A Scam & a Synchronicity

Our  daughter’s car was totaled on the Florida turnpike when another car forced her to swerve and she hit a guardrail, spun, and ended up in a ditch. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured. But because  she hit a guard rail, she had to use a towing service from Tri-County Towing & Recovery in Fort Pierce instead of AAA. This happened on Dec 22. Today, Dec 29, Rob  and I drove to Fort Pierce to retrieve what was left of her car. We were charged $450 just to get the car. When we asked to see the car, the rude woman we never saw, who was behind a mirrored wall, told us we weren’t allowed to see it. We told her we wanted to drive it out and she said it couldn’t be driven.

We called AAA and when I told her they were on the way, she said, “Interstate Towing isn’t allowed on our property.” And, of course, that was who AAA had called. So I called AAA back and explained the situation. They said they would find another company for towing. By this time, we’d been waiting about 3 hours.

I finally asked the the rude woman we never saw how much they would charge to tow the car to our home. $575. I walked away to call AAA again but Curtis, a dispatcher from AAA ,called me just then. He’d been calling around to the various towing companies they deal with and was told each time that they weren’t allowed on the Tri-County lot. In other words, the MO here is that Tri-County Towing & Recovery prohibit other towing companies from entering their property so that you finally break down and have to use them. They also lie.

With Curtis  on the phone with me, I walked back to the rude woman and asked which companies they permitted on the property. She gave me 2 names. Curtis  said he’d already called the first company and was told they aren’t allowed on Tri-County property. When I told the rude woman this, she replied, “I don’t know why they’d say that.”

Me: “Maybe because it’s true?”

The AAA dispatcher made additional calls and told me that Silvermoons Towing was permitted on the property – an outfit located in Yee Haw Junction, a good distance from Ft. Pierce. I returned to the rude woman with the AAA dispatcher still on the line, and asked if Silvermoons was permitted on their property. A long silence ensued, then she said, “Yes.”

And guess what. One of their employees DROVE the car onto the tow truck when the man from Silvermoons arrived – even though the rude woman had said the car couldn’t be driven. And when the Silvermoons tow truck pulled into our driveway, Rob drove the car into the garage.

Unfortunately, this company is who the Florida Highway Patrol calls for towing. I was advised by a friend of Megan’s who owns a towing company to call the non-emergency number for the Highway Patrol and file a complaint with them about Tri-County. She advised me to tell FHP that Tri-County prohibits most other towing companies from entering their property, they they refused to let us see the car, and that they lied about the car being too damaged to drive. I intend to do that.

In the middle of all this, Rob got a call informing him this was his last chance to renew your extended warranty on your car. A trickster synchro?