just watched a car get clampled from my office window

Beta Ray Bill

Car is parked down a lane, no blocking any gateways or access routes or emergency exits. there are no yellow lines where the car is parked. and it is no obstructing anything

I will get a pic later

just goes to show they are desperate fro a bit of revenue.

A mate of mines car was clamped illegally a few weeks back in a housing estate in Drumcondra of all places!

Ridiculous really!

kingtut

/rant ?

Yakult

maybe he didnt pay for parking?

Beta Ray Bill

kingtut wrote: »

/rant ?

nah

just an observation mate

I don't really care to be honest with ya as I don't drive to work.
Just for the rest of you guys that do to be on the look out

Beta Ray Bill

R_H_C_P wrote: »

maybe he didnt pay for parking?

its not a paid parking zone dude.
there are no signs on the lane stating it paid parking nor is there a little white box around where he is parked.

there are lots of little "free parking" spots littered around the city. another one is under the bridge on sandwidth street, in D2

robbie99

Could the lane have one of these 'clearway' signs?

Beta Ray Bill

Nope

Just looked out the window again.
It's been broke into.

someone must have seen something on the back seat!

ronaneire

Someone is going to be annoyed when they get back to their car. Any pics yet?

Hal1

Sounds like the clampers weren't the only ones desperate for a bit of revenue!.

Saab Ed

No matter how legal or illegal the clamping of a car is I'll always hate clampers. Clampers deserve about as much respect as mid 40's rent boy with a crimanal record for child abuse. Talk about power trippers. And anyway I never saw the point of dealing with a problem such as over staying in a parking place or blocking an entrance by actually extending the length of time the problem goes on by clamping someone. :mad:..........and breathe

peanuthead

grahambo wrote: »

Nope

Just looked out the window again.
It's been broke into.

someone must have seen something on the back seat!

That dude is probably already having a shit day, he has no idea how much worse its about to get at 5pm

Beta Ray Bill

Stupid system really isnt it?

If I was ever clamped. I'd just cut the clamp off keep it and pay the €80 fine over the phone.

Beta Ray Bill

peanuthead wrote: »

That dude is probably already having a shit day, he has no idea how much worse its about to get at 5pm

he's actually out at the car now with the Garda.

Crap really ain't it?

I hate seeing this happen to people. waste of time, money and effort + stress

PCPhoto

sounds like part of "Falling down"

guy comes back to his car ...only to find .... its been broken into ...... and clamped !!!

(or did they clamp it so that the thieves wouldnt return and take the car...or so their thief friends wont take the car - since they took whatever was inside)

Beta Ray Bill

PCPhoto wrote: »

sounds like part of "Falling down"

guy comes back to his car ...only to find .... its been broken into ...... and clamped !!!

(or did they clamp it so that the thieves wouldnt return and take the car...or so their thief friends wont take the car - since they took whatever was inside)

No

it hadn't been broke into until it was clamped.

bijapos

Were they private clampers or City Corpo clampers?

Have mixed feelings about them myself. They were initially introduced because it cost so much running around after people who didnt pay parking tickets. Dirty job but someones got to do it kind of thing. Some are OK, some not, just people I suppose. Turned into an important source of revenue for the city in the meantime I think.

Private clampers however are worse, work on commission so they dont really care. Ex-girlfriend owns an apartment and one day they put up a sign saying 'no commercials', no pre warning and clamped 5 vans that night including mine. Borrowed a con saw and the rest is history. .
Sent the guards after me for criminal damage, no proof so nothing happened.

PCPhoto

typical ...and another reason why we shouldnt have clampers....I would be more in favour of a number of tow trucks floating around the city .... if someone is parked in disabled space or causing a disruption..... or maybe 1hr over parking ticket...tow them €250 fine + cost of towing.

€80 clamper fee isn't much of a deterrent especially when the system is flawed * all machines would need to be calibrated regularly and this is not done due to costs involved.

I've had my fair share of run-ins with the Clampers ... I made a decision long time ago - I rarely pay for parking...if they clamp me...fair enough, with 8hours of parking a day 5 or 6 days a week its cheaper for me to get clamped once a week than it is to pay the €2.80 an hour....these days... I get clamped 2-3times every 6months..... and had 3yrs clamp free at one point.

