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  • The Ideas Some People Come Up With

    I’ve been threatened with, DEMOCRACY!

    -Did you tow my car from 505 That Street?
    -Yes Sir, we have that vehicle, it was called into us for having no permit for the lot, it will be $115…
    -WON-HUNDRED AN FEEF-TEEEEN DOLLARS???? Are you serious!?

    (Why do they always ask this? Can you think of a good reason I’d lie? Do you think this is some psychological experiment where we arbitrarily pick numbers Price Is Right style with a giant beeping game wheel in the back and whatever you roll you pay? Excepting of course the lucky few who hit the “get out free” space? Anyway, I digress.)

    -Yes, $115
    -Why is it that much?!
    -That’s the borough fee for being towed for illegal parking, it would cost the same no matter how towed you or where you got towed from. As long as the vehicle weighs less than 5,000 pounds, it’s considered a light duty tow, and charged $115.
    -Didn’t it use to be less?
    -It was $105, but as of the first of the year, the price has been raised.
    -Well, maybe I’ll just run for borough council myself and get that changed!

    Sure, you do that. And while you’re at it, I’ll be over here in the corner, snickering loudly. I can safely say, that up till now, I’ve be threatened with beatings, shootings, boycotts, lawsuits, firings, slashed tires and bad karma, but I can’t say I’d ever been threatened with a political campaign. I must be getting important in the world at last.


    WARNING! WARNING!,DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON! YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE TOWED!

    -Uh, we have a problem, you just towed my truck from Bayberry Place Apartments, and I was given no warning whatsoever.

    What about that sign you drove past that said “Permit Parking Only – Violators Towed” , that didn’t count as some kind of warning?

    -Yes Sir, that’s a private lot and vehicles need to display permits to park there
    -Well, there was nothing in my lease that says that.
    -Yes there was Sir, all residents are informed of the rules when they rent.

    (And somehow, the other 299 vehicles over there all got the message)

    -Well, I wasn’t, and you towed my friend’s truck without giving any kind of courtesy warning

    “Friend’s truck”? I thought you said it was yours?

    -Actually Sir, it was warned, that lot has a person who checks the vehicles for permits, if they don’t see one, they’ll put a warning note on the vehicle, and if it’s still there in half an hour, it can be towed. So it was warned, the warning ticket is still on the truck in fact.
    -And … and you just towed it?
    -Yes
    -But he was only there for a couple hours!
    -Doesn’t matter, didn’t have a permit and the warning was ignored.
    -Okay, I MAY be back later!

    Fine, and I MAY care about that…. Oops, lost it.

    And he left, after 15 seconds of conversation, in which he told 2 lies (A lie-per-minute rate of 8) and then spent the next minute or so sulking in the parking lot with some of his other buddies, totally defeated and still in shock that his brilliant plan to get out of being towed had been so thoroughly smashed to atoms. And what is it again with people demanding warnings… as you can clearly see, they’ll just ignore them too. I guess he came back in the morning to whinge some more with the manager and probably got nowhere, as the truck was gone when I returned for nightshift.

    It Doesn't Work Like That

    -Hey! Why did you tow my car!? I had a permit!
    -Not for that property. You have a permit for “A Apartments” at 125 This Street, the lot you got towed from was -“Not-A Apartments” at 130 This Street, which is on the other side of the road. It’s a different property entirely, different owner, different rules, and different permits (one has stickers for windows, the other has hangtags for mirrors).
    -But your signs were up!
    -Yes…. And?
    -Well, your signs are up in OUR lot too!
    -Yes, we tow from both properties
    -You mean I can’t park over there? I thought I could park anywhere where your signs were
    -Uh, no, you have to stay in your assigned lot
    -Oh….

    He paid, and left, and has now hopefully learned an important lesson in life. Because knowing is half the battle, porkchop.
    - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

  • #2
    Your stories always brighten my day. Thanks for posting.
    You gotta polish a memory like a stone. Chip off the parts that remind you it was just a game. Work it until it's indistinguishable from any other memory.

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    • #3
      Quoth Argabarga View Post
      I’ve been threatened with, DEMOCRACY!
      Is he planning on having a song sequence to go with it?


