Just had 2 of my cars towed - wtf

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wild_turkey

250+ Posts
After work today I met my wife at this shopping area near Hester's Crossing in Round Rock. The lot was quite full and some of the spaces had signs that said you could only park there if you were visiting a certain business, etc. We found a couple spaces at the far end of the lot, near a Burger King that faces I-35. Ran our errands, were gone about 30 mins total, and came back to find both cars gone. They had been towed, we called the number, went and visited the place, and got the cars back minus $435.
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I'm not really sure what my question is, and I highly doubt there's anything I can do about it at this point, but the whole deal seems very shady to me. Turns out there were signs at the entrance to this parking area, but it was dark and there were no lights to make the signs visible. I'm sure that doesn't matter though, and the towing guy said they are in compliance with city ordinance. He also tacked a lot of extra charges onto our towing for stuff like car storage (they had our cars 15 minutes) and an impound fee for "keeping my car safe". I balked at this but he says those fees are specified by the state. My wife had her car towed a couple years back from the UT campus and I'm 90% sure we paid less than $150 to get it back, so the state must've raise towing fees quite a bit in that period.

So I guess what I'm asking is, can I follow up on his claims just to make sure all of this is legit? Where would I go to verify the city ordinance for proper signage and the state mandated towing fees? I'm sure this guy is right, but I don't want to just take his word for it.

Also, I'm now left with the impression that people in the towing business are very low on the totem pole of life. Why in the hell would you want to make a career out of pissing people off by towing their car? The guy seemed amused by the fact that we had not one, but two cars towed, and he kept throwing out snide remarks just to get under my skin. This just reminds me of the tax collectors from Biblical times who were always looked down upon as the scum of society. Sorry, I'm still a little pissed off.
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I hate those guys more than just about anyone I can think of. You probably got ripped off a little at the margin, but you're not getting it back.
 
Quite a few years ago, my car was stolen and recovered. So it was towed to the police impound lot. The police report listed some of my valuables that had been recovered with my car. When i picked-up my car, a few things were missing that the police report had said were in the car. Not sure who took my stuff, but it was either the police, towing company or someone in the impound lot. My bet was the towing company.

Anyway, I completely feel for you and unforunately there is not much you can do.
 
The other weekend my friend and I both paid $10 bucks for parking outside a bar. We asked the guy if we could leave the cars overnight. He said no problem. I left early but the next day my friend said his car had been towed. My first thought was that the guy was just some scammer.

Turns out someone had broken into his car overnight by breaking a window. A cop saw the car later with the broken window and had the car towed to the city impound. So not only did his car get broken into and his stuff stolen, but he had to pay a $200 impound/towing fee.

He lost over $400 all together, and of course had to eat it b/c his deductible was $500. Not a great weekend for him.
 
I wish cops would crack down on the way these ******** drive around town with or without a car hooked up. Reckless speed demons who endanger everybody around them. And they are douches.
 
Turns out this guy towed 7 people in a span of about 1 hour. I talked to one of the other guys that got towed and he said he's parked in this area many times before and never had a problem. (it was our first time going there) My guess is that the towing company recently got a deal with the Burger King and they just sat nearby, watching the parking lot and waiting for people to not notice their signs.

Which brings me to another point...the signs were not well posted and I mentioned this to the guy, but he said that surely either myself or my wife had seen them. That's a ridiculous statement because I highly doubt we would've chose to park there after seeing a sign. Hell, we had seen signs in other areas of the parking lot that would say "Sushi parking only" or "No gym parking", and we passed those spaces up. They were hung in front of every single parking space, whereas this towing sign was just hung at the entrance to a parking area, in a dark shadow under a tree.

I complained to the guy about it and he claims it meets city ordinance. That's fine, if this guy wants to comply with the bare minimum signage, I'm sure it helps more people like me not realize what they're doing wrong and that keeps him in business. The thing is, the purpose of having a towing service protect your lot is to keep parking spaces available for your customers, and signs would've done an equally good job of that. (see above) Hanging poorly placed signs and then waiting for people to walk away from their cars so that you can haul them off is extremely unethical IMO. I guess what I'm saying is, assuming this guy did comply with city ordinance, I'd probably like to file a complaint with the city that their sign requirements are too relaxed. 7 people got towed in a very short amount of time, so obviously there's something missing from the notification standards.
 
