Big Daddy's Towing and Recovery, LLC.

Review: 9/24/13 My apt complex, villas of oakwood, contracts the big daddy's towing company to patrol the lot for vehicles without parking passes. My vehicle's decal stickers were expired, so the driver of the tow truck placed a green warning sticker on my driver side window. My vehicle had been registered with the VA [redacted] since 8/31/2013, however for some reason I haven't received the updated decals. I received a registration card in the mail 6 days after the purchase. That registration was sitting face up in the passenger seat of my vehicle. I have tinted windows on my vehicle and the residue from the sticker placed on my window damaged the tint. I called the office of the tow truck company and I explained what had happened. The woman who answered the phone told me to contact the state trooper department because they use the same stickers and if I had an issue I should take it up with them, and then I was hung up on. I spoke to my apt complex management, and I was told that it wasn't something that I had to take up with the tow truck company.Desired Settlement: I woud like for big daddy's towing company to replace the tint on my driver side window.

Business

Response:

In response to this complaint, customer is correct their vehicle tags had expired as of August 2013, and we did put sticker on the driver side window. The sticker residue in which they are referring to is what comes on stickers purchased. They are the same stickers the State Police use. We put on the driver side window because that is where the vehicle owner can see upon reaching the vehicle. It should not affect the tent as proper tent installation is put on the inside of the window and not the outside. That would not affect the tent. I explained to the illegally parked customer that we are not responsible to replace tenting on his vehicle, and he was not happy with that response. Big Daddy's Towing and Recovery did not do anything that we were not contracted to do. We are contracted by the apartments to tag any vehicle that is not properly registered. We are not at ANY fault here, we only did our job. Customer as noted said the registration was lying in the passenger seat, windows are tented so how can someone read the registration in that position. It is the tenants responsibility to notify the apartment manager if there is a discrepancy with [redacted] in regards to their stickers. Then the apartment manager would have contacted us to let us know not to ticket or tow the vehicle. This responsibility relies on the tenant's.

I spoke with the owner of "BIG DADDY TOWING (MIKE) by phone at the Newport News location regarding the towing of my vehicle. He was very rude & secretive regarding my questions about how the vehicle was towed (with a broken axle). He said -"I didn't tow it so I don't know anything, if you want to know about it you need to go see for yourself", I asked to speak to a Manager he said I AM the MANAGER.
I asked for a phone # for the tow yard in Hampton Va where it was towed from Hays Va. and he said there is no phone ,you need to call here. I asked for the address of the tow yard and the hours of operation, he said 60 Nettles lane Hampton and he said 24 hours M-F, Sat. by appointment only, and "we are closed on Sunday". I went to the Nettles Ln tow yard and it was closed on Monday Feb. 9, after calling the office again, he said wait and someone will come in a half hour. After an hour someone came to open the storage yard. When I went inside I found the trailer was missing a tire and rim , and another tire and rim was destroyed by dragging it on the roadway. I asked again how the trailer was moved with a broken axel and the response was it was towed behind a wrecker.
I asked about the other missing tire and rim and nobody had a answer. The charges were ridiculous - $715.00 - for the tow and 9 days storage at $45.00 per day, which included two Sundays that they were closed which is in violation of State codes for towing companies. The fee for towing was $185.00 (medium tow) which is also in violation based on the gross vehicle weight of the trailer and the fact it was towed behind the wrecker,and drug from Hayes Va to Hampton.
Mike , the owner, and BIG DADDY TOWING are a perfect example of why towing companies have such a bad reputation!

Review: Purchased a junk car and wasn't told about it.Desired Settlement: Just wanted to say I bought a car from Big Daddy's Auto Sales and I had a horrible experience. I could have gotten a better car at the local junk yard and Big Daddy's did not tell the truth about the things that were wrong with the vehicle. EVERYTHING was wrong with the vehicle. What a financial fiasco. It has cost me over $6,000.00 in repairs so f r over and beyond the cost of the vehicle. That operation should be put out of business.

Business

Response:

[redacted] G, [redacted]2005 Chev Trailblazer Blue Sale Date: 08/10/2015Purchase Price $4,500.00 plus taxes and tag fee’s for a

total of $4,744.25Vehicle was sold AS IS – NO WARRANTYVehicle was test driven by Ms. [redacted] on 08/10/2015 at

9:45 am with an allowed time of one hour.Ms. [redacted] had the opportunity to take the vehicle to

her mechanic or repair facility to be checked over before the final

purchase. Ms. [redacted] did not elect

to have the vehicle looked at before purchase. Ms. [redacted] wanted the vehicle tittle and tagged for her

to drive the afternoon of August 10, 2015.

We process all the DMV paper work the same day of purchase to help accommodate

her needs. When discussing the vehicle during the sale with Ms.

[redacted] she was informed of the following about the vehicle...Items that we repaired/had done to the vehicle:* The vehicle had a rebuilt transmission * The vehicle had a rebuilt rear end* All PM vehicle maintenance had been performed (oil change, filters and so on)* The vehicle was inspected by a VA state inspection station with no issues* New whipper blades front and backItems that we knew to be wrong with the vehicle at time of

purchase:* The center armrest latch was brokenWe informed MS. [redacted] that if she had any issues or

problems to give us a call and we would try to help as best as possible.The following events happen after the sale of the vehicle on

08/10/2015.* Ms. [redacted] called asking if we could come unlock the

vehicle because she had locked the keys inside.

