I Wasn't Reasonable Enough

[Argabarga]

-This is Argabarga, Friendly Neighborhood Towing, I believe someone at this number just called looking for a tan station wagon?
-Yes, that was me, and see, this is all just a mistake
-If you mean one that would have been parked at space #48 at Mistake-Prone Apartments, then it looks like we do have it, it was towed for not having a permit for space 48
-Well, I thought that was parking for the restaurant next door, so this was all just a big misunderstanding
-Sorry Sir, but that's not a parking lot for the restaurant on that particular street. There are signs that say "Private".
-$115?! Don't you think that's kind of steep?
-The prices for tows are set by Borough ordinance, it's out of my control
-Well, let me talk to a manager or something
-He'll be in tomorrow morning
-So you can't do anything for me now?
-No Sir, only take payment and release the vehicle
-But I was just next door having dinner!
-That doesn't matter Sir, you illegally parked
-But I can bring you the receipt! It'll prove I was just having dinner with my family!
-It doesn't matter what you were doing Sir, you cannot park in that lot unless you are a tenant of that building
-But there isn't any sign that says that!
-Yes there is sir, there are two signs on the wall that say "Private Parking" and the space number is painted on the ground, admittedly, the ground marking is very faded, but it's also painted on the wall itself that you parked in front of, so it's clearly marked
-NO IT WASN'T!
-Yes, it was sir
-THIS IS RIDICULOUS! NONE OF THIS IS CLEAR ENOUGH FOR ME! It said "PRIVATE" SO I THOUGHT THAT MEANT PRIVATE FOR THE RESTAURANT!
-Sorry you feel that way, Sir, but that's not what it means
-Well, then how do I fight this? Because I don't think I should have to pay!
-You could take us to court I suppose, that's about it. Without payment I won't release the vehicle.
-I want a manager!
-He'll be in in the morning, and he'll just tell you the same thing, but if you wait until the morning to see him, you'll pick up a day of storage on the car, and it will be an extra $35 to pick up.
-Look, I didn't know I couldn't park there, those signs are not clear enough! Now, if I bring in my receipt, is there any kind of break you can cut me?!
-No Sir, you illegally parked, you have to pay the fee.
-THIS ISN'T FAIR!
-Yes it is, Sir
-NO IT ISN'T!!!!!
-Do you know where we are located, or do you need directions?
-You don't understand! I thought I was parking at the restaurant! How was I supposed to know?
-It's marked as private, on the ground and on the wall, you just need to be more observant of your surroundings
-I want to talk to that guy I talked to earlier! He was certainly more UNDERSTANDING and REASONABLE than you are!
-That was our answering service, who passed the call on to me, that gentleman is not affiliated with this company in any way

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-FINE!! *click*

There's only one person around here not being reasonable.... and it certainly ain't me nor my answering service. Sigh, another person who thinks a good excuse is just as valid for not paying attention as someone who has no excuse at all. The only way to win the parking game, is not to play at all, Professor Falken......

[Jay 2K Winger]

At least he didn't have a note from his parents saying he had permission to park there, honest, really, you can let his car go without payment...

[sstabeler]

the only way that could possibly work is if the restaurant directed you to park in the private spot, and even the, the issue would be with the restaurant, not Argabarga.

[Caractacus_Potts]

Stephen Falken: Now, children, come on over here. I'm going to tell you a bedtime story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time, there lived a magnificent race of animals that dominated the world through age after age. They ran, they swam, they parked illegally and were towed, until suddenly, quite recently, they disappeared. Nature just gave up and started again. We weren't even apes with cars then. We were just these smart little rodents hiding in the rocks dreaming of validated parking garages. And when we go, nature will start over. With the bees, probably. Yeah...bees will know how to park. Nature knows when to give up, David.

[Raveni]

The apartment complex probably has to tow so that its residents can park there instead of the inconsiderate people who patronize the restraunt next door.

[EricKei]

Joshua> Would. You. Like. To. Play. A. Game?

Falken> Yes. How about a nice game of chess?

Joshua> No. I. Want. To. Play. Towing. Wars.




...I just happened to have watched that the other day. First time in over a decade since I've seen it.

The sad thing is, artificially-generated speech hasn't really improved all that much since that time. (preset conversations that never change don't count)

[Polenicus]

See, the problem with the modern concept of Customer Service is that there are people who think it applies to EVERYTHING. I ran into this when I worked security, and it was... refreshing.

"You aren't being reasonable!"

"It's not my job to be reasonable. It's my job to tell you that this is private property, it's after hours, and you can't be here. You wanna stand here and argue, we can call the police in and get them to tell us which one is wrong."

[downforit2008]

So if the restaurant had "private" parking, he feels he can park his damn vehicle there anyway just because he's a "valued" customer that dines there every once in a while? I'm glad he had his car towed!

Last year at my work, I saw a customer shrieking like a hellion gone mad because their car was towed while they were inside shopping. Seeing where they had parked earlier, I walked up to the customer with a grin and suggested that they not park in the FIRE LANE next time.

SC: I was only gone in the store for a MINUTE!

Me: (still smiling because in the end, justice was served)Sir, I work out here for a living and I noticed where you parked when you came in. You were gone for 33 minutes, so I hope whatever you bought was worth it for you to have to pay over a hundred bucks to get your car out of the towing yard.

