticket to avoid wasting my time if they weren’t trying to to extort $ 80 for what in reality likely amounts to a $ 2 parking fee!

Originally gave a bad review due to cleanliness of motorcycle parking area and a billing issue. Cleanliness of parking area has been resolved (area was cleaned up) and management was proactive about billing issue. Would recommend DPS for monthly or other parking.

Vancouver Lawyer friends advised me to NEVER pay a «Private» Parking Ticket based on BC Law indicated in the letter below.
In the past 10 years, it has not impacted my credit rating and the letters eventually stop. I did send a letter once with $ 2 inside in good faith, when I was a 10 minutes over my paid parking and received a $ 80 Ticket. The letters stopped.
**********THIS IS A CASH GRAB BUSINESS BASED ON FEAR!**********
In the case of receiving a ticket with not payment device on a lot and/​or a sign indicating 30 Minute Free Parking (Cambie & Broadway Wendy’s) IGNORE IT. They are «Banking» on you being FEARFUL and paying the ticket.
My Lawyer friends say it is common practice for Lawyers to have a stack of «UNPAID Private» parking tickets on their desk and laugh at the idea of pay one!!!
As well, their ticket issuing devices do not have two way communication (advised by Diamond Parking Lot Attendant) and cannot lookup your license plate # and have you towed if you are on their lots with an unpaid ticket!
I trust this helps — IGNORE PRIVATE PARKING LOT TICKETS.
To Whom it may concern,
I have sought Legal Counsel and have been advised that you do not have the legal authority to impose fines.
I am enclosing a cheque for ($ 2.00 — or amount the additional time would have cost) in full and final payment of my contractual agreement with you on (Date).
Regards,
Your Plate #Number — No Name
NOTE: Take a photocopy of the ticket and your letter.
This situation is basically the same as if you were to issue a ticket to anyone who parked on your private property, i.e., your drive way. The letter is crafted by a lawyer to elicit fear so you pay the said amount.

very reasonable: one time i forgot to put the paid ticket back on the dash, emailed the office a copy of this, and they cancelled it ;)
folks, never give up when you get a ticket, esp. from the private operators. but if it’s the city, you can forget about it lol

My experience is positive. Not to say other people’s concerns are not valid, however I was treated respectfully by the attendant and by the main office when I got a ticket.
They were helpful and responsive.

The worst parking lot patrolling, violation ticket giving company in Vancouver.
I attended a conference in Burnaby a month ago and parked in a lot patrolled by these scoundrels. I remember purposely checking the sign and it says the spot is reserved for patrons of a certain restaurant. It was 9:00AM and the restaurant does not open until 11:00AM. Perfect, I’ll be gone by 11:00AM. Not perfect. I came back to my car and saw the stupid Diamond Parking (DPS) ticket! I understand if the business is open and people need to park there, but it wasn’t even open.
I tried calling the number for DPS, but each time I would get an answering machine. Great customer service. Obviously, they don’t want to answer the phone so you can just pay and leave them alone.
I ended up talking to the manager of the restaurant and he agreed that I shouldn’t have been ticketed. He would have DPS cancel the violation ticket right away. One month later, I get a past due notice and the amount was doubled. So I called the manager again. He assured me he had already told them he would cancel that ticket, but he will ask them to cancel it again.
F you DPS, you tried to rip me off twice and you’re not getting one cent from me!

If you are reading this, you probably got a ticket and it wasn’t even your wrong doing. They are known for giving out tickets to people who park without violating anything.
I got a ticket as a Wendy’s customer because I got there before their store opened, waited outside my car by their store and was therefore not considered a Wendy’s customer.
If you did receive a ticket that was issued to you by mistake, there’s only two ways that I found would work:
1. Talk to the business owner (be it Safeway, Staples, or Wendy’s) and they might be able to take care of it.
2. Have your receipt, and talk to DPS.
If you don’t have those, DPS will likely say you are guilty until proven innocent.

After communicating with the staff at DTS I have come back with a newfound respect for the organiztion. As a corporaton the violations certainly do post a threat and certainly scares the individuals affected with a violation that they feel compelled to pay wether they believe they are guilty or not. By simply paying for something that you feel you are not guilty of then you are making yourself guilty just by payment of the violation.
I will be posting pictures of DTS signage from their parking sites on Unilocal and other sites just to let people know what DTS and the companies that hire their services expect of them who use their parking lots.
If for some reason you have been ticketed, you still have a right to challenge this, especially if you feel that you have been wrongfully issued a ticket.
Sometimes an aggressive stance like in the final notices that DPS sends in the mail can come accross in a very negative way. It is up to you to communicate any concerns back to them. Maybe they can reword some of the items on the final notices, but at the same time, they can’t be too friendly or those who have actually offended, simply won’t pay.
I think there is a fair system and a happy medium that can come accross from all of this, but it all starts with communication between the corporation and the consumer.
Remember, if you are parking at a facility that is managed by DPS and you are ticketed unfairly. You should inform the store/​restaurant that this has happened. The last thing they want is that you do not come to their business anymore because you were scared off by a ticket.

Extremely questionable business practices.
Diamond Parking are the fine folks that ‘patrol’ the parking lots at many lower mainland Safeway stores.
They routinely ticket Safeway patrons who they claim have walked off the lot. And when I say ticket, I mean they assess charges against the car but don’t actually put a ticket on the car. Then they maybe, or maybe not, send out notices of the tickets to the registered owner of the car. Except in my case the tickets they supposedly sent out, went to an address that was at least 4 years out of date. If the company actually did use their ability to access the vehicle registrations, they would have more current information.
Then they sell the debt to credit collection companies. Thing is, credit collection companies DO bother to find current information for you — but by that time the ticket — fines etc, has jumped. It is gone so far past the time to dispute the ticket (that you never received) that there are few options left at that point.
This has happened to me twice. I now no longer shop at Safeway. I would also never park in any lot patrolled or owned by Diamond Parking.

We parked at a Diamond-​operated garage at Granville and 15^th one evening and were well aware the garage closed at 11:00 pm. We arrived at 10:57 according to my wife’s Blackberry on system time to find the garage was locked up and we could not get to our car until 7:00 am the following day. We showed up and thank goodness, the car hadn’t been towed, but it was a pretty unpleasant experience.
I suppose we should have perhaps shown up sooner, but I think they could have provided customers a few minutes of grace time and locked it up at 11:05. I will now be more than willing to go well out of my way to avoid parking in any Diamond-​operated lot/​garage.