Central Parking & Riverwalk Towing Money scam prays on tired travelers, company prays on busy Alamodome attenders San Antonio Texas
50,000 Seventh-day Adventists are meeting in the Alamodome for their 60th quinquinial General Conferece sessions. We expect to pay exhorbitant parking fees. Driving into the Central Parking paid parking lot is an oasis in the midst of parking mahem; large open parking, one central paying booth, select your hours of parking needed, place your paid parking pass on your dashboard, go about your business of walking a mile to the A!lamodome.
We paid $20 for the longest possible option, 8 hour parking. Nothing at the pay booth said Car Will Be Towed At Owners Expense $200+ per tow! Only a phone number when called says "Offices are closed, please call during business hours." My car was GONE from the parking area. "Did someone jack my car! Did we stay over the parking limits? Call the police - report stolen car."
Police arrive, while we talk with another unhappy customer that has lost her car as well. The police alert us, "We, the police, have appealed to City Hall with the shady practices of this "private parking" company, to no avail. I guess San Antonio likes shady dealers taking care of their guests?
The police politely and sympathetically show us where the sign has the towing company and correct phone number to call after hours. The ONLY signs warning unsuspecting guests are on poles immediately as you turn off the busy street into the Central Parking lot. What motorist in their right mind is going to read the small print warning as they are entering from a busy street?
My friend had a rent car luckily, so we could go on our midnight adventure of finding the River Walk Towing lot on the other side of San Antonio. Thrty minutes later we find construction road blocks and back alley dark streets all dead ends. Several calls later to the towing company, we are reeled into their money making net.
One woman was physically shaking as she tried to get the correct identification papers and $219 to get her car our of jail. Her parents had to come and rescue her at nearly midnight to finish the transaction. I was next, upon questioning their practice of picking up cars and hauling them to some dark hidden part of town, she sharply spouted at me "see here, you had more than thirty minutes to go to your car and pay the extra parking fee!" That made me feel much better about paying the $219 dollars - more than I just paid for my Nikon camera that I had planned for months to purchase. Now I have to lay down $219 for a service I never intended to use.
San Antonio - please take this Central Parking out of the center of your beautiful city, it is a blot of darkness of disrespect to your guests. Who is going to walk nearly a mile from the Alamodome after a long day of meetings to move their car or pay another $15 for an extra 30 minutes of parking? This is outrageous.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
TxTowCompliance
Austin,Texas,
USA
Central Parking & Riverwalk Towing Scam
#3Consumer Suggestion
Sun, July 05, 2015
The owner of Riverwalk Towing, Frank Sapp has a financial interest in Central Parking, which in itself is a violation of State Law. The red and white tow signs used by Riverwalk Towing fail to contain the statutory phrase: "Unauthorized Vehicles Will Be Towed at Owner's or Operator's Expense" with no verbiage left out.
Please file a report with the San Antonio Police Department's Vehicle Crimes Unit asap by calling 210-207-2348 so criminal charges can be filed against Central Parking and the wrecker driver that towed your vehicle.
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
You paid for 8 hours but parked for 8 and a half hours
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, July 03, 2015
Here is the thing, you entered a private lot and got towed because you did not pay for entire time you parked.
So what did you think would happen if you didn't pay for parking at all? If you didn't think you would be towed why would you pay at all? After all the closest lot you could find was almost a mile away...very inconveinient right?
Oh and you can't use the "I paid because I am an honest person" approach because if that was the case you would have walked the mile to move your car(or pay the $15) because you are honest. If you weren't going to do that to think you could just "get away" with an extra few minutes then your honesty claims start to loose any credibility.
So what does that leave? That leaves the one fact that you knew you would get towed otherwise. You are just upset that they didn't give you a long enough "grace period", and they should make allowances because you had too walk so far...right?
So here is a question, just how much should they charge for parking(or should they not charge at all). How much of a grace period(aka free parking) should they give you? And the final question, do you really think any other private car lot would do anything different?