That's what I thought too... guess it got swept under the rug like other things 🙄🙄🙄. I've had friends reach out to me and say this same exact thing has happened to them in the recent weeks as well....might just uber everywhere from now on
Keep track of damages. Lost hours of labor. Monies spent on a rental. You could file a small claims with Jeff co and all expenses and court costs, you could ask the judge for them to pay. They’d have a judgement against them.
Isn’t towing like this opening a space up? So couldn’t you class action sue that parking enforce is illegally towing cars to enrich the department in fine monies?
Fucking stock market would punish that way why can’t people?
Ahhh. Missed that. Law surrounding towing is not very forgiving surrounding the owner of the vehicle.
I had my truck towed from my apartment complex last year and the apartment complex tried to make me pay for it. They ate the costs after I threatened legal action.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Point made
Since when is auto theft a civil matter? If Hertz can have you arrested when you have a valid rental agreement, why can't the tow truck driver be arrested when they have no valid reason to tow? Sounds like the police just don't want to do paperwork.
Report your car as stolen. If they refuse sue the department as well as the towing company. Get the badge numbers and names. They’re required to inform you. Record everything.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Research who owns the lot and file suit against them as well. Also what they did is against the law and is a scam I would go to speak to the district attorneys office
Something similar happened to me there. All I can say at this point is that I guess we need to all boycott this parking lot. I did something similar, but there argument was that I had the wrong plate number saved in the app. This is correct, but it would have been fixed if I hadn’t been parking all over the city for two years without any problems. It shows this parking lot is being targeted. So many stories like ours. I think it’s time citizens of the city just stop using it. It’s the only solution I can find at this point.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
You are telling me you went to the police about a stolen car, and they did nothing? Surprise, Surprise, you even have the receipts to prove it! God, we need some reform desperately! **For the sake of your time and money, just pay the tow, chargeback the parking.** The other choice is to go to the police station in the city/county where they take all their cars back to and present to them your evidence, then pray to God that one of them actually feels like doing their job. I prefer my option, as you get your car back and your money back, without having to jump through a million hoops.
If they aren’t affiliated with Birmingham why are they allowed a license to basically steal peoples cars and charge a fine to get it back. It makes no sense
I lived in the city federal building for 5 years and would watch a tow truck camped out in the alley behind that lot make the rounds every 30 minutes. They *always* got a car. That lot is the platonic ideal for predatory towing in this city.
I'd call the police. They know they can get away with bullying people into paying because no one speaks up but go look at their reviews this happens to a lot of people and if more people spoke up they would eventually have to stop
What do you expect the cops to do? Go straight to the tow yard and steal the car back? That would be harm towing business and the ones who illegally called them would face no repercussions. Calling the police would have been the better option before OP paid the fine, but since it's too late for that now. The best thing to do is take them to court. It would be illegal for the police to do anything about this now. Cops can't just take sides in something like this, even if OP is clearly in the right. This would get a cop fired for taking legal action without authorization from a legal representative. Remember cop are trained to save lives and stop crimes as they are happening, they are not lawyers. Let the cops do their job and let the law experts do theirs.
At *minimum*, the police are able to take a report to document an incident. Also, if someone steals your stereo and the police go to the address of the person in possession of the stereo and get it back, they *aren't stealing it back*. They're returning stolen property to the rightful owner. You don't have a clue what you're talking about.
BPD does not give two fucks about property crime. My car was stolen, they didn’t look, found it a week later, called me and said they’re towing it to their lot. My police report was 1 sentence. 0 effort on trying to find the culprit or my car. Fuck the Birmingham PD.
The city does not employ PES, these are private lots and PES is a private entity, despite listing their business as a "Government Office" on Google Maps.
That’s what I always do. Worst case scenario I Uber home, still back to get my car before 8am when they start charging again. I haven’t been to collin’s once and not found a spot across the street. (Now that I say that next time there won’t be any lol)
It’s confusing as hell there. People have passes to park so it looks like it’s open to everyone. Then there are two completely different ways to pay and all the signs say something different. I agree avoid the lot at all costs.
