

Could Student's Facebook Page Topple a Towing Company? - edw519
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10763142

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bmalicoat
I wonder if this is the beginning of teens and 20-somethings realizing their
Facebook (Twitter, etc.) postings can carry weight and bring real-world
consequences. Creating a Facebook group out of frustration seems harmless
enough but depending on the outcome here, it could prove to be a very big
deal.

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alex_c
Judging by the number of "join this group to solve world peace" groups on
Facebook, I think teens and 20-somethings vastly overestimate the real world
consequences of their posts.

Yes, they can be influential in specific cases, and maybe more effective than
traditional means, but these are exceptions, not the rule.

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zach
My favorite is the "I bet we can find 1,000,000 people" groups with 6,000
people in them. Anywhere else, 6,000 people supporting your cause would be a
huge win, but they turn it into laughable defeat.

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mistermann
This is an interesting story in that social media is giving consumers some
leverage against companies that are running almost absolute monopolies.

I don't know if this story is true or not, but the proliferation of video
recorders on cell phones and things like this will, or should, cause a lot of
laws to be rewritten.

From what I've read of this story, a _lot_ of people have complained about
this company for these practices, and really, whats stopping them? IMHO, if
they are caught doing this on video, they should be on probation, and if they
are caught again, lights out.

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patrickgzill
Interesting that they claim they lost 10-15 good clients and the value of that
business was $750,000 - meaning each client is (assuming similar size) worth
up to $75K of business? How much are they towing each month?

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cwp
Good question. The article mentions that a single tow costs $118, so they're
claiming to have lost more than 6000 tows. Even if they were really busy that
would take a few years.

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what
I doubt it would take a few years to tow 6000 vehicles. They have more than 5
different kinds of trucks [1] and probably more than one of each. 6000 tows
doesn't sound unreasonable for a ~4 month period, especially since they cover
a pretty large area?

[1] <http://tjtowing.com/light_duty_trucks.php>

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patrickgzill
The URL you point to is for a company in MA, not MI. Not the same company -
Joe Bird is the owner of the company in question, not (as on the URL you
linked) Thomas Farber Sr.

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what
Woops, don't I feel stupid now.

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watty
While this company sounds shady, I think this is a little over the top until
someone catches them in the act. Doesn't everyone hate tow companies in
college areas?

"But claiming that the company scraped off the parking sticker" - seems like
anyone could have taken his sticker off (or stolen it). I remember hearing on
more than one occasion of stolen parking stickers at my school due to the
ridiculous price.

I'm not on the tow trucks companies side, I just think this is way blown out
of proportion for a hunch.

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jcnnghm
I don't doubt their story at all. A few weeks ago my girlfriends car was
legally parked and towed. I know that it was legally parked because the night
before, I parked next to her and noticed that her parking pass was a different
color than mine, so I made a note to ask her about it in my cell phone. The
next day, the car was gone.

The issue is, you are essentially powerless to do anything about it, except
pay the extortion. I spoke with a police officer about it after I had to call
them a week or so later about an unrelated matter, and he suggested that if
something like that were to happen again, we should get an officer to come out
and order the parking management company to have the vehicle returned. He said
that he had the towing company in question tow a car back to where it was
parked before, and did believe that they frequently tow legally parked
vehicles in the area. Unfortunately, it could be very difficult (impossible?)
to actually get an officer to come out, if the vehicle has been reported
towed.

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ShabbyDoo
There must be some law specific to towing companies that allows them to take
and impound vehicles from private property at the request of a non-
governmental property owner. How else could it be legal to take another's
property and hold it for ransom? If I open up a coffee shop and place a sign
on the door stating that no laptop may be placed on a table for more than 15
minutes, I can't legally seize the laptop and demand a fee, can I?

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electromagnetic
If a person fails to pay for a long enough period and doesn't own over a
certain percentage of the vehicle (say doesn't default on a last payment or
something; depending on where you live, in ontario I believe it's under 3/4)
the object legally becomes property of the person it's defaulted to and is
considered temporary property of the towing/repo company.

Repo companies have legal access to your property to remove it so long as they
don't violate any law during the process. Trespassing doesn't count, because a
gas man coming to check your meter isn't trespassing, if he breaks down your
door then he's breaking and entering. Similarly a tow company only violates
the law if they cut a lock or something illegal.

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hdx
Luv it, I don't hate a lot of things but I absolutely HATE Tow Truck
companies, in my area if your car gets towed on street cleaning day the fee is
$230 + $90/Day! Their parking lot is about 1/2 mile from my street! And you
still have to pay the parking ticket. Such a rip off.

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JanezStupar
How is their story even possible?

They tow away wrongly parked cars right? So what either the people stopped
doing parking violations or they had to cease defrauding the people.

Or I'm to daft to understand?

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epochwolf
The person that set up the page is claiming the company is removing parking
stickers from legally parked cars and then towing them.

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steveklabnik
One of the reasons that this is possible is that towing companies are sort of
like Judge Dredd; as far as I know, once your car ends up in the pound, there
really isn't anything you can do. Technically, a towing company could just
snag your car, say you were parked illegally, and you'd be screwed.

Now, they don't do this because of the ramifications if they got caught. This
sounds like a company that did it a small amount, got emboldened by their
success, and then got caught. Of course, that's all just speculation, but it's
plausible.

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adammichaelc
The lesson for the towing company and any other business is don't lie, don't
cheat, don't steal, and don't be a jerk.

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MaysonL
Lesson I took from this: tape your parking sticker inside the car, and take a
picture of it.