-Chris-

Saab Ed wrote: »

No matter how legal or illegal the clamping of a car is I'll always hate clampers. Clampers deserve about as much respect as mid 40's rent boy with a crimanal record for child abuse.

You know, I never really minded them.

I used to work in Dublin at the Peppercanister Church (if anyone knows it). It was pay parking all the time. All of us drove to work (company cars, required on site).
Every day we'd park somewhere within view of the office. You'd be working with one eye on the computer and one eye on the road.
If the clampers were spotted outside, you'd hear the yell of "claaaaampers!!" and 8 to 10 people would dash out the door, keys in hand.

Sometimes they'd park around the corner and try and sneak around to us.

Sometimes they got you, most of the time we were too quick for them. If you made sure you had a sense of humour about it, you'd just see it as a game of cat and mouse.

I've been clamped a few times in my life, but looking back on it I can't think of any time they got me where I didn't deserve it.

PCPhoto

bijapos wrote: »

Were they private clampers or City Corpo clampers?

Have mixed feelings about them myself. They were initially introduced because it cost so much running around after people who didnt pay parking tickets. Dirty job but someones got to do it kind of thing. Some are OK, some not, just people I suppose. Turned into an important source of revenue for the city in the meantime I think.

Private clampers however are worse, work on commission so they dont really care. Ex-girlfriend owns an apartment and one day they put up a sign saying 'no commercials', no pre warning and clamped 5 vans that night including mine. Borrowed a con saw and the rest is history. .
Sent the guards after me for criminal damage, no proof so nothing happened.

so you are the reason why they take photos of the clamp on the car

Beta Ray Bill

PCPhoto wrote: »

so you are the reason why they take photos of the clamp on the car

doesn't matter if they take a pic.

You just say someone else took the clamp. (obviously you would still have to pay the €80 fine, but at least you would get wheel clamp out of it.)

that way you can cut it off and pay whenever

diverdriver

8hours of parking a day 5 or 6 days a week its cheaper for me to get clamped once a week than it is to pay the €2.80 an hour

I like your style PCphoto. Trouble is some streets you'd be clamped every day. Now that would be expensive.

There was something similar at Dublin Airport once. You could either park in the short term or long term car park and pay the rip off fees or park it somewhere you shouldn't, get clamped and pay a mere £25 for your two weeks parking. It took the airport people a while to figure that one out and put up the clamp fee. Obviously you didn't want to park where they might blow you up.:eek:

Rowley Birkin QC

One of my first experiences in Dublin when I moved here 4 years ago was seeing two lads cut a Corporation clamp off the back of a transit on Cathal Brugha St. about 8:30 one evening.

I thought to myself; hey, maybe this place won't be so bad after all.:D

Mate of a mate got clamped on the quays one night and when he rang they said they would be 90 mins getting to him, he explained how he was a doctor on call and he needed his car, lads arrived about 5 mins later to de-clamp a clapped out mid 90's Fiesta. Doctor indeed. :pac:

joey54

I've never been clamped but have witnessed it happening to people before. I have never come across a nice clamper. Most of them seem to take pleasure in doing it.

I think clamping is just a money spinner. Surely if the car is parked illegally or blocking an entry then it should be taken away and not just a yellow claw stuck to it!

I wonder what what makes someone decide they want to be a clamper? Wouldn't be on my list favourite jobs!!

Anan1

The bottom line with clamping is it works. On-street parking is now fairly freely available in the city centre, whereas before clamping it wasn't. Suits me.

Beta Ray Bill

Anan1 wrote: »

The bottom line with clamping is it works. On-street parking is now fairly freely available in the city centre, whereas before clamping it wasn't. Suits me.

I think its freely available because people have lost there jobs

trains aren't as full in the morning either.

people I used to work with that used to get the train/bus now drive as there is way less traffic moving into the city centre and peak times.

eightyfish

Saab Ed wrote: »

No matter how legal or illegal the clamping of a car is I'll always hate clampers. Clampers deserve about as much respect as mid 40's rent boy with a crimanal record for child abuse.