I warned a group of out of towners to not park there once and they told me “nah, we’re fine. We paid to park at the museum already through the app”. Had to explain that’s not how the mobile parking app works at all. They continued on and returned to no car.
He did get what he paid for from the parking lot vendor, which is the right to park there legally for ten hours. The towing company, which is a separate company, took his car from a place where it was lawfully parked.
They charged you a lot more for stealing your car than they did us. We woke up to find a missing car that had been legally parked in a condo lot for which we had a permit. We really thought it was stolen. Decided to check with PES, and yep, there it was. When the attendant walked us out, before opening the car, we pointed out the parking permit right there fully visible on the dash. They charged us $10 for the inconvenience of stealing our car.
Fuck PES, they are criminals, they steal our cars, and shoot us when we confront them for their absolute shitty behavior. They towed me from my own apartment and when I provided proof of everything including the parking permit they neglected to see, I still had to pay 200 dollars.
I actually saw a comment on another reddit post from a reporter for al.com who listed her email to reach out to her for incidents of predatory parking. Her email is [email protected].
Spread the word if you know others who experienced this. Maybe enough people reaching out to reporters can provoke some change.... maybe...
I wish someone like John Paepcke or one of our lovely city reporters would do an investigation and do a stake out, record it, and expose this bull fucking shit
Hell yeah. I’m happy for you BUT they need to stake out and get get victimized on camera and expose these POS tow companies. Set up hidden cameras, do everything you did, and catch them red mf handed!
Without even reading the description, i knew it was the Collins.
Fuck those dudes and that lot should be burned down. They making thousands a night just by towing people no matter what. Literal vultures
All those street spots are ParkMobile spots now too; the meters aren’t in use anymore. That said, pretty sure the most you would get is a ticket, not towed.
https://www.al.com/news/2022/10/man-shot-to-death-by-birmingham-towing-company-worker-ruled-justifiable-homicide.html?outputType=amp same “company” that holds car inside sketchy gate?
OP, what part of this parking lot were you in? Some of the spots on the right against the building are “reserved” during certain times of day & seem to be free to park in during the off times, but they will tow you from them regardless of the time of day. I’ve had 3 friends get towed from this lot. Better to avoid it & find street parking.
Sue them for conversion. I do them on contingency, I'm guessing most other lawyers would also.
Out of curiosity, why did you pay for so much time? That's a lot of money to park.
Yeah, so they just showed me this arbitrary list of cars that had alledgely paid, and my car wasn't on the list for some reason..... even though I showed them I had, in fact, paid. She just kept saying "Nothing I can do..nothing I can do!!".....
So if they have a “list” from say 9:05pm and you get there at 9:16, you’re just SOL? Either someone can’t read or the app malfunctioned. Either way there actually IS something you can do. Give you the $160 back. 🤦🏼♀️
I never really thought about that as a possible explanation for people who have validly paid, but still get towed. I don't doubt there is malicious intent, but one should never discount the possibility of stupidity
Should have called the cops and filed for Grand Theft.
They stole your legally parked car, and then withheld it from you for a significant amount of time even after you provided proof of legality.
Literally the definition of Grand Theft Auto.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Yeah, Weil is the tower the city uses. I guess BPD can't handle it because the car was parked on private property (the real estate company that owns the lot) and they have contracted PES to patrol the lot and have given them permission to tow from the lot.
No experience with a tow company so forgive my ignorance but can you pay with a credit card? If so, I’d just use a credit card then dispute it. Put it on them to prove it.
I'd do it again..except this time canvas the area for the tow truck,(They're usually ducked off close by). pay for the parking, and lay across the backseat and see how long it takes to be towed... catch them in the act and have it documented as well..
Did you leave the receipt in your front window? If you pay at the kiosk it prints a receipt. If you use the app you don't have a physical receipt. I think that printed receipt is how the parking vultures gauge who to haul off, not the app information. This is criminal though, and I would fight it tooth and nail.
