This is a wonderful idea for an app, but there are zones all over the city where payment by app isn’t an option. Why have an app if you can’t use it? Likely, this is a City of Austin issue, but it’s definitely a problem. I hope Park ATX can figure this out, because I would love to not have to go back to the pay station every few hours to re-up my ticket.
I have had this app pretty much since it came out, and it never, ever works for me. Every time I try to use it, it gives me an error. When I go back to try again, I can see that it has deducted the funds from my account for the transaction, but I am unable to see the transaction or how much time I have left. I assume it’s working on their end because I’ve never gotten a ticket while using it, but I agree with others who say I’d almost rather carry around a bag of coins, because I have no confidence that it’s working. Once I actually paid at a kiosk for an expensive parking session because I thought my app transaction hadn’t worked, only to discover that it HAD worked, so I had paid twice. So aggravating.
If you can manage to make it past all the crashing, you will find yourself in a situation in which you must add 10 USD to the account, which will certainly be more than you need for parking today. I have had 2 USD in my account that I have not been able to use for a year or so because I need to add 10 USD to my account to be able to use the existing money I have in there. I don’t live in Austin so that’s a complete waste. Even if I did live in Austin, it’s still annoying and results in you spending more money than you need to on parking. I’ve lived in many major cities and used many parking apps but never experienced anything quite as aggravating as Park ATX. In summary, just use the parking meters. You will save time and money.
The old version was passable—two clicks to park—but the new version is so much less user friendly. And it keeps re-setting, asking me to re-create an account even though I have had one for years now. And it often won't load nearby zones, meaning I have to walk to the meter to check. Then why am I using the app if I have to walk to the meter anyway? These new zones are meant to be more targeted to individual blocks, meaning that if I move my car to the other side of the road, I have to repay. Before, paying ZONE 1 for the night meant I could park downtown and move my car as needed! I ALREADY PAID THE CITY TO PARK ON THE STREET WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO PAY TO PARK AGAIN. City services should not run for profit; they should charge a fee to offset the services provided. This was a scam reboot targeted to the week before sxsw. Fncking capitalism.
The original Park ATX app was wonderful. The zones were easy to understand and the app was simple to use. Now, the zones are random slews of numbers that have no pattern. With the combination of poor signage for what zone you’re in and even different zones on different sides of the SAME street, leaves you aimlessly wandering around looking for a tiny sticker that shows your zone (which if you walked more than ~8 parking spots, you’re probably not in the right zone anymore!) To add to the confusion, EVERYTIME you use the app you’re forced to verify your account by getting another random slew of numbers texted to you. Then to annoy you one last time, the app always says you have a notification. However, once you go into the app, there’s no notification to be found... And the notification will not go away!
Carrying around a bag of coins would be more convenient than using this app at times. When this app messes up, it messes up HARD! I’ve seen the app not allow users to pay for parking, sending everyone who cares to pay on time (I don’t want a ticket so I pay every time instead of risking it) running outside to pay at the meter. If that’s not bad enough, the app has also attempted to charge $341 to park! The step where you use the time bar to indicate how long you want to park for was being skipped, and you were takin straight to the payment confirmation screen, with a time duration of about 2 weeks, for the low low cost of $341. I noticed the process was different so I paused and thankfully saw the price before tapping “confirm payment”, but I’m sure others may not have been as lucky. It really stinks that this company and app is in charge of your parking experience in downtown Austin if you’re wanting to use an app to pay. Calling the Support you’ll be directed to call your local non-emergency number (ex 311), which doing so will get you directed to call the app developers.
You have to add $10 at a time to have money in your "wallet" which is complete BS. This wasn't the case when I first starting using the app. Second, there is a flat fee on top on the parking fee. 25 cents each time adds up, and it's a lot considering the cost of parking is $3.60 for 3 hours. That still beats paying $5-15 in some sketchy lot which is why I deal with it. My card expired but it wouldn't let me edit the information, so I had to delete the card then take out my wallet and add the updated card, all while being surrounded by homeless people asking for change. I don't recall receiving a notification when my card expired. I would have updated it at home. The only plus is that it's convenient when you do get it to work seamlessly, and you get a notification when your meter time is running out. Other than that, I feel like this app isn't what it used to be, but I don't like carrying cash or pulling out my wallet to pay for parking, for safety reasons.
Used to be a user friendly single-use app but as others have stated in reviews, the recent update ruined the app. As a user experience designer, I can't fathom the business rules or product strategy that dictated this update. Everything about it makes the experience of using the app much more clunky and convoluted than the previous version. I feel like the update was designed by engineers and never tested with users. If the app's creators had only done benchmark user testing and then tested the updated prototypes, they would've immediately uncovered the terrible user experience of the update. I wish I could roll back to the old version.
Used this app while in Austin. All info entered in correctly. Parked at 4pm, paid for two hours, returned to my car to find a ticket that had been issued at 5:02pm!!! Ticketed for not displaying receipt. Not sure how that was supposed to happen using their app. Guess the city of Austin figures that out of towners will just pay the $20 ticket rather than deal with contesting the ticket. Sound alike a pretty good scam of visitors pay rather than contest the ticket. So if you use this app be prepared to be ticketed or even towed. I have seen a few reviews of people who got towed in these reviews as well. Wish I had read the app reviews before using it. Hope to save someone else the headache of tickets or tows.
I’ve been using COA parking apps ever since they came out many years ago. The first app was OK. It worked much like a parking meter and actually functioned. This app does neither. I haven’t been able to get it to work for many years. No matter what I do, I can’t reload my wallet. (The wallet is a ridiculous way to do things at any rate - visitors have to deal with unused funds.) Because my account is tied to my phone number, there’s no starting over. Contacting support is a joke and doesn’t work. The chat feature inside the app isn’t a live chat. I’ve never received a response from the support staff. If I need to pay for street parking, I have to carry around change because the physical parking meters will abruptly shut down if you use a metal card, which many people have. I can’t believe my tax dollars are being spent on this fiasco. It’s 2022. Our city is the tech hub of the South. We have an Oracle campus and a Tesla factory. Why on earth is something as simple as a parking app such a challenge?
While this may be convenient, if you forget your pin for whatever reason it is practically impossible to use this app ever again. i have tried to reset my pin at least 20 times in the past 2 years, and every time the app has asked me to reinsert my credit card info. After doing so, it shows an error and says i cannot add that card for whatever reason. i have tried 4 different cards and none have worked, so i’m practically unable to use this app. Terrible user interface and lay out, no way to contact anyone for help, and once this happens you can’t use the app even if you delete it and redownload it. Super disappointing and irritating.
I see people dissing this app because of the convenience fee. For all of them, try this. Put three hours on a meter and see if you get a refund for your last unused hour. Didn’t think so! With this app, you set it to maximum when you park and then when you return, just click “end parking”. You only pay for what you use plus 25 cents. I literally parked for 41 cents yesterday. Meter has a one hour minimum.
Update: TOS displays now, so... progress. Steps back: They want me to put my money into a "wallet"? I already have one of those. No, I'm not buying a new wallet from a parking company. Previous: "Hey cool- new design". Starts up- Taps Login- Pop-up appears: "You must accept the terms and conditions before using this application". They allow two options, Decline/Accept. Fair enough- Decline. What ARE these terms and conditions? Taps Terms and Conditions. Blank page appears. Winning... Previous Review: "Password is not accepted by the current password policy. Please use another one. " What does that mean? Alphanumeric, digits, decimals, Strings... all lazy programming. I really hope these programmers didn't go to school, as they would shame their school. Programmers for some reason don't like putting in the work required for users to utilize secure passwords- and that's really frustrating. Another useless app I don't need- not telling me how my password doesn't meet their mysterious (read :bad) requirements.
App simply does not work. Tried multiple times and multiple different cards to pay with today while parked on S.Congress. Every time I tried to pay the app says ‘payment failed’ or ‘Zone does not offer mobile pay’ umm how else would you like me to pay? Not to mention.. the money was taken out of my account. After not being able to make a payment I simply went on with my day. Came back to a parking ticket as well as every single other car parked along the street on Congress. Terrible app. Terrible customer service. Please fix this issue.
The app was working so smoothly until I got to payment. Setting up the payment for this was super clunky and wouldn’t let me until I restarted the app. I also had put in a number wrong and instead of the app telling me I had done something wrong, it just gave me a spinning disk forever. As this was the first time I was using the app making any of this more clear or let me know what was wrong would have been VERY helpful. Please update the check out settings to make more sense.
This app is complete trash. They force you to put in a minimum of $10 with the app no matter what the meter rate. So when the credit card meter is broken (like it was for me) and your only option is the app to pay, you are stuck committing at least $10 to the app for this spot and credits. In 2017, most tech companies try to build a product that solves a problem or a product you love to keep you coming back - ParkX goes the 1900s route and locks you into something you don’t want. Just wait for the machine or find a new spot where the meter isn’t broken. Not worth it
The old version had some quirks but it was speedy (essentially one screen to park) and had a single transaction business model (pay per park). New version has a terrible visual update (fonts are misshapen and controls feel like a bad responsive web page); it now takes multiple taps and screens to complete the transaction (before it was 2 now it is 5); and you now have to recharge a wallet to store a min of $10 vs paying for a single parking transaction. This means unless you spend $10 in parking immediately you end up with a balance sitting out there but down $10.
What on earth were you thinking?This was my use case today. Thanks for making me miss my appointment. -Went to pay for parking. -Didn't have my wallet so I was like oh well I will use the app! -Open the app -I've been logged out for no reason (never ever happened before) -Spend 5 minutes trying to login -Oh well I will just reset my password -Clicks reset, gets email, just says "password reset!" Without actually asking me for a password -Try again -This time it says "this version of the app is no longer supported" -Okay well now I have to spend 60MB of my data downloading the update -Finishes that, opens app -Please create an account! -I already have an account... -Not anymore you don't! -Creates account again, adds license plate -Please add a credit card! -I DONT HAVE MY WALLET THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT -drives home to get wallet So now I'm going to be like 40 minutes late to my meeting and miss almost all of it
Requires a preload of $10, and then another preload of $20 if you don’t have enough in your wallet for your next transaction. So now i will forever have $2 left in my wallet, and I don’t even live in Austin. It also randomly started my parking session to an incorrect time, despite having selected the correct time before I completed my payment. Unfortunately I didn’t catch it until after I already paid so I ended up paying for a time i don’t even need. Save yourself the headache, use the parking meter
I finally downloaded this app on Saturday because I was working an event downtown and wouldn't be able to come back out to add more time to my parking. I paid for max parking then wasn't able to extend my time. I was at work, I can't exactly wait until the second my time is up to do the thing all over again. I got a parking ticket THREE minutes after my time was up. Having this app means the parking police can see when cars are expiring and they will prey upon those cars vs just having the print in the window. Will never use this app again.
City of Austin has taken away the ability to pay by credit card directly so you must reload at least $10 onto your city of Austin wallet each time. This doesn’t even mention that you must pay the $0.30 convenient fee each time you make a transaction. For a 30 minute parking session that only costs $1 the convenience fee is steep. Plus they take away the machines on the street in some spots so you’re forced to pay through the app.
No one can understand why the high-tech city of Austin allows such a scam app. It hasn't worked for years (always saying my credit card numbers aren't right). And apparently now requires we put $10 in to pay for any use. That's an automatic money grab. Where does the money go? (It's almost as expensive as paying for a valet in Central Austin. And more if you park all day.) Austin transportation engineers: please allow competition for your business in parking apps, and choose apps that work. Thank you!
I had sed this app successfully on my iPhone in the past. I needed a parking space the other day, and I had 29 cents in my “wallet.” I tried to add to it, using my usual credit card. I went through the process, clicking all the boxes, but at the end, nothing happened. So, when I got home, I contacted the developer. Fast and friendly response, but then the app crashes before I could update my card amd wallet. Then, after deleting the app, re-starting the phone, and re-installing the app, im right back where I started, with 29 cents in my wallet amd no way to add to it. Ouch.
I love the app because it's easy to use. Not a huge fan of the 10 credit minimum but I usually use it all anyways in 1 day. Also nice that there is a web version. The extra charge for convenience isn't that bad. It saves me from walking a mile away just to pay the meter so no big deal.
I never open this app until I need it and then find they changed terms to force you to add $10 credit to your wallet at a time, only the app keeps failing and I cannot actually add any credit card or money to the wallet. I had to call my husband and have him pay for my parking which is really just ridiculous and I still got a parking ticket for being exactly 5 min expired. Just fix the app please.
