Hawkins Towing Inc

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that their proposed inaction would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
It's regrettable that Hawkins Towing has chosen to take no pride in their business.  Their response contains several inaccuracies.  One is the claim that the job took 5 hours, which it did not.  Furthermore, they neglected to mention in their response that the driver made the job longer thru his own mistake of driving past the meeting location of Salvation Mountain, which I had clearly given to Hawkins Towing and which has a sign along the main road.  This is another incident of the problem of sending a non-English speaking driver to do a job in which signs are written in, and customers speak English.  A grossly inaccurate claim made in Hawkins Towing's response is that the driver had to drive 3 miles in the pickup truck that he unloaded from the flatbed.  In truth, it was no more than a quarter mile from where he unloaded it.  The claim about "free will" is a bit disingenuous, to say the least, given the delays the company had already made and considering that when two people have their vehicles stranded in the desert, food and water and other issue come into play.  Besides, by the time the driver had gotten to the vehicles, I had already given Hawkings Towing my credit card number over the phone.  If I had at the last minute told the driver to turn around and go away, I have no doubt that the company would have charged my credit card anyway for the driver's time.
Regards,
[redacted]

HAWKINS TOWING INC 1631 main st Brawley CA 92227[redacted]ID# [redacted]RECEIVED FEB 21 2018Sorry to hear of customer dispute of charges. Hawkins Towing Inc does have a minimum charge of $500.00 dollars per vehicle we recover out of the desert even if the...

vehicle was 20 ft away. The Main reason is Insurance, our insurance must be liable for any damage caused by mis fortune on our part. On the complaint about us doubling the amount customer must take into consideration like we did and added a $500.00 charge to recover the second vehicle and stopped clock. We were more than satisfied with the $1000.00 dollars charged for both vehicles. Remember it's a minimum charge to begin service not the actual total for the service completion. It took our company from 9:00 am (start Time) time my driver arrived at the yard and commenced to load 4x4 recovery truck onto flatbed tow truck to 2:00pm time my driver arrived at the yard and unloaded the 4x4 and was ready for his next job. So, from 9:00am start time to 2:00 pm completion time was total time of 5.0 hours for both trucks recovery bringing the total to $1250.00.I have included a copy of google maps showing vicinity where customer was stuck. Google maps puts customer 40minutes away from us and you need to consider the time for driving a big truck with a % ton 4x4 truck on its back. Also, some roads are dirt are must be driven slowly. Finally, when arriving to the spot where my flatbed could not get closer, we had to unload the 4x4 and drive another 3 miles approximately in soft sand and require even more time. In no scenario would it have been under two hours for service completion.Customer says he was somewhat forced to pay due to circumstances but he on his own free will agreed to services before services at the scene commenced. Everyone has the right to say no.In summary:Customer needs to understand that he was not charged any more on the hourly rate of the original over the phone quote of 250 per hour with a $500.00 minimum. Customerwas only charged a $1000.00-dollar ($500.00 each) charge for both truck's instead of the cost of total time of 5.0 hrs it took. From start to finish $1250.00 dollars would havebeen the charge. I don't know where customer got it took less than two hours. I understand the language barrier between the customer and my driver but at no point in time where they in any danger what so ever. My driver informed that that he understood what they said and customer friend who has present spoke some Spanish.My driver is currently working on his English but as we all know it's a process to learn a language. I have never have had any issues with this driver and he is very knowledgeable about safety tow/recovery operations. Hawkins Towing at no time did a bait and switch the original price as customer states. customer was aware of the $250.00 per hour with a $500.00 minimum. Hawkins Towing simply stop charging by the hour to make things less costly to customer since he was paying for both trucks recovery himself.Regarding the California department of consumer affairs policy a company who overcharges a customer for towing and storage fees only applies to impounds and has noting to do with job services negotiated before the services are rendered. As in this case recovery services had not begun when customer was informed of the total of the charges which where in his favor of 500.00 a piece instead of continuing the hourly rate of $250.00 per hour.