[Howler]

Joshua> No. I. Want. To. Play. Towing. Wars.

Johsua> A. Strange. Game. The. Only. Winning. Move. Is. Not. To. Play.
[Against. Argabarga.]



I love that movie!

<disclaimer> Parts in [ ] added </disclaimer>

[ReverendBSB]

I worked at a Subway next to a fairly busy diner near LSU. We would always have customers park in our lot and go the to the diner. We has a front lot of about 5 spaces and a large back lot. I never cared about the back lot but people abusing the front lot pissed me off. When I took over the night shift, including the late night drunk shifts I started towing anyone who parked and walked off. One night after I had three people towed in an hour the manager of the diner came over and asked me to stop towing his customers! I told him to tell his customers to stop parking in our lot or face the consequences.

[Sapphire Silk]

Having lived in an apartment complex where we had problems with illegal parking, I just have to say Argabarga is my hero.

[Argabarga]

I worked at a Subway next to a fairly busy diner near LSU. We would always have customers park in our lot and go the to the diner. We has a front lot of about 5 spaces and a large back lot. I never cared about the back lot but people abusing the front lot pissed me off. When I took over the night shift, including the late night drunk shifts I started towing anyone who parked and walked off. One night after I had three people towed in an hour the manager of the diner came over and asked me to stop towing his customers! I told him to tell his customers to stop parking in our lot or face the consequences.

That reminded me of the time we towed the 3 very large pickup trucks that belonged to 3 burly groups of roughneck construction workers who had all decided to go eat at a restaurant and decided that as long as they were along the building, they were in the restaurant's lot

Unfortunately for them, the backside of that building did NOT belong to them, but the apartment next door, and there were 3 evenly-placed signs saying so to make it clear, well, clear to everyone but these dumb rednecks (And they said PERMIT PARKING ONLY, so that should be a tip-off that you had misparked, as the restaurant served something like 59 kinds of chicken wing, but no kind of permit)

So they got towed

An hour later, the restaurant manager called us and begged for us to let them get their trucks back for a discount/free, because they'd run up a $300 tab, and were very good customers, and were now threatening to never return if they didn't get some kind of discount....

Yeah, they'd threatened the manager, over getting towed from property... that he DIDN'T own

And the manager caved.... and called us, and wanted us to do something, about vehicles towed, from property he DIDN'T own.....

Even after carefully explaining that it WASN'T his property and he had absolutely no right or expectation to decide what happened, he STILL wanted us to "do something" about it

For some reason, that place is no longer in business........

And the dumb rednecks then tried to claim every pre-exsisting rusty dent and scratch on their trucks as having been done by us, ah, fun times

[RealUnimportant]

I'm sick of asking people to move along from our drop off/collection spaces, staff spaces, and disabled bay. "But no-one's using it, I'm right here so can move, I'll only be a couple of minutes..." Yeah, the last guy who said he was going to be a "couple of minutes" came back 11 hours later & found a tersely worded letter from the transport police; he's never been back to our private spaces - he doesn't even visit the public ones up the road!

[PepperElf]

An hour later, the restaurant manager called us and begged for us to let them get their trucks back for a discount/free, because they'd run up a $300 tab, and were very good customers, and were now threatening to never return if they didn't get some kind of discount....

So the restaurant wanted YOU to give up over $300 in services just so they wouldn't lose money later? How is that fucking fair?


I say... let the restaurant PAY the towing fee themselves then. Sure it'll cost them more than what the food-bill came to but... why should you take a hit for someone else's fuckup?

[Argabarga]

So the restaurant wanted YOU to give up over $300 in services just so they wouldn't lose money later? How is that fucking fair?


I say... let the restaurant PAY the towing fee themselves then. Sure it'll cost them more than what the food-bill came to but... why should you take a hit for someone else's fuckup?

These guys ran up a pretty impressive tow bill too, as being good stereotypical rednecks they all owned HUGE-ASS trucks, the kind with crew cabs, dually rear wheels and diesel engines, and 3/4 and 1 ton trucks under the towing law cost an extra $40 to get back compared to the $115 "car" rate. So there's no way we're going to eat the cost of 3 vehicles at that rate, especially because stuff that heavy and big is such a pain to tow that once you get it, you don't give it up without a fight.

Even better was the first call was from the Asst. Manager, when that didn't work, he in turn went and got the main manager... they really didn't understand the concept. We used to tow from their lot too, but we got so many calls after the fact asking us to refund or release cars they'd had us tow in the first place for free for pretty much the same reason (Customer/person complained until they caved) that they had just become accustomed to having us under their direct control. They just couldn't seem to grasp said control ended at the property line.

It wasn't long after this that we simply refused to tow any more for them because they were always coming up with reasons why we had to let the most recent person go... I took back our signs from that lot myself when the manager had enough and told them to just call someone else from now on. Like I said, it wasn't too long ago that they went out of business, and it wasn't for lack of customers I don't believe, the place seemed packed every night, word down the pike was serious managerial ineptitude cause the parent company to pull the franchise, without which they couldn't keep the name or menu (it was a national beer-and-wings kind of chain)