On Friday June 23rd myself, my boyfriend and two friends attended the Tiger Army show the Premier in Seattle. We parked in a lot near the venue which I believed was shared by Donna's restaurant and by a mini-mart. The mini-mart was closed and Donna's was near closing time, so we assumed that we would not be interfering with their business by parking there.
After midnight when the concert was over we returned to the lot and there was a man from TBT towing currently towing another person's car and our car was no longer there. We asked the man if he had already towed our black BMW and he said yes and that the TBT lot was about a mile from where we were. We proceeded to walk that distance and when we got there we were treated very rudely by the staff. The man in the office refused to speak to anyone but the registered owner of the car (my boyfriend) and would not let me pay the towing fees. When I tried to ask him why, he told me that he was not going to argue company policy and ordered me to get off the porch. The other man that was there just ignored any questions directed at him. My boyfriend just paid the $350.00 in fees because it was now almost 1 am and we needed to take our friends home and drive an hour back to our house.
After we got home I looked at the paperwork to try to find out why the fees were so since it was towed a mile and then was there for under an hour. The receipt that we received stated 250.00 for towing, 40.00 for after hours pick up and 40.00 for storage. I believe that these charges are quite inflated and border on extortion. The only reason we had to pick up after hours was because they towed it after hours. After a little research on the internet I have found numerous accounts of TBT Towing routinely "patrol towing" or "roam towing", basically waiting for the business that they have contracts with to close, so that all the cars in the lot are now unauthorized and then can tow them all and pocket thousands of dollars in fees. I think it is clear from the amount of other people from the concert that were waiting at TBT while we were that this is what they were doing. This practice is currently illegal in Washington and is usually done without the businesses' knowledge or consent.
0 comments