Call someone else! \r
While working out of town, one of our trucks became stuck in some mud. Our driver called Sid's Towing for help. He asked for a quote, but Sid's refused to give one to him. He also asked if they would take credit cards since the bill would need to be settled through the corporate office which was about 100 miles away. They assured us that a credit card would be fine. The first truck dispatched by Sid's became stuck in the mud. Sid's sent another truck to pull out their own truck as well as ours. Our truck only needed to be moved about 20 feet to reach solid ground; instead, the tow driver pulled the truck 180 feet to blacktop. Sid's office called our corporate office for payment and said the bill would be $600. When we asked for an explanation of the cost, they said it was 200 feet at $3.00 per foot. We've been in business over 35 years and have never heard of this billing method for towing services. One of our employees got on the phone and asked for details. When Sid's wouldn't provide these, things got heated. Sid's said they would tow the truck and impound it. Then they said they would only take cash. Our CFO called the owner, Josh, who was quite rude. She apologized for any bad behavior on the part of our employee, offered to fax over a statement that the charge would not be disputed if they would allow credit card payment and explained that because the banks were closed and our guys were out of town, cash payment would just not be possible. Josh became threatening. We called the Danville police who arrived on the scene. The bill was now up to $753.00 because Sid's decided to charge wait time at $3.00 per minute. After explaining our position to the police officer, she was able to persuade Sid's to stop escalating the price. In the end, we sent funds via Western Union to settle the $753.00 bill. Sid's had dispatched three trucks and about four or five people to the scene, which was threatening to our personnel. The police told us that our call was the third one WITHIN A WEEK that involved disputes with Sid's. For the record, we went back to the scene the next day and calculated the tow distance using a measuring wheel. It was 180 feet, about 160 of which was unnecessary. This bill should have been about $250.00. We hope you are not reading this after the fact! Our recommendation is to avoid Sid's Towing. There are plenty of other tow companies around.
more