Cellopark Australia 4+

Don't know why they hate

TLDR: this app is good

So parking at my uni is $1.50 per hour with a $6 cap per transaction. About 3 hours into the day I planned on going home so I turned off my parking meter but on the way out I decided that I wanted to stay the rest of the day 😂. So I started the meter again. At this time I didn't know about the transaction cap. I checked my recent parking for the day and instead of being charged for two different tickets, which would have been about 10-12 bucks, I was only charged $6 even though I left my spot and stopped the meter in between. I was surprised that you guys would have my back like that, helping out a broke uni student 🙏🏾🙏🏾

The interface is a lil chunky but it's a new app so that's fine, there's time to improve. It makes life so much easier and I have no bad comments about it. All the 1 star recommendations are overreaction to small things.

Can’t believe how successful they’ve been

Can’t believe Cellopark managed to sign up Brisbane City Council and UQ.

The app is downright hostile to users. It is by far the worst designed and least user friendly app on my phone. It looks like a child designed the user interface. Instead of just tapping to start/stop a parking session, you’ve got to do some old-school “slide to unlock” style gestures in a direction that isn’t explained. The app is ugly, hasn’t been updated for iPhone X, but even on older iPhones the app will look like something out the 90s. Not user friendly and as complicated as you could possibly make it. There are large intrusive ads, for the “premium” service all over the app. They take up the majority of the screen. This app is so hideous looking at is like pouring seawater in your eyes. You can’t pay with PayPal, Apple Pay only credit card. It is a great idea, but the execution is beyond terrible. This app is a total dumpster fire and needs to be rewritten from the ground up, with a focus on simplicity, user friendliness, ease-of/use, proper design and functionality. These have got to be some of the laziest devs around, no one would ever use this app by choice, the only reason anyone I know uses it is because UQ forces you to use it. Cellopark has a captive-audience by way of UQ and Brisbane City Council.

Developer Response ,

Hi Ddstco, Thank you for your detailed feedback.
While we do not remember having apps in the 90's the design is a matter of taste and while we appreciate you do not like it - many other do...
We are also very sorry but many of your comments are simply incorrect - you do not have to 'swipe' to start - you can simply switch to 'click' to start in the app settings (even if many other things you do - like answer call is still swipe..).
There are NO ads in the app. The premium reminder services is a service by CellOPark but is in no way an add (just like many other services that have a Basic and a Premium account) and takes a small part of the screen (less than 1/8...).
You CAN use PayPal AND POLi to top-up a prepaid account. Unfortunately, we cannot currently offer PayPal on post-paid accounts due to their very high costs. Apple Pay is not supported due to the nature of the account and charges (i.e. – post-paid varying charges).
In both UQ and Brisbane you do have other options to pay for parking (such as the parking machines or parking permits) so no-one is captive in either of those places and the fantastic uptake we have in both clearly shows that many do not think like you and do choose to use our app.
Lastly, any and all parking apps need to know 2 basic things from the user - 1. which vehicle they are parking and 2. The zone in which they are parked (in order to charge the correct tariff). To that extent, CellOPark offers more options than any other parking app in the world - you can scan the QR, search, scroll, type, use the map or add to favourites. Once selected – all you have to do is swipe (or click) to start. We are not sure why you feel this is not simple or user friendly and if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve that – we’d love to hear from you.

SHADY TACTICS

Looks like I was signed up to a premium service that checks the clock for me. This mysterious subscription seems to be linked to the tick box “I would like to receive SMS reminders” that you are given when signing up. It’s really shady because it says “fees may apply see T&C’s” in brackets beside the option. If you were like me and set up your account in a hurry after realising that you hadn’t paid, you will miss it. These terms then go in to say that to receive the SMS notifications you will have to pay for it. I highly doubt this would meet ACCC requirements and if CellOPark truly cared for its users it would make this subscription more clear, hence the 1 star I am giving it today. I have asked 3 times for my account and card details to be removed from the service (twice on the phone) and have been told that I need to email my details, yet on the website it says I can opt out “orally”, so unless this means I need to record my voice on email I’m confused why that’s on there. Would not recommend this to anybody, have zero trust in the app with my card, and BE CAREFUL when signing up to this money snatching corporation.