Are You in Iceland Right Now? Your Help is Requested…

I  received a request from FlyerTalk member DLroads, whom I consider a good friend: he just returned from Iceland with his significant other to find out that what he thought was a receipt for paying for parking actually is a parking ticket. He apparently parked his car in a spot near the hotel property where he stayed between 6 minutes and 66 minutes — depending on how you read the sign.

Are You in Iceland Right Now? Your Help is Requested…

The fine for the infraction he allegedly committed is 2,500 Icelandic króna, which is equivalent to approximately $20.00; but if it is paid within three days, the fine is reduced to 1,400 2,500 Icelandic króna, which is equivalent to approximately $11.50. It can be paid in any local bank in Iceland — but DLroads is obviously not in Iceland; so this is where you come in if you happen to be anywhere in Iceland…

…he will send to you via e-mail message or private message via FlyerTalk the information and photograph of the ticket — as well as send the funds to you via PayPal — so that you can pay the lower fine of the ticket on his behalf. You can even keep the difference between the discounted fine and the actual fine to buy yourself a local beer or vodka; and in fact, the difference should actually cover two beers, 2.5 coffees or one vodka.

If for some reason the municipality refunds DLroads on a later date, you can even keep the refund.

Details Pertaining to the Parking Ticket

“We do not think the ticket was justifiable”, DLroads communicated to me. “We put two separate parking payments and put them on the board up front because the machine ‘acted up’ and I guess the inspector did not add them together; but it does not matter now.”

The machine for the parking payments “speaks” only Icelandic; and DLroads is apparently not the first person to complain that the parking tickets look like a parking receipt.

“It is annoying, as the ticket does not have a single word in English”, according to DLroads, “until you search very down at the bottom and there is a small statement ‘this fee can be paid at any local bank using the following information’ and the rest follows again in Icelandic, including the ticket info. The back side is all in Icelandic, and rest assured — it is hard to figure out even if you use Google Translate. Luckily I kept all receipts this time because the machine for the parking acted up and it took me five or six attempts to pay for the tickets; so my biggest concern was duplicated charges, and not a parking ticket.”

He sent an e-mail message to the municipality of Reykjavik; and while they could not help him pay the ticket via the Internet — because they allegedly claim that while they do not have a system to do that, they agreed to open a dispute case on the ticket for him and will notify him in four weeks of the decision. He is currently waiting to hear from them. His biggest concern is that the ticket has a reduced rate if it is paid within three days — which ends today — and if the clock does not stop during the dispute process period, the fine can reach upwards of 60 or 70 dollars.

Summary

If you can help DLroads with his simple requestþakka þér kærlega fyrir hjálpina — which is Icelandic for “Thank you very much for your dedicated help.”

    1. Yes, I am serious.

      I only hope that whenever you need assistance, johnny33, no one considers your request “a joke.”

  1. Actually I think this is pretty cool. What a great thing if the traveling community can help each other out.

    1. Helping other frequent fliers is something I have been doing for years, DW — and I have benefited as well from the assistance of fellow frequent fliers. It is an amazing community; and I intend to continue to do so as contribute as long as I am able.

      Thank you.

  2. He could attempt to contact Iceland’s embassy in Washington, D.C., USA to see if they have any modalities to get the fine paid. If he doesn’t pay the fine, it’s doubtful Iceland authorities, which don’t have a lot of cash, would expend the time, energy, financial resources to track down the ‘crime of the century’ offender. The worst possible scenario is a flag put on his passport should he wish to revisit the scene of his ‘crime’ and take a dip in the Blue Lagoon. And the very real crime here is that if he and his wife were to return they would more than spend the $20.00 bucks fine on hotels, restaurants, etc.
    But never let logical thinking get in the way of a bureaucrat.

  3. If nobody is in Iceland… and assuming the car was a rental… the rental company may well be billed and pay the ticket. Then bill him for it plus a fee. Sometimes the rental contract spells out the fee.

  4. It’s pretty Anglocentric to be annoyed that “the ticket does not have a single word in English.” The parking tickets I’ve gotten in the U.S. were entirely in English. The one I got in France was entirely in French. Why would anyone expect a ticket to be in anything but the local language?

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