Shangri-La Plaza has a ridiculous, cheating parking policy that charges you two days’ worth of parking if you leave after 12 midnight! They charged us 2x the flat rate of P55, a total of P110 when we watched movies last Saturday night.
— 0 —
UPDATE Jan. 13, 2017: I was contacted by someone from Shangri-La Plaza
Dear Ms. Karen,
I am writing in relation to the unfortunate experience you encountered
during your visit to the mall last 7 January 2017.At the outset, please accept our apologies to the system glitch that
resulted to the “mischarging”.We would appreciate if you will provide us your contact detail so we could
apprise you on the matter and the corrective actions taken going forward.We are anticipating your favorable response to our request.
Sincerely,
Joy **********
Operations Officer
Shangri-La Plaza Carparks
We talked on the phone and Joy told me that this was a system glitch and was totally unintentional. They had just implemented a new system and they said that this mischarging just happened last weekend. They were still working out the kinks of the switch from the weekday charging to the weekend charging. She also said that they had already called this to the attention of their system’s supplier to address, and that this should not happen this weekend anymore going forward.
She also apologized for the response of both of the staff that I talked to. I said, both the cashier (Saturday night) and the guy who answered the phone (Monday morning) were consistent in insisting that the 12 midnight cut-off was their policy talaga. She again apologized for their responses and told me that they would make sure that everyone on their staff knows that this was a system glitch and not intentional mischarging.
As for me, I’m glad this issue has been resolved and that we can go back to enjoying Shangri-La mall. I am satisfied that Shangri-La addressed this quickly: they assured me that this was definitely not intentional, and they immediately worked to avoid future glitches like this.
— 0 —
SHANGRI-LA PLAZA’S RIDICULOUS PARKING POLICY
Last Saturday, we went to Shangri-La Plaza after staying away from malls during the holidays to avoid the traffic and the crowds. After malling and an early dinner, we watched 2 movies – Assassin’s Creed and Passengers.
The second movie, Passengers, started at 10 PM, so it is not too far-fetched to expect that we would leave after 12 midnight, right?
Well, apparently, Shangri-La Plaza Parking doesn’t have any common sense! Or they’re just being stupid. Or more likely, trying to milk more money from customers, the cheating bastards.
Here are the official parking rates:
When we left the parking lot at around 12 midnight, we were fully expecting to pay the Weekends and Holidays flat rate of P55. So we were shocked when the parking cashier insisted that the parking fee was P110!
We noticed that the car in front of us also took a long time at the cashier and we wondered why. Now, we know! Of course, we complained as well.
The parking cashier explained that even though it’s a flat parking rate of P55 for Saturday, since we went past 12 midnight, it is already Sunday, and so were being charged another P55 for the Sunday parking! Ridiculous! Your stupid mall just closed for Saturday and is not even open for Sunday yet, because the mall opens at 11am! How can you charge me for 2 days’ worth of parking?!
That is !@#$%^& BS!
The cashier insisted that that was the policy and she did not make up the rules. She’s just doing her job and she can’t change the parking rate, it’s in the system.
Here’s a clearer picture of the parking ticket:
Look at the time stamp on our parking ticket: 00:09 — that’s just 9 minutes past midnight! But based on our auto-synced cellphone time, it was only 12:05 AM. And the car in front of us took a long time at the cashier as well, probably complaining, too.
With no other choice, we eventually paid up but we were mad about it! They’re cheating customers, that’s what it is.
Shangri-La Plaza was even one of our favorite malls to watch movies in because of their nicer theaters, and we love the East Wing, but we’re going to stop going there because of this moronic, ridiculous, cheat of a parking policy! Unless they fix that stupidity. Because we really like that mall. And we often watch the last full show so this will most likely happen to us again if they don’t change. Too bad.
I haven’t heard of any other mall that calculates parking based on this ridiculous logic. I think some other malls charge an overnight fee if you go past 1:30 AM or 3 AM, I’m not sure. At least that’s a bit more reasonable than 12 midnight!
It’s not like we overstayed at the mall parking for no reason. We stayed past midnight because we patronized the mall and watched their movie that started at 10:00 PM. If you don’t want your customers staying past midnight, then don’t schedule movies that end around midnight.
If you’re planning to catch a late movie at Shangri-la Plaza mall, think twice!
UPDATE Jan. 9, 2017:
I called the SPI office at #370-2753 to complain about the ridiculous parking charge. The guy I talked to was familiar with the problem and said that they would refund the P55, I just needed to go to their office, present the parking ticket, and they will process the refund. It’s like, they know they’re wrong, and they are willing to refund the P55 without any fuss, but my point is, I will have to remember to do it next time we’re in Shangri-La, if we will even bother to go back. Also, it’s a waste of time that is easily preventable if they had just instituted sane policies right there at the parking cashier.
How many customers are actually going to take the time and make the effort to get a refund for P55? I won’t. So it’s a blatant cash grab. And they only refund if you complain! Irerefund naman pala, pero pahihirapan ka muna para di mo na i-refund. They should have done something so issues like this can get resolved right at the cashier. It’s very obvious naman that the customer went past 12 midnight because they were using the services of the mall. The fact that they want the cash first and make it difficult to get the money back is quite suspect.
QUICK OPINION ON THE MOVIES
For those asking: I liked the Assassin’s Creed movie, the action, the freerunning, were really well done. I don’t know why movie critics don’t like it. But I like these types of movies. 
Passengers was also good, but I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed more. Passengers was like a romance movie masquerading as a sci-fi film. 
It’s another one of those movies were you only see 2-4 people for the entire movie.
