The Marina has such a shady business model to earn quick and excessive car-towing fees. We parked and left the car literally for about 5 minutes in the lot where there is no sign of assigned parking. A towing truck quickly backed off to my car, placed the wheel lift to my car, and turn on the siren. We ran back to the car immediately and were told by the truck guy that the lift could only be removed if I paid him $125 plus tax. At that moment, I thought I was in a third world country falling into victim to some sort of bad scam.
The towing truck driver asked for our driver license which I wasn't sure if he has the legal right to do so. After the credit card was swiped, an invoice was handed to me and I realized the tow truck driver made some fraudulent statement on the invoice. First, he fabricated the fact that the car was on the lot for over 50 minutes before he took action. Further, he lied about the car was being towed away and towed back to the marina parking lot. However, my car never left the parking spot and it was just being lifted. Plus, from parking, leaving and returning to the car was just merely less than 5 minutes. After doing more research later, I realized the full charge of $125 is a violation of New York Code 19-169.1(g) that said the tow truck should have disconnected the hook at the owner presence immediately without interference, charge only 1/2 of the full charge allowed for removal, and demonstrate a legible copy of the code with the particular paragraph highlighted during the encounter. The tow driver driver failed to comply to any of these required by law. They manipulated people's fear of their cars being towed and made their illegal gain based on people unfamiliarity of the relevant NYC laws and regulations. I read some reviewers being charged over $200 or $300 and also being asked to pay in cash. Are these even legit?
Bayside Mariner and their friends and families said "Read the sign or it is your own fault!". If the parking lot is a private property, there should be a huge visible sign stating "Private Property" or "Members Only", just like any other country clubs which definitely can prevent people from making wrong parking judgement. A tow truck onsite on a full time basis already implied how big and important this car towing "business" is. Just like all other private properties, if the Mariner does not intend to profit from the ill-intention, a few huge red signs should effectively get rid of most unauthorized parking issues. It should be noted that NYC Park has a small sign saying "Parking Permit required", but did not mention penalty could be imposed by the Bayside Mariner. NYC park signs around the parking lot also added another layer of confusion to everyone whether the lot is a public or private property. The question is that if it is a public property, why NYC let a tow truck guy to perform its parking enforcement duty and collect fees?
There are hundreds of complaints about this aggressive private towing enforcement reported in Yelp, Google and even Tripadvisor. Definitely, thousands and thousands more were not revealed publicly. read more