I'm annoyed

About six weeks ago, we parked for too long in the Coles carpark and got a ticket. Ok, we weren't actually shopping at Coles so we deserved it. It was $19. I can hear Sydneysiders laughing.. yes $19. The minimum ticket I ever got in Sydney was $73 and that was for parking on my uni campus, not even on a public street!!

It was due a week ago and with Mel away I totally forgot about it. Finally posted a cheque off on Monday. On Wednesday I received a reminder notice so there must have been a cross-over between them receiving my payment and mailing the reminder. That would be fine, except that the reminder (note: this fine was only a week overdue) has an additional penalty of $36 added to the original $19! THIRTY-SIX DOLLARS!!!!!

I appreciate that it's not going to break the bank, but I get SO PISSED OFF with big organisations charging totally unreasonable fees. Like the bloody bank honour fees which have recently been found to be legally unenforceable! I'm pretty sure a "reminder fee" that is almost double the original infringement is not a reasonable reflection of the cost incurred to the council in sending the reminder letter and don't think I won't be telling them that today!

Can you tell I'm annoyed? I'm really annoyed. What if I hadn't paid it because I'm really destitute? How is it helpful to slap someone having financial troubles with a ridiculously inflated penalty fee? Who do they think they are? I'm annoyed. Don't think I'm not going to tell them today. And I'll probably end up paying the fucking fee but not before I express an opinion about it.