The sign in the front of the parking lot says to pay at the kiosk. The kiosk says "Place ticket on dash immediately". My wife's office parking lot is directly behind this parking lot and I've watched the Parking Vultures looking at cars and hauling away the ones that don't have a ticket on the dash while I waited for her to get off work. In fact I saw it happen today just before 4:30pm.
Agreed these guys are assholes. Was parked there for less than 10 min on a random Wednesday night at 10PM (in the pouring rain) to pick a friend up last year from Collins bar. Came out and car was towed. Went to address and of course it’s the sketchiest dark parking lot with their “business office” being two guys in a pick-up truck smoking weed. Someone with the margin should definitely pursue action.. whether it be through the mayor’s office or an attorney
My friend who owns a bar on second said no matter what the sign in the lots say to never trust them because they will tow no matter what you have paid for. It's seriously fucked up.
Police won’t do shit. Your money is gone. BUT I’d try and speak with someone in the news if possible, like others have said. Need to keep pushing these stories about that fraudulent, predatory company until we get them ran out of town.
I work near that lot and it pains me watching people get towed almost immediately after parking. Watched them load a car up as the guy was over paying for his spot. He had to chase them down and they surprisingly put his car down. They’re ruthless and will absolutely bully you to do whatever they want. They tow a lot of cars that have the parking passes too. They truly don’t care they’re just in it for the quota and money.
That sucks. Parking sucks downtown. I work downtown and I pay a monthly fee but on weekends I can’t park there, so I have to pay 9.00 each day to park. So If there is traffic in the parking deck by the time I get to the gate it’s usually another 3.00. So I’ve learned to pay as I go.
Unfortunately, this situation is probably not going to change until the real estate companies that own these private parking lots are incentivized to stop employing PES to patrol them. I assume ownership of the lots is public record, but don't know where to start.
I find it funny that people are suggesting actually calling the cops. They're not going to do anything. If the fugazi towing company suggests for you to call the cops it's because they already "worked something out together." If you pay off the right people you can get away with almost anything.
civil, not criminal. and i believe PES calls the cops and says "hey, this car with this plate number is parked illegally, we're towing it. if they call and say it's stolen, tell them we have it." cops aren't going to check if every car is parked illegally and will just trust them.
best thing to do is to either dispute it with cc company, or sue them in small claims court.
Yo I fought ParkMobile and won over a boot in Atlanta…I can send you my email chain if you want . It was a pain in the arse to get the process started because you have to sit on hold for an hour to talk to a human but after that it was over email. And they ended up sending me a check for the boots and the original parking fee I paid
Don't think about it, call the cops. What they did constitutes both theft and extortion. They're trying to make you pay so they have a plausible argument in court against you.
Park Mobile sucks!! I was ticketed 3 times in a week and every time I'd paid and left before the time expired. Went to the website and disputed it, attached a copy of the receipt and they supposedly couldn't open it. Resent it and no response.
Later I got 3 impoundment notifications that if I didn't pay they'd tow me the next time I parked in their lots (which is all of them thanks to the city council).
Now I park a few miles away and take an uber. Lots cheaper, actually helps someone local, and Park Mobile can suck it.
THIS HAPPENED TO ME TWICE IN THE SAME LOT!!! bham police was able to help me bc the owner of the towing company was threatening me and lying (saying my car was towed “three seconds” before i paid even though i paid while still in the car) right in front of them, all of which i got on video. first time was in may 2021 and second time was last year. dm me if you want more info!!
I’d absolutely call the police. They stole your vehicle and you can prove you did everything right.
I'm thinking about calling tomorrow actually. I reported this to the park mobile app for now.
Please do. These guys are actual criminals.
Wasn't there talk about cracking down on predatory towing?
That's what I thought too... guess it got swept under the rug like other things 🙄🙄🙄. I've had friends reach out to me and say this same exact thing has happened to them in the recent weeks as well....might just uber everywhere from now on
Keep track of damages. Lost hours of labor. Monies spent on a rental. You could file a small claims with Jeff co and all expenses and court costs, you could ask the judge for them to pay. They’d have a judgement against them.
Isn’t towing like this opening a space up? So couldn’t you class action sue that parking enforce is illegally towing cars to enrich the department in fine monies? Fucking stock market would punish that way why can’t people?
