Just been towed - £210 release please!!

[Fastra]

Tried to be clever and save £3 this morning.

I parked on, whats basically, a dirt cobbled track - I usually park in a £3 car park around the corner.
It's an access road for some industrial units with cars parking up on both sides, possibly leaving a car and half width gap in the middle. I've always noticed people parking on there and did the same for the first time today.

Went back at lunch to get a cd from the glovebox and its gone!!

No-one to blame but myself. The signs there have always been a bit hit and miss really, sometimes they disappear for weeks and then re-appear (I would have parked there before but by the time I get there never any space left) and today I didn't even think to check. I just followed the pack and never gave it a second thought, and in fact I was only 10 yards away from a sign.

Rang the number, £210 cash, its in Stretford (about 5 miles away) and I had to be very specific about what time I'd be there to pick it up. Couldn't get hold of any family to come into Manchester and help me out but managed to get a colleague to drive me to a speed bank and then onto the yard.

Turns out its a small operation run from what looks like a breakdown/recovery yard managed by one bloke.
He was pleasant and sympathetic (slightly taking the sting out it) as he told me to check over the car before handing over the cash!

I parked up at 9:00am, towed (complete with handbrake on and in gear) at 10:15am and I picked it up at 2:00pm.

Bad start to the weekend really...!

[OldSkoolRS]

As a Ford owner I really should give the 'for £210 you should have left it there' joke, but I guess I'm not that cruel as I've been on the end of harsh parking tickets myself (3 minutes over one time in London ). Hope the rest of your weekend's better.

[mikeflynn]

I live in Stretford, where about was this?

[nouze]

Fastra said:

He was pleasant and sympathetic (slightly taking the sting out it) as he told me to check over the car before handing over the cash!

That's something special and you should consider yourself lucky - usually clampers won't let you see the car before paying. Can't understand how this is legal.

[ensignia]

I'd have just paid by credit card, and then phoned up to make a chargeback. £210 is just absurd.

[Fastra]

mikeflynn said:

I live in Stretford, where about was this?

The yard was in Stretford - just past the precinct on Chester Road, the actual road is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=m2+5gb&oe=utf-...

[Fastra]

ensignia said:

I'd have just paid by credit card, and then phoned up to make a chargeback. £210 is just absurd.

Cash only - no the option, probably for the very reason you mention!


'Luckily' I get paid today, so there was enough cash in my account to cover it - any other time of the month then I'd have been screwed.

[Brite spark]

Fastra said:

Cash only - no the option, probably for the very reason you mention!

or tax avoidance by the company

[Fastra]

Brite spark said:

Fastra said:

Cash only - no the option, probably for the very reason you mention!

or tax avoidance by the company

Funny you say that, just reading a thread that alludes to the very same thing!

[AJI]

This is an occasion where I really would think about printing out some fake cash and using that!

[pilchardthecat]

Fastra said:

Brite spark said:

Fastra said:

Cash only - no the option, probably for the very reason you mention!

or tax avoidance by the company

Funny you say that, just reading a thread that alludes to the very same thing!

Insist on a VAT receipt. If they refuse, report them to HMRC

[Mattt]

What is the current VAT rate on extortion services?

[pilchardthecat]

Mattt said:

What is the current VAT rate on extortion services?

Parking charges are at the standard 20% rate.

[Fastra]

... and to top off a spiffing day the wife has just rang to tell me the house alarm won't turn off!!


Where's the nearest feckign cliff then....?

[Hitler Hadrump]

That's a familiar area, I visit every time I get in the wrong lane on the Chester Rd/Mancunian Way roundabout. Which is about half the time, because I'm an idiot.

[Fastra]

Thats the baby.

Daft thing is that it's only £2.90 a day in a carpark just around the corner from here, but I was trying to save a few pence - better in my pocket and all that.

[MG511]

On your house alarm, ours did that a few weeks ago. The battery has probably died, they are huge and get very hot, wear some thick gloves when you take it out.

[Fastra]

MG511 said:

On your house alarm, ours did that a few weeks ago. The battery has probably died, they are huge and get very hot, wear some thick gloves when you take it out.

Quite right, thanks -

I've just spoken to a local Alarm fitter, who once I mentioned the make (Optima XM6) he immediately said "battery"!!! , and on asking the wife to check the sticker I'd put on it when I last changed it this was confirmed - Dec 2005. So it was due for changing some time ago really.