Surrender Captain Discount! Your haggling powers are useless on me!

[Argabarga]

"Do you have my car? I juuuuuuuuust parked it for 5 minutes at Accross-the-Street Apartments, and now it's gone."

(Well, he's half right, One of the properties we tow from is directly across the street from our garage, the total tow distance for illegals we take from there can be as little as 150 yards, depending on where in the lot they park. But he was there for considerably longer than 5 minutes, try 20, and wasn't even IN a parking space, just left the car sitting out in one of the rows)

"Yes we do, it was called into us for not having a permit for the lot it was in, it will be $105 cash or credit to pick up."

(Now the FUN commences)

"$105? That's outrageous!"

"The prices are set by Borough Ordinance sir, it's the same no matter who tows you or where you get towed from"

"$105 for a measly little tow accross the street?"

"Fines are set by vehicle weight sir, not distance towed. ANything under 3/4 of a Ton in GVW is $105 wether it goes 10 feet or 10 miles"

"But, what if I come for it right now? Can I get it cheaper if I pick it up now?"

"No, it's still $105"

"But, you only had it for 15 minutes, that's not WORTH $105! I should get some kind of discount for picking it up so soon!"

"I'm sorry Sir (no, I'm really not ) but $105 is the price for an illegaly towed vehicle. It doesn't get any cheaper than that, in fact, it's only going to get more expensive, the only thing you can do now is pay $105 and avoid extra storage fees."

"But you only towed it accross the street!"

"Wether it comes from accross the street or 10 miles away, the price is the same, it's set by Borough ordinance, it's a flat fee, you owe it the instant the car leaves the spot it's been parked in."

"Well, It's a rip off! You can't cut me any kind of break?!"

"No"

"Well, I'll be in to pick it up, but I STILL think that I should be able to pay less!"

*click*

Yup, and sometimes, when I dream, I'd like a pony.....

[tropicsgoddess]

I guess Captain Dee Dee Dee thinks that he can haggle his way through any price. Any follow up on this ID10T?

[superhotelworker]

Yup, and sometimes, when I dream, I'd like a pony.....

Damnit.. broke Rule #1.

[Midnight]

Geez, maybe had you not parked illegally in the first place you could have avoided having your vehicle towed and having to pay the fine in the first place? :P

[RootedPhoenix]

Geez, maybe had you not parked illegally in the first place you could have avoided having your vehicle towed and having to pay the fine in the first place? :P

But that would require an ounce of sense, something this SC is sadly completely free of.

(maybe if someone ed him?..no...still wouldn't help..)

[emax4]

I would have said "You can pay as little as you want, sir... ... but you're not getting it back until $105 is paid in full. Would you rather pay the $105 to get your car back, or shell out thousand and interest in buying a new car, and still pay the storage fees for your old car? See, I can haggle too.."

[Wenchie]

I love parking stories, because these people deserve every bit of it. If you park legally, with your permit, you'll be fine. If you park illegally (in a row, no permit, fake permit, unpaid tickets, etc) then you deserve to have your car removed from your hands until you can ransom it back. I view it as a stupidity tax. ^_^

[EvilEmpryss]

I love parking stories, because these people deserve every bit of it.

Seconded. It's like a little ray of karmic (car-mic? ) sunshine every time you tell us one of your stories. It's like a Disney story, where the Bad Guy always gets his/her just desserts.

It leaves me feeling all warm and fuzzy before I move on to the rest of the stories here.

[taxguykarl]

Geez, maybe had you not parked illegally in the first place you could have avoided having your vehicle towed and having to pay the fine in the first place? :P

It sometimes scares me how many people would consider that news.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ah, towing. The nostalgia warms the cockles of my bitter, shriveled little heart. Man, that was one of my favorite parts of the job, getting to tow the cars of EWs.

[MoonCat]

I love how they always justify it. Five minutes, it's only across the street...etc.

Theater season is beginning in my town. I give it three days max until the first letter appears in the paper complaining that "there was no place to park" (translation: I didn't want to walk a couple of blocks) "so I parked under the No Parking sign and they had the nerve to tow my car! I am never coming downtown again because it's so unfriendly!"

Happens every year.

[chainedbarista]

"$105 for a measly little tow accross the street?"

yep, the price of stupidity is indeed high-get used to it.

this guy would probably crap himself if he saw the cost of a short drive in an ambulance; i had to pay nearly $1k for a trip that was all of 1/4 miles. a painful lesson indeed, lol.

[BlaqueKatt]

this guy would probably crap himself if he saw the cost of a short drive in an ambulance; i had to pay nearly $1k for a trip that was all of 1/4 miles. a painful lesson indeed, lol.

try a 30 minute ride in an "air ambulance"-that runs $50,000-insurance covered it thank goodness-not fun having one's first helicopter ride be on a stretcher in freezing rain.....

[infinitemonkies]

I would have said "You can pay as little as you want, sir... ... but you're not getting it back until $105 is paid in full. "

This just gave me an amusing mental image of someone paying their towing fee on layaway...coming in every few hours to put down a few bucks,... etc.
Sad thing is it's almost certainly happened before.