CompUSA parking fiasco

[1stwahine]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I went to Best Buy yesterday. I didn't get the email till this morning. I didn't check this thread till today.

As for the parking at CompUSA ~ I've had no problems. Go in. Come out. Dey try tow my Leimomi!

Auntie Lynn

[pzarquon]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I thought this was an interesting item in the tow lot's log:

HPD cleared vehicle for tow @ 7:58am

Does a private property owner still have to consult HPD before towing a vehicle? What does this mean?

I feel for the woman's frustration (again, any Waikiki resident who oversleeps past the 6:30 a.m. Ala Wai cutoff knows her pain), but her vendetta and name-dropping just annoys me. I feel like shopping at CompUSA just to spite her.

I've tried to shop there before and wondered why the lot was so full when it wasn't very busy inside. Now I know why, and I know why CompUSA felt they had to step things up a bit.

[joshuatree]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I thought this was an interesting item in the tow lot's logoes a private property owner still have to consult HPD before towing a vehicle? What does this mean?

I believe all tow companies log the cars they tow with the police so should an owner call in saying car is stolen, police runs a quick check to see if car is towed and then merely lets the owner know it's at a tow lot.

[pzarquon]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

Ah, that makes sense. I recall conversations in the past as to whether parking enforcement really was the best use of police dispatch resources.

I got the e-mail forwarded to me by two acquaintences today. I told them to read the comments on the original link and that I was going to shop at CompUSA in honor of Charlie and Stacy Aldinger.

[808shooter]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I told them to read the comments on the original link and that I was going to shop at CompUSA in honor of Charlie and Stacy Aldinger.

I went and bought a computer game from Compusa yesterday in honor of the Manoa elitist who doesn't think laws/rules apply to her.

No problems with parking btw...

[Hellbent]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I went and bought a computer game from Compusa yesterday in honor of the Manoa elitist who doesn't think laws/rules apply to her.

No problems with parking btw...

what computer game? c&c3?

[808shooter]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

what computer game? c&c3?

no some educational game for my oldest daughter. When you've got three kids < 4 = no time for games... the last game I bought for myself was civ4, old school.

edit: sorry for the derail. as an fyi, I forwarded that transcript of the tow guy's logs to everyone in the email chain that sent me the CompUSA parking whine of the year.

Too bad we can't give Bishop museum feedback on the negative publicity this has generated for them :-P

[craigwatanabe]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I used to work at the Gas Company on Kamakee Street. Kona street that runs between Kamakee and Kapiolani is owned by The Gas Company for the distance between the two boundry points: one being the HECO transformer and the other being the corner of Kona and Kamakee street. Employee parking was along the building on Kona street with signage clearly indicating employee parking only.

I'd go to lunch only to come back with a car parked in my stall from a customer at one of the auto repair shops across our building. I tell our facilities manager and he'd call the cops and a tow wagon. No notes on the window or nothing.

At CompUSA, they don't need to post notes on the windshields at all. Signage indicating the limitations for parking should be quite clear and by law the only warning indicating the consequences for unauthorized parking.

Same as the no parking signs you'd find on City streets. You park in a no parking zone, the car get's tagged and towed.

If you bought a product at CompUSA then walked off the premises to get a drink from a nearby business, technically your authorization to park there has ended.

If you bought a product at CompUSA but sat in your car to relax for a moment, technically you are authorized to park there because you haven't left the premises yet making you still a customer.

If you intended to by a product at CompUSA but walked off the premises to get a drink from a nearby business, technically you never had any authorization to park there in the first place because you haven't established yourself as a customer. You're actually trespassing.

If the store was closed for business and you parked there, technically you cannot be a customer because the business hasn't opened yet, once again you're trespassing.

Whether the tow guys were rude or not the fact remains...a car can be towed if the driver isn't a customer (or employee). Their job is to tow cars...not to take the verbal crap from upset "victims". You can yell, bitch, scream bloody murder at CompUSA or the Tow company but legally they are correct and can do exactly what they want because parking at their lot is a privledge. Parking on their lot is basically agreeing to their terms thus breaking that agreement is like breaching a contract.

Now sure there is such a thing called leeway and it's probably exercised at the manager's discretion. As for this woman's car being towed, this is probably her only experience and would think it doesn't warrant that extreme level of retribution, however to CompUSA her one single violation is one of MANY that CompUSA must see everyday. She can't use that excuse, "well everybody does it so why can't I".

