Sullivan's Towing & Recovery, LLC.

Review: Called Sullivans towing and recovery on 10-3-2013 due to truck breakdown about 6 miles from their shop in VA. Guy came out to look at the truck and gave a Verbal estimate of 1.5 to 2.5 hours of labor at $125/hr plus the price of the part around $130. Took my broken part off the truck, came back to his shop. I got call from him later saying that new part is being delivered, so we'll have to wait a few hours. Around 7.30 pm they come back with new part, put it in. Guy hands me the bill: $801.35. Asked to explain, mechanic tells me it's $625 in labor plus part $167.48. Charged labor for every hour of waiting for the part to come in. I said fine, that's unexpected, but lets pay it, don't want to be late with deliveries. But guy demands a cash payment, he would not take a credit card. it's 9.30 pm by the time. No way to get cash anywhere. So he takes the truck until morning NOT by towing it to his shop. Sullivans Towing and Recovery mechanic actually drove my truck with the loaded trailer attached to his location. He is NOT on the insurance, had no right to drive the vehicle. Called the shop in the morning, turns out there is additional $300 charge for "Storage". Talked them down to $900 total. paid it, was happy to get out of that place. Made it to Florida, about 600 miles south, the part they put in broke again. Luckily it happened at the home terminal, not on the road, or it would cause a lot more damages. I had to pay another mechanic to replace the part again. Also there are damages to my truck. Headlight housing is cracked and hood is damaged. Trailer has been hit against some kind of pole. 3 out of 6 of my customers cars on my trailer had scratches on it, caused a lot of unhappy and expensive moments upon delivery. Driving a truck with car hauling trailer requires a professional, experienced driver, I believe Sullivan's mechanic caused damages to my equipment all though they were discovered only next day. I have all receipts, pictures of the damages upon request. Submitting claim to Virginia Attorney General and seeking legal action.Desired Settlement: Refund of the repair cost and cover the damages made to equipment and load.

Business

Response:

I’m responding to a complaint that I received on 10/15/13.

To start at the beginning of this service call.

We received a call from the customer advicing us that he needed road service to repair a broken universal joint. We gave him a price for road service of $150.00 and a hourly labor amount of $125.00 per hour for replacing a universal joint. On the phone we quoted him an estimate of 1.5-2.5 hours plus price of parts. Once the technician arrived on scene, the technician observed broken bolts in the yolk of the front rear. He also observed that the slide yolk on the drive shaft was seized; he then advised the customer that he needed more than just a universal joint to repair the situation. The universal joint obviously broke due to lack of maintenance on the drive shaft and driver abuse. The customer then requested to try to save the yolk and the drive shaft so they could save money and didn’t have to buy a new one. The technician then removed the yolk from the rear and the entire rear section of the drive line and advised the customer that he would get parts and attempt to repair original parts. After visiting 3 separate parts stores the universal joint had to be ordered from an adjoining city dealership. We called the customer and advised him of the delay. At this point we were 3 hours in to the call. At our shop while waiting for parts to be available, we drilled and tapped his yolk and had to use a press to remove old universal joint and attempted to free up the slide yolk as much as possible, which took an additional 1.5 hours. At 5:30pm we received a call from the dealer that our part had arrived, at that time we immediately dispatched a driver to retrieve the part. At 6pm the driver returns with the part and the mechanic pressed the universal joint into the drive shaft. Then 2 mechanics then returned to his disabled vehicle and reinstalled yolk and replaced driveshaft with new hardware. This took an additional hour. During this entire service call, the driver of the customer’s truck communicated how unhappy and disgusted he was with his company. When we were completed the road service we issued a bill for $801.35. That was $150.00 for the service call, 3.8 hours labor @ $125.00 for mobile mechanic labor and $167.48 for parts and $8.87 tax. The technician also said if it could be resolved at that time that we would reduce the bill to $700.00 if paid at that time. As far as payment is concerned we take cash, credit card or any comchecks. The customer wanted to pay credit card over the phone and we told him we couldn’t take a credit card for that amount over the phone without it being swiped. Businesses understand that credit card processing companies don’t allow those amounts over the phone cause of the risk of it. So stating we wouldn’t take credit card is not true we just needed it swiped (which the driver of the customer’s truck had an ended paying with the next day). At that point, the customer’s driver took a vehicle off the back of the trailer and said he was leaving and going to Florida to deliver the vehicle and told the other one he was going to the truck stop @ 104 mm to take a shower. He said that the company would let us know what’s going on tomorrow. Our technician said we would have to tow it to our lot and he was very upset about the price of towing it and he said if you drive it would it be cheaper and the technician said he would reduce the price of the tow if we drove it. The truck and trailer was brought back to storage lot by a CDL class A driver with 35 year’s experience. The next day when the company called about the vehicle, the bill was $801.35 and $150 storage ($75 per unit- tractor and trailer) and $[redacted] (reduced price from the $400 tow) for bringing it to the lot. He was very upset over the bill and it was reduced to $[redacted] total to try to please the customer. The driver repeatedly said he has a credit card and doesn’t know why they didn’t let him pay for it last night. The vehicle sat here most of the day and was paid for by credit card at 2:30 pm.

As far as the part breaking again, the universal joint could of broke again if the driver abused the truck or if the yolk and driveshaft had been replaced originally instead of repairing the parts. If there was any damage done to the vehicles or trailer it was not done on our premises, our storage lot is equipped with surveillance cameras and is guarded 24 hours a day.

We would be more than willing to refund or cover any costs if we were at fault but we don’t feel that we are in fault in anyway.

At Sullivan’s Towing & Recovery pride ourselves in customer service and we feel this complaint is unjust. We tried to please the customer numerous times in keeping the cost down and helping him with time as urgency that was expressed many times.