Wrongly Clamped. Advice needed?

seadnamac

Ok first of all I don't want to go into specifics in case this thread gets read by people I don't want to read it.

My car got clamped on Friday in a car park where there is only one Pay and Display machine. I put the required daily rate into the machine and no ticket came out. I could see the ticket stuck in the roller inside the machine but could not get it out. There was another person there immediately before me who this also happened to. We both left notes on our dashboard saying we paid the rate but the machine was not working along with the date.

Needless to say we were both clamped anyway and forced to pay 165e to have the clamp removed. When the guy came to take the clamp off, he admitted to me that both he (I have his name and Employee No.), and the clamping company, were aware of problems with this machine as recently as the day before, when he actually had to change a part in the machine. Nobody parked there the day before had a ticket (which included me) for this reason and he admitted that to me. I have submitted an appeal to this company but I have no faith in it whatsoever, as clamping is completely unregulated and now that they have my money I doubt I will get it back easily.

So basically I want to threaten this company with legal action and sound like I know what I'm talking about. Could anyone help me with this? Advise me as to what exactly I should say to them? What court will I threaten them with? Under what laws/articles of the constitution should I say I am sueing under? I want to kick up as much of a fuss as possible.

To clarify a few things;
I paid the parking rate but because of a faulty machine on their part I was forced to pay 165e.
There is a number on the machine to call for credit card payments but not a number to report a fault and as I had already made my payment I was not seeking to make another one.
It's not a busy car park and it's perfectly possible that the machine started working properly again after we left as we were the only two clamped.
I have a witness to state I put the required rate in the machine and received no ticket.
I have no reason to avoid paying for parking as the company I work for reimburse me, in cash, with no fuss.

Any advice would be appreciated?

Edit: I've just noticed that there had been a lot of clamping threads so apologies if this had been done before but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

MagicSean

Maybe you should wait until you hear back about your appeal. If you put all the relevant info in it you might be successful.

seadnamac

k_mac wrote: »

Maybe you should wait until you hear back about your appeal. If you put all the relevant info in it you might be successful.

That's the thing, I'd like to increase my chances of winning this appeal as much as possible. Anybody I've heard of who has appealed to this company before had just been issued with a standard 'your appeal has been rejected' letter after 28 days.

MagicSean

Did they have the same facts as yours? Your particular incident is bordering on extortion.

seadnamac

k_mac wrote: »

Did they have the same facts as yours? Your particular incident is bordering on extortion.

Probably not. And extortion is the word I would use myself. I just don't trust them to deal with this. The reason I ask is because the only thing I've seen, just by doing a search for this companies name, is that the threat of legal action is the only thing that will get their attention.

Our man in Havana

Never appeal. They will always turn it down. Send them a 14 day notice of legal action and follow thru in the small claims court.

seadnamac

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Never appeal. They will always turn it down. Send them a 14 day notice of legal action and follow thru in the small claims court.

Should this be on legal headed paper from a solicitors office and can I just print something out myself and sign and date it?

Our man in Havana

You can do it yourself, they may take more notice of a solictor.

mlumley

If you go via solicitor, dont forget to ad legal costs, as this will be more than the unclamping fee.

Victor

Do you have a photo of the machine not working properly, i.e. the ticket stuck in it?

seadnamac

Victor wrote: »

Do you have a photo of the machine not working properly, i.e. the ticket stuck in it?

No, unfortunetly I didn't think to take a photo. I do have a witness to the machine not working and she was also present when the clamper admitted that he and the company were aware there were problems with the machine the day before, that a part had to be replaced and that nobody who parked there the previous morning was able to get a ticket.

seadnamac

Thanks for the responses so far. What I'm hoping though is if someone could tell me, if I was to sue them, what would I sue them under? Would there a Goods and Services Act or something like that that this would come under? I'd like to be able to state a law/act and article/paragraph when I issue them with the threat of legal action.

Our man in Havana

S113 Road Traffic Act 1961

Vine v Waltham Forest
Arthur V Anker

BrianD

Write a clear non threatening letter to the company making your appeal. If you have staff names and numbers then make sure that you include them. Remember that technically you were correctly clamped unless you can demonstrate to the contrary.

It seems that you have fair grounds for appeal. As mentioned elsewhere I have successfully appealed before and so has my brother.

stop

Our man in Havana wrote: »

S113 Road Traffic Act 1961

Vine v Waltham Forest
Arthur V Anker

Were those cases relating to incidents in Ireland?

Our man in Havana

The law around them applies to Ireland. Contract law is the same here as in other common law jurisdictions.

Bella mamma

I was TOWED (!!) and received the standard rejection letter when I appealed it.

As per the process, I appealed to The Independent Arbitrator (the process/contact info was written on the rejection letter) and received a full refund by cheque.

