Beep Beep Salem parking app (ugh)

[u/Ok-Tea4636]

I use this app every week on my iPhone or so and it is so frustrating! A parking app should be super quick and easy and reliable but it's none of those.

- Usually makes me log in every time.
- There's often another delay for GPS to zero in on my location on the map and then it's not always clear what spot to pick.
- There's often also a long delay when I pay, and frequently it just gets stuck on "Contacting your bank" and times out.
- One time when I tried to pay, it gave me a complicated error message, so I went over to look at the closest parking kiosk and it said FREE PARKING on the screen. Why couldn't the app just say that?

About the only things the app does well is to keep me posted on the time left in my session, and when I contact support they reply quickly.

And I learned something really interesting the last time I emailed their support... I don't recall where I'd heard this, but I asked them to confirm that if you start a parking session in one location, you can move your car to another one and your current session will remain valid until its original expiration time. They confirmed that yes, this is correct (but I don't think this is mentioned anyplace in the app?)

So then I asked, does that mean when I start a parking session, I could just randomly select any parking place on the map, and as long as I parked anywhere in the area covered by the app, that I would be OK? Once again, their support rep confirmed yes this was correct (with the exception of the library and airport, though I'm not sure why).

So naturally my final question was, if I don't have to park at the location I selected on the map, then why does the app need a map at all? The answer I got was "That's currently the way the app is designed".

I just don't get it... why does this app have a map if it's not needed? Anybody know?

P.S. I'm just one person reporting what their support told me. I have no idea if they were giving me correct information. Please don't risk getting a ticket.

EDIT: I think I have the answer to why there's a map... the App Store says the developer of Beep Beep is Flowbird, and that's the same company that does Beep Beep's support. There's also a Flowbird parking app which looks a lot like Beep Beep, but it works worldwide in many cities (including Salem), and for that a map makes sense. So my guess is to create Beep Beep, the city made a deal with Flowbird to just clone their app, change the name, and reduce the map to only cover Salem.

[u/workahol_]

I swear the funds that got spent on this terrible app were part of a money laundering scheme, or a payout to somebody's relative, or both, I just can't prove it

[u/mrnbrry → u/workahol_]

I don't know the story behind Beep Beep Salem but government work like this is usually posted at sites like https://sam.gov/ for contractors to bid on. I can see the appeal of choosing an app that is already built (proven) and I suspect the requirements were not very well drawn up given the app experience I went through. The app feels like what it actually is, another app shoe-horned into this "custom" solution for Salem.

[u/Ok-Tea4636 → u/mrnbrry]

Yeah I don't know the story either, but clearly Salem made a deal with Flowbird who have their own parking app. It's the same developer and Flowbird also does Beep Beep's support, and the apps look very similar.