You need to contact the business owners corporate office. They had to approve the towing company, and unlike the pwt tow truck drivers, they usually care what people think of them.
 
Sorry to hear about that.
Click on the link above and make sure the yard is a licensed VSF(Vehicle Storage Facility). That way you can verify if he is able to charge a storage fee.
As for the other charges it is doubtful you can get any of them back.
I work in insurance and now you know a good reason rates for P&C are so high. The amount insurance companies spend on a daily basis for tow/impound lots are crazy.
Notification fee is to send you a letter that they have your car...usually around $50 and up. Yeah, for a letter.
Impound fee is usually for them to jam your vehicle in their lot.
Be happy they didn't charge for waiting, mileage, extra labor, dolly fees, hook up fees, etc. The list goes on an on.
 
Oh yeah, I also got charged for mileage ($15/vehicle to go 5 miles) and for a dolly on one car ($35 extra). I asked him about the dolly charges and it went something like this:

Me: Why is the second car $35 higher?
Him: We used a dolly to tow her in.
Me: So what was the first car towed with?
Him: A flat bed truck.
Me: So it's just my bad luck that you didn't thave 2 of those available, meaning I have to pay extra on the second?
Him: I should've just told you that both were done on a dolly, you'd never know the difference and I'd have made $35 extra on both cars.
Me: That's kinda immoral don't you think?
Him: We're not immoral people sir.

I can't believe he had the audacity to say he could've just lied about how they were towed in and I would've been none the wiser. Like other people said, the types that operate these businesses are the scum of the earth.
 
I seem to remember a story on the news a few years back about this ****...they put tiny signs at the entrances to the lot and then just tow all the people who don't see them.

Really shady practice....at the very least you should file a complaint and contact the business itself. They need to put more signs up.
 
Ok I highly doubt that I'm gonna get a dime of my money back, but at this point I just want to find some way to screw this ******* over. I took a look at the website posted above, and so far I haven't found a specific list of fees. The guy told me that all fees are mandated by the state, so I'm gonna continue to follow up on this.

Also, the link does have a section pertaining to signage, and the requirements are extremely specific. Maybe he complies with all that, I dunno since obviously I missed the signs myself (as did 7 other people). However, you can bet your *** that I'm gonna drive over there with a tape measure and make sure that every font and symbol is above the minimum size requirement. Perhaps I can find some type of non-conformance with his signs and use that as my reason for filing a complaint with the City of Round Rock.
 
The city has an ordinance which states how and where the signs must be posted. Obviously, a business complained about never having any parking, so they allow or requested the wrecker company keep the lot cleared out. I don't know anything about Round Rock's ordinance, but in Austin, the signs must be pretty clear, and say "Tow-away Zone." I always watch for them when parking near downtown, or on private lots, especially at night.
Maybe you can find a violation, but I don't know what recourse you have-that is probably spelled out in the ordinance, though.
This is a dirty business, and keep in mind there are wrecker companies that do not do impound business, just regular towing and wrecks, and I use one of these companies for my shop's business. I can't stand those impound wrecker drivers, either. Very exploitative business, and very shady people run them.
 
I went to see Willie Nelson at the Backyard last spring. The last time I was there, the Backyard was surrounded by rocks and cedar trees. Things have changed a little. We parked in the lot beside the sprint store. We didn't see any no parking signs and the lot was almost full already, so we thought we were ok. It turns out there was a small no parking sign in the back corner of the lot. My friends car got towed. The lot was by the airport, so we got to take a nice and expensive cab ride there. Scum of the earth is dead on.
 
If you just want to screw with the guy and have some time to burn, go park in the lot again and walk away like you're headed off somewhere else. Peel back around to the other side of the Burger King, grab a coke (keep the receipt), and hang out by the window with a camera. Of course, you may be at least temporarily out of that $$, but consider it a possible investment in your tactic to get back at the guy.

With that said and as mentioned already, those guys are complete scum and are proud of it. I'm sure they'd love to screw with you more if motivated, so you may want to just follow the more civil route and write a letter to Burger King and follow up with the licensing board for tow trucks.
 