You can't blame a man for just doing his job.

bijapos wrote: »

Private clampers however are worse, work on commission so they dont really care.

Not true for private clamping companies contracted by city councils. (Irish Times). Not sure about private companies on private property.

Anan1

grahambo wrote: »

I think its freely available because people have lost there jobs

trains aren't as full in the morning either.

people I used to work with that used to get the train/bus now drive as there is way less traffic moving into the city centre and peak times.

Things have got noticeably quieter in the past year, but that's not what I meant. On-street parking became much more freely available with the introduction of clamping, ie years ago. It's common-sense really, a clamp is much more of a deterrent to people than a ticket.

Saab Ed

eightyfish wrote: »

You can't blame a man for just doing his job.

Boyzone earn lots of money but my respect they will never have.

Anan1

eightyfish wrote: »

You can't blame a man for just doing his job.

This is actually quite a funny one. How does the reasoning go - 'I hate being clamped, therefore the clamper must love it'?:D

BlackWizard

He should be rewarding that clamper. That clamper knew his car was about to be robbed to he put a friendly clamp on the wheel so it could not be driven away.

Or he clamped it and seen a nice iPod on the back seat. So he rang his mate to inform him of the nice iPod...

Hal1

BlackWizard wrote: »

Or he clamped it and seen a nice iPod on the back seat. So he rang his mate to inform him of the nice iPod...

That wouldn't suprise me!

galwaytt

BlackWizard wrote: »

He should be rewarding that clamper. That clamper knew his car was about to be robbed to he put a friendly clamp on the wheel so it could not be driven away.

Or he clamped it and seen a nice iPod on the back seat. So he rang his mate to inform him of the nice iPod...

...indeed, who's to say it wasn't the clampers who broke in - they did spend some time at the car, after all...........worth a try, methinks.

Rowley Birkin QC

grahambo wrote: »

I think its freely available because people have lost there jobs

trains aren't as full in the morning either.

people I used to work with that used to get the train/bus now drive as there is way less traffic moving into the city centre and peak times.

Yes, that would be a contributory factor but the fact remains that parking enforcement, price increases and different rates for different zones generates a high turnover of spaces in areas where demand is high.

Simple traffic management policy really.

Beta Ray Bill

Anan1 wrote: »

Things have got noticeably quieter in the past year, but that's not what I meant. On-street parking became much more freely available with the introduction of clamping, ie years ago. It's common-sense really, a clamp is much more of a deterrent to people than a ticket.

I do accept that.

clamps are a deterrent. A clamp can literally ruin your day though

but then again I suppose that's what its supposed to do!?:o

jackofalltrades

joey54 wrote:

I think clamping is just a money spinner. Surely if the car is parked illegally or blocking an entry then it should be taken away and not just a yellow claw stuck to it!

Fair enough, lets replace all the clamping vans with tow trucks/flatbeds to remove the car to an impound lot. Then wait for the flood of threads about people having to pay hundreds of Euros and waste a lot of their day to get their car back.

I wonder what what makes someone decide they want to be a clamper? Wouldn't be on my list favourite jobs!!

Id say being a job that pays money is the main motivation, espically in the current climate.

Our man in Havana

jackofalltrades wrote: »

Fair enough, lets replace all the clamping vans with tow trucks/flatbeds to remove the car to an impound lot. Then wait for the flood of threads about people having to pay hundreds of Euros and waste a lot of their day to get their car back.

Towing is a better deterrent than clamping plus it actually improves traffic flow whereas clamping does not.

copacetic

Anan1 wrote: »

The bottom line with clamping is it works. On-street parking is now fairly freely available in the city centre, whereas before clamping it wasn't. Suits me.

agreed, the days before clamping came in were a nightmare....

jackofalltrades

Bond-007 wrote:

Towing is a better deterrent than clamping plus it actually improves traffic flow whereas clamping does not.

Totally agree with you, my point was that the people who complain about clamping are actually getting a better deal financially/disruption wise under clamping, than if towing was to be brought in.

CreepingDeath

grahambo wrote: »

Nope

Just looked out the window again.
It's been broke into.

someone must have seen something on the back seat!

Could've been worse for him.
If the car wasn't clamped, the robbers could've stole the car.