Yet another reason I won't use sears

[draftermatt]

I'd be careful parking people in and leaving.

Where we used to live we were assigned two parking spots. Well technically we owned them. Anyway, the house next to me had 4 cars (4 people lived there) and the one guy was always parking in people's spots rather than the street. (Tried it with ours once when we were at a wedding and there was 8 inches of snow on the ground, my wife went off).

Anyway, so he took to parking in a spot across the street. Till they parked him in overnight. Well, he had to go to work the next morning around 6 AM, and we hear him blowing on his horn trying to get out. When no one showed up he drove through their yard to get out.

After that he never did it again, but some people would rather tear up your yard, or hurt your car.

[smileyeagle1021]

Where we used to live we were assigned two parking spots. Well technically we owned them..

that is my argument with property management... as far as I'm concerned when I bought the condo I was told it included one parking space... as far as I'm concerned I bought that parking space with my condo and I pay the property management to maintain it... and their argument is that no it's community property... umm, bullshit, you sold the condo as 1 parking space included, not you share parking with "the community"

[Rine]

I wouldn't cause a confrontation and wait him out...just call the nearest store and report it to the store manager or they can provide the number for whoever does the deliveries.

If he wasn't doing a delivery that was taking a very long time, then management might want to know why he's using the truck for personal things. Maybe there is a slim chance that he's an airhead and didn't realize it was someone's personal spot.

I used to live in a place that had assigned parking/reserved spots. It honestly just doesn't piss me off that much if someone is using my spot. If it happened more than two or three times, then I just gave them a friendly reminder that those two spots belong to my house. Happened more than that, I just got security on their butts and things worked out in the end. To me, there are just bigger things to worry about. *shrugs*

Boxing people in...to me, that's more rude that parking in a personal spot. You have no idea if someone has some sort of emergency and they need to leave and use their car to go to the hosptial or something...but they can't leave easily because someone parked them in to "show them a lesson." Eh...not nice. So, that's why I don't play that sort of game.

[Andara Bledin]

Parking in someone else's assigned parking spot is tresspassing. Would you be pissed if someone camped out in your living room, even if you weren't using it right then?

As for the lack of adequate signage, if there isn't adequate signage, could it be possible that the driver actually didn't know that it was assigned? I've been to a couple of complexes with numbered spaces that were actually open guest parking, and I've seen others with assigned parking, but no markings at all.

I don't hesitate a bit to report to the parking enforcement people when someone is in my spot. It's as much my property as the apartment, and I'll be damned if someone is going to use my personal property without so much as a by your leave.

^-.-^

[MCSledgehammer]

Blocking people in can be a very very bad idea, not to mention bad karma all around. My mom's evil neighbor routinely blocked people in (she had claimed the handicapped spot as her own, but she walked her yappy-type dog for hours), from a pizza delivery kid who was just trying to do his job (though I agree, not his space to park in, once he came out, she should have let him go), to my dad, when he came to pick me up.
Mind you, my dad IS handicapped. He has a fake knee that doesn't work so great, courtesy of Vietnam. She blocked him in, we knocked on her door, and she went to move her car, bitching the whole time about how we "shouldn't take advantage of handicapped spots if we weren't handicapped", yadda yadda yadda. We get to the cars, dad reaches in and grabs the little mirror-hanger, hands it to her and says "I left my kneecap somewhere in the jungle. Can you move your car now, please?" Priceless look on her face. Anyway, the point of that story is that you don't want to be Camille. She's evil.
Story the second-
When I had a really big problem with people parking in my spot, it was always this one girl who lived down the hall- she'd have people over, and they'd park in my spot. I talked to her about it, told her when I was gone, no big deal, but I need my spot by when I get home. After months of this, I started calling tow trucks, but they'd leave before the truck got there. So, to finish it, I jacked up the car, took off the right rear wheel, and rolled it into my house. When the truck got there and the girls were outside twittering, I rolled it back, gave it to the truck driver and went back inside. Problem over. However, I recommend that only as a last resort.

[Kogarashi]

I agree. Boxing people in is too rude and potentially dangerous.

With our first complex, when people would occupy our space, we'd write a note and leave it under the windshield wiper. We never had the same car taking the space twice. Signage there wasn't adequate at all, and the numbers on the pavement were fading, but everyone who lived in the complex knew the spaces were assigned one to each apartment, with one visitor space and street parking.

With the second, not only was it adequately signed, it was University-owned with special permits and each space numbered by apartment (with lots of extra visitor spaces in each area). We only had two instances of someone taking our space. Once it was a moving truck, and we gladly took a visitor space nearby instead, and the other time we left a note. It helped that university police regularly patrolled the lots for funny business and permit-checking, so violators were quickly removed. I loved that system, because the permit for the housing lots was the same as for the major lots on campus, so I could park there as well if I needed to drive instead of walk.

Here at Hubby's grad school, though, there are not enough signs and university security doesn't check permits. They claim that violators will be removed, but I've seen un-permited cars in the same spaces for days on end, and there's still the daycare press that's highly, highly irritating.

