OK here it Goes This is a warning to help keep yourself and your car safe. Please share to everyone. Feel free to tag people. This was a huge learning experience and I'm seriously so disgusted and upset.
Lets start from the beginning. On Friday July 22th 2016 just after 7pm I left work in studio city. I was heading home when I got into a bad car accident at Woodman and Moorpark. Like 5 to 6 blocks from work.
Everyone involved was ok the gentleman I hit was more concerned about me. I called my wife Debbie she was approximately an hour away as a fire was raging causing some traffic issues. I then called the manager of the store I was working at as my phone was dying and I had never been in such a wreck and didn't know what to do.
With everyones help I reached out to State Farm told them what happened we went through everything they set up a tow but didn't give me any of their approved collision centers so I said well the cars only a week old can it get towed to my dealership. My wife showed up so we sat in her car and then I got an automated message saying my tow truck should be there in 45 mins. Well after an hour I get another automated messages saying that tow truck company was to busy so a new one would be there in about an hour. I called state Farm and they were trying to find out what was going on and had me on hold.
Here's where I made a series of mistakes.
A tow truck pulled up
I asked are you from State Farm he said yes. (have them tell you who sent you don't give that information)
I hung up on State Farm
Tow truck driver asked where I wanted it towed I told him Mazda and where my dealership was located.
He told me Oh we brought a car there yesterday they always refuse the car.
I was like then where the heck am I going to send it.
He's like there's a great shop up the road, gives me a card and pamphlet, I won't get charged towing, I get a free rental and I don't have to pay my deductible. Something felt off but I was shooken up and exhausted. I said ok.
He then says he's going to cancel the tow and to ignore the automated call.
Well my phone rang 4 times I finally answered I was on my way home. They asked if my car had been towed I said yes.
So now it's Saturday morning I'm trying to arrange a rental car and deal with everything. I call State Farm tell them where the car is an give them another statement.
I call the collision center to make sure my cars there and to get more information about their process. I get referred to call Ben on a cell phone. I still really don't get the information I need but vague promises. I go get a rental car from enterprise.
Now we're into Monday and I get a strange call asking if my car was ever towed. I'm very confused and I say yes and where it is again this seems odd but someone is supposed to call me to set up an appointment to look at it.
Tuesday still nothing I call State Farm they tell me it could be 7 days before someone looks at it. I'm like oh no no no. I need my car. So I call our agent. I tell her everything she tells me of an accredited shop and gets a hold of claims. I call the accredited shop to get a feel for it. They were awesome. So he calls the shop where the car is. He's told they already have parts and authorization. Umm I never signed anything.
I get ahold of State Farm I've been scammed. The collision center is holding my car hostage for thousands of dollars in fees. Some of the fees make sense but the others are inflated fees. The other auto body shop guy almost fell off his chair.
I had to threaten to call police, state Farm negotiated with them and hopefully my car will be picked up tomorrow morning.
See what happens is these crocks listen on CB radios for crashes, then go out pretending they are supposed to pick up your car, talk you into a place to bring it then hold it hostage, charging huge fees, some cars are not recovered, please be safe this is apparently a big crime spree in LA County and they are known as Bandits. I don't ever want to see this happen to anyone else. I've owned my car for a week and a half. They knew they could get Alot of money out of this so they went for it.
My car is being held hostage at
Central Collision Center
6031 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91606
Telephone 818-732-7377
Cell phone for Ben the handler 323-577-7077
Fax 818-509-6769
They have a second location in Glendale, CA
The towing company was Legacy towing and the driver was Saco his number is 818-370-2944
He should be fired. I'm sure he gets a nice piece of this scam read more