Nobody really knows what went on that day, so it's easy to come up with any kind of excuse for parking there and not heeding the parking signs. All we can go by is the fact that she parked there and wasn't technically a customer, hence her car was towed. There was no signage indicating a "grace period" for unauthorized parking.

Now let's put this in a more personal perspective. You live near the UH/Manoa. You leave in the morning to go to work and come back early to pick up a document for the afternoon meeting with your boss only to find some UH student has parked in your driveway. Not only can you not park at home but you can't even park on the street because this is Vancouver Drive in Manoa and there is no available street parking and you can't even double park on that narrow street.

It is your right to have that car towed away so you can park your car at your own home.

In this case who should be more upset? You the homeowner or the person who parked their car in your driveway?

CompUSA is the owner of that parking lot just as you are the owner of your driveway and when there is an unauthorized car parking in either place, the owner of that property usually is the one that will be more upset NOT the violator.

If the violator is the one more upset then that person needs to get their priorities checked. You park there illegally, you get towed and then you get upset? I don't think so.

Someone parks in your driveway illegally and you get upset? Damned right, the next think you'll be doing is calling the tow wagon...same thing with CompUSA. They're just exercising their rights as a property owner as anyone would when someone imposes their will on your rights.

If it were your driveway or parking lot...what would you do? Hmmm?

Tow that bastard and teach em a lesson that's what. And that's exactly what CompUSA did...and they had every right to do so.

[mel]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I've read over all of the posts in this thread for the past few days.

Personally I make myself aware of whatever the parking policies and prices are at different places I go to. For all the years Comp USA has been in HNL, I have never strayed off the property to go somewhere else to shop. I park in Comp USA's lot I make sure I am shopping there (well often walking around the store and mostly buying nothing)... but it is a good place to just look around and perhaps get that small item you need like blank CDs or something.

But I sure as heck won't go to Restaurant Row or the store across the street or anywhere except to Comp USA while I am parking there.

Ditto for when I go to BestBuy, WalMart, MacMouse, City Mill, Foodland, McDonalds or any other business that has a parking lot for just that business. Most businesses have signage that mention towing. For me just the thought of being towed away is horrible. Reading these posts, the initial emails that triggered the newspaper article and this thread just cements my fear... of great inconvenience and losing plenty money all at once.

$195 can go a long way around the state on a Go! flight.....

[lavagal]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I took some Dreamweaver classes at CompUSA. Got there 7:30 or so, went in for the morning session, went to Restaurant Row for some lunch, came back to finish the afternoon for classes. So our vehicle was there the entire time, but I guess they knew whose was whose. I cannot help but think if ever there were an opportunity to be towed, that would have been it. This was about two years ago. This store has some rigid policies, but I guess it has to guard against shoplifting, etc. I just don't like the bait and switch I sometimes encounter.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

No problems with parking btw...

That's because of the incredibly successful boycott, I'd wager, keeping throngs of people away from the store.

[Honoruru]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

I took some Dreamweaver classes at CompUSA. Got there 7:30 or so, went in for the morning session, went to Restaurant Row for some lunch, came back to finish the afternoon for classes. So our vehicle was there the entire time, but I guess they knew whose was whose.

I've also taken a bunch of classes at CompUSA and did the same thing. I used to come early, take a walk around the neighborhood, go back to my car, studied, went to classes, then wandered off for lunch before I came back to finish classes. No problem. But then, I think they knew me and my car. I was there so often.

As far as shopping there, they suck. I could never get any help. Always had to go somewhere else to get what I wanted.

[i-hungry]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

As far as a full parking lot, yeah I have seen it full or nearly full a lot of times before. But when you go in the store, it doesn't look like there's as many customers as there were cars.

I went to CompUSA today. Lots of parking. People must be scared now.

[Keanu]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

That's because of the incredibly successful boycott, I'd wager, keeping throngs of people away from the store.

I boycotted COMPUSA for a day but then I actually needed to get something from the store. Now that I've completed my purchase, I've gone back to my boycott.

[Hellbent]

Re: CompUSA parking fiasco

As far as shopping there, they suck. I could never get any help. Always had to go somewhere else to get what I wanted.

OMG, I went there last night to buy the $400 BFG 8800 video card (which was out of stock). They didnt want to help me it seemed, told me it was sold out and that the 2 boxes in the display cabinet were dummies (!) Why have dummies if youre sold out? They looked like theyd rather stand around checking out chicks then help me. My wife decided to buy a DS and we stood around for 10 minutes before someone came by to 'help' us. They tried to sell us TAP and looked so dissapproving that we didnt buy it. >_<