They're not always the easiest people to deal with and somehow clampers always seem to have the upper hand. Once they've put their clamp on your car, there's only one way to get it off - pay up.
Clamping is a big issue and not just in Birmingham. The reason that many of us seem to be getting frustrated is because some clampers seem to be able to do whatever they like to get their hands on our money.
Unfortunately the list of regulations for clampers is a short one. A clamper needs a license from the Security Industry Authority, they need to display their license and they need to correctly fill in the paperwork at the time of clamping your car. Not a long list to remember, but, as Watchdog showed previously in this series, some clampers can't even mange that.
Clampers' judgement
The British Parking Association also has guidelines for the industry but clampers don't have to be members and they don't have to follow them. They're free to decide what signs they display, when to clamp you and even what to charge you. It's all down to the clampers' judgement.
Daniel Gibbin went into Birmingham town centre for a meeting. He parked his car, paid for a ticket but when he returned, his car was gone. Daniel had arrived just minutes after his ticket had expired but the clampers hadn't wasted a second before they pounced. In those short few minutes they towed Daniel's car.
When parking at this car park normally costs 70p an hour, £254 for six minutes seems rather steep. So how clear were the warning signs? Well there's only one and it's quite small. Daniel says it has moved since his car was towed and should now be easier to spot. But when Watchdog spoke to regular users of the car park they said they hadn't seen it.
One man said: "I've been coming here for a few years now and I didn't know that sign was there and that's quite concerning? It should be a big large sign and when you're coming in, it should be so everyone can see it."
Took the case to court
The fact the sign was hard to see was one of the reasons that Daniel felt that he'd been treated unfairly. He took his case to court and won. He was refunded the money he'd had to pay to get his car back.
Another set of clampers were even quicker off the mark with Stacey Davies' car. She got back to where she'd left it, just as the ticket expired - but the clampers had got there first. Stacey told us that her ticket expired at 3.23pm. The ticket that the clampers gave her states that they started clamping at 3.25pm, just two minutes after her ticket expired. Stacey wasn't even given the option of paying to remove the clamps, instead she watched in horror as her car was towed away. It cost Stacey £350 to get her car released.
Edmund King, president of the AA, hears these sorts of stories all too often and he's heard a lot worse: "There was a woman in Doncaster and they said they'll keep her three-year-old daughter hostage until she got cash; they've clamped a hearse with a body in the back. An 18-year-old girl in Birmingham was clamped at midnight - she had no money to get back home. So basically they're putting a lot of vulnerable motorists at pressure, bullying them into paying an extortionate amount of money. We need to regulate all of this cowboy activity and if we can't do that we need to outlaw them."
Landmark case
That's exactly what happened in Scotland 17 years ago. In a landmark case the Scottish High Court outlawed wheel-clamping on private land. For the rest of the UK, change may at last be around the corner. The Home Office has just announced plans to force clampers to tow the line.
MP Alan Campbell, minister for Crime Reduction, told Watchdog: "I think that some of the companies have acted in an outrageous way. We can't have a situation where it's simply a revenue raising exercise and a motorist finds that their vehicle is being towed away if they weren't aware because there weren't any signs. They've no control over the level of fees that are charged and no way of redressing the situation. That's not right, which is why we intend to introduce legislation."
This will happen after a public consultation. So you can help decide how the industry should be regulated.
When the Scottish Court banned clamping they called it "theft and extortion". The rest of us call it clamping. With the clampers making their own rules maybe the government will finally clamp down on them.
Clamping down on clampers
Clamping is a big issue and not just in Birmingham. The reason that many of us seem to be getting frustrated is because some clampers seem to be able to do whatever they like to get their hands on our money.
Unfortunately the list of regulations for clampers is a short one. A clamper needs a license from the Security Industry Authority, they need to display their license and they need to correctly fill in the paperwork at the time of clamping your car. Not a long list to remember, but, as Watchdog showed previously in this series, some clampers can't even mange that.
Clampers' judgement
The British Parking Association also has guidelines for the industry but clampers don't have to be members and they don't have to follow them. They're free to decide what signs they display, when to clamp you and even what to charge you. It's all down to the clampers' judgement.
Daniel Gibbin went into Birmingham town centre for a meeting. He parked his car, paid for a ticket but when he returned, his car was gone. Daniel had arrived just minutes after his ticket had expired but the clampers hadn't wasted a second before they pounced. In those short few minutes they towed Daniel's car.
When parking at this car park normally costs 70p an hour, £254 for six minutes seems rather steep. So how clear were the warning signs? Well there's only one and it's quite small. Daniel says it has moved since his car was towed and should now be easier to spot. But when Watchdog spoke to regular users of the car park they said they hadn't seen it.
One man said: "I've been coming here for a few years now and I didn't know that sign was there and that's quite concerning? It should be a big large sign and when you're coming in, it should be so everyone can see it."
Took the case to court
The fact the sign was hard to see was one of the reasons that Daniel felt that he'd been treated unfairly. He took his case to court and won. He was refunded the money he'd had to pay to get his car back.
Another set of clampers were even quicker off the mark with Stacey Davies' car. She got back to where she'd left it, just as the ticket expired - but the clampers had got there first. Stacey told us that her ticket expired at 3.23pm. The ticket that the clampers gave her states that they started clamping at 3.25pm, just two minutes after her ticket expired. Stacey wasn't even given the option of paying to remove the clamps, instead she watched in horror as her car was towed away. It cost Stacey £350 to get her car released.
Edmund King, president of the AA, hears these sorts of stories all too often and he's heard a lot worse: "There was a woman in Doncaster and they said they'll keep her three-year-old daughter hostage until she got cash; they've clamped a hearse with a body in the back. An 18-year-old girl in Birmingham was clamped at midnight - she had no money to get back home. So basically they're putting a lot of vulnerable motorists at pressure, bullying them into paying an extortionate amount of money. We need to regulate all of this cowboy activity and if we can't do that we need to outlaw them."
Landmark case
That's exactly what happened in Scotland 17 years ago. In a landmark case the Scottish High Court outlawed wheel-clamping on private land. For the rest of the UK, change may at last be around the corner. The Home Office has just announced plans to force clampers to tow the line.
MP Alan Campbell, minister for Crime Reduction, told Watchdog: "I think that some of the companies have acted in an outrageous way. We can't have a situation where it's simply a revenue raising exercise and a motorist finds that their vehicle is being towed away if they weren't aware because there weren't any signs. They've no control over the level of fees that are charged and no way of redressing the situation. That's not right, which is why we intend to introduce legislation."
This will happen after a public consultation. So you can help decide how the industry should be regulated.
When the Scottish Court banned clamping they called it "theft and extortion". The rest of us call it clamping. With the clampers making their own rules maybe the government will finally clamp down on them.
Clamping down on clampers