Unbelievable! Please tell me what you would do.

sbbamafan · 2006-04-27T03:05:47+00:00

This will be long. Today I went to check on something at one of my client's buildings. I parked my 8 week old 4runner in the Service / Vendor parking as always at 2:46. At about 3:15 I came out NOT to find my car. My first thought was that it was stolen. I soon realized that it had been towed. We watched on the surveillance video. It was towed at 3:01 by the kind of tow truck that picks up one end (in this case, the back). The manager (my client) totally blew a gasket at the towing company. Facts are I was parked legally and nobody directed them or authorized them to tow my car. By 3:30 my client was cutting loose on them. They told us they would contact the driver and have the car back within 30 minutes. I stood out in the rain waiting...and waiting...and waiting. We called the towing company about every 30 minutes. I even called the Police to report it stolen (to me, it was). The cop was a real jerk. When he arrived an hour after I called he did nothing but complain that the street numbers weren't big enough. First he said that since it was towed from private property there is nothing he can do. I responded with "so if i go to someone's house and steal their car, I get to keep it since it is not a police matter or crime." Then he said the car wasn't stolen, it was impounded. I explained that impounded would imply that the authorities had it because of something I did. I said it was taken by someone without my permission or direction to do so. It was STOLEN!!! HE again said it did not constitute being stolen since it was taken by a tow truck. I again responded with "so if I buy a tow truck I can take any car I want without fear of criminal prosecution" He asked if I had called the towing company and I told him we had numerous times and they claimed for hours that they would be here in 1/2 hour without showing up. He said it was a civil matter and that he could not do anything just because they would not respond fast enough for me. He went on to say "I'm not in the customer service business". I said "obviously not". I really don't know what made me more angry, the towing company or the City of Atlanta cop. Tonight my truck showed up on a flatbed. The guy proceeded to offload it right in front of me. They tilted the bed and let the wheels skid (one backwards, one forward) as it came down the tilted bed. Obviously they did not break into the car to put it neutral. I can only assume when they picked it up from their storage yard, they put it on the same way. It's almost like the T4R was protesting; kicking and screaming... I'm really concerned that they might have damaged something. A friend of mine (an attorney) said not to worry because it is so new and under warranty anyway. There is no visible damage and it doesn't appear that anything was disturbed. Just the rear end / transmission issue. The other thing that really left me steaming is that the towing company never even apologized and they were extremely beligerent over the phone when I was trying to get my car back that they TOOK!

Thread starter sbbamafan
Start date Apr 27, 2006

rickst29

Member

Sep 19, 2006

Write/Call/Visit your City Council representative!

If anyone else ends up in a similar situation....
The FASTEST WAY to get satisfaction/ get their attention ISN'T a civil suit for money. You ask your city councilman / councilwoman to resolve your issue, they'll probably JUMP !!!

... because you're directly threatening their license to do business.

I think that you should only resort to "regular" lawyers after (if) this approach didn't work.