Parks at a shopping mall and discovers the surprise upon leaving: two hours of parking cost over $5,400

Yaditi Kava, a British woman, was at the exit of the Queensmere Observatory shopping center parking lot when she received an unexpected message from her bank, according to BBC News.

After having dinner and doing some shopping, Kava decided it was time to head home. Her daughters were very tired, and in a rush, she chose to pay for her parking at the exit terminal instead of using the pay station.

Everything seemed normal. “I did not see the number on the small card machine. The big display showed ‘4,5’, so I thought it was £4.50,” Kava explained. She paid with her card, and just as she was leaving the shopping center, she received a message on her phone.

A costly mistake—thousands charged

The message was from her bank, notifying her of a charge equivalent to over $5,400. “To my shock, I saw that they had deducted not £4.50 but £4,586 from my account,” the mother explained.

Kava contacted the shopping center. “It was surreal - I just couldn’t fathom that they had taken that money,” she said. The center assured her that the full amount would be refunded within three days. That didn’t happen. It took more than three weeks for the refund to be processed.

Problems with the refund

The money that had been charged was intended to help pay for her daughter’s birthday, which she considered canceling due to the situation, as well as savings for her legal expenses related to a divorce.

Following the incident, the shopping center decided to shut down the parking system, stating that it “does not meet current customer expectations and fails to meet modern parking standards.”

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