People hire others largely as a matter of convenience. A person hires a lawn care service, not because he or she does not have the ability to take care of the lawn, but because they'd rather someone else do it to free up time for other things. It's the same reason that a person hires a maid service. And, convenience is the reason that I chose to hire K & R Towing to handle a vehicle with a dead battery when I was too busy to handle it myself.
On the morning of January 24, I was disappointed to find that my 2017 Toyota Prius Prime was a brick in the driveway. I was in a rush, so I took my wife's car for the day and arranged with Toyota North Bakersfield to have the battery replaced so that I would not lose any time in my day or my week.
Toyota North Bakersfield told me that if I could get the vehicle to them that they would take care of the rest. They provided the contact information for their preferred tow service, K & R Towing, and instructed me to have K & R pick up the vehicle with the instruction that Toyota would pay for the service by purchase order and I could reimburse Toyota when I settled my bill.
I called K & R and informed them of my situation. I told them where to find my vehicle with the dead battery, and provided the address and contact information for my wife who would provide the keys to the car and would be home all day. They informed me that they would pick up the vehicle in approximately in one hour, and we ended the conversation. I was disappointed to return after work to find my vehicle still sitting in the driveway untouched.
I later learned from my wife the following information:
1. K & R Towing called her approximately 1 hour after I had made the appointment. They were unable to locate the vehicle. After a short discussion, she discovered that they were several blocks away. They went to the house at 3119 rather than 3419.
2. After correcting for the address issue, the driver spent several minutes with my wife and the vehicle and determined that he was incapable of completing the tow with a flatbed because he was unable to put the car into neutral.
I deduct no points from my review for the incorrect address. Bad addresses are a mistake, but they are not a mistake that speaks to the core of the company's ability to do their job correctly, but it is relevant to my overall opinion, particularly if it turns out to be a common occurrence (I have no information to indicate that this is a common occurrence.)
I deduct all points for problem #2. K & R was aware of the vehicle's dead battery, and as the preferred vendor for Toyota North Bakersfield, they should have been aware that a 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is an electric vehicle, which requires power to shift the vehicle into neutral.
My wife provided the driver the key to the car, which provided the driver access to the cabin of the car, the hood latch, the dead 12-volt battery, the power button, and the neutral button. With these tools, the driver had two options:
1--the harder option--The driver could have connected a charging pack to the battery to put the car into neutral and tow the vehicle onto the flatbed as they would do with any other disabled vehicle. This option would require a little more time and effort because the alley is tight and time and effort would be required to first get the car out of the driveway and in line with the bed before completing the lift.
2--the easier option--The driver could have jumped the car to get it started, Power it on and drive it either onto the truck bed or into alignment with the truck bed before continuing with the standard tow.
The truck driver did not do either of these things. He abandoned the job telling my wife that it was not possible to put the car into neutral and thus not possible to tow the vehicle at all.
As a consequence of the driver's inability to tow a vehicle with a dead battery, I had to deal with the problem myself the next day and lost half a day of work. K & R did not make my life more convenient, and rather than dealing with the problem, which should have been simple for professionals who deal with dead batteries daily, they left the problem for a casual vehicle owner who deals with dead batteries once every decade.
Admittedly, if the tow company does not stock their vehicles with jumper cables or with jumper battery packs, the above would have been impossible; however, I expect all tow truck drivers to carry at least one of these two essential tools of the trade in their vehicles at all times--especially when the dispatch order includes information that there will be a vehicle with a dead battery.
As a result of the above, I do not trust K & R Towing to perform the job if hired in the future and will not be returning to them. read more
