I am on travel for business. Drove to Tualatin, OR to drop off groceries to a friend, but was unable to find a "visitor" parking spot.in fact, there are no signs, or markings that clearly mark visitor parking. I parked the car temporarily in a spot close to the apartment to drop off the groceries (frozen goods) - the spot I parked in was approximately 1-1.5 minutes walk from the door of the apartment. As I was entering through the door, one of my friend's roommates saw flashing lights. Within 5-8 minutes I had the groceries stored, and headed back to my car only to find it gone - there was no note or anything, so I thought it may have been stolen. After walking the parking lot for awhile, spamming the Lock button the on keychain, we were unable to find the car. After speaking with the police and the towing company for this apartment facility, I discovered that in the 5 minutes I was away from my car, my car had been towed. I am aware of apartment parking policies in general - assigned parking/visitor parking - however, my experience has been that if a vehicle is noticed to be in an unauthorized spot, a sticker is put on the windshield that states "if the car is not moved it will be towed at owner expense", or something to that effect, and then check back in 30 min to an hour and if it is still there, tow it at that point. I am from Boise, ID; on travel for HP in Vancouver for two weeks. The car is a rental. I was at this apartment earlier today, parked in a non-marked spot. I left to take care of some things back in Vancouver, then grabbed some groceries for my friend, stopped to drop them off (after searching the same area for an unmarked spot), and was going to head back to the hotel. I spoke with the same gentleman (with Safeguard Towing) twice Saturday night and he was pretty unreasonable, didn't care to hear the circumstances, just said, you gotta pay, or make an appointment at least 1 hour in advance. I'm not asking for much, just a little understanding and/or justice - especially since now I am stranded without a car, and could possibly lose my job if this incident is unable to be resolved. I made an appointment for today (Sunday) to speak with someone form Safeguard about this, and while on the phone was told that nobody working on the weekend had any authority to negotiate - that the manager would be in on Monday at 8 A.M. And he (Patrick, General Manager) is the only individual who has that authority. After doing some research last night on laws/legislation/statutes for the state of Oregon, I learned that certain criteria must be met (a picture of the vehicle illegally parked before towing, (in some cases) a call to the apartment facility prior to the towing, a towing company vehicle cannot be within 1000 ft of a parking lot (waiting/stalking "prey" - i.E. Predatory towing, etc.). While meeting with the gentleman from Safeguard, I asked to see the photo, he said that it was at the main office. I noticed on the form he had that it was marked as a dispatch, so I asked if they had call records showing the time the call (if any) was made - he said it was at the main office.in essence, the lot where my car was towed contained no information regarding the tow itself. While discussing the issue that I was away from my car for 5 minutes, he mentioned that the tow truck could have been "in the area" - however, since the closest office is 23 minutes away, and the truck had no car on it (was able to load mine on it), it is highly unlikely that a driver would have the company truck "in the area", and coincidentally enter the parking lot and see my car in that time frame. From a commission/towing standpoint, rental cars are easy to spot from a distance, and easy prey in lots such as these not to mention, if someone is in a rental car, they are most likely from out of town and an easy payday due to the urgency of needing the vehicle back. After spotting several other un-authorized vehicles in the lot, and mine being the only one gone by morning, it makes a lot of sense that I was clearly targeted (no smoking stickers on driver/passenger windows, barcode sticker in the front of the car, etc.). Later I went with my friend to the apartment complex office for some clarification on the agreement with Safeguard towing. This information and the situation is being forwarded to the apartment complex manager - trying to find out if there was a tenant in the apartment that the spot was designated for, and there was - but again, the time it would take for a call to be made (even if made before I even left my car) and to get the information on the car, and the truck to get there from over 1000ft (assuming by chance it was in the area), would exceed 1.5 minutes. Not knowing how long it takes to hook up a car to the tow truck, I dont know what the standard time is from parking the truck, loading the car, and leaving would be). The information given from the towing company, the information on the timeline of my events, and observations of my friend and her roommate do not match up. I am being told that I must pay over $320 to get a rental car back solely so I can return to work Monday morning. I find this to be unacceptable. Having my job put in jeopardy, being stranded in a city (luckily my friend has let me stay with her and has been driving me where I need to go to get answers), and being victim to Predatory Towing is not exactly what I was looking forward to during a simple business trip. What's worse, I have a corporate card assigned to me for travel costs (AMEX), and the Towing company doesn't accept that card - so even if I were to be like most people and just pay the money without researching the issue/laws and combating this injustice, I wouldn't be able to because they don't accept AMEX. If I were to try to use my personal bank account, I wouldn't be able to because I am not exactly rich, I live paycheck to paycheck like many people - I have less than $100 in my account as it is. So again, battling this is my only option, and even in lieu of that, I may still lose my job over this incident, all because a towing company was lying in wait to snatch my car without notifying me or giving me a chance to get back to it before driving away with it. I have been doing nothing with my time other than research laws, trying to find a way to fight this - sadly all attorney offices are closed Sunday's as well, so I can't schedule a meeting with any until tomorrow (Monday) as well. Monday, I made a trip to the main office (122nd Ave) to speak with the manager, only to find out that he would not be in until around 4pm. Asked the Dispatch Manager if she had the photo/date-time stamp, and the call records for the dispatch she said that this kind of information would only be given in small claims court. She had no response when I asked her why she stated that the General Manager would be in at 8 A.M. This morning, other than he does sales as well aside from this job. While typing up a letter to the general manager, Patrick, I overheard a call that came in from a gentleman that stated the lack of parking information signs in his lot. The Dispatch Manager responded by saying we dont have much to say to each other, if I say anything you will just tell me to * off. Clearly this is a indication of the level of professionalism I have spent years working in tech support/customer service, and under no circumstances do you use vulgar language with a customer if they are hostile and use it with you, you disconnect the call. I gathered the name, title, and logged the time and date of the time I was at this office. Also, while speaking with the dispatch manager, she quoted some times regarding the call/picture (didnt have my computer out to log her verbatim, but they didnt match the times that the agent said on Saturday). According to both employees with Safeguard, it took approx 5-10 minutes from the time the call was placed for the truck to get here, and another 10-15 minutes before it was actually towed. I pray that there is something that can be done about this, and beg that you please look into this and put a stop to it. The more people that fall victim to corrupt business practices such as this, the worse off our economy (as well as pride in being an American) will become. After all of the research I have done, cases I have read (including the 3 on this site), I am disgusted at the number of people who have fallen victim to situations similar to mine. I am sure The grim Tower will have something to say assuming he is an employee with Safeguard and that we have probably spoken at some point over the past 2-3 days. Thank you for reading.
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