T L C Towing

Review: On Saturday, Sept. 13 TLC Towing moved my son's trailer from a friend's house in Longview to an address in Kelso. I had spoken to someone from TLC on Friday evening and asked for an estimate of charges. I was told it would be $150 and I assumed there would be tax added to this amount. Not until the trailer was moved to Kelso was I informed that the rate for towing came to $284.55. I stated to the driver that was more than I expected and was informed that the company charges $150 per hour. I was told by the driver that charges begin as soon as he leaves the lot where the truck is parked.I had previously phoned several other towing companies. One company sent a truck but it was the wrong one for towing a 5th wheel trailer. There was no cell phone service where the trailer was located, and we waited for two hours but no one came back after stating they would return. I then made several calls to other towing companies but none of those I contacted had the right kind of truck to move the trailer. I phoned TLC Towing in my search and only their phone number was listed in the phone book. I made arrangements for the move to happen on Saturday afternoon when the owners of the property where my son's trailer was parked. I was told to phone TLC once someone was home which I did on Saturday afternoon. During the three calls I made to TLC Towing was I informed where they were located. I had no idea they were in Ridgefield, WA. I also did not know they charged by the hour. I feel this is information that should be forth coming from the business before any agreement is made. If I had known prior to someone coming up on Saturday afternoon that they came from a long distance and their policy was to charge $150 per hour I would not have gone into the arrangement to move my son's trailer. We needed the trailer moved because my son's friends were needing to do some work on their barn and needed the trailer out of their way. Desired Settlement: I phoned TLC Towing and stated I wanted to work with them in settling the matter of the price difference between what I was quoted on the phone and what I actually paid. The owner was willing to give me $62 as half of what the difference was. He did not seem to feel responsible to inform customers clearly from the beginning of their actual pricing policy and location of their business. The phone book lists only a phone number.

I stopped payment on my check because I want this matter resolved and I do not feel TLC was open or forthcoming in information that would have helped me make a better informed decision as to whether I would agree to $150 per hour charges. They did not see they had done anything wrong in this transaction but I feel withholding or not informing a customer who they spoke to on three occasions about the manner in which charges are applied and where they are located shows dishonesty, falsehood by withholding relevant facts or information, and a lack of integrity in dealing with the public.

Review: When a driver of my company took a wrong turn and ended up in some sand with a set of doubles on a semi truck, I called TLC Towing for help. I described the situation to the company and was ensured they could handle it. After one tow truck from TLC Towing with an apparent unexperienced driver attempted to pull out the truck to no avail, a second tow truck was dispatched to my location to help. I was not informed of this, nor informed I would be paying for this. The second driver helped the first driver and this took a total of 3 hours. My truck was winched out by ONE tow truck. After receiving the bill, which was $1626.00, I called their office to question the amount. I was told there were two trucks dispatched, and I would pay for them both. The woman I spoke to in their office was very unprofessional and rude. My trucking company has been in business for 25+ years and I have had to use various tow truck services from various places several times throughout the years. I have NEVER seen a bill in this amount for this type of service before. When a tow truck driver cannot perform the task set out to do, the customer should not be charged for their inexperience. It is of not fault of mine, that the original driver that showed up could not perform the job, and another had to be dispatched. I ended up paying more than double for this service, and would not recommend TLC Towing to anyone, nor will I ever use them again.Desired Settlement: I would like to be refunded half of the amount of the bill, since I only used one truck. In the amount of $813.00.

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern:We were called out to winch a semi-truck with a set of doubles. We were told that the truck was stuck inthe sand. The company asked us to unhook the doubles and winch the tractor out of the sand. The set ofdoubles were loaded. The call came in at 11:42 pm on February 5, 2015. It was a rainy night.When our driver arrived, he found out that the truck was not able to unhook from the trailers due to thefact that the truck was on a one lane alley way. If we unhooked the trailers we would not be able to getaround them to winch out the tractor. The driver had to call a second driver out with a second truck touse as a possible counter-weight. The driver unhooked the back trailer and turned it around facing themain road. Then we were able to get past the back trailer to pull the tractor and trailer sideways out ofthe mud. The driver was then able to get the truck turned facing towards the main road and the trailerthat was disconnected.The truck that we sent out runs $500 per hour. We only charged for 3 hours out of the almost 5 that wewere out there. The 3 hours that we charged for the 1 truck at $500 an hour is $1500; the tax 126.00.That makes the total bill $1626.00. We did not charge for the second truck which runs $250 per hour.We also did not charge for the second person which runs at $88 per hour. It would have been a grandtotal of $2725.18 if we charged for both trucks and the extra man.When the company called in we explained the situation, why it took so long, and what the price was.They called a couple of times and we explained in detail that the second truck was called out as acounter weight and they were never charged for it.