If you find yourself in a situation where your car has broken down in the middle of nowhere, you are likely prepared to contact a licensed towing company. However, you might be wary of the many scam towing companies out there that only want to extract some money from their customers rather than truly help out. If you’re worried about these sorts of situations, it can help to be in touch with a trustworthy towing service that can really help, like Chicago Towing. But how can you make sure to avoid a towing scam, or know what group is trustworthy? In this blog post, the experts at Chicago Towing will help you figure out what towing company is the best.
Sniffing Out a Towing Scammer
Scammers can charge unduly amounts for simple services, or even damage your car. One scam is to advertise an undercharged price for a service, which is a sure sign that you’re working with a scam artist. Cheap tow truck services usually conceal hidden costs that only are shown to the customer after the service is provided. These can range from travel fees to additional mileage costs, to gas charges or any range of mumbo-jumbo technical language – plain speaking, it’s highway robbery.
Tow Truck Chasers
Another form of dishonest tow truck business practices that’s rampant today is the payment of tow truck drivers by body shops. These referral fees basically ensure that these tow trucks, known as chasers, will send you to the corresponding repair shop automatically, towing your vehicle straight to them. If you change your mind during your trip to the repair shop, they will likely charge you additional towing service or extra fees – which can range from the 100s to the 1000s in extreme cases.
Scanner Junkies
This category describes tow truck drivers that cruise freeways and highways listening to the police scanner, looking for notifications of accidents or car breakdowns. Then they will turn up automatically, the car owner assuming it’s a lucky coincidence – and will automatically sign on to any contract, most usually, and find themselves locked into a contract that overcharges them a fortune – all out of a desire for convenience.
Finding a quality Tow Truck Company
The best way to prevent being scammed by a tow truck company is to find a trustworthy towing company. You can find this by checking out a company’s Yelp page for customer testimonials – which is the most valuable clues you can find, rather than large ad campaigns. Always ask questions regarding any hidden rates, and ask about all the necessary time of all rendered services. A professional tow truck company will be upfront about their fees, and won’t conceal any information from you. And just to make things easier – if you don’t want to search around for a company, you can always trust in Chicago Towing.