Car Clamped - High fee

Kellerina

My car was clamped on Friday on a business park where I was going shopping. I walked just out of the boundary of the park where there was a bus stop to meet a friend and then returned to the shops.

They clamped me as they had seen me "leave" the business park but not return. As they had clamped the drivers side of the car which was facing away from me I did not see this until I returned to the car 2 hours later.

By this time they had called a tow truck. The charge to release the car was £125 and they told me it would be £30 to cancel the tow truck. So I then went about getting hold of the money, I certainly did not have that sort of cash going spare. When I managed this they took my card and then when I looked at the receipt they had charged me £125 to release the car and another £125 to cancel the tow truck. They then pointed this out to me on the notice but they had already mis-advised me.

I also pointed out that they had my car down as a Fiat Cinquecento with the reg starting with a C. It is actually a Kia Picanto and the reg starts with an L. On the carbon copy of the receipt they have amended the reg and overwritten the incorrect letter, can they do this?

Please could someone help as I cannot afford to let this go, it is a lot of money to anyone, never mind in the current times

bargepole

These clampers are lower than the scum of the earth and have acted illegally.

You would need to make a County Court Claim to recover your money, but first I would advise finding out, from the Land Registry, the name of the landowner of the car park. Then send a Letter before Action to both the clampers and the landowner, and if that doesn't work, issue a court claim against both of them jointly.

If the judgement is granted in your favour - quite likely as these cowboy clamping firms rarely turn up - you'll have more success getting the Court bailiffs to recover sums from the landowner, as the clampers won't have any assets that the bailiffs can take.

Lesson for next time: keep an angle grinder in your boot, and just cut the clamp off.

Kellerina

Thank you so much for your help, if it wasn't for my mum giving me the money my car would have been towed. I just can't see how they can charge £125 to cancel a tow truck!:mad:

I have the sample letter off of this site so will start by using that once found out owner of land.

Thanks again

sarahg1969

What kind of card did you pay with? If it was a credit card, you need to contact your card issuer and tell them that the money was taken without authority and that you want them to get the money back.

Kellerina

No unfortunately it was a debit card as don't have a credit card anymore. I am writing a letter to both the clamping people and to the land owner and then if that doesn't get any response go to the small claims court. If I hadn't had the money in my account to cover the extra the payment would have been declined anyway but then they prob woulodn't have released my car.

I reckon they took advantage of me being on my own and the fact that I had never had to deal with this before :mad:

peter_the_piper

I seem to remember that visa debit do have some kind of chargeback available. Check with someone more knowledgeable than me to confirm this.

Kellerina

Hi,

I have checked with a friend who used to work for a bank and unfortunately there is no cover with debit cards. I'm still going after them though!:eek:

sarahg1969

Kellerina wrote: »

Hi,

I have checked with a friend who used to work for a bank and unfortunately there is no cover with debit cards. I'm still going after them though!:eek:

Good for you. And good luck.

If you need any further assistance along the way, pepipoo is another site that may be able to help.

peter_the_piper

This what I was thinking of,http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/
not all debit cards only visa debit.