Car Towed and Bumper cover scratched. Need advice.
 

So, the second day of owning my FRS my car gets towed for not having a parking sticker. Sort of my fault, but I was at work all day and couldn't get to the office in time to get a new one.

However, the jerks who towed my car scratched the front bumper underneath from it dragging on the pavement or the curb when it was lifted from the rear axle. I have already talked to the manager and they are denying it was their fault, which is no surprise. I am meeting with them on Tuesday for them to show me how they tow cars and having them explain to me how there is no way that it could have dragged on the curb or pavement.

I know this is all BS, but im curious if anyone else has had experience with getting there car towed?

Or, if anyone has advice on how to get them to admit fault in general and get the damages paid for?

Thanks for any help.

Joe.

It's happened to my,previous car when all 4 wheels were stolen. I claimed it on my insurance along with the wheels and the shop painted the whole bumper. It's not the same scenario, I know. Good luck to ya.

If it's just underneath I wouldn't worry about it. The underside of my bumper looks like hell, but you can't see it unless you're laying on the ground. I figure it's a car, I'm bound to hit a curb, parking stone, etc at some point.

Best of luck.

Based on matters of right and wrong they should probably cover not being able to do their job properly. But every sign I've ever read says "at the owner's expense" I'm sure this covers their ass when they go around fucking up everyone's car. I doubt without taking them through the judicial system they won't make an effort to cover this. Good luck and let us know what happens.

Judge Judy? People's Court? Not sure though if there is some clause in the local ordinance claiming no responsibility for damage due to illegally parking :/

I hate towing companies. I know that they are just doing their job, but it is obvious they don't give a sh*t about your car. I would continue to discuss it with them. They may have had a right to tow you, but not to cause damage to your new car.

Call your insurance company. They will handle it with them.

I would let it go.. doesnt seem to be worth the aggravation..
consider it a lesson learned and just enjoy your new car..

Find the tow trick drivers car then scratch his bumper. Viola. Even.

FTFY.

Call your insurance company, if they're good they may send a rep to try to collect from the towing company. USAA did that when I got hit by a taxi illegally changing lanes in an intersection trying to cut me off in Philadelphia, and despite the police report tried to claim I was at fault. If that doesn't work, you need to lawyer up or take them to small claims court. You're may want to have to have some good evidence and before and after pictures if available, or proof that the damage could have only been caused by them (if they scratched it on a flat bed, that's a pretty distinctive mark compared to a curb).

But yeah, towing companies are assholes. They wouldn't make as much money if they humored every damage claim, their default response is to tell you to pound sand. Any first year lawyer will instantly blast through BS legal disclaimers of "not responsible for damage" signs, though. Proximate cause of the damage on your bumper is improper towing.

Try the least to most expensive routes. Chances are, they've dealt with this before. Having a lawyer send a letter is probably your cheapest option before sending them to court. They may have seen that before and may be unlikely to settle until you slap them with a small claims court date.

Lawyer....

Thanks for all your advice. I talked to the guy and without admitting it he sort of agreed that it was possible to have done the damage. He saw how low the front of my car was when it lifted from the rear during the tow. But, he offered a refund of the tow. So, I just took that. I don't feel like its worth the hassle to take him to court. My car will be lowered in a few months and I'm sure there will be many more scrapes underneath. I will just get a front lip down the road.

I'd call that a win.

My buddy owns a towing company, and if he believes that he or one of his guys damaged a car, no doubt they pay for it. I saw him once tell a person whos car he had towed about a very similar scratch on the bottom of the front air dam on his low rider truck. The guy said not to worry about it, but it really how it should be done by the tow companies.. But my buddy said that there are so many people that are mad because the police towed their car, they falsely claim damage to "get even" with them, so it makes it harder for guys like the OP when their car is actually damaged.

I have a spare bumper cover for an Argento FRS hanging in my garage.

I would sell it on the cheap, you would just need to repaint it.


I had a tow truck driver tear the plastic window molding off of my 98 honda civic while I was standing there begging him not to tow my car and he immediately lowered the car, took off the chains and gave me a number to call and have the damage paid for.

I was picking up an injured friend and had parked the car out front of their building in a no parking zone so they wouldn't have to hobble out to the parking lot. I was gone like 15min and the guy was already lifting my front end when I came out.

the worst part about having to repaint these cars (at least the Argento/Silver colors) is that you can't match the metal paint fleck in the paint without either blending or repainting the whole car.


When toyota damaged my bumper cover while it was in for service they replaced the bumper cover and had an extremely professional shop repaint the new cover 4 times before the body shop finally just melted and reformed the damaged areas on the original bump, then painted and blended the damaged area into the the natural paint on the bumper cover.

You could never tell it was damaged but god it was a fiasco trying to get it to look new again.

Had a brand new car for about a week got towed, they bent the door prying it open to unlock it scratched the side. Towing company was family owned. Owners going through divorce, bancruptcy, forclosure.

They refused to talk to me. Had a PO box, I went to their house, they called the cops. Their shop had temp workers in it. All the laws in my county since it was on private property protected the towing company. Civil matter.

Even the state laws did not apply to them, because the county opted out, which would have protected me.

Fast forward 9 months, used a lawyer to threaten the property management company who contracted the towing company. Their lawyers got involved.

$8000 for the property managers lawyers, $3000 for mine. for a 1k repair. Never went to court and towing company finally paid. After about a year.

Was horrible experience waste of time and energy.