If you park an hour before metering starts, it won’t let you start a session... says parking isn’t allowed, but it’s just free. Within a reasonable timeframe (~3 hours?) before metering starts, you should be able to purchase a delayed start when you park. Otherwise you have to set an alarm and remember to go back into the app later to start the session & when that doesn’t work you get slapped with a ticket! Other than this, I would give 5 stars
Lost all my history/receipts and saved info suddenly when logging into this version the first time. But beyond that, the app has gotten so much clunkier with several more steps required to get the same things done as before. In the end, my first day with the new version I had to give up and pay at the box. It simply wouldn't work anymore after taking all the time to reestablish a new account. Not sure it's worth it anymore and might just keep paying the old-fashioned way and save the up charge.
Unfortunately this company has poor ethics and lies about their “principles”. The company made a huge internal mistake costing them $500,000. Instead of explaining the situation, notifying affected users, and providing the financial impact and when it would affect their users. ParkATX instead chose billing app users randomly and without proper warning. And they ignored customer service help requests! At the end of the day. They will mistreat you! I was scammed out of $120 by them. Don’t be their next victim. Use change at the parking meter and save yourself from a similar situation.
Austin charges for parking in some of the most random places. Example, the wealthy neighborhood off of 360. Want to visit and enjoy the local green belt area, well you have to pay to park on the street. Then you’re forced to pay a convenience fee. It’s all small but with the volume of transactions this is a highway robbery. It’s so weird the the rules we just accept as ‘okay’.
A much needed muni coke app that just doesn’t work
This app is total garbage. You can’t click on your zones, almost impossible to add a credit card, and the payment processing hasn’t worked since I’ve downloaded the app - with multiple different cards. I can’t believe the city has granted a monopoly to whatever sub par developers made this app. They should be fired. Guess I’ll use the meters until the city can find competent developers who realize they are building apps that must work.
Super terrible app. I love the convenience of being able to add more time if I decide to stay at a location for more than I originally intended. But the app itself is crap. A few months ago they updated the app so that have to add $10 to your “wallet” in order to use it (which is a waste), but today my app automatically updated and now I can’t even sign in. If I put in my cell number I’m told that I have an invalid phone number. Same thing happens if I try to “sign up”. Why the hell did the app sign me out to begin with?
This app is comically frustrating. Won’t accept payment methods it allows you to input into the app (ApplePay and Credit Cards). I gather from reading other reviews that they want you to add funds to your wallet and then maybe it’ll work? Okay, but then why doesn’t the app say that? Why does it allow me to add a CC and prompt me to use ApplePay? Or, why doesn’t the app just tell me what to do?? Comically bad app experience for a parking app in a major city. A “techie” city at that!
This app is such a scam. $10 minimum load and $0.25 convenience fee for each time you want to add time really adds up. I don’t get why there’s a convenience fee when the good old fashioned meters cost more to install, collect, maintain, and you could still pay with credit if you wanted. Plus you could use the spot for free if someone left time. The City of Austin is charging YOU for THEIR convenience. This app is a huge inconvenience and a ripoff. Bring back parking meters.
As if it isn’t annoying enough that each 5-digit zone changes with every block, this isn’t as on-the-go friendly as it could be. There is no option to choose what zone you are in by map. In the event that someone misses the zone they are in but know where street they parked on, they have to choose different “surrounding” zones one by one until they pick the right one. Could be much more convenient if you ask fee, I mean, me.
This app used to work. It used to be great, but the newest update has broken the app and it's usability. It lost all of my vehicle info, parking history and payment info. When I reentered all of this, the app never worked. It said that it had dropped its connection even with 5 bars of connectivity in downtown Austin. Add onto this that you now have to prepay a certain amount in your wallet instead of a pay-by-use model as before, has ruined a good thing. I'm deleting the app and my account today. Morons.
This app works. That alone means it deserves 5 stars. It's not flashy, but it loads quickly and it is stable. Most importantly, it provides an extremely convenient feature for downtown parking. The updated UI is a lot nicer too, and I can't give the app'a performance enough praise.
You can choose how long you want to pay for parking, don't have to go get a ticket from the machine, and if you're away from your car then you can add more time! The wallet people complain about is some first world problem stuff.
This app is ok but it's principle is not. Taxes in Austin are outrageous, yet parking remails expensive. STOP THE FEES. Second, the withdrawal of minimum $10 is frustrating as I have to continually hold a balance on the account, and I'm sure they make a killing off people moving away and never depleting the account. Frankly, if I didn't pay so much in tax every year, this would get way more stars as an app, but I just can't endorse this from the city. Sorry Austin, you're hurting us all.