      WARNING! WARNING!,DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON! YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE TOWED!
      Talk about a bad liar.

      It Doesn't Work Like That
      At least he read the sign....sadly it was just the wrong one.
      The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

      Now queen of USSR-Land...

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      • #4
        There might be hope for the third guy. A small hope, but still, hope.

        Comment


        • #5
          Yeah, sounds like Guy #3 just made a genuine mistake.

          So does Guy #1 plan to leave his truck there until he is elected and gets the laws/fines changed? And then festoon it with garlands and have a triumphant "drive-away" from your lot?

          Comment


          • #6
            Wow, how many people in the borough council? And how is he going to get them to agree to cut income to said borough? Worse if he forces a review they may just decide to raise more.

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth Argabarga View Post
              I can safely say, that up till now, I’ve be threatened with beatings, shootings, boycotts, lawsuits, firings, slashed tires and bad karma, but I can’t say I’d ever been threatened with a political campaign. I must be getting important in the world at last.
              Hooray!! I always knew you would!
              "Redheads have at least a 95% chance of being gorgeous. They're also concentrated evil." - Irv

              "This is all strange, uncharted territory and your hamster only has three legs." - Gravekeeper

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              • #8
                Yeah, warning stickers never work... They just make the property owner sleep better at night, knowing that his stupid tenants or guests of said stupid tenants at least had another chance at not gettin towed. Put the signs up and tow, tow, tow...

                The sound of a diesel engine towing your dumb neighbor's car away gets the message across much better to the rest of the people.

                Comment


                • #9
                  What happens if there's a party, and a bunch of people take up someone's space, so the person who has a legit permit has to park in the others space that require a different permit? How do you handle that, I mean, if the legit people just park instead of notifying your company?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth earl colby pottinger View Post
                    Wow, how many people in the borough council? And how is he going to get them to agree to cut income to said borough? Worse if he forces a review they may just decide to raise more.
                    The way I understand it, the borough sets the fee that Argabarga's employer can charge for a light tow. The borough doesn't get the money. (At least, not directly, they'd get their cut in taxes and whatnot.)

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth emax4 View Post
                      What happens if there's a party, and a bunch of people take up someone's space, so the person who has a legit permit has to park in the others space that require a different permit? How do you handle that, I mean, if the legit people just park instead of notifying your company?
                      Well, there's two types of lots we do, there are lots with assigned spaces, and lots without.

                      If it's a lot WITH assigned spaces, you are given a specific numbered space to park in and told in no uncertain terms that you MUST use that UND ONLY ZAT space. It's tied to your lease agreement, so that nobody else but YOU should ever be using it. If you come home and find another car in your space, you call us, show us your lease and we tow the offender away. Sadly, there have been numerous cases where someone comes home, finds someone in their space, doesn't want to be the 'bad guy' and tow them, so they just use another open space, and get towed themselves when THAT person comes home and isn't feeling as charitable. Also, by that time, the original violator is usually long gone. I understand that some people just don't want to "cause trouble" and want to "be nice", but as I tell them when they come in to get their car "When you're nice to these people, you essentially end up paying for what should have been their tow" Sometimes you can get 3 or 4 car daisy-chains of people in wrong spaces who all are trying not to be "mean" to each other, until that one person comes home tired at 2am and decides they WILL call the truck. And then the person who GOT towed gets mad, and decides to tow the person in their spot after all, and when the next person gets towed, the do the same, all the way down the line until we're back at the original misplaced car. (and by then, the first car that had NO lease has gotten away) Basically, if the car in the space doesn't match the owner's info, it goes, no excuses no exceptions

                      Now, if there are no assigned spaces, usually there's some kind of permit, either a window sticker or a rearview mirror hangtag that shows you belong in that lot. And most complexes are fortunate enough that even when they're renting at full capacity, there's just a few more spaces than tenant vehicles (to allow for maintenance guys, permitted guests, deliveries) so you should never get into a situation where there's no room for you in an unassigned lot since you just take whatever is open. If it's completely full, that USUALLY means someone is there without a permit and we will go down to check and tow out the offenders. 99% of these lots allow guest parking if you call in advance and get a guest permit, which may or may not involve a nominal $5 fee, and most people who get towed figure that since they'll only be there "a couple hours" they don't need one or won't be noticed, and they gamble wrong.