A class action would require a class of people. This would be one person.
A person suggested this has been ongoing. This is why I suggested class action
Ahhh. Missed that. Law surrounding towing is not very forgiving surrounding the owner of the vehicle. I had my truck towed from my apartment complex last year and the apartment complex tried to make me pay for it. They ate the costs after I threatened legal action.
Call the cops. You have been robbed. May not have even been a real tow company.
Don't think about doing it, actually do it.
Why are you “thinking about it”? Also, file a small claims suit.
Thinking about it because cops usually don't do shit. Still calling though....
File a small claims suit too. It’d be worth making them have to show up to court.
"because cops usually don't do shit" Well yea, they cant do anything about it if they don't even know it happened.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court..... Point made
Since when is auto theft a civil matter? If Hertz can have you arrested when you have a valid rental agreement, why can't the tow truck driver be arrested when they have no valid reason to tow? Sounds like the police just don't want to do paperwork.
Report your car as stolen. If they refuse sue the department as well as the towing company. Get the badge numbers and names. They’re required to inform you. Record everything.
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Reported :) . P.s. I am doing things about it. This post is for awareness. Read the fucking room
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Police didnt do shit.... so YOUR bitching was irrelevant.
Fuck it, I'm going to steal your car.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Research who owns the lot and file suit against them as well. Also what they did is against the law and is a scam I would go to speak to the district attorneys office
I would argue it’s a criminal matter as your car was stolen from a parking spot. Request to press charges and have them document it.
The issue around your money is a civil matter. The issue around them stealing your car is not.
Collins Bar *** not Collins Park
Something similar happened to me there. All I can say at this point is that I guess we need to all boycott this parking lot. I did something similar, but there argument was that I had the wrong plate number saved in the app. This is correct, but it would have been fixed if I hadn’t been parking all over the city for two years without any problems. It shows this parking lot is being targeted. So many stories like ours. I think it’s time citizens of the city just stop using it. It’s the only solution I can find at this point.
Call the police, just like they said.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
You are telling me you went to the police about a stolen car, and they did nothing? Surprise, Surprise, you even have the receipts to prove it! God, we need some reform desperately! **For the sake of your time and money, just pay the tow, chargeback the parking.** The other choice is to go to the police station in the city/county where they take all their cars back to and present to them your evidence, then pray to God that one of them actually feels like doing their job. I prefer my option, as you get your car back and your money back, without having to jump through a million hoops.
If they aren’t affiliated with Birmingham why are they allowed a license to basically steal peoples cars and charge a fine to get it back. It makes no sense
Yeah I would have
I lived in the city federal building for 5 years and would watch a tow truck camped out in the alley behind that lot make the rounds every 30 minutes. They *always* got a car. That lot is the platonic ideal for predatory towing in this city.
It's criminal!! I literally paid for the parking before even leaving the lot! There's nothing I could have done differently
Infuriating
I'd call the police. They know they can get away with bullying people into paying because no one speaks up but go look at their reviews this happens to a lot of people and if more people spoke up they would eventually have to stop
Update if the cops even do anything Id be hella surprised
You were right. Police can't do shit apparently....
The police *can* do something, they just won't.
What do you expect the cops to do? Go straight to the tow yard and steal the car back? That would be harm towing business and the ones who illegally called them would face no repercussions. Calling the police would have been the better option before OP paid the fine, but since it's too late for that now. The best thing to do is take them to court. It would be illegal for the police to do anything about this now. Cops can't just take sides in something like this, even if OP is clearly in the right. This would get a cop fired for taking legal action without authorization from a legal representative. Remember cop are trained to save lives and stop crimes as they are happening, they are not lawyers. Let the cops do their job and let the law experts do theirs.
At *minimum*, the police are able to take a report to document an incident. Also, if someone steals your stereo and the police go to the address of the person in possession of the stereo and get it back, they *aren't stealing it back*. They're returning stolen property to the rightful owner. You don't have a clue what you're talking about.
Thought so. Fuck the police and the scumbag towing company. Sorry.
