Colonial Parking Issues

I’ve lived in DC for over 25 years and I still do not understand how Colonial Parking has no legit competition. They are so bad and I feel like some team with basic business skills would easily defeat them, but they seem to be everywhere. Did they just buy up independent lots and crowd out the market? How did they get to be so so ubiquitous and yet deliver consistently (ime) bad or rude service? I am genuinely interested.

At my last job they overloaded our building lot and spent hours moving the contracted cars around - getting out to get home was a nightmare, and everyone’s cars were getting scraped, which they disclaimed liability for (until the Tesla cameras showed up and suddenly they were a lot more careful). My current building’s garage is so poorly managed that they have 6 people working at once to drive around in the golf cart checking passes (for cars who already swiped into the garage or whose plates were read upon entry). If they find a car that isn’t parked on the right level they don’t do anything. It seems like a full employment program for someone’s buddies. Note that they don’t use the resources to direct traffic out at COB and it’s an obscured exit onto a one way street.

Today I parked for <30 min while getting a sick teen to his appointment at a Dr in a Colonial lot building and when I went to check out they said my ticket- which was stamped very clearly with with my entry time - was “bad” and charged me, not the applicable half hour rate ($7), not even the hour rate ($14), but a random amount ($16) and wouldn’t explain why. No manager on duty until Thursday to talk to. No coherent explanation. I took photos of the rates and am going to dispute it with my credit card company but I’m now motivated to get to the bottom of why they are everywhere and consider opening my own competing lot company (only just kind of joking). I want to find out the lore here.