Kokua Line June Watanabe

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Attendant can write number if driver wants

Question: Can you find out what the city's contract calls for with the private operator of the parking lot in Kaimuki between 11th and 12th avenues regarding handicap parking? We are being told that the user should write down the Pass Number on the parking ticket before handing it to the attendant. I feel that this is the parking lot attendant's job to verify the pass is in order and verify the number when I hand it to him with the ticket. There is nothing posted in the lot, and I do not believe there was anything posted in the papers when all of this was announced.

Answer: The city's contract does not require that a driver write the number of a disabled-parking placard on the back of the parking ticket before giving it to the attendant, according to the Department of Transportation Services.

However, doing so will expedite exiting of the parking lot for everyone, a spokesman said.

But if you can't or don't want to do it, we're told, the attendant "upon request ... is willing and able to write the placard number on the parking ticket."

Consumer Tip

A word of warning to your readers to carefully look over their credit card and bank statements. I recently noticed that I was being charged $14.95 for a "travel club" service I never authorized. I told the woman who answered the 1-800 phone number for the company that I never authorized the charges, and she said I had to because they had my account number. I looked at past statements, and it appears I had been charged $14.95 since December! I asked my bank to look into this, but they only credited me for two months so I'm out more than $100. A steep price to pay to learn my lesson. -- No Name

Not only is it a wise practice to review bank and credit statements regularly, unauthorized charges should be disputed immediately.

As in this case, if you were mailed statements that showed unauthorized charges but fail to promptly notify the bank, you can be held liable for at least part of the charges.

According to U.S. PIRG, which describes itself as "an advocate for the public interest," consumers potentially have unlimited liability for unauthorized charges that occur after 60 days from when they receive a statement noting the transactions, if they don't notify the bank within 60 days of receiving the statement.

Check with bank and credit card companies as to what their liability policies are on payment of unauthorized transactions.

Mahalo

For the quick response by Hawaiian Electric Co., Hawaiian Telcom, Oceanic Cable and other construction groups after the hit-and-run crash of a vehicle into a utility pole on Kaaipu Avenue on Saturday morning, Oct. 27. They worked quickly together, and we (on nearby Lowrey Avenue) did not have much of an outage. Thanks for working so hard on an early Saturday morning! -- Eric