NB:Clamping?Please Read

Riamfada

Need an answer to this ASAP! Please.

How much is it to unclamp a car in town?
Spanx in advance

PaddyFagan

From http://www.aaireland.ie/toptips/parking.asp

If your car is clamped, then telephone the Parking Shop on 01 6022500 to arrange release. The fee is €80.00, and the clamp should be released within the hour.

Hope this helps - Paddy

Riamfada

thanks paddy

vibe666

or about the same for a grinder from a hire shop.

i know who i'd rather give my money to!

John R

vibe666 wrote:

or about the same for a grinder from a hire shop.

i know who i'd rather give my money to!

You'll end up paying alot more if you do that.

Banjo013

There's an article in today's Irish Times saying that almost 50% of appeals made to Dublin City Council are upheld, ie the person gets their money back.

If you have any reason at all, I'd say appeal it ... it'll cost you nothing more.

ds20prefecture

You could buy a xantia, c5 or other hydropneutically sprung car and sink it flat when you park . They cant get the clamp on then.

Or even better - pay for your parking!

causal

ds20prefecture wrote:

You could buy a xantia, c5 or other hydropneutically sprung car and sink it flat when you park . They cant get the clamp on then.

Would that mean they'd lift it onto their flatbed truck and tow it away? :eek:

causal

Easily_Irritated

Clampers are so underhand, tho. Its really crappy.

I lived on Beechwood Ave for about 3 years and they clampers ALWAYS made a point of patrolling early on a Sunday morning because they knew the chances of people without residents passes getting pissed on Saturday night and forgetting to pay would be very high.

Now, Im not a clamper but its easy to believe people who say that they do have a weekly or daily quota to fill when they do ****ty things like that.

Banjo013

Easily_Irritate wrote:

Now, Im not a clamper but its easy to believe people who say that they do have a weekly or daily quota to fill when they do ****ty things like that.

I suggest this -

There isn't a person in the world (well, maybe one or two lucky sods) that doesn't have targets and deliverables to work towards in their job. It's these targets that determine whether or not the employee is any good or not, and also whether they get a pay rise once a year or get sacked.

There's no reason to believe why the clampers are any different. And what else is there to measure these people against other than the amount of clamps they fit to motorists cars ?

That's just pure reasonable logic. Like Easily_Irritate said, it does appear to be underhand. There must be something driving these clampers to do what they do, and it's their boss breathing down their necks that drives them, and in turn there's someone elses breathing down their bosses neck.

So I'd be very very shocked to find that there is no connection between the clampers performance rating and the number of clamps they fit.

Of course this leads them to start clamping almost anything that's not moving. After all the more clamps they fit the more I reckon they get paid. And there's no downside for them - if they do fit a clamp which is later found to be in the wrong, the clamper doesn't suffer - they simply do not get the credit for that clamp. And it was worth doing it in the first place because I'd imagine the majority of people who were clamped couldn't be a*sed appealing it. Look at my own post above about the article in the Irish Times - almost half of all appeals are upheld !!!! That's a crazy statistic, and says alot about how underhand all this clamping lark is.

Personally, I think a car that's wrongfully clamped should be a black mark against the individual clamper, and have a negative effect on how much they get paid. At least that would stop them going out and just clamp-clamp-clamp-clamp-clamp anything they see like they're firing off rounds from an automatic machine gun. Maybe then they'd actually only clamp those who deserve it, and there are plenty of them too.

ps. Has anyone seen that Podge & Rodge episode about the clamper ?? It's a classic !

Our man in Havana

Yer private clampers are worse, those security company type oufits.

Sleipnir

The 50% of overturned appeals is not quite black & white though. Some of those would have been tourists who might not know they had to pay for parking. How would a clamper know the car belonged to a tourists?
There are very few cars out there which are blatently wrongfully clamped; most are clamped for a very good reason e.g. non-payment or dangerously/illegally parked.

The problem with "appeal it no matter what" is that if everybody does that, the process will end up taking two years due to the backlog.
If you parked illegally or took the risk of not paying and got clamped then swallow the bitter pill and just pay the fine you earned.

THe problem of clampers driving to a place in the early morning just to get some numbers is a little bit underhanded but you can pay the parking fee at the meter for the next morning (i.e. when the fee comes into effect again) the night before (when the fee-paying time has elapsed) If you get me.

elexes

well i posted about clamping a while back . cant find the thread atm but basicly they came into a private underground car park and clamped my car .

i was held up for 2 and a half hours and had to pay a 80 euro fine to get the bloody thing off my car . after them refusing to refund me my money and a few nasty letters sent back and forth i got my cash back .

took about 3 months but i did get it back .

ds20prefecture

causal wrote:

Would that mean they'd lift it onto their flatbed truck and tow it away? :eek:

causal

Good point.

But on mine - they'd only have about 2" clear under the car. I struggle to untie the car cover when she's flat on the ground. I'd say they'd move on to the next victim.

elexes

they had to lift the rear of my car up to take off the camp when they came to do it

Sleipnir

elexes wrote:

well i posted about clamping a while back . cant find the thread atm but basicly they came into a private underground car park and clamped my car .

i was held up for 2 and a half hours and had to pay a 80 euro fine to get the bloody thing off my car . after them refusing to refund me my money and a few nasty letters sent back and forth i got my cash back .

took about 3 months but i did get it back .