Let’s you pick any time within max time for zone. If you run out, you simply update right from your phone; wherever you are. Have been using for 2+ years and encourage anyone (at least in Austin tx) to, too.
They have completely destroyed this app. Makes you load a certain amount into your wallet instead of just directly charging your credit card but then when you try to reload your wallet it has no button to actually proceed with the operation. Constantly telling me it has a dropped connection, even though I try it from multiple locations. How could an update have screwed it up so horribly?
I could not get the app to accept any form of payment I had available to me. I tried a debit card, credit card, and apple pay, none of which were functional for paying for a parking time. After trying for 15 minutes I just walked over to the meter and that was easy as heck. I'd hate to know how much the city of austin wasted on making this app and system.
I tried several different credit cards and they all failed to work. Tried erasing the cards and entering them again. Failure messages each time. Couldn’t find anything in app that addresses this problem. No immediate answers from tech support. Have been working on this for over 30 minutes just to park car. About to leave and if I get ticket I have screen shots to take with me to court.
Austin is a tourist town. They charge for parking. Every city does it. People are complaining about the wallet requirements of $10. It’s $10! ParkATX will give refunds. My balance was refunded upon request, when I left ATX. I’m from Florida, Miami city parking is $25 AN HOUR, no refunds!
Never thought I’d say that about a parking app. Incredibly clean user interface, super easy to add new vehicles and the parking zone detection is just so good. To be clear - this app didn’t need to be half as good as it is to get the job done. Truly a shining beacon of UX joy bundled in a app.
Update: Add New Payment is now available. Will test again and update this review. App will not let me add a payment method. It says I already have one but this is first time using app. “iOS TEST” is also showing showing trailing on an alert. “The wallet in your account can be reloaded. An additional payment is not needed.” toast shows when I tap “Add New”.
A frustrating experience. The app crashes immediately whenever I try to pay with Apple Pay - which is extremely to fix by analyzing stack traces. App dev 101. Then today it declined both my credit cards even though i know they’re fine as they work everywhere else. Some basic work could make this a really good app. Also, the meter where you select time is very peculiar UI/UX.
Would like to see the ability to recharge or add funds whenever one would like and not have to wait until insufficient funds. If you are using our geolocation, why not add the ability to tell us the time of the day we have to pay and/or no longer allowed to park after a certain time?
Overall a decent app. It gets the job done and I haven’t had major issues. It’s missing a lot of standard parking app features like having an actual map to see the zones you’re parking in. The “10 minutes left” notification sound is a cats meow for some reason.
Use this every month visiting the city, makes it much easier. However, using it today with the update was not a smooth experience. The app doesn't look as clean, has too many menus now, and has some bugs when clicking on the nav bar. I'm not against change, but this app didn't improve with its change. Previous was a 5/5
The app continues to fail once I’m through everything and press the pay button. Got a ticket the other day because it continued to fail upon payment and ask me to go through everything again. I have an account, I have my vehicles set up and my payments there. Just going to use the machines if I can which aren’t available that many places anymore.
No more digging for coins. This is how parking should be. Pay, extend, and manage your parking session with just a few taps. It’s easy! PAY ON THE GO Pay quickly and securely with your smartphone. - Didn't need as much time as you thought? Stop your parking session early and only pay for the time you need. - Forget refilling the meter in the rain or braving the cold. NO PRICE SURPRISES See when parking rates will change in the future – even when there’s free parking! - Receive email receipts at the end of your parking session. - Expenses made easy, manage your parking history through the mobile app. STRESS-FREE PARKING Get alerts when your parking session is about to end. - Stop worrying about how much time is left on the meter, we have you covered. NO NEED TO RUSH Add time to your parking session directly from your phone.* - Your plans change, your parking spot shouldn't. Extend your parking session via our app. -------- GET STARTED TODAY 1. Download the Park ATX app. 2. Park where you see Park ATX app signs. 3. Pay for your parking session from your phone. 4. Relax, welcome to parking as it should be. -------- COMING SOON The Park ATX app is not done yet! We're constantly updating the app based on your feedback. -------- APP PERMISSIONS - Location Services (optional): Used to quickly provide nearby parking zones. * where applicable
