AA Zone
Cowboy Clampers
Original Post
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Posted At 16/09/2008 2468motorway  |
One of these cowboys clamped my sister last week. She is a health visiter working in Acton, W London. She parked next to a road on what looked like the public highway. There was no sign in the bays but further down the road was a sign saying private parking. It appeared this sign meant the block of flats behind. The cowboys turned up and clamped and pretended that they had called out a tow truck so they could up the "fine" to £170. This is legalised mugging. She said she would not have parked there if there was a sign. But becasuse this is on private land there is no right of appeal. These cowboys need to be outlawed.
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Justice
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 09/06/2009 09:27:55
You will be able to appeal against and get a full refund on this £425 as TPS do not have currently have a valid contract to clamp behind Woolworths in Windsor - they are seeking one with the new owners once Woolworths administration is over. Make sure you put an appeal in, as they don't have a leg to stand on, and they know that.
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ibeenclamped
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 27/06/2009 22:30:18
i HAD to park my lorry on motorway services due to an inconvenient but urgent toilet requirement which i needed imodium to ease the problem later.(you know what i mean !!) anyway the parking bays for lorries was a bit chocka block so i parked in the empty coach bays which was right outside the services complex. this was at 7.10 in the morning and it was the easiest and best thing to do considering the urgency! 10 mins later i came out to find these ******'s finishing putting the clamp on. i asked for some heart but i was too drained from toilet duties to argue and knowing what they are like i just coughed up £255 for the release at 7.25.
i am disgusted to find the laws have been made so they can operate in this way and i cant find any protection for us humans. something MUST be done so count me in on anything we can muster up between us....like if you see a car about to be clamped stand by the wheel and if these thugs touch you ....sue em!! deliberately obstruct them from doing their legal duties. any more ideas? |
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ROAD TO HELL
Posts: 36
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 21/07/2009 21:55:10
Which motorway service area was it?
Write to your MP. Write to Alan Campbell MP, Home Office Minister, becasue they are looking at new regulations. Clamping is excessive punishment. Trading Standards and police in Brum recently raided a dodgy clamp co. and they have been charged with "Blackmail" which is great. |
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guardian_video
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 11/08/2009 12:05:31
Many of these posts making interesting reading. The Guardian is looking at making a short film for guardian.co.uk about the legality of clamping on private property and the excessive fines being extorted from people. If you are interested in sharing your story please contact shehani.fernando@guardian.co.uk.
Many thanks Guardian Video |
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SaraG.
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 12/08/2009 12:18:20
I was clamped on Sunday evening, on an exit road from a free council car park in Hampton Hill, which was full. There were 4 bays painted on the public road, which were each marked "resident permit" - but it being a Sunday, and resident's parking not being in force in Hampton on Sundays, and there being no clear warning signs, I parked ( I must add that confusingly, this was a road that it has been previously alright to park on, so it's status has changed recently). Within minutes of me starting my dog walk, a friend who spotted the clampers rang to say they were about to tow my car away. I was told I had to pay £345 cash or they would tow the car. £150 to remove the clamp £150 to cancel the tow truck call out, + VAT.
Like everyone else on this thread, I am stunned that this type of extortion and bullying is actually legal. The interests of the enforcers were not to keep the bays free for residents, or they could have told me not to park there ( since they were so quick they were obviously lying in wait)...and could have a large visible sign saying NO PARKING AT ANY TIME. What they have is 2 small signs headed Private Property, with a lot of small print with notice of clamping risk included, half way up the wall of the building. It is not obviously private land, it being a public road... somebody is making a lot of money out of victimisation...large, intimidating men holding peoples car to ransom, how on earth can this be legal? How can there be no appeal system? Why is it legal in England and outlawed in Scotland as theft and extortion? I have written to my MP Vincent Cable, who is going to write to the local papers, and the clamping co. ( PARK DIRECT), but has pointed out that it is notoriously difficult to bring these people to account. He is also supporting a motion that is being brought in by the LIB DEM Transport minister to make it illegal. I would have probably paid up to £100, and felt cross.... but £345 has seriously impacted me as a recently unemployed single mum of 2 teenagers, and I was distraught. Having not afforded a holiday with my children this summer, we could have had one for that price. If anyone has had success with small claims courts, or knows of legal aid available to right this blatant wrong, do please let me know. |
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bandit
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 21/08/2009 09:06:37
as a clamper and owner of a clamping company i must agree with alot of what has been said.That being said my own company is a very reputable one and we do not i feel charge excessive fees. Our release fee is £90.00 we do not remove vehicles as this is something we strongly feel against as this even in our eyes is theft.companies who charge more should have their licence taken away because anything more is or could financially cripple a family or a young motorist even once the vehicle has been clamped and left for two or three days the price should remain the same. clamping on private land is a problem that most land owners feel as a last resort. the councils should provide more land and more parking for the rise of motorists. we as a company believe that all signs should be at least 3Ft x 2Ft min.
