GS California Towing

Good Morning ***, My name is *** *** and I am the general manager of G.SCalifornia TowingI Looked through my emails and could not find any from you but any how here is my response to the following complaint.
We are a tow truck company that has been in business for over yearsWe strictly tow for rotational towing onlyWhich means we only tow for police departments which we have contracts through the city and rules we have to abide byWe tow for the Santa Ana Police Department, Tustin Police Department, Garden Grove Police Department, and the California Highway PatrolOn March 24th we received a call from the Santa Ana Police Department to tow a vehicle at *** ** *** **in the City of Santa AnaWe were dispatched to this call at 9:49pm that night, My driver towed the vehicle from that location straight to our police impound at *** ** *** **The police Report has been attached for you to viewThe police department goes through the vehicles and writes down any items that are in the vehicle, any dents, and scratchesAs you can see under spare tire it is marked as NOThis is very common when a vehicle is stolen and people tend to strip vehicles of everything when this happensSAPD asked us to tow the vehicle and store it in our facilityThis is the reason why the registered owner is charged the fee's because we are safekeeping the vehicle for the registered ownerThis is part of our contract with the Santa Ana Police DepartmentLet me stress that it is illegal to tow any vehicle off the street without a police officer asking us tooThe only person that waive fees for a customer is the Santa Ana Police DepartmentThey will ONLY waive the fees if it was a peace officers mistake for towing the vehicle in the first place. As to calling the office and asking the after hours answering service about retrieving the vehicle from the tow yard they are not located at our officeThey help with the answering of the phones when the office is closed and all they basically do is dispatch any calls that are from the Police Departments to my driversNow in some of our other contracts with the other police departments they do need a police release if it is a recovered vehicleIn this case it was not neededBut it would have been more expensive for the customer to pick up the vehicle after hoursThis is what the breakdown would have been: $towing $City of Santa Ana Fee (DTS) $for storage $for an after hours gate fee Total: $316.75Instead she paid a total of $229.25$Towing $City of Santa Ana fee (DTS)$for Storage She saved the in the after hours fee. The driver was given the key by the customer and he drove the vehicle out to the customerWe do this every single time we have a vehicle to releaseAs for the people that sold her the spare tires they are not employed with our company and are not associated with our company in any wayI believe one of my drivers was there and witnessed the exchange of tires.We do not know how the vehicle ended up at the location where we picked it up from nor do we question the authorityWe are there to do our job and comply with the officers ordersPlease let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. Thank You*** ***

Review: I was not notified prior to my vehicle being towed from a residential address by the appropriate parties involved in my case. My car was stolen from the [redacted] parking lot in Fullerton on 3/19/2015 between 9:15 p.m. and 10:08 p.m. I was notified on 3/24/2015 at 10:08pm by the SAPD officer on desk duty that G.S. towing has recovered my car and is being stored at their ( towing company) facility. I was then told to wait until the morning to retrieve my vehicle due to a police release for recovering a stolen car and must be signed off before I can have my car back. The next morning I called the SAPD at 9:37 a.m. and was told no police release is needed and I should retrieve my car as soon as possible. I arrived with my cousin at 12:12 p.m. with concerns about the driving ability and the status of property inside and outside of my car. Prior to the arrival three more attempts to negotiate or waiver the fee of $230.00 between both the SAPD and Tow Company was made via phone calls. At 12:39 p.m. my car was driven out from behind the G.S. Towing gates with 4 donuts in place of my 3 month old tires. I immediately questioned the validity of this unacceptable display while an outsider offered me to buy his tires from his car for $100. in exchange for the donuts (spares) on my car. There are two pieces of miscellaneous vehicle pieces that we stored in my trunk without the spare or jack accessories at that time. I then called the SAPD and requested for an officer to witness this tragedy and file a complaint against the towing company but was denied of service. Once the towing associates (3 unknown of names) replaced the tires on my car, the jack magically appeared in my trunk. The stolen issue is still under investigation by the [redacted] department as I am waiting for the police report to be ready in a couple of days. My main complaint is against the G.S. Towing for lack of mileage, notification to me the owner and information on their report for towing.Desired Settlement: I feel that I am not responsible for the fees I had to pay to get my car back due to the circumstances of my car being stolen 5 days prior to the recovery of my vehicle in Santa Ana. I also have verification that the cars mileage according to the odometer was not driven from the parking at which the auto theft occurred. I am still filing reports in regards to the incident as more and more discrepencies appear through out each parties that are involved. I understand the criminal matter is not applicable to the outcome, however I feel I was wrongfully overcharged and extortion of fees were pressured into being my fault there for at my expense. My car was back in my possession and released to me in less then 12 hours of being notified by the police who were notified by the towing company to tow my car without me being notified. I would like to be refunded for the inconvenience and distress this situation has encountered.

Business

Response:

Good Morning [redacted],