A man from Colorado recently faced a shocking charge of nearly $20,000 for a short parking stint at Denver International Airport. This marks the second major billing error at the airport within the past couple of months.
Jim Boyd, a Glenhaven resident, parked his vehicle in the Deer garage for just 27 minutes while his wife took a flight to Germany. The typical parking fee should have been around $7.
However, when he exited the garage, his credit card showed a charge of $19,824.
“Chase Bank notified us about this unexpected charge for a parking lot in Denver,” Boyd shared with NBC affiliate 9News.
His initial reaction was worry, recalling a similar incident he had seen reported a few weeks prior.
Interestingly, Boyd’s receipt indicated that his car had supposedly entered the garage on June 6—nearly four months ago—and recorded a staggering 169,000 minutes of parking time.
“I checked my calendar, and there’s just no way I was there,” Boyd remarked. “I definitely wasn’t at DIA on June 6th.”
Airport representatives explained that the erroneous charge was due to a glitch in their system that mixed up his license plate with another vehicle’s.
Specifically, the two plates differed only by one character: “B” instead of “8”.
Upon learning of the issue on Thursday, DIA quickly collaborated with the parking contractor, Laz Parking, to process a refund.
They confirmed that Boyd’s incorrect charge, along with the actual fee of $7, was reversed the same day, and they issued an apology for the incident.
The airport also acknowledged that Boyd’s case was not an isolated one.
In a statement to 9News, officials noted there had been four similar incidents since June 1.
Just last month, another Denver driver was billed over $2,300 for parking for 14 hours due to their car being logged as parked for more than two months.
This previous occurrence was attributed to an “entry ticket that wasn’t closed properly in the system.”
DIA initially stated that there was no widespread problem.
They mentioned that Flash Parking, the parking system vendor, had corrected the software error, making updates to all parking kiosks shortly after Boyd’s experience.
According to DIA, these four cases were the only ones recorded out of approximately 1.5 million transactions since June.
Boyd expressed gratitude for their luck amidst a frustrating situation.
“Some others might have had a completely different experience, leading to a lot of trouble,” he observed.
“It seems they really need to bolster their safeguards and get a better grip on their system.”
The airport now recommends travelers to verify the amount shown on the kiosk screen before proceeding with payment.
For any discrepancies, customers are instructed to cancel the transaction, rerun the ticket, or consult an attendant by pressing the help button.
DIA is also planning to implement a new camera-based system within six months, aimed at not just reading license plates but also capturing full vehicle descriptions.
Reflecting on the experience, Boyd noted some hesitation about returning to the garage.
“I need to go back to pick up my wife in two weeks, and I’m definitely feeling a bit cautious,” he admitted.
“Now, when I insert my credit card, I’m paying extra attention to that screen.”