there are alot of companies out there who are terrible and we also feel that something should be done,but leave the ones like us who do a very good job, alone. dont paint us all with the same brush please. the fact is, if its not your land and know you shouldnt park there then dont. its not your land its someone elses. what makes people angry is the fact they got caught. why should they go unpunnished if what they did, they did knowing they run the risk of getting caught. i bet if you had to pay a council or land owner for a parking space and someone took it most of you would want someone to do something about it straight away wouldnt you(if your honest about it). so in future if your not sure or you know its risky dont park there then you wont get clamped, its simple really. park in a car park, and obey the rules set out for everyone. |
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Sylvia7808
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 21/08/2009 19:06:57
I agree with everyone's comments. These people are effectively demanding money with menaces. One firm clamped my daughter's car, and her boyfriend's car, in Reading. Both were parked in a little road they had used regularly for months and the only 'clamping' sign was around a corner in the car park to some nearby flats. They are both University students and the clamper originally demanded £300 each in cash (£600) to release them, or he would have to tow their cars away. When he realised they were students he reduced this to £150 each. I doubt if it was out of kindness - more that he realised students would not be able to get £600 in cash on a bank holiday weekend. We appealed and followed the appeal procedure in the company's literature but of course the appeal has been completely ignored. Everything seems to be weighted in favour of the clampers. The Government must do something to stop this extortion.
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kiplingard
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 25/08/2009 13:48:54
I was clamped in my own parking space last week by a company called ZCS UK Ltd who enforce parking in the apartment grounds. The reason for this was that I did not have my parking permit displayed and I had done this because I had a friend visiting and had therefore given them the pass to use as a visitors pass. Unfortunately I was trusting in the common sense and decency of the so called enforcers to
a) read the note I had left explaining that I was a resident and leaving my full details b) recognise that my car is parked there every single day of the year c) leave me a ticket in the worst case scenario But my car was nonetheless clamped. Fine. I can just about handle the blinkered approach of the clampers which does not allow for any mitigating circumstances and has no intelligent way of recognising which cars belong to residents and which do not other than a simple pass. What I cannot handle is then being called by ZCS, who chose to wait until after the car had been clamped to contact me and then tell me that a tow truck was on it's way to remove it, but that they could prevent this if I paid them £110 straight away, coercing me into payment. It is this chavvy approach to doing business which I really cannot handle and must surely border on illegality. If you are a car clamper reading this, please, recognise that there are far more ethical, moral and indeed easier ways of making money than those involving the methods that many of you use. |
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Traindriver
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 26/08/2009 12:30:56
The sooner we get rid of this corrupt government the better.They are very anti car in this country and never ever done a thing to make life any easies for the people including the motorist. The Cowboy clampers,as named, just continue to carry on in the same old way and there is nothing to stop them doing so. The government have spent thousands of our hard earned tax money trying to make motoring less enjoyable but fail to stop these cowboys from doing an unjust service.
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iaomni
Posts: 1
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Subject: Re: Cowboy Clampers
Posted At: 15/09/2009 22:26:52
What people need to do is sue these cowboys.. if everyone did it they'd have a problem... one key is The Road Traffic Act 1991 which states that No Parking signs must be clearly visible and within 3 car lengths of the vehicle parked and also at height easily visible to a driver and also with a size of lettering thats visible...
This is often not the case, but if you get clamped measure distances to signs, take photos of the scene of the crime and if you have to pay up to avoid being towed make it clear you are doing so under protest and duress and record the conversation if you can. Under law a citizen cannot fine or punish another citizen without a legal process so the trick they use is they say on the signs that if you park there you are entering into a contract and agreeing to be clamped so you need to demonstrate that you did not consent to the contract because the signs were not placed in a way or at a distance that made them visible enough to you. Its obvious that in most cases if signs are big enough and visible enough people aren't going to fall into the trap and in a genuine situation where its a real problem of illegal parking then the owners of the space are gonna do that because what they want is that people don't park there but in many cases its a scam and in that case they don't make it too obvious in order to catch you out... I got caught out last week but I got photos and the signs are obviously not close enough to where I parked so if they don't refund me I'll do a small claims court case. Fight for your rights. |
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