[smileyeagle1021]

With my complex the biggest logic flaw is that they say we cannot tow a car unless it is a repeat offender... what they don't understand is that many people will park and not move their car for 2 or 3 days (there are several cars that actually haven't moved for 3 months)... am I supposed to just give up my space for 3 days because they haven't done it before... umm, no, I want my space (I'm planning on writing out a list of grievences, parking being one of them, with my monthly home owners fees for this month).

[chops]

With my complex the biggest logic flaw is that they say we cannot tow a car unless it is a repeat offender...

I had that happen before, too. In our lot, we're assigned one to two numbered parking spots. The non-numbered spots are fair game. When I caught someone in my spot, I called the courtesy attendant and told her what happened. She basically told me that they won't tow it unless it happens again, but they will put a warning on their car. This is despite the fact that their written parking policy is very stern and direct about the consequences of parking in an assigned spot that isn't yours.

By any chance, is your apartment complex owned by a very large, five-letter national corporation? Mine was.

[PepperElf]

i was thinking... get the truck number and call sears up.
file a complaint that the guy took your spot and is nowhere to be seen, not delivering anything and that you'd like to park your car after a long day of work

[smileyeagle1021]

By any chance, is your apartment complex owned by a very large, five-letter national corporation? Mine was.

you mean there's more than one management company as bad as ours

actually I live in condos, it's just that rather than having a homeowners association we use a property management company, and their local yocals that manage several condo complexes in the SL Valley (they also act as a property manager for individuals wanting to rent out houses). And no, they aren't 5 letters... but their initials happen to be the same as the initials of the sympton most women go through around "that time of the month"

i was thinking... get the truck number and call sears up.
file a complaint that the guy took your spot and is nowhere to be seen, not delivering anything and that you'd like to park your car after a long day of work

i did email them... and they basically sent a form letter back saying sorry we inconvenienced you but you said yourself you were still able to find a parking space so we don't see what the big deal is, but we'll still talk to the driver anyway...

[FredKlein]

ALternatively...

Personally, I recomend something like this:

http://offroadrecovery.zoovy.com/c=A..._DEFLATOR.html

It's a set of little screw-on caps that you can put on car tire valve stems, and it slowly lets the air out. Poof, a flat tire, WITH NO DAMAGE TO THE TIRE. Flatten two tires (so they can't just swap the spare in), and leave a note explaining this is not their parking space....

Of course, this has drawbacks, too. Even though I said 'no damge to the tire', there is a very small chance something might happen to the tire or rim. And it might be considered 'vandalism' or something by some people. And of course, if the car belongs to a doctor/fireman/police officer and there's an emergency, they may not be able to respond in time. Personally, I think the chances of this happening are remote (and if you 'just' got their car towed, they couldn't respond either!), so I feel this is a relatively 'safe' way to voice your displeasure with illegal parkers.

[smileyeagle1021]

Personally, I recomend something like this:

http://offroadrecovery.zoovy.com/c=A..._DEFLATOR.html

It's a set of little screw-on caps that you can put on car tire valve stems, and it slowly lets the air out. Poof, a flat tire, WITH NO DAMAGE TO THE TIRE. Flatten two tires (so they can't just swap the spare in), and leave a note explaining this is not their parking space....

Of course, this has drawbacks, too. Even though I said 'no damge to the tire', there is a very small chance something might happen to the tire or rim. And it might be considered 'vandalism' or something by some people. And of course, if the car belongs to a doctor/fireman/police officer and there's an emergency, they may not be able to respond in time. Personally, I think the chances of this happening are remote (and if you 'just' got their car towed, they couldn't respond either!), so I feel this is a relatively 'safe' way to voice your displeasure with illegal parkers.

or if I feel particularly evil, deflate it just enough that the van will handle really sluggishly but not so much that they notice the low tires and let them try to figure out what the hell is wrong

[Argabarga]

If you do block someone in, your car can be towed for being in a fire/travel lane. So I'll just add my voice here to the crowd, if you illegaly park in the hopes of teaching an illegal parker a "lesson" both of you may get towed. Even worse, since your car has to be moved first, obviously, while I'm leaving with your car, Mr. Illegal may notice the commotion, come back and move his before I can unload yours and get back the lot. End result, you owe me $95, and Mr. Illegal owes nothing.

So take it from me, don't do it

[Andara Bledin]

Don't do the tire deflation thing, either, as that is also a ticketable offense. Something about "mischief" or the like, and possibly vandalism.

The way to make a complaint like this is to couch it like you're actually looking out for the company's best interests and that if he's not careful, he's going to get the van towed. The possibility of having to shell out money for their own property because some employee is a schmuck is much more likely to get them to take action than just inconveniencing somebody who isn't even a customer.

^-.-^

[smileyeagle1021]

Don't do the tire deflation thing, either, as that is also a ticketable offense. Something about "mischief" or the like, and possibly vandalism.

i'd post a reply on what I thought about laws regarding what I can and cannot do with vehicles parked in a space I'm paying for... but that's in fratching territory so i'll refrain