Denver man pays for parking, gets ticket anyway; investigation raises questions about downtown lot

A Denver man is the latest consumer to raise concerns about the technology being used to pay for and enforce parking downtown. This time, the issue involves a lot on California Street near the 16th Street Mall. The lot is operated by Parkwell and advertises an early-bird rate that covers the day.

Sam Hall paid using the company's app and stayed for less than two hours. Later, he received a ticket from Parking Revenue Recovery Services, the company that handles enforcement.

CBS Colorado started looking into the case and found more than one thing appears to have gone wrong.

"I looked at the signage. I thought I understood it. I thought I understood what the rates and fees were," Hall said.

Hall says the lot's early-bird rate was part of the appeal.

The sign advertises parking between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. with departure by 6 p.m. for $18.

But after paying $18 plus a 95-cent surcharge, Hall says the parking app showed an exit time he wasn't expecting.

"There was an early-bird special, which I thought I had paid for, but then the time stated differently after I had paid that I should be out by 10:30, and I thought 'that's odd,'" Hall said.

Hall says none of it was adding up.

Even if he had been paying the hourly rate posted on the same sign, $18 would have allowed him to park for more than three hours, putting his exit closer to noon.

Hall says he then tried to pay for more time, even though he didn't think he needed it.

"When I tried, it was going to charge me the same early-bird rate special, and I thought, 'That's weird,'" Hall said.

A week later, Hall received a notice from PRRS saying he had stayed 12 minutes too long.

PRRS does not own the lot, but its cameras track when drivers enter and leave and send notices to drivers who stay too long or fail to pay.

Hall was initially hit with a $92 fine for an expired permit.

He disputed the notice and provided a screenshot showing his $18.95 payment.

His dispute was denied, but the company offered to reduce the fine to $72.

"It was kind of laughable to say, 'Hey, we'll take $20 off,'" Hall said. "I thought that doesn't solve my problem of a system that is broken."

Hall wasn't willing to pay without answers.

"My big question is why is signage not clearer? Why are fees not clearly stated?" Hall said.

After receiving a legal notice threatening collections, Hall reached out to CBS Colorado.

Denver requires every parking lot to be licensed, but Eric Escudero with Denver's Department of Excise and Licenses said the city could not find a license for the lot at 1514 California Street, prompting his department to put the operator on notice.

"They have to get the license, and they have to make sure they have proper signage, making sure consumers understand how much it's going to cost to park there, the times, how prices might change and lighting," Escudero said.

CBS Colorado asked lot operator Parkwell what happened. In a statement, a company spokesperson said Parkwell is working with the property owner to meet new lighting requirements needed to obtain a license.

Regarding Hall's case specifically, the company said that while the early-bird rate is available, "the customer selected a specific time window (8:57 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) for his session on May 7, 2026, and he remained parked for 12 minutes after the session expired."

Because Parkwell maintains Hall did not select the early-bird rate, we asked why he wasn't prompted to pay the hourly rate.

In response, the company said: "This puzzled us as well. Based on his selection, the rate should have been $15 plus the transaction fee of 95 cents. We confirmed that the rates are correctly programmed and we were not able to recreate his scenario."

Based on that response, Hall appears to have paid more than required for the time he parked and then received a ticket for staying too long.

"I'm going to continue to fight it because I feel if other people who are either elderly or don't have enough time or are busy with their lives and would rather get it off their plate, I might as well fight for something that is right, for justice and fair practices, rather than let someone get away with something that they shouldn't be getting away with," Hall said.

Parkwell's spokesperson declined to answer additional questions about Hall's case, saying they would need to speak directly with him to better understand what happened. The company added that it is "giving the customer the benefit of the doubt and offering a full reimbursement plus a month of free parking in any of our lots."

PRRS voided the ticket that was issued after CBS Colorado reached out. The company said it does not have a role in setting up parking rates or signage.