Saturday September 21st at approximately 10pm one of three cars traveling Eastbound had a vehicle malfunction on the Southern State Parkway just passed Route 110 at exit 32. I called my insurance company who routed me to the deemed responsive tow company, Bang's Towing (67 Albany Ave in Amityville). 631-842-2922 calls and informs me that a truck will arrive in an hour. $125 flat rate plus $8 a mile to my home. A second number calls about my location 516-324-5400. (Wantangh NY caller id)
As the truck arrived and approached us, we are on the telephone with our AAA representative who is checking to see if we have any other tow options within our Gold membership. After informing him, the driver's first statement to us was "I own this highway. No one else can tow." We explained that we would ultimately be towed if his statement was true. And we asked what did he mean by his statement. He then states "My company owns the highway". We politely explained that we were not negating the tow and we were simply exploring a free option versus the cost of his tow. He lit a cigarette and stood at our side until we completed the call. Literally. Once we got advice from AAA, we were able to follow. We then turned the key & the vehicle started up.
While the car was running, we thanked the driver for responding and told him we were leaving. Because we were so excited to have successfully started up, we didn't realize the driver's true intention on walking away. He got into the flatbed and reversed which blocked one vehicle from driving into the parkway. Furthermore, the driver then stood in front of the vehicle, pulled his cell phone out and in a very unprofessional & disrespectful tone stating the following:
-"This is my tow and this car is not going to drive away. "
-"This car must get towed to leave this location. "
-"You are going to have to run me over to drive away. "
-"You are not leaving. "
I got into the car. Because the vehicle was a small Mercedes, I was able to drive through a slim area between the highway greenway brush and around the massive flatbed truck onto the highway. The other two vehicles pulled off avoiding to hit your driver onto the highway. We all arrived home safely.
The driver's combative behavior was to hold us against our will. His action of both maneuvering an oversized flatbed truck and also standing in the the path of my vehicle blocking our access to leave the location is not lawful and exemplifies danger. Furthermore, to close and deny my access onto a 55 mile an hour parkway is not safe in anyway.
While I am happy we were a family of three vehicles traveling including children ranging from five years old to ten years old, I wonder if my fiancée, our oldest children or anyone was there last night, trapped by this driver of yours? While responding to an a emergency, your driver was rude, combative and he created a potentially more dangerous situation to citizen who is stranded. Not to mention your paying customers.
Your mission statement mentions the total opposite and worse then any patron can ever imagine. Our experience was not comforting, not helpful as you have written. While I am
not in the towing industry, I recommend:
-Your driver needs to be documented on poor service. He endangered himself as well as others.
-Interacting with people. He represents you as a contracted employee. His actions are on behalf of Bangs Towing. If not, change your verbiage because I was NOT "treated courteously", my experience seems you the total opposite of "the best towing experience" and you cannot be the "most respected" if you do not value your service to people. It's not always about money. It's a bout a successful business to maintain & grow. Unless you exist for a few dollars and a few days rather then a secure financial future, your driver putting my family and I at risk last night was scary and real dangerous.
I am taking steps in course of action to share my experience to others because this was completely out of order. Please take the time to investigate and review within your company for your own success. This is an unacceptable experience for an emergency side of the highway tow call and it was not a repossession as I see you are also in business to do. You cannot take someone's vehicle in that manner. read more