Friday, December 10, 2004
Tek Tow
While almost everyone in Blacksburg has a Tek Tow (or Valley Towing as they're called now) horror story, a common denominator to these stories is the high fees Tek Tow charges. Typically Tek Tow will charge you around $100 to get your car back. However, it doesn't have to be this way.
In Tempe, I ran across the following sign which spells out the rates that a local towing company will charge you should you violate Burger King's parking lot rules.
In Blacksburg (which is only a few miles across), this sort of fee structure would work out to around $40-$50 - about the price of a ticket for parking illegally. In general I think this is a fair amount - pay the towing company whatever the fine would've been plus whatever holding fees there may be if your car stays on their lot for more than a day.
Relating my own Tek Tow story (well, at least one of them), a couple years ago my Lumina died (transmission) a slow and painful death - conking out for good in a parking lot near my wife's then-apartment. I started going through the process of donating my car to the Kidney Foundation, called them and filled out the forms. Before I mailed off the forms, I swung by to check on my car only to discover that it was gone.
Immediately, I knew Tek Tow had it (the car couldn't get out of neutral), so I called them up. They asked me when I would like to schedule an appointment to pick up my car, and I replied that I would rather schedule an appointment to sign over the title. So I ended up paying my towing bill with the title to my car (and $20 - considerably less than the $140 they wanted).
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In Tempe, I ran across the following sign which spells out the rates that a local towing company will charge you should you violate Burger King's parking lot rules.
Relating my own Tek Tow story (well, at least one of them), a couple years ago my Lumina died (transmission) a slow and painful death - conking out for good in a parking lot near my wife's then-apartment. I started going through the process of donating my car to the Kidney Foundation, called them and filled out the forms. Before I mailed off the forms, I swung by to check on my car only to discover that it was gone.
Immediately, I knew Tek Tow had it (the car couldn't get out of neutral), so I called them up. They asked me when I would like to schedule an appointment to pick up my car, and I replied that I would rather schedule an appointment to sign over the title. So I ended up paying my towing bill with the title to my car (and $20 - considerably less than the $140 they wanted).
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