MTtow

I give you lots of credit for trying to solve this underhanded problem.
How do you purpose that we get this work when the stranded motorist is relying on their motorclub to dispatch someone? I am not dedicated enough to have emails forwarded to my phone and check them around the clock in an effort to contact the motorclub customer.
How do you suggest that we handle to unwarranted bad reviews do to the motorclub telling their customer that we are “on the way”? We could reply to the bad reviews with an explanation that we never knew of or accepted the job. We can ask for the unwarranted bad reviews to be removed, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for it.

I have thought about making a ‘facts of motorclubs’ flyer explaining  how the motorclub customers call is handled ( and paid ) behind the scenes and attaching this flyer to every invoice, handing them out at community events, and or paying for their advertisement.

On 5/16/2022 at 6:14 PM, NFL Towing LLC said:

Unfortunately, we had the same issue, kept coming with a bunch of excuses and sending tons of emails. They kept disregarding the fact that money was owed....so had to take drastic measures and held a customers car till all pass due invoices was paid in Full in the amount of $5,000... then cancelled the account!! They're trash and wouldn't run for them if they paid on credit card.

A big thumbs up to you for taking action and getting paid!

I think that owners of cars with ‘assistance’ type systems will be asking for lower insurance rates. This test shows that lower rates are not justified.  With regard to our rates, their business model puts more money in their pocket when they put less in ours.

How many times do you read a headline of “Officer cites/arrests motorist who almost killed a man working on side of the road”? I have done far worse that this guy and do not regret it. 

Jefferson,

    You could  possibly work for free if they don’t pay. There are lots of posts about people having a hard time collecting from various motorclubs. 

I am not surprised. Their customers need to be educated as to why they wait how ever long they have to wait.

Thanks for posting the update. The sharing of this kind of information is good. Hopefully people question their business practices with these companies and re think how far behind they allow clubs / insurance companies / 3rd party payers / or any billed customer  to get on their invoices.

At this point it may be more appropriate to mail a letter of demand sent signature receipt. These companies blow us off like we do not share information or have any resources. Excuses like “sorry Sarah is the only one authorized to pay those kind of invoices and she only pays them on the 3rd Thursday of the month” or “it hasn’t been approved for payment yet, if your willing to negotiate a lower amount I can get it paid quicker” are all complete bologna.  Not paying is part of their business plan. 
Put their feet to the fire and you will get paid.

How many here continue running calls for motor clubs that are past due?

How many have a copy of your contract?

How many have a plan in place to collect before the motor club is past due?

I hope you guys collect vehicle and vehicle owner info for your quest calls. A standard practice is if a company owes or is behind they pay all outstanding invoices plus the current call for service up front before any more calls are run. From there forward they have lost the privilege of being billed. An easy explanation is that the accountant made this decision and you don’t have the authority to over ride it.  When you let a company ‘get to deep’ you will stand amongst the others that allowed the same when the company files for bankruptcy.

How much total time do you spend on the average quest invoice to collect? 

Someone else wanting a slice of your pie. 

I do not feel sorry for the company that employed him. They own all the negative press that they will receive.

59 minutes ago, ProTower said:

Ditto on that for me too.

I should have contact info; what are you thinking?

Message sent. Let me know if you don’t get it.

If a company or person disputes a credit card payment they will never get service from me again. Do you have the contact info of the vehicle owner? 

I have encountered this with the dispatching services in other industries as well. Either they are trying to operate a shadow company that is one in the same to mislead people or they are leasing out their dispatching services to another company to small to do their own dispatching. Either way they all get treated the same. 

They should get comfortable in their car and wait several hours for a AAA truck to show up, just like non racers.

Spend a little more and order higher quality pens. Bic is my preference. The cheaper no name pens have less ink in them and when they run out sooner so does your advertising. 

