Action Auto Services

Review: In 2007 I sold a travel trailer, a week ago I received a letter from action auto services saying the travel trailer was impounded at an address in washinton state. My husband called them and put them on speaker so we could both hear, and this company told us we owe towing charges and that they were going to turn us into collections. We informed them we sold it in 07. They said we were still responsible. Today got certified letter from them saying we were going to get a 250. dollar fine and if the trailer didn't get enough we were responsible for the difference. I have 280/163 blood pressure from stress, I should have had stroke, I was lucky, this cause it to rocket again. Went to DMV in Oregon and paid 4 bucks to get the vehicle purchase record. According to Oregon the travel trailer was flagged and a Washington Tittle applied for in 12/14/2007. That means if there is a Washington Title, there is a Washington new owners... This company had no right to contact us or threaten us. They had no right to stress me and put my life in danger. If they had tried to find the legal owners the right way, they would have known it wasn't us.Desired Settlement: I would like a letter of apology, to be treated like that was demeaning and definately not business like.

Business

Response:

April 2,2013 Re: 9487188

Dear Revdex.com,

This letter is in response to claim number 9487188 which was brought against Action Auto Services LLC DBA Action Towing, American Towing, and Action Towing of Kennewick.

Our records show that the trailer in question was impounded off of private property on March 20,2013. When we received this unit it had, and still has, an Oregon State license plate on it of [redacted]. As is our policy, we contacted our local non-emergency dispatch and requested the ownership records for the above license plate, as it is from out of state. Since the unit does not have a Washington State license plate on it, the only information we were able to obtain was from the Oregon State Department of Licensing. We have included a copy of this form with this response. Please note that it does not have any record of the unit being sold, therefore we could not have known that there was a sale on record.

The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.55.105 titled “The Responsibility of the Registered Owner” states that the last known owner of record is financially responsible for any costs incurred during the impound, auction, and disposal of an impounded vehicle. We have included a copy of this RCW as well.

Our records show that we spoke with the claimants on March 25,2013 at 1:49 pm and advised them of the above RCW. Upon their claim that they had sold the unit we advised them of the impound process and financial obligation, and that if they had sold the unit we needed a bill of sale dated prior to the date of impound since the information we had been provided from the Oregon State Department of Licensing did not indicate that a sale had been made.

In our line of business we impound multiple vehicles per day, and follow the Washington State legal procedure on each one as set forth in RCW 46.55. As you can imagine, we receive multiple phone calls each day from individuals claiming to have sold a vehicle that we have in impound. Each time we request a record from the Department of Licensing, dated prior to the date of impound to relieve a registered owner of record from any financial obligations. If one is not provided we proceed with the information we have on record. We did not receive a record from the claimants.

Upon receiving notice of this complaint we have pulled a Washington State record from the unit’s VIN and do show that the claimants are not the Washington State owners of record. Had we been provided this information to begin with we would not have pursued action against the claimants. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience the impound process may have caused the claimants, and will discontinue our pursuit for financial responsibility against them.

Please note that Action Auto Services is an honest and up front company and will do everything we can to relieve the stress from the impound process for our customers.

Sincerely,

[redacted], Owner CEO

Action Auto Services, Pasco & Kennewick, WA

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9487188, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]

Regards,

I am attaching a DMV record from the state of Oregon, and it shows that the license plate of the travel trailer was flagged from the state of Washington, dated 12/14/2007. If they ran the plates they would have received same information, and there was no need to contact us, except to try to get money from someone, and as far as I am concerned their rudeness on the phone with us was WRONG and shouldn't have happened, and maybe they will think twice about hassling another innocent couple. We deserve a written apology from the company, not to you but to us.