Car Clamping

This week has been a bit chaotic with the build up to the Miss Wales Competition. My daughter Jen qualified for the finals which were held in the CIA in Cardiff. Last Thursday the girls had to be in Holland house for at 9.45am Rehearsals. I looked on Google maps and found Holland House just of Fitzlan Place near the prison, easy I knew where that was, Well it would’ve been easy if the words ‘Holland house’ had been written on the wall but no that was in small letters and the word MECURE was written across the wall, Don’t people realise it is not easy to read building signs whilst negotiating a junction with three lanes of traffic and police sirens which seem to be coming from every direction without them putting a different name on the wall. Consequently we missed it, having arrived there late I was then late home to teach. Another finalist Lucy, had booked a room at The Big Sleep Hotel with her mum and had offered for Jen to go there to change as there was only an hour and a half between rehearsals and having to be back at Holland House for a charity ball with hair done, make up and ball gown, No easy task for a couple of teenagers. I picked both girls up at 5pm and drove them to the hotel. I wasn’t sure where it was but we found it opposite the CIA and the entrance under the Hotel had a big sign over it saying ‘Hotel Entrance’. A Little further up was a sign saying Hotel Car park turn right at top of ramp Also on the sign written in red was ‘clamping in operation’, Fair enough you expect that a hotel might be slightly aggrieved if people park in their rather small car park and then go shopping. I pulled in to the right there were no car parking spaces except one directly behind me which I reversed into. Grabbed our bags and rushed into the hotel. An hour later I was ready to leave with two stressed teenagers who were not happy about hair dress nails make up etc. Only to find my car had been Clamped. This is where you laugh but believe me I wasn’t. Apparently I wasn’t in the Hotel car park but in the parking for the building opposite, although it all looked like one car park and I didn’t even realise the building opposite was not connected to the hotel as I had driven in through the sign that said Hotel Entrance. I spotted two signs on the wall 10ft high with a number on and again these signs just said warning private property (and some other junk about clamping), I had assumed the hotel car park was private property but I hadn’t even seen these signs anyway, probably cause on later inspection I found the one that would have been over my car had fallen off and only the glue was there. So I rang the number. Now for the bigger shock. Some Idiot on the phone who obviously is never gonna aspire to anything in life but evidently feels important because he has a clamping device and therefore power, told me I had to pay £225 to have it taken off and if I didn’t pay it within the hour it would be over £400. Sensing that it would be a lost cause to argue with empowered idiot I recited my card number through gritted teeth. Within 5 minutes two men turned up to take clamp off. Why It took two of them I’m not sure, one had the keys and the other watched, maybe he was a trainee. On inquiring where the evidence was that I could not park there they showed me an A4 size piece of paper stuck to the glass less than 3ft off the floor hidden behind a parked car which did actually say it was private. When I pointed out that it was unlikely anyone would see that the reply I got was ‘I know love we get loads of people here’. They declined my invitation to give me their names and let me quote them on that. Maybe not so thick after all. I have been back there yesterday and taken photographs and do intend to appeal on this one. Not that I am likely to win because we are not going to be dealing with logical people here but with people that think they are something because they have a clamp and a set of keys and therefore are beyond reason. Its amazing how power goes to peoples heads. I think its disgusting you wouldn’t pay that much for parking on a double yellow lines where do they get these astronomical prices from. Two people I spoke to today said they would not have been able to pay that and it would have caused them serious hardship. I thought the idea of clamping cars was to catch people who are well aware that they should not be there and who have ignored the signs not to make the signs as vague and hidden as possible and then bully people into paying because they know they can. This really should be stopped I dread to think the stress and hardship it could cause people. I wonder if the council regulate any of these people.

Posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.