What happened, in my case, was that I put my money in and at the exact same time a really impatient woman was behind me and started paying by CC via her mobile phone. Her ticket came out and my money was lost.

She legged it.

I called the number on the machine, gave them my location, make/model/reg and they said twas fine, no clamp etc.

seadnamac

BrianD wrote: »

Write a clear non threatening letter to the company making your appeal. If you have staff names and numbers then make sure that you include them. Remember that technically you were correctly clamped unless you can demonstrate to the contrary.

It seems that you have fair grounds for appeal. As mentioned elsewhere I have successfully appealed before and so has my brother.

Was this to a local council or to a private clamping company? If the latter, what was the name of the company if you don't mind me asking?

sovereign121

Should have used common sense and just remove the clamp yourself, **** them. I am however sympathetic to your case. How did you fair out and would I be wrong in assuming the clamping company was ncps?

seadnamac

sovereign121 wrote: »

Should have used common sense and just remove the clamp yourself, **** them. I am however sympathetic to your case. How did you fair out and would I be wrong in assuming the clamping company was ncps?

They rejected my appeal on the grounds that I had no ticket displayed. It was like banging my head my head off a concrete wall trying to deal with them. They do not give a sh*t. I threatened them with court but they didn't even respond. They refuse to communicate with you and when eventually they emailed me back the result of my appeal, the email itself was completely blank and just had a poorly spelled word document attached. There wasn't even a name on thing, just printed initials.

There is a so called "independant" appeal that I can go to at a cost of a further 20 euro. One look at their website will tell you exactly how above board that it...

http://www.ipas.ie/about.htm

The company I work for have advised me not to appeal as they have managed to secure a meeting with them next week and will be taking up the matter for us (there were others clamped aswell, including our Ops Manager).

The clamping company is Apcoa. It's a disgrace how they can get away with this sh*t. I'm sick of it now, 165euro of MY money.

sovereign121

Check out my post here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72037058 thats how i dealt with the bastards yesterday. Sorry to hear about ya being stung like that they are all crooks.

Our man in Havana

Don't waste your time or money on any further appeal. Issue proceedings against them in the small claims court and follow through.

sanfra

Definitely wait for a hear back.

seadnamac wrote: »

Ok first of all I don't want to go into specifics in case this thread gets read by people I don't want to read it.

My car got clamped on Friday in a car park where there is only one Pay and Display machine. I put the required daily rate into the machine and no ticket came out. I could see the ticket stuck in the roller inside the machine but could not get it out. There was another person there immediately before me who this also happened to. We both left notes on our dashboard saying we paid the rate but the machine was not working along with the date.

Needless to say we were both clamped anyway and forced to pay 165e to have the clamp removed. When the guy came to take the clamp off, he admitted to me that both he (I have his name and Employee No.), and the clamping company, were aware of problems with this machine as recently as the day before, when he actually had to change a part in the machine. Nobody parked there the day before had a ticket (which included me) for this reason and he admitted that to me. I have submitted an appeal to this company but I have no faith in it whatsoever, as clamping is completely unregulated and now that they have my money I doubt I will get it back easily.

So basically I want to threaten this company with legal action and sound like I know what I'm talking about. Could anyone help me with this? Advise me as to what exactly I should say to them? What court will I threaten them with? Under what laws/articles of the constitution should I say I am sueing under? I want to kick up as much of a fuss as possible.

To clarify a few things;
I paid the parking rate but because of a faulty machine on their part I was forced to pay 165e.
There is a number on the machine to call for credit card payments but not a number to report a fault and as I had already made my payment I was not seeking to make another one.
It's not a busy car park and it's perfectly possible that the machine started working properly again after we left as we were the only two clamped.
I have a witness to state I put the required rate in the machine and received no ticket.
I have no reason to avoid paying for parking as the company I work for reimburse me, in cash, with no fuss.

Any advice would be appreciated?

Edit: I've just noticed that there had been a lot of clamping threads so apologies if this had been done before but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Contra Proferentem

When is the Private Security Authority taking over the regulation of these companies? A lot of them don't utilise fair procedures and so at a minimum that's something that should be the first step for regulation.

Our man in Havana

Probably will make no difference to the current status quo.

Just look what the SIA in the UK did. Sweet fanny adams. They are moving towards a full ban as a solution.

jakdelad

is there no regulation on these clampers????
there must be someone who can resolve these spats quickly
is there a code of practice or can they make their own rules up

Our man in Havana

They are regulated by no one. They make their own rules. They do as they like.

The only way they can be brought to account is to sue them in the district courts. But as this will destroy their business model they will fold once they receive a summons.

jakdelad

Our man in Havana wrote: »

They are regulated by no one. They make their own rules. They do as they like.

The only way they can be brought to account is to sue them in the district courts. But as this will destroy their business model they will fold once they receive a summons.

dewalt do a lovely battery angle grinder very handy