Oh what a subject to discuss this time, Customers who complain about our tow bills.
Anyone had any of these kinds of customers???
Well I just got off the phone at the office this morning after dealing with a trucking company who is mad because we charged them for "services which were not needed or quoted in the original phone call"
I know we all can relate to this subject, but I want to fill you in a bit with what happened. First of all its 6 PM at night and the unit is broke down 40 miles from me in Georgia. It's a tractor trailer combination which is loaded and the directions where 1 mile from a location of a major intersection.
Load up and head out, get to location and have to start searching of course as it is not where it was supposed to be. Well I found it 3 miles further away
(East bound) on the 2 lane state highway. Its off the roadway partially nosed into a wonderful Georgia dirt (clay -
mud) road.
Start talking to the driver about what is wrong and he mentions that he broke down at 2 pm and his cell phone did not have any signal so he finally flagged down someone and borrowed a phone to call the company. Possible fuel issues as he has been trying to get the truck looked at.
Well we all know how that goes, and of course we are supposed to be there to fix it, not tow it as he thinks that the tow truck is really a disguised service truck. Nope, I am not fixing his Volvo in the dark on the side of the road with no parts or tools.
So load it up and of course being a Volvo it has all the best features on it, Airtek Steer axle, Spicer Life
driveline, and an Automatic transmission.
Load up, pull driveline and secure it, pipe air to truck, run air to trailer for brakes, and now for the fun part.
Take off and head 10 miles up the road to the next town so that I can turn the tractor trailer combination around in a closed store parking lot. Oh yeah, remember that I am in Georgia and it's illegal to tow tractor trailer combinations past the first safe area. But we
have to do it as there is no safe area to drop around the area until we get back to just about the state line, where there is a small truck stop.
But we keep going back into Alabama (its only ½ mile from the truck stop to the state line, and we take the tractor trailer combination up to the fuel stop next to our shop and drop the loaded trailer as per company instructions. Then we had back 9 miles to the Volvo dealer which we passed on the way to where we dropped the trailer, so that the truck can get in line to be repaired. Remember that this is now about 10PM on a Monday night, 3 days before Thanksgiving.
Well we drop the tractor at the dealer and then get a hold of the company to get a "T Check" for payment. The fun begins now, as they are not happy with the tow bill. It seems that they do not care that we were forced to drive 10 miles further before we could turn around, so that added 20 miles to the original quote. And then remember we took the trailer past the dealer and went 9 miles up and 9 miles back to the dealer, because they want it dropped elsewhere.
So we have 38 extra miles we are billing then which they do not understand why we are charging that much extra.
And then when I tried to break down the bill to them so they could understand all the charges, oh boy they came unglued when they found out I was charging them for pulling the driveline. You would think that we are charging them the National Debt for doing that. And remember that it was an Automatic transmission, in a Volvo? Not sure if it was an I-Shift, but I pull drivelines on all the tows I do regardless if it's an Automatic or Manual, if it is towed from the front.
Well, after a few discussions with the driver and his dispatcher, my boss got me on the radio and started to question the bill as the trucking company called him to complain about the tow bill. Many discussions later (and one dead battery on the Linc) we came to the settlement on calling back in the morning and dealing with it when all the office people were at work.
That's what I did finally, and I went home to get some needed sleep.
And the next morning (Tuesday) it begins again. I have delivered the paperwork to our office and talked to the
dispatcher and of course many phone calls have started back and forth to discuss the bill and what should be charged for and what amounts.
So does this sound like anything out of the ordinary to any of you?
And of course, I do have to say, this company and all the people I have talked to at the office and of course the driver are all "Non American" and from an Island in the Mediterranean. Notice I am not saying where, or even what company this is, but its offices are up around the Chicago area.
So what I am asking everyone is what you think would be a reasonable price for towing vehicles, tractor trailer combinations 75 miles at night and in doing so, technically breaking the law.
Just how right are the customers, in arguing about bills and quotes on tows with no real specific information as to locations, and when you are faced with obvious additional miles due to road conditions and over length and weight loads?
FYI, the original tow bill, including a fuel surcharge was a bit under $600 dollars.
Are we "TO CHEAP" or do customers expect "Neiman Marcus service for Dollar Store prices"
