Queen’s POB I Parking

A lady working at a booth has been very rude and unpleasant every morning I see her. I always greet her «good morning» and «thank you» but the lady stairs at me with salty face. I wish she behaves more professionally like everyone else who work there.

I agree with reviewers Heidi, Rosemary, and Seagem! I literally switched GI doctors years ago because of the difficulty of finding and parking in this particular parking facility. Also had the same issue as Rosemary with having to pre-​pay the fee and then having to pay more due to going over the time allotted… just wasn’t worth the hassle.

This is a wonderful parking facility. There is a gate to enter, a ticket to receive a «stamp» when you leave, and a gate attendant when you leave to take you payment. If you opt to use this facility for «other» purposes, that’s up to you, though it’s a sure bet that you can use this facility for «other» needs in the neighborhood. I personally use this facility to use the other POB’s because it’s best for my purposes. Maybe your’s as well? Just use it for the Queen’s business and leave something open to us customers. Mahalo nui loa.

Yes I am reviewing a parking lot. Why you ask — because let’s face it — in Hawaii there are two things you are always looking for, a good place to eat and parking.
Sometimes you just want to know where places are that have good parking and other times you are forced to find parking and if you are like me — many lots are not SUV friendly.
This parking lot is no different — seriously next to Kapiolani Hospital — this is my least favorite parking lot. I go here because I have to to see my doctor. But basically the two lanes for «traffic» are so narrow I am surprised that I never see an accident in this lot.
Interestingly enough there is actually quite a lot of parking in the structure — it is just that everyone wants spots on the first 3 floors. So just a little tip — if you have to park here — just head up to the 4^th or 5^th floor you will hit a stall in no time that way.
Recently they have hired attendants to help you maneuver around the blind spots — but expect to wait for a little bit on the lower floors as people drive in and out of the building.
If you can use a compact car — do it
Also try to avoid 10am — 11am for doctors appointments — I have not idea why but that one hour is a killer.

There are signs plastered all over Queens POB I saying to pre-​pay for parking on the third floor before going back to your car. The signs are fairly strongly worded and don’t have any timelines on them (like from 9 – 5, say) so when I left my doctor’s appointment at 10 ’til 5, I headed down there.
Now, despite there being a million elevators, it takes a while for one to come to your floor. Say 30 sec, absolute minimum. Then I get to the pre-​pay parking booth – and they’re closed. There are two people inside the booth, chatting, but they’re not working and they’re certainly not going to help me. Another 30 sec, minimum. So I walk to the parking lot elevators – of which there are only two – and wait for one to take be back UP to my floor. Normally, for only three flights, I’d take the stairs. But seeing as I’m coming from a doctor’s appt and clearly not in good form, you’ll forgive me for not trying to cause myself further respiratory distress.
I get to my car and head straight for the exit. Add 1.5 min. Since the pre-​pay booth is closed, everyone’s in the pay-​now line. Add 4 min. Okay, only add 2 min, since we’re giving the benefit of the doubt here.
So far in my attempt to follow the parking directions to pre-​pay, we’ve added 5.5 min. When I finally get to the both, the lady says, «Fo’ dolla’.» Parking is $ 2/​half-​hour. I was only there half-​an-​hour, right? She takes her time looking over at the machine before she tells me, 31 min. Are you kidding me?
No, she is not kidding. I am a few seconds over half-​an-​hour, doubling my parking fee, because I went 5.5 min out of my way to do what they told me to do. I am not happy about this, but I’m not going to take it out on the attendant, so I ask for the number of the parking office. She doesn’t know it. I tell her it has to be written down somewhere in the millions of scraps of paper stuck to the windows in the booth. After I say this, it seems she does, actually, know where it is written, and looks it up, mumbling the digits to me. She doesn’t give me a receipt or anything to write on, so I scramble to write the number on the back of my handy prescription. I pay, and I leave.
Now home, I call the number, talk to a really nasty rude lady who eventually passes me on to a very scared and unsure lady who physically walks the phone over to another area and I talk to someone who sounds competent and familiar with the system. She was upset, but not surprised, to hear that the booth was closed when I went by, said she was happy to refund my money, but I had to come in person; they needed my ID, it was policy.
I was reluctant to return for a couple of bucks, but since I need to pick up a prescription, I might as well. But when I got there, there was yet another woman there who had no clue what I was talking about, and harassed me quite a bit for coming back, for leaving in the first place, for paying in the first place, for not getting a receipt, etc. Finally, I think because it was just a couple of bucks, she told me to drive back up to the booth, met me there, and had the booth lady refund my entire parking payment. That’s almost a gallon of gas, so I guess it was worth it in the end. But I was so vexed by that point that before handing her my new ticket, I hacked all over it. Both sides, wet coughs. And, at the time, I was glad to see her grab it in both hands – a solid contact grab.
I would rather have seen a procedural change than a refund, but at that point, I really need to get out of there and get some medication into me more than I needed to set right what once went wrong. Hopefully they’ll be better about it in the future, but if not, I know I can always get my money back by talking to the main office since they never got my ID for this first refund. If I have the energy or the germs to share!