                      A small smattering of lots, maybe 2% have lists, check the car, check the list, if it's not on the list, it goes. This is not a prefered way to do it as people tend to change cars/borrow cars and having a list means having to keep it regularly updated and some property owners are so lax in this that they haven't done so for 2 years or more, so we essentially can't patrol or tow those lots anymore unless they call us directly about a car they personally KNOW they haven't rented to. So, this is only used by smaller lots with less than a dozen tenants needing parking or commercial properties where anything that isn't the owner or the janitor after hours can go.

                      In rare cases where the lot is full and nobody can be towed, unfortunately the only thing we can recommend is to use public parking either curbside or in a garage for the night, and see the management in the morning about the situation and/or reimbursement for having to feed a meter/pay a ticket.

                      These rules are all spelled out in leases, but most people just sign them without reading, hence the massive whining when they discover the signs aren't there just so we can tow the abandoned cars away at the end of the year.
                      Last edited by Argabarga; 01-18-2012, 10:56 AM.
                      - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth draco664 View Post
                        The way I understand it, the borough sets the fee that Argabarga's employer can charge for a light tow. The borough doesn't get the money. (At least, not directly, they'd get their cut in taxes and whatnot.)
                        Correct, we collect 100% of the fine, since we're providing the manpower, fuel, storage space and equipment. The only money the borough sees from illegal parking is tickets they write for violations on their property (i.e. streets, alleys, municipal parking lots/garages) If the violation is on private property, they see nothing. And, they technically only set the maximums, but, every towing company in town (us and 3 others) automatically go up to the max, so in practice, they are setting the prices as nobody prices their impounds below that mark either.

                        They also set the max fees for charges for wrecks including itemized charges for what you can charge for post-crash cleanup, winching, use of flares, extra trucks on scene, etc.

                        Service calls (flats, breakdowns) are unregulated, we can charge whatever we want for those, unless you have a motor club, then you pay our contracted rate through them, whatever it is. I strongly recommend everyone get motorclub coverage of somekind, even the cheapest tiers of service are better than paying pure cash rates, if you break down more than 10 miles from your destination/home, it can get expensive since the major cost of a service is the mileage. $2.50 a mile doesn't sound like much, but, it adds up quickly.
                        - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Sounds like #3 put just too little thought into what he was doing; enough to justify it but not enough to realise it was still stupid. Still, next time...!
                          This was one of those times where my mouth says "have a nice day" but my brain says "go step on a Lego". - RegisterAce
                          I can't make something magically appear to fulfill all your hopes and dreams. Believe me, if I could I'd be the first person I'd help. - Trixie

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                          • #14
                            Quoth emax4 View Post
                            What happens if there's a party, and a bunch of people take up someone's space, so the person who has a legit permit has to park in the others space that require a different permit? How do you handle that, I mean, if the legit people just park instead of notifying your company?


                            Logic fail.

                            If you can have the partiers towed, then the person whose space you parked in can have you towed. Instead of compounding the problem, park on the street, and call the towing company to come tow the car that's in your spot.
                            I don’t have enough middle fingers to show you how I feel about you.
                            - Twitter, via Boredpanda.com, via Youtube

                            Right. Well. When you manage to pull the concussed deer of your intellect away from the oncoming headlights of life let me know. - Grave keeper

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                            • #15
                              Quoth paxillated View Post


                              Logic fail.

                              If you can have the partiers towed, then the person whose space you parked in can have you towed. Instead of compounding the problem, park on the street, and call the towing company to come tow the car that's in your spot.
                              Depending on the location, parking on the street may cause more consequences and higher fines than parking in someone else's assigned spot though. As the OP said earlier, some people may not want to cause trouble and be nice, and I'm one of those people. Depending on how crowded it may be, the logic choice may only be to call the towing company though. Nice people like me give people more than one chance. I never called the cops on my noisy neighbors until I gave them enough warning and they refused to stop.

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