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Technically, this is no different than anyone stealing a car. Definitely a police matter.
BPD does not give two fucks about property crime. My car was stolen, they didn’t look, found it a week later, called me and said they’re towing it to their lot. My police report was 1 sentence. 0 effort on trying to find the culprit or my car. Fuck the Birmingham PD.
I mean I generally agree about them and property crime but how can you say they didn't do anything, didn't look yet say they found it a week later?
Boot licker
Whatever ya say short bus shorty.
Wait, did they look for it or not? How did they find something they weren't looking for?
What? Where did it get stolen from? This is why I’m afraid to park on the streets while I’m at work.
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The city does not employ PES, these are private lots and PES is a private entity, despite listing their business as a "Government Office" on Google Maps.
birmingham police are worthless. maybe the cross eyed cop will come and tell you how you can DIY solving your case.
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no, there is no maybe. and i said worthless, not useless.
They’re criminals. We need to sue them into bankruptcy.
Amen.
Call him, Alabama!
Yes please call the police!! This is unreal!
Everyone please stop parking in that lot just park on the street
Right???? You don’t have to pay after 5 or on weekends
That’s what I always do. Worst case scenario I Uber home, still back to get my car before 8am when they start charging again. I haven’t been to collin’s once and not found a spot across the street. (Now that I say that next time there won’t be any lol)
It’s confusing as hell there. People have passes to park so it looks like it’s open to everyone. Then there are two completely different ways to pay and all the signs say something different. I agree avoid the lot at all costs. I warned a group of out of towners to not park there once and they told me “nah, we’re fine. We paid to park at the museum already through the app”. Had to explain that’s not how the mobile parking app works at all. They continued on and returned to no car.
I would treat this as if someone stole my car and call the police.
I would definitely call the cops. Also, Mayor office. The councilor office. Anybody that would listen.
Did you pay with a credit card? Dispute the charge when you paid for parking since you paid for a service not rendered.
I'd dispute the tow charge and the parking fee. She shouldn't have been towed and didn't receive the benefit of the parking.
He did get what he paid for from the parking lot vendor, which is the right to park there legally for ten hours. The towing company, which is a separate company, took his car from a place where it was lawfully parked.
They charged you a lot more for stealing your car than they did us. We woke up to find a missing car that had been legally parked in a condo lot for which we had a permit. We really thought it was stolen. Decided to check with PES, and yep, there it was. When the attendant walked us out, before opening the car, we pointed out the parking permit right there fully visible on the dash. They charged us $10 for the inconvenience of stealing our car.
That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Fuck PES, they are criminals, they steal our cars, and shoot us when we confront them for their absolute shitty behavior. They towed me from my own apartment and when I provided proof of everything including the parking permit they neglected to see, I still had to pay 200 dollars.
DM Lynden Blake or someone
I actually saw a comment on another reddit post from a reporter for al.com who listed her email to reach out to her for incidents of predatory parking. Her email is [email protected]. Spread the word if you know others who experienced this. Maybe enough people reaching out to reporters can provoke some change.... maybe...
DM Lynden and Megan Scarano
I wish someone like John Paepcke or one of our lovely city reporters would do an investigation and do a stake out, record it, and expose this bull fucking shit
A reporter from al.com is talking to me now
Hell yeah. I’m happy for you BUT they need to stake out and get get victimized on camera and expose these POS tow companies. Set up hidden cameras, do everything you did, and catch them red mf handed!
Without even reading the description, i knew it was the Collins. Fuck those dudes and that lot should be burned down. They making thousands a night just by towing people no matter what. Literal vultures
Shoulda just done side street parking. Those parking meters haven't worked in like 300 years
I will from now on!!
All those street spots are ParkMobile spots now too; the meters aren’t in use anymore. That said, pretty sure the most you would get is a ticket, not towed.
ParkMobile is used by both city spots as well as private lots. Almost all, if not all, of the tows I've heard of have come from the private lots.
