Ian G.
Google
I parked in a lot next to Patsy’s — not their main parking area — and nothing made it reasonably clear in those conditions that it belonged to them or was restricted. It was an honest mistake. The car was there for around an hour, the lot was mostly empty with plenty of open spaces, and the lot itself is a good distance from the restaurant with no valet or staff present on site.
Even if there is signage somewhere, it clearly wasn’t visible or obvious enough for a normal person to realize, yet they still chose to tow the car within about an hour despite there being no urgency and no shortage of parking.
The towing company Patsy’s partners with then charged over $300 in storage and payment fees, including charges that NJ Consumer Affairs later required to be refunded, and they refused to release the vehicle while still charging storage for days. During that time, I had to rely on Ubers to get home and get around, adding even more unnecessary cost and inconvenience. It took nearly two months working with investigators before the towing company finally issued the refund — the investigator even had to follow up more than once before they complied.
Patsy’s is responsible for the vendors they choose and how their policies impact people. Partnering with such an aggressive towing company and allowing something like this to happen — especially when the neighboring lot wasn’t full, the car wasn’t there long, and it wasn’t even clear the lot belonged to them — says a lot. The experience was unnecessary, stressful, and entirely avoidable, and people should be aware of how they handle situations like this. Because of this, I won’t be dining at Patsy’s going forward, and I’d strongly encourage others to think carefully before choosing to do so.