Same thing happened to my mate. He had two parking spaces in the underground place at his apartment and his old van was in one spot, new van in the other. Clampers came in and clamped his old van.
It's still clamped 4 months on while he tries to reason with them (which never works)
Thing is that some property management companies hire the clamper companies to do that in private car parks. Public car parking isn't their only business.

lomb

Sleipnir wrote:

Same thing happened to my mate. He had two parking spaces in the underground place at his apartment and his old van was in one spot, new van in the other. Clampers came in and clamped his old van.
It's still clamped 4 months on while he tries to reason with them (which never works)
Thing is that some property management companies hire the clamper companies to do that in private car parks. Public car parking isn't their only business.

sue them for 5 grand for loss of earnings and need to use a replacement car.....

Stephen

Is there anywhere you can buy your own clamps to place on the clamper vans when the ***** are having lunch or something?

Banjo013

I've just remembered that picture on the front of the paper some time last year. Basically it was a car wheel with a clamp on it, just sitting in a parking spot with no car attached !

Seemingly the wording in the legislation (or whatever you call it) referred to the €80 fine as being a "clamp removal fee". So whoever owned the clamped car just took the wheel off and left it there, gave the two fingers to the clampers and said f**k yez, keep the wheel and your fine .... I don't want the clamp removed. (don't ask me how he/she got the wheel off - the paper didn't say).

Very funny indeed ... probably paid more than the €80 for a new wheel and tyre in fairness, but 'twas worth it for the lateral thinking and the two finger giving.

vector

re citroen suspension
can't they just clamp a front tyre?

re removing a clamp without being seen
simple, hire a private flatbed with a crane and lift away your car
to a private garage and cut it off there, for added safety get some
lithunain plates and your car won't be clamped in the first place

Our man in Havana

vector wrote:

re citroen suspension
can't they just clamp a front tyre?

re removing a clamp without being seen
simple, hire a private flatbed with a crane and lift away your car
to a private garage and cut it off there, for added safety get some
lithunain plates and your car won't be clamped in the first place

LOL

For added FUN report the car stolen to the cops and tell them 2 days later you found it down the road with no clamp on it!

ds20prefecture

vector wrote:

re citroen suspension
can't they just clamp a front tyre?

I'm told not. The wing on mine sinks to within a few mil of the top of the tyre.

comanche

Just saved my house mate from a clamping this morning... such a good feeling. Cheeky fecks said that if the car wasn't moved before he got the lock on then it was clamped and that was it. Didn't stop working while I went in to get mate & car keys!

Feckers come down my road every morning to get people who have stayed over, and slept in. Parking tickets are in operation on my street from 7:00 to 00:00 and the thing is with the ticket machines on the street if that you can only get a ticket for the next morning after midnight! ... pain

jhegarty

Banjo013 wrote:

I've just remembered that picture on the front of the paper some time last year. Basically it was a car wheel with a clamp on it, just sitting in a parking spot with no car attached !

Seemingly the wording in the legislation (or whatever you call it) referred to the €80 fine as being a "clamp removal fee". So whoever owned the clamped car just took the wheel off and left it there, gave the two fingers to the clampers and said f**k yez, keep the wheel and your fine .... I don't want the clamp removed. (don't ask me how he/she got the wheel off - the paper didn't say).

Very funny indeed ... probably paid more than the €80 for a new wheel and tyre in fairness, but 'twas worth it for the lateral thinking and the two finger giving.

very easy , you need to let the air out of the tyre... when you should just be able to get the nuts off...

stratos

had a jeep with massive wheels on it watched a guy out da winda tryin' to put a clamp on it for a while b4 he gave up.

Victor

Banjo013 wrote:

There's an article in today's Irish Times saying that almost 50% of appeals made to Dublin City Council are upheld, ie the person gets their money back.

50% of how many appeals?

halkar

Stephen wrote:

Is there anywhere you can buy your own clamps to place on the clamper vans when the ***** are having lunch or something?

Why do that? Buy your own clamp, keep it in the boot and clamp yourself . park as long as you want

They talk about road safety and yet they are making the roads narrower with both sides allocated for parking with meters. Then they expect 2 cars, bikes, pedestrians etc use what ever left of the roads :rolleyes:

Capt'n Midnight

halkar wrote:

Why do that? Buy your own clamp, keep it in the boot and clamp yourself . park as long as you want

They talk about road safety and yet they are making the roads narrower with both sides allocated for parking with meters. Then they expect 2 cars, bikes, pedestrians etc use what ever left of the roads :rolleyes:

Better carry a rechargable angle grinder with you. Cut someone elses clamp and remove the sticker too. *

*Except it's illegal

Victor

halkar wrote:

Why do that? Buy your own clamp, keep it in the boot and clamp yourself . park as long as you want

What if they clamp a different wheel? Or tow you? Remember the record who they clamp.

Real

I cut a clamp off my car a few years back.

It was parked in the closed down garage around the corner from McTurcalls (sp) pub. I saw them out the window and ran out quick. It was a private clamping company. I told them I would move the car straight away and that I only had 30 quid to my name. I had no other way of paying the fine. They guy seemed reasonable and once the clamp was fitted he said he would have a word with the boss sitting in the van.

Before I knew it the door on the van had slammed and the f_ckers had left at speed.

I took my 30 quid around the corner to quick fit. Gave the money to the guy there for a loan of his hack saw. Headed back to the car and started to work. Between my friend and I going flat our for about 10 minutes each the clamp fell off in pieces.

I was delighted. Two fingers to those b_astards!! Better still I told my story to the lads in quick fit and got my 30 quid back. Apparently a little fellow on a nifty 50 pulled up a while after I left and took the dismembered clamp. Never heard another word about it!!! Ha ha ha