Tow dispatch company scams

[Andy]

I havent seen this before. 

 

Got a call from a tow dispatch company barely spoke English which isn’t uncommon. They ok my rate for a tire change on the spot and sent me an email. It had no Job number or ticket number but did have CC information and the customers name and number. I performed the service. Then tried to run the credit card. It would not process. 

 

I call the three numbers on the email a couple days in a row sometimes the prompt was calll failed or call incomplete there of course international numbers. 

 

Called the customer and found out she was dialing into AAA for this service and thinks she miss dialed ( ok she now knew she missed one digit) this company took her payment which was 120% more than what I quoted but she was frazzled from life and paid them of course with a debit card. She also said they told her something to the affect that AAA was not able to handle the volume of calls in the area and they were forwarding calls to them  and that she was to pay them and then seek reimbursement from AAA. 

 

I finally got through to someone yesterday and they made the card number work or so I thought. It processed for .43 cents. Called and called again today and finally got through they did get me a new card number and it ran. But I wonder if they were not operating in hopes that a percentage of us just give up. 

 

Looking over the email I received on this job there is no company name theres an agents name three different. Ways to contact them by phone but only one works. 

 

Looking at  the full circle of this no one was actually scammed they did pay me the customer did agree to there terms but its pretty flaky in my opinion. 

 

 

[ProTower]

We got a call last month to winch out a u-haul truck and the dispatch company was adamant with my dispatcher that our driver must not reveal the amount of the tow we were charging as they were a 3rd party and marked up our bill a small percentage to cover their own expenses. We've seen this before but had no idea to the degree this had gotten.

Our driver performed the service and had the customer sign the invoice that showed no pricing on it when the customer gave him some attitude about highway robbery and he should be ashamed of what we charge.

Knowing our prices are not out of line with industry standards, my driver asked him to explain to which he popped his bank account open on his phone and showed him a $400 charge from the same day to a company called "Roadside".

They then attempted to get the driver to spill the beans on what we charge and my driver kept his composure stating the computer handles all the charges an he cannot access them unless he is collecting them.

We were happy to do the service for our stated amount but we feel pretty upset knowing they are marking up out charges 400% to cover their expenses. Made us feel icky to be involved with them.