Now, people are parking there for free, as a fix has proved elusive.
A problem happened again last weekend when it seems a sign insisted the Dunedin City Council parking lot was full even as motorists continued to leave.
Marbecks Cafe owner Chin Loh said there had been issues with the licence plate recognition technology since October, leading to motorists reversing from the carpark entry back into St Andrew St traffic.
He had been in touch with the council directly and he was also frustrated by what he saw as a lack of proactivity by mall management.
"I've been saying this _ please get it fixed before Christmas," Mr Loh said.
Yesterday, tenants were told the council had agreed to provide free access to the carpark until January 6.
"The gate is now permanently open and all the staff are parking here now for the whole day," Mr Loh said.
He felt it would be better if the system was fixed.
The council said time limits still applied.
"We made the decision to allow free parking at the Wall Street Mall carpark due to an issue with the new technology that is proving difficult to fix at this time of year," a spokesman said.
The council hoped to have a solution in the new year.
Both the mall and carpark of 43 spaces, including three designated accessibility parks, are owned by the city council.
A "carpark full" sign lights up when all the spaces are occupied and a barrier arm stays down, but this had also happened when the park was not full.
The council said it was aware of issues with the recently installed technology failing to identify when vehicles had exited the carpark.
This was raised in October and "initially resolved at the time" but appeared to have "occurred again at the weekend", a council spokesman said.
The technology was installed at the Wall Street Mall and Lower Moray Pl carparks in late September and early October and had been working well overall, he said.
"There were some minor issues with the system at the Great King St park when it was first installed, but these have since been fixed and it is now functioning normally," the spokesman said.
In October, the system had to be recalibrated several times.
Near the end of last month, Mr Loh wrote to Colliers, which has the contract for managing the mall.
The parking problem had happened for the past few weekends and he doubted chasing the council was his responsibility, he said at the time.
"We are coming into the busiest trading period of the year," he said.
"Customers' ease of access is important."
The council is also not charging for parking at selected meters in part of the central city on weekdays for two weeks from Monday around the statutory holidays.
