The Auckland woman was clamped once outside the Chinese consulate - then again less than an hour later after parking at a nearby Wendy's for breakfast. Photo/ File
The Auckland woman was clamped once outside the Chinese consulate - then again less than an hour later after parking at a nearby Wendy's for breakfast. Photo/ File
An Auckland motorist was left $300 poorer after being clamped twice - in less than an hour - at a notorious site in Great South Road in Ellerslie.
Tanyaluck Sakdawekeeisorn was parked outside the Chinese Consulate on the morning of November 6 to arrange a visa.
She said she wasinside the consulate for just 10 minutes - and came out to discover her wheel had been clamped.
"I said [for] the visa parking, 10 to 15 minutes should be fine. But he said I have to pay."
After some back and forth in which the Amalgamated Parking Services staff member refused to budge, Sakdawekeeisorn paid him $150.
She then drove a short distance to a Wendy's which borders the multi-business parking lot where she had been clamped.
After ordering some breakfast at the fast food joint, the Blockhouse Bay resident ate at the restaurant and then popped across the road to the bank, checking her funds after paying the clamping fee.
When she returned she found her wheel had been clamped again - less than an hour after paying to have the first one removed.
"That's very upsetting. I tried to compromise with him [saying] 'you already clamped my car once'."
Sakdawekeeisorn thought because she was a customer at Wendy's she was ok to park there before nipping across the road to the bank. Photo / File
Sakdawekeeisorn pulled out her receipt to prove she was a Wendy's customer but the staffer said that because she had left the property that didn't matter.
"Going to the bank ... it was only five minutes.
"He did not listen and he is very rude."
Receipts provided to the Herald show she paid Super City Towing, a company affiliated with Amalgamated, $150 at 9.08am and another $150 at 10.03am.
Amalgamated boss Craig Burrows invited Sakdawekeeisorn to appeal the second fee in writing - but backed his staffer for clamping her wheel again.
"It says there if you read the signs - you are only to park there whilst you're a customer of Wendy's.
"Once you leave the property you're not a customer of Wendy's any more, you're a customer of the bank or whatever."
Calling Sakdawekeeisorn "a bit silly" for getting clamped twice in an hour, Burrows nevertheless said he might feel sorry for her if she made her case well enough.
"But she's got to try and stop making a habit of it. It's not like having a meal - you're only supposed to get clamped once in your life then you don't do it again."
Private parking enforcement is regulated only by a voluntary code of conduct, of which Amalgamated is not a signatory.
The code states a 10-minute grace period should be given to motorists parked in the wrong spot.
Motorist Finn Morrow was also clamped outside the Chinese consulate in Ellerslie earlier this year. Photo / Doug Sherring
The Chinese Consulate in Ellerslie shares space with several other businesses and only five spots are reserved for those on embassy business such as getting a visa.
For many of the parking spaces in the complex it was unclear who was permitted to park in them because the paint on the ground saying who was allowed had faded, or been painted over - sometimes more than once.
On Google, nearly half of the written reviews left about the Consulate note the lack of parking and the high likelihood of having your wheel clamped.
Morrow had unknowingly parked in the wrong spot in a large parking complex for what he said was five minutes at most, and returned to find his car wheel clamped.
Morrow said he was concerned Amalgamated had a vested interest in not making it clear where people could park, in order to collect revenue.