Ms. [redacted] was about 25 miles away from our office when making this

request for a free lockout service. Ms.

[redacted] had a second/spare key that was at her home that was about 5

minutes from where she was with the vehicle. We informed her that we would have to charge her for that

service due to the fact there was no issue with the vehicle but needing

service. Ms. [redacted] declined the

lockout service and made arrangement to get the key from her home 5 minutes

away.* Ms. [redacted] called on another occasion needing a tow

because the ignition was locked and would not start. The issue was not the key or the ignition

but that Ms. [redacted] had not inserted the key all the way into the

ignition. * Then we receive a certified letter from Ms. [redacted] on

September 19, 2015, the letter listed out repairs she had done along with a

list of other repairs she was requesting. The vehicle was taken to Hickman’s Truck & Auto Repair

facility and the total work performed cast $1823.00. Along with the list of repairs that had already been performed

and the four wheel drive and transmission would need repair. Then Hickman’s told her the additional repairs

could cost her over $4,000.00.Until we received that letter from Ms. [redacted] we had

not heard anything about the repairs Listed in the letter or that there was any issues. We called her to discuss the issues and asked at

that time why she had not contacted us about the repair issues to allow us the opportunity

to stand behind our sale. Ms. [redacted] had no real answer as to why she did

not contact us.We asked her at that time to bring the vehicle over to us

and let’s see what was going on with it.

Ms. [redacted] brought the vehicle to us on 09/28/2015 and left the

vehicle with us to check over.When dropping of the vehicle we talked for a while about her

concerns, we had her list out the items she would like us to look at. While

talking with Ms. [redacted] we reminded her that the vehicle was working fine

when she bought it. Also that our Dealer Sales Manager had driven the vehicle before her purchase for a few months and assured her their was no issues with the vehicle. If she was

having the issues why take it to another shop instead of calling us? That had if she had of called first we would have

helped her as any business would with its customers.We checked the vehicle over by our service manager, below you

will find a list of the issues and our findings:* No four wheel drive – Ms. [redacted] said she tested it while going down the interstate and she then took it to [redacted] and they took a look at it while she was there. - Four wheel inspected and field tested found to work properly nothing wrong* Transmission is surging – Ms. [redacted] said the vehicle would cut back/surge when maintaining an operating speed around 45 MPH. She was very concerned that the transmission was going to stop working. - Test drove vehicle multiple times found that there was a cut back/surge. We felt the fuel was the cause of the cut back/surging the vehicle was making. We filled the vehicle up with high test fuel and added a fuel treatment. * Rear washer motor bad – Ms. [redacted] said [redacted] replaced the front washer motor but the rear motor had stopped working. - We found that the front whipper motor was never replaced but she was charged and it worked fine. The reason for the back washer motor stopped working was the fuses were moved around in the fuse box. It appeared [redacted] had added an additional cover to the fuse box while doing so removed, moved and added fuses. We made the necessary changes to the fuses and the rear washer motor works fine. When Ms. [redacted] picked up her vehicle after our

inspection we went over the issues she wanted checked along with our findings. - We explained that the four wheel drive works properly and

offered to demonstrate this to her and she said no that’s ok. - We explained what we found to be the issue with the cut

back/surging was a fuel issue and that we would fill the vehicle up with high

test fuel and add a fuel treatment. - We explained our findings with the rear washer motor, Ms.

[redacted] was shocked to find out she had been charged for a washer motor

that was not needed. We also explained

to her why the rear washer motor had stopped working due to [redacted]

removing fuses. We asked Ms. [redacted] to drive the vehicle for a week to

allow the treatment to clean out the fuel system. Then we would see if the fuel treatment had

taken care of the issue or if we needed to look at replacing the spark

plugs. Ms. [redacted] called us about a week later to provide an

update on how the vehicle was driving.

Ms. [redacted] informed us that the cutting back/surging had gotten

better but was still doing it. We asked

her if she would like bring it in for new spark plugs. But Ms. [redacted] wanted the transmission to be

fixed/replaced, we reminded her that the transmission had been worked on before

and was fine. She was adamant about

wanting the transmission fixed. We

offered to remove the transmission and take it to the shop to be checked for

$750.00. And if there was an issue it

would be taken care of while at the transmission shop. Ms. [redacted] declined our offer to remove

the transmission for $750 during our follow up phone conversation. Ms. [redacted] wanted us to offer her a warranty on the

vehicle after the sale and after having other repair shops work on the vehicle. She offered to purchase a warranty for a

$1000 when dropping the car off for us to look at the issues with the

transmission. We told her then to let us

look it over and that we would cross that bridge if needed. We have not heard anything from Ms. [redacted] until this complaint filed with Revdex.com. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to explain our behalf to hopefully maintain our good reputation. The Team of Big Daddy's Towing and Recovery, LLC.

Consumer

Response: