A motorist's encounter with the malfunctioning text-to-pay service of a Dunedin parking machine is a glitch, and not a system-wide fault, the Dunedin City Council says.
The motorist told the Otago Daily Times he tried to use the text-to-pay service at a central city parking machine on Monday.
After the first attempt timed-out, a second attempt produced a text message in response saying the service was unavailable to all Telecom users.
The service was supposed to allow motorists to use their cellphones to pay for parking, alleviating the need for loose change or a credit card.
However, the fault was news to Telecom, with a company spokesman saying he was aware of no other complaints from customers.
Neither was the council's customer services manager, William Robertson, who said there had been no calls from members of the public.
Council Citifleet team leader Brent Bachop ruled out a system-wide fault, saying there was "certainly no problem from our end".
"I imagine it would just be a one-off."
The report comes after the council last year suspended the use of debit cards in its 155 new parking machines - installed at a cost of $1.64 million - after a fault led to temporary larger-than-expected deductions from users' available funds.
The machines were supplied by Global Integrated Solutions Ltd, with software by Dunedin Payment Solutions Ltd, and used in cities across New Zealand and Australia.
Mr Bachop said the companies involved had not been able to fix the debit-card fault, and there were no plans to reintroduce the service for the city's parking machines.
"We have stopped taking debt cards, full stop."
