Car clamped last night

ethereal

Last night we attended a major event in our city which occurs for two days every year. thousands go so you can imagine that cars pour onto the streets trying to get a parking space anywhere they can. We parked in a private hotel car park along with dozens of other visitors. When we returned to our car a couple of hours later, we had been clamped. Two other cars were clamped including a taxi driver who wasn't even inside the car park! We disputed but the clamper refused to remove the clamp without a £95 fee which we just don't have! The ticket is a printout from the clamping company but looks very poor quailty and blurred. It has the SIA logo on it saying it is SIA approved but has no licence number anywhere on the ticket. There are two other logos on it but they are just clip art type pictures of vehicle clamping. I'm not saying this company isn't genuine but it looks very amature. What information should be on this ticket? All it has is the date, our reg number and a ref number, hand written at the top. A friend eventually helped us to pay for vehicle release as we had to get the car home. I notice that payments for clamps can be refunded for various reasons such as unclear warning signs. There were three of us in our car and none of us saw the clamping warning. When we checked the parking restrictions with the hotel, they told us that there was a £5 fee for parking and a note of payment would be kept at reception for the clampers to check. There was definately no way we could have known about this! What should we do, please? :mad:

motorguy

Accept you shouldnt have parked in a hotels private car park and move on?

dacouch

I think you can check whether the company is SIA registered here http://www.the-sia.org.uk/home/acs/roac_intro.htm

One of the parking experts like neil will be along soon who will be able to offer better help, they normally find it helpful if you can post the ticket up or post a link to it (Remove any personal info such as your reg etc). It will also help them if you can post up any info about the signs being displayed at the car park

ethereal

I hear what you are saying Paul but I'm just so frustrated that these people can just demand such large sums of money on the spot regardless of your circumstances! Who has the odd £100 lying around these days that can be thrown away? I accept a penalty for parking on private property but surely £10 or even £30 would suffice???????? This has to be so wrong!

hewhoisnotintheknow

ignore this post!

motorguy

ethereal wrote: »

I hear what you are saying Paul but I'm just so frustrated that these people can just demand such large sums of money on the spot regardless of your circumstances! Who has the odd £100 lying around these days that can be thrown away? I accept a penalty for parking on private property but surely £10 or even £30 would suffice???????? This has to be so wrong!

My comment was flippant, sorry!

You're right - £95 isnt easy come by these days...

... my only fear would be you could spend a lot of time chasing this and frustrating yourself even more only to get nowhere...

ethereal

dacouch wrote: »

I think you can check whether the company is SIA registered here http://www.the-sia.org.uk/home/acs/roac_intro.htm

One of the parking experts like neil will be along soon who will be able to offer better help, they normally find it helpful if you can post the ticket up or post a link to it (Remove any personal info such as your reg etc). It will also help them if you can post up any info about the signs being displayed at the car park

Thanks, I checked the link and there was only one registered vehicle immobilser in my area and it's not the company on my ticket! I'm getting hopefull! I hope Neil can shed more light on this for me

Hintza

I would be annoyed too but you need to look at from the Hotel's point of view as well. You decided to use their property which costs them money and possibly interferred with their customers who are actually spending money at the hotel. If it was only £10-£30 some folk might think that was cheap and worthwhile. I think youy are lucky it was only £95.

ethereal

yeh, I know, but I like to check these things out before I move on completely. If I can get my money back (my mate's money) then I'd like to but if not I will accept defeat and be more careful in future. I won't go too far, I just want to know if there is anything I can do before giving up!

ethereal

ok, so I can request a refund based on the fact that the signage wasn't clear and that as a law abiding citizen, it was a genuine mistake as we did not realise the parking regulations. Also, I can't seem to find this company on the SIA website of registered operators. What do I do now, who do I write to or contact? The clamping company first or the SIA?

vikingaero

ethereal wrote: »

ok, so I can request a refund based on the fact that the signage wasn't clear and that as a law abiding citizen, it was a genuine mistake as we did not realise the parking regulations. Also, I can't seem to find this company on the SIA website of registered operators. What do I do now, who do I write to or contact? The clamping company first or the SIA?

Ethereal,

Short of taking this company to court I doubt you'll get any refund. This is from all the posts I've read about clampers - you write them a letter, they fob you off, you write another letter, they reply no.

People have taken clampers to Court. It really depends on how determined you are. You'll have to shell out on the Court fee initially and spend a few hours writing letters, preaction letter, then completing a court form. Do you really want to spend so long for £95?