A customer of ours was in an accident in Santa Fe Springs. This company showed up on scene immediately and the police were called. We were on our way from Fontana, but since it would be 50 mins before we arrived and the police needed the street cleared, Vernola's towed the tractor and trailer down the street to their yard.
Upon my driver's arrival (we are also a tow company), I was informed that there were issues with them releasing the truck. I called my customer who informed me that Vernola's would not fax or email him an invoice, so he could not pay the bill. Thinking that was strange, I called over to Vernola's myself and tried to retrieve the invoice so that my customer could pay their bill. I was informed by the very rude lady on the phone that she WOULD NOT give us any copy of the invoice before we paid. She said the reason was that we could possibly change something on the invoice before we paid it. To which I responded "" Well, you know how much the bill is. So, if we don't pay the proper amount, then you don't have to release the truck. Right?"" To which she responded (changing the subject) that I would have to have a letter from our customer saying it was ok to take possession of the vehicle because they were not told that we were going to pick it up. I then told her that I had spoken with her driver on-scene and he had given me the address to pick it up. Not to mention that the original driver of the wrecked tractor was in her office at the time and they could release it to him.
The tractor arrived at their yard around 11am. By the time we retrieved the tractor it was around 1pm. Because the vehicle was in their yard before noon and stayed until after noon, they were able to charge my customer for 2 DAYS OF STORAGE!
And, FYI Vernola's- It is common practice and usually company policy to have an invoice before you issue payment to someone. That is what an invoice is.... an INVOICE TO PAY. If you give it to them after it's called a receipt. And like I said, it is common practice in most companies (especially larger ones) to require an invoice before payment can be issued which is why we had such a problem yesterday in getting the payment to you.
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