Tow Truck Drivers
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I have never met a scummier group of people across the board. For me this is one group that a generalization of being white, brown, black, etc. trash really applies to. I have never met one who wasn't a scumbag regardless.
I ******* hate 'em!
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I had my car towed a few years back. We went to pick it up (got towed in Lewisville but the towing lot was at I-45 and Loop 12, you figure that out), looked over the fence and saw one of the employees trying to jimmy open my car.

********.
 
Not sure on the Texas rules. In Arizona I was towed and just demanded they return my car. They can't legally keep it. They take your name and address down to serve process if they want to sue you, but they never actually do it because no one tries it.
 
scum. my story. had my car towed 3 years back on turkey day. recived a business card of how much it would be to get my car back- $215 i was like wtf... anyways go to pick up the car at this address in a mobile home park, it is in this large driveway size chain link fence with 4 other cars there- knock on the door and wayne jim bob junior is the there and maw maw has the baby on the hip- i asked to get my car back and hand him the business card with the cash. he says that lil fancy cars yours... its gonna be $430 today to get that thing out. called the police to come to the residence... and dude writes this ticket with all the fees. knowing the difference between a dolly & a flatbed- i caught him in his lie. got my car back for free...i still to this day have a burning urge to lite a paper sack of sh*it on his front porch. i feel for you bro- those pukes suck.
 
I get more and more pissed off the more I read this thread. I want to look into the Texas laws and see if they're similar to AZ- thanks Johnny M.

My story: (I've been towed a few times but this is the worst).
I was moving out of an apartment and a friend came to help me. He had a big horse trailer hooked up to his ginormous 1-ton Ford and we had it pulled up to a curb at the complex. No, the curb was not a parking spot, but we are moving furniture.

So I see a tow truck circling the property a few times. I make eye contact with the guy so that he realizes we are currently moving and that's why we're parked by the curb. He circles a few more times while we're all out there and doesn't really pay much attention to us, nor does he say anything.

At one point, all three of us were inside getting a load. It had to be no more than three minutes and we come out and he has his ******* truck hooked up to my friends truck- horse trailer still on the truck. I mean, really?? Wtf does this guy think he's going to do, tow the 1 ton with a horse trailer full of furniture dragging behind out to the tow yard?? And he just has this **** eating grin on his face waiting for us to come out.

I (ok, so it wasn't my truck) was like "ok jackass, go ahead and try to tow it, see what happens." And my friend is like "The hell you will, you are going to ruin my truck and trailer and God knows what else". The scumbag just keeps grinning (he has a toothless sidekick in the truck that also finds this hilarious) and he's like "well you're in a no parking zone and it's my job to keep you out of it." I am getting pissed and launch into how he has driven by three times and not said a word about where we were parked. He smirks and says something like "not gonna make me no money off dumb sons a ******* like you if I do that now am I?"

Ugh, I am beyond pissed at this point. Anyway, my friend is much more concerned about his truck and isn't sure what this guy's boundaries are. ( I was positive he was not going to try to tow the truck and trailer and tear all sorts of stuff up, but maybe he would have, who knows). He just kept saying things about how we better pay him money now because if he tries to tow it it will ruin the truck. And about how he is not at liberty to remove the trailer so he will just have to drag the trailer behind and ruin it also. So my friend is just like "ok, what will it take for you to put my truck down?" And the guy ends up making my friend write him a check (to him personally, not the tow company) for $150 and the guy lowers the truck back down. They drive off laughing.
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I got towed near MLK and Whitis in 05. I went to get my car for $135 and I tried to tell the lady they were wrong. Of course she didn't listen even when I told her I would take the company to court. I went to the JP office and filled out a contest form to tow (not sure on the wording) and payed my fee and waited for a court date. A few days later the tow company called me offering to refund my money.
 
whosehouse, why the **** didn't you call the police? seriously, you failed. i would have cracked him the mouth before i paid him $150 in that instance.
 
Given the current state of disgust with tow truck drivers and the lack of protections available to citizens, why haven't laws been changed to better protect citizens? Everyone I know hates tow truck drivers and the costs to deal with your car getting towed are ridiculous. Given the public outrage, why no changes?
 
I've never had anything but good things to say about tow truck drivers. Amiable people IMO. Maybe you all just got unlucky?




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