Car towing charges (CA)

Scott en Aztlán wrote:
> There absolutely is something you can do about it: STOP PARKING
> ILLEGALLY!

Well that's pretty harsh.

> We call your type IBJAMs (I'll Be Just A Minute) - as if the duration
> of your illegal parking somehow makes it OK.

I don't make a habit of that. It was the only time. And actually the
reason
I parked there that time was to pick something up at the FedEx that was
there on the way back. But I'm guessing that wouldn't matter to you.

> Park legally and it's not a problem.

I always do - except for that time. And I'd argue that the legality of
that
one exception is debatable.

> Ever heard of AAA? A woman with a jalopy like that should definitely
> sign up.

Yes, she's a member. She paid them to have it towed to her friend's
house.
(they will only tow 5miles for free)

> How come your friends (whose house it was parked in front of) didn't
> tell you?

Ever heard of weekend trips? (they left before the marking and it was
dark when they came home Sunday and when she left for work so she
didn't see it)

> That's right, it didn't. OTOH, if you'd called AAA when it first boke
> down, you could have had it towed directly to the charity's lot and
> avoided this entire mess.

Not unless we paid a lot more money to them.

> Sounds like an expensive lesson. Let's hope you both learned something
> from the experience.

I did. But you kind of missed the whole point. The tow truck company
seems to be fraudulantly collecting extra fees (in one case it was
against
state law, although they claim that's what's specified on the city
contract
they have; on the other, they charged us for something they hadn't been
charged for yet [and this one might also be against state law]).

Thanks to the others who responsed more positively.

Scott en Aztlán wrote:
> What you did was pretty stupid. If my car was broken down someplace, I
> wouldn't leave it just sitting there, I'd call AAA and have it towed
> to an appropriate place (like a repair shop, or my driveway).

So it was almost 20 miles from our apartment, 7 miles to her friend's
house. AAA freely tows for 5 miles and then $12 / mile after that (so
that would have been $180 to the house and more to our usual repair
shop [it's close to us but on the other side]). At the time, she
wasn't sure if it was going to start again the next day (might have
been a temporary problem, no?) but she sure didn't want to leave it
somewhere where it might get in the way of heavy traffic. When it
wouldn't start the next day, we decided that it was a good time to do
the donation (her mechanic had already told her that this might happen
based on something he saw the last time - he just figured it wouldn't
happen so soon).

> How much is "a lot?" Was it less than the amount you ultimately had to
> pay to the towing company?

Yes (see above). Not less than they overcharged us for (the real issue
here), but less than the end result.

> Sorry, I call 'em like I see 'em. I'm not in the habit of
> sugar-coating the truth.

You may call them like *you* see them but it's from an unusually
negative (and incorrect) perspective about people. It's certainly
nowhere close to the truth. Are we done yet?