21 hours ago, DodgeTowGuy134 said:

***UPDATE***

 

We have determined that Agero-Swoop has negotiated with their clients (Nationwide, Progressive, USAA, StateFarm, etc) that when they have to go "out-of-network" because they can't get an "in-network" provider to run a call at the cheap contract rates, that the customer (stranded motorist) is required to pay out-of-pocket and then submit for the reimbursement consideration.... This still allows Agero-Swoop to price shop the calls and further reduces the likelyhood of Agero-Swoop being on the hook for the 100% GOA or only deciding to cover a portion "up to the policy limits" which is why the dispatchers are still price shopping the calls and wanting to get quotes, even though they aren't going to issue a VCC (unless customer refuses to pay out-of-pocket or can't pay) and then they only tell the customer the "lowest" quotes they got, not based on the ETA's provided, so a lower quote from "flip-flop Chuck" that's 2-hours away will be the quote provided to the customer, instead of your higher priced quote with a 30-minute LOCAL ETA!

 

We've been able to confirm this be speaking directly with INSURANCE company representatives (agents/adjusters/reimbursement agents) as well as reviewing the insurance policy coverage pages on various policies that have roadside assistance coverage added to them and also via finding some additional info online.. 

 

So, in sum, Agero-Swoop continues to work to influence rates all while NOT caring about the customer experience, safety or timeframe it takes to get them services; they do NOT care if a motorist is stranded for 5-HOURS! (see the post about the Flashcards training and read about their system color coding to show timeframe that a customer has been waiting!)

 

Agero-Swoop hopes that the stranded customer either won't file a reimbursement request, that they will deny or only cover a portion of a reimbursement request or that the customer will be too frustrated and will just secure their own service. 

 

As for a word for the wise regarding gathering credit/debit card info from the customers in effort for a 100% GOA and to preclude the customer calling multiple companies and the first to arrive "wins" while attempting to not pay the others, here's my advise: Collect the customer info (vehicle, location, name, address, email) and then send the customer an online invoice via your credit card/merchant processor and have the customer go through the online checkout process and pay, INSTEAD of accepting a verbal credit card # from the customer! That way, you can list your Terms/Conditions, any statement regarding GOA and pricing on your online checkout and all of that WILL be available to you to use to support any claim for a chargeback/dispute from a customer in the event of a GOA, since you wouldn;t have been onsite to get a LIVE signature on any of your paperwork if it's a GOA, but by the customer having completed your online checkout, that in itself has established your GOA terms/pricing to help protect you from chargeback/disputes from a customer. 

 

Let me know what you think and your experiences.

 

This info is presented here as our opinion and belief, based on our experiences, interactions and information gathering efforts. 

I like the idea of the online invoice. Less BS than having to save phone calls and email files to the CC processor if they dispute a 100% GOA charge. I don’t understand the idea of calling several companies and the first to arrive  is the ‘winner’. Thousands have been collected without providing any service other than arriving. 

Just because you do not contract with an auto club or any third party service provider does not mean that you have lost them as a customer. You simply are not bound by their terms or agreements to get paid. If they need you they will call. If they can’t find anyone else they will pay your rate. I find it funny that the auto clubs and third party service providers will not budge on their rules, make it difficult to contract with them, and make it difficult to collect the correct amount invoiced, but all that goes out the window when they can’t find anyone else. 
I don’t believe for one second that the GPS thing is to send you calls for work closer to your truck. It is to decrease the billable miles. 
I have no problem with taking pictures. It is a good idea to document your work via pictures (good)or video (better).  However what other industry includes pictures of their work for free? I can’t imagine going back to the third party system (auto clubs). You are at a disadvantage to collect.

I ask them if they are aware of my policy. Everything has a price and the price is paid upfront. AAA tried some similar crap years ago wanting to hold their new policy over head to get paid. No thanks I found solutions to these games.

Think of how much time you have spent just trying to collect on this one job the next time they call and charge accordingly. If you choose to work for them at all.

I don’t think that the insurance companies care about what agero or swoop is doing. Agero and swoop are no different than a middle man shielding the insurance companies from complaints about delayed service. This ‘scheme’ also allows the insurance companies to sell the roadside service at below market rate. When a complaint is received the insurance company blames agero or swoop who in turn blames the tow companies. The insured motorist is mad that they are not getting the service they paid for but not mad enough to change insurance companies. 
Check your merchant agreements as many charge you when someone (agero or swoop for example) attempt a charge back or dispute even if the credit card processor sides with you. 
Keep good documentation for your authorization and charged amount. 
If they dispute a cc charge I put them on the no service list.