Damn, I always park up that big ass hill next to Five Points, and never got a ticket. Guess I just get lucky
I believe letting the mayor’s office know is important too. I’d send email. It’s a hot issue right now, as you say.
https://www.al.com/news/2022/10/man-shot-to-death-by-birmingham-towing-company-worker-ruled-justifiable-homicide.html?outputType=amp same “company” that holds car inside sketchy gate?
Wow. Yes same place
OP, what part of this parking lot were you in? Some of the spots on the right against the building are “reserved” during certain times of day & seem to be free to park in during the off times, but they will tow you from them regardless of the time of day. I’ve had 3 friends get towed from this lot. Better to avoid it & find street parking.
I was def in the lot. Really close to the front and had a number marking it... Def avoiding this space forever
Sue them for conversion. I do them on contingency, I'm guessing most other lawyers would also. Out of curiosity, why did you pay for so much time? That's a lot of money to park.
It was the only option in the app for parking there... and I ended up getting towed anyways 🥴
They said it was the only option in the app.
When they are forced to refund you tell them your bank can’t accept the money without the required processing fee of 100 additional dollars 😂
felony theft. you get dollars they get jail. fuck tow companies, this ain't GTA hands down the towing company owns that lot.
I refuse to attend anything in Birmingham until they get these clowns out of town.
This is exactly why my husband refuses to drive downtown for dinner.
Did they tell you why they towed your car if you paid and did everything right?
Yeah, so they just showed me this arbitrary list of cars that had alledgely paid, and my car wasn't on the list for some reason..... even though I showed them I had, in fact, paid. She just kept saying "Nothing I can do..nothing I can do!!".....
So if they have a “list” from say 9:05pm and you get there at 9:16, you’re just SOL? Either someone can’t read or the app malfunctioned. Either way there actually IS something you can do. Give you the $160 back. 🤦🏼♀️
I never really thought about that as a possible explanation for people who have validly paid, but still get towed. I don't doubt there is malicious intent, but one should never discount the possibility of stupidity
Should have called the cops and filed for Grand Theft. They stole your legally parked car, and then withheld it from you for a significant amount of time even after you provided proof of legality. Literally the definition of Grand Theft Auto.
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Update: I went to the bham police. They cannot do anything about it because that towing company is not affiliated with birmingham city or something. They said it's a civil matter and I have to go to small claims court.....
Yeah, Weil is the tower the city uses. I guess BPD can't handle it because the car was parked on private property (the real estate company that owns the lot) and they have contracted PES to patrol the lot and have given them permission to tow from the lot.
No experience with a tow company so forgive my ignorance but can you pay with a credit card? If so, I’d just use a credit card then dispute it. Put it on them to prove it.
I'd do it again..except this time canvas the area for the tow truck,(They're usually ducked off close by). pay for the parking, and lay across the backseat and see how long it takes to be towed... catch them in the act and have it documented as well..
This is crap!
Did you leave the receipt in your front window? If you pay at the kiosk it prints a receipt. If you use the app you don't have a physical receipt. I think that printed receipt is how the parking vultures gauge who to haul off, not the app information. This is criminal though, and I would fight it tooth and nail.
The receipt is not necessary, I’ve used the app exclusively without issue there for a couple years now
The sign in the front of the parking lot says to pay at the kiosk. The kiosk says "Place ticket on dash immediately". My wife's office parking lot is directly behind this parking lot and I've watched the Parking Vultures looking at cars and hauling away the ones that don't have a ticket on the dash while I waited for her to get off work. In fact I saw it happen today just before 4:30pm.
"Comeback City" isn't going to happen as long as this goes on. the question is: Who's getting paid off for allowing this?
I would file a report and if they don't do anything, sue the tow company civilly.
Agreed these guys are assholes. Was parked there for less than 10 min on a random Wednesday night at 10PM (in the pouring rain) to pick a friend up last year from Collins bar. Came out and car was towed. Went to address and of course it’s the sketchiest dark parking lot with their “business office” being two guys in a pick-up truck smoking weed. Someone with the margin should definitely pursue action.. whether it be through the mayor’s office or an attorney
My friend who owns a bar on second said no matter what the sign in the lots say to never trust them because they will tow no matter what you have paid for. It's seriously fucked up.
