I didn’t love when my favorite park started implementing paid parking. Then I would have to pay via text or this new app. Another app? Ugh. But I loved this park so much and I reluctantly began using it. I like how easy it is to use and I like that I can set the time reminder. I like that our parking allows the first 30 min free, and that is easy to do with the app. I like that it keeps my settings and I don’t have to do a lot to just hop on, chose my location (easy enough) and start my time. It seems safe (personal info kept private, I mean) and I haven’t gotten emails and texts, so I like that it doesn’t intrude on my life in other ways. I do love this park and I don’t mind supporting it, so I’m glad they chose an app that seems to do a great job and make it easy to use.

This app for parking takes SO MUCH TIME compared to other methods and apps. First, you have to set up an account there is no “guest” mode because they want to harvest your data. Then once you go through the hassle of creating an account, the checkout process takes lots of time. I have NEVER had my “saved” payment methods work. Apple Pay never works. Credit cards that are saved never work. It buffers with the message “Connecting to your bank…” for several minutes before it stops and says “payment not processed please try again”. Then I have to start the checkout process all the way over, and manually fill out my card information including address. The same card will fail to process when it’s “saved” but works just fine manually entering. Super annoying that you have to stop, get your card out, enter your card info, enter your address, etc. every single time you want to park in a parking lot that’s unfortunately contracted with this buggy app.

I’ve used this service on and off for a few years. Unfortunately, yesterday I made the very human mistake of starting a parking session with the wrong vehicle selected (I accidentally selected my partner’s vehicle and not the one I was driving).Thankfully, I immediately noticed. It was disappointing to see that I could not edit the session to change the vehicle. I called customer service to see if they could cancel the session and submit a refund, so I could then start a new session with the correct vehicle. While the rep was polite, she reported that there is no way to give a refund. I took the chance on getting a parking ticket since I’d rather give parking enforcement my money than Flowbird. accidents happen - how hard is it to add a feature to edit the license plate number after you’ve started your session.

I don’t usually care enough about ranking apps, but Flowbird parking is by far the least reliable parking app there is. It won’t let you pay with a debit card no matter how much you try. It will always default to a “something went wrong” error. And when paying with a credit card…well you better be on the strongest WiFi you can find to have that transaction go through. I’m currently sitting in my car with the flashers on while my gf is enjoying the farmers market, because this app won’t stop “connecting to the bank” past the Apple Pay procedure on either of our phones in the 5 block area. It has happened every time I tried using it. It takes 5-10 tries every time, unless you hop on WiFi. I have gotten multiple tickets for non-paying because it would take 10 minutes to beg the app to work and something would distract me while I’m doing that, so it’s very easy to forget unless you’re sitting in your car till it works