Get out of a $75 parking ticket with a polite ChatGPT-written appeal
- Posted
- by David Sawyer (@davidsawyer1)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
Outcome
A parent asked ChatGPT to write a polite appeal explaining that his children distracted him and he genuinely forgot (which he says was true). He says it got it in one try, he sent it through the appeal form, and woke up to an email saying his $75 balance had been forgiven.
Agent
Prompt Recreated prompt
The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Write a short, polite, honest appeal for a parking ticket that I can paste into the appeal form. Fill in before running: - Ticket number, date, place and amount: [DETAILS] - What actually happened, honestly: [EXPLANATION] - Anything that helps (first offence, paid quickly, signage issue): [DETAILS] - Character limit of the appeal form: [LIMIT] Rules: - Keep it truthful; don't invent excuses or evidence. - Be brief, polite and take responsibility where it's fair. - Check the issuer's appeal rules and deadline and tell me. - Fit within the form's character limit. - If a site asks for a login, a CAPTCHA or payment details, stop and hand control back to me. - Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. Output: A ready-to-paste appeal and the deadline to submit it. You'll know it worked when: the appeal is honest, polite, under the limit and sent before the deadline.
Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Write a short, polite, honest appeal for a parking ticket that I can paste into the appeal form. Fill in before running: - Ticket number, date, place and amount: [DETAILS] - What actually happened, honestly: [EXPLANATION] - Anything that helps (first offence, paid quickly, signage issue): [DETAILS] - Character limit of the appeal form: [LIMIT] Rules: - Keep it truthful; don't invent excuses or evidence. - Be brief, polite and take responsibility where it's fair. - Check the issuer's appeal rules and deadline and tell me. - Fit within the form's character limit. - If a site asks for a login, a CAPTCHA or payment details, stop and hand control back to me. - Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Tell me what to do if the appeal is rejected (next stage, deadline, whether paying early saves money). Output: A ready-to-paste appeal and the deadline to submit it. You'll know it worked when: the appeal is honest, polite, under the limit and sent before the deadline. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Source
https://x.com/davidsawyer1/status/1932183768334258353
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