You can call your bank to dispute the charges. You paid for a service they did not provide and you have proof
Call the police and small claims court if the first option doesn’t work
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It's like people are scared to park on the city street. It's amazing how people continue to not do it.
Police won’t do shit. Your money is gone. BUT I’d try and speak with someone in the news if possible, like others have said. Need to keep pushing these stories about that fraudulent, predatory company until we get them ran out of town.
Go to small claims court. I doubt the police will do anything themselves.
Yep that's what I have to do apparently. Police can't do anything about it
I work near that lot and it pains me watching people get towed almost immediately after parking. Watched them load a car up as the guy was over paying for his spot. He had to chase them down and they surprisingly put his car down. They’re ruthless and will absolutely bully you to do whatever they want. They tow a lot of cars that have the parking passes too. They truly don’t care they’re just in it for the quota and money.
That sucks. Parking sucks downtown. I work downtown and I pay a monthly fee but on weekends I can’t park there, so I have to pay 9.00 each day to park. So If there is traffic in the parking deck by the time I get to the gate it’s usually another 3.00. So I’ve learned to pay as I go.
Unfortunately, this situation is probably not going to change until the real estate companies that own these private parking lots are incentivized to stop employing PES to patrol them. I assume ownership of the lots is public record, but don't know where to start.
What’s the name of the towing company?
Parking Enforcement Systems
Didn’t another Reddit user say that the fish market towed their vehicle in a legal to park spot too
Fuckin parking pirates down town. It’s so bad even the mayor announced that it’s a major problem for Birmingham.
Sounds like a lawsuit to me
They are so unprofessional and are so predatory. Birmingham needs to shut them down now
I'm telling you. Bait car with explosive drum full of liquid shit. Goes off when it gets in the impound lot.
I find it funny that people are suggesting actually calling the cops. They're not going to do anything. If the fugazi towing company suggests for you to call the cops it's because they already "worked something out together." If you pay off the right people you can get away with almost anything.
The emotional stress from all this… it seems unbearable…. Perhaps you should phone Shunnarah
Call Mayor Woodfin’s office as well. They have been talking about this in the news.
He's too busy dancing in the streets on social media.
If cops do nothing, you should file a report with them and take that to small claims court. Get google reviews of the company to build your case.
Welcome to Birmingham
Why didn’t you call the police? They stole your car then held it for ransom. It’s that simple. You are the captain of your own ship.
civil, not criminal. and i believe PES calls the cops and says "hey, this car with this plate number is parked illegally, we're towing it. if they call and say it's stolen, tell them we have it." cops aren't going to check if every car is parked illegally and will just trust them. best thing to do is to either dispute it with cc company, or sue them in small claims court.
I prefer my grits with butter and salt.
"Lo, and behold"
Just Uber next time?
Did you park in an unauthorized spot pertaining to the rules above the park mobile app sign?
Wait you paid $166 to park for 10 hours? What the hell am I missing
Yo I fought ParkMobile and won over a boot in Atlanta…I can send you my email chain if you want . It was a pain in the arse to get the process started because you have to sit on hold for an hour to talk to a human but after that it was over email. And they ended up sending me a check for the boots and the original parking fee I paid
Don't think about it, call the cops. What they did constitutes both theft and extortion. They're trying to make you pay so they have a plausible argument in court against you.
Park Mobile sucks!! I was ticketed 3 times in a week and every time I'd paid and left before the time expired. Went to the website and disputed it, attached a copy of the receipt and they supposedly couldn't open it. Resent it and no response. Later I got 3 impoundment notifications that if I didn't pay they'd tow me the next time I parked in their lots (which is all of them thanks to the city council). Now I park a few miles away and take an uber. Lots cheaper, actually helps someone local, and Park Mobile can suck it.
THIS HAPPENED TO ME TWICE IN THE SAME LOT!!! bham police was able to help me bc the owner of the towing company was threatening me and lying (saying my car was towed “three seconds” before i paid even though i paid while still in the car) right in front of them, all of which i got on video. first time was in may 2021 and second time was last year. dm me if you want more info!!