I had a very unpleasant experience with Tumino's towing on Julia St. in Elizabeth. Got in an accident in the turnpike bridge heading west for work. The police officer who was responding to my accident did me a "favor" and called a towing company to get my car off the road. This company was Tumino's. The man operating the tow truck, whom I was told his name his Hugh, asked me where I wanted to go. I let him know I lived in Bayonne. He mentioned that he could drop my car off at the exit, but couldn't make any personal stops. I thought this was reasonable and agreed. My father came and picked me up on the bridge to see if my car was drivable. The police officer mentioned that I could drive back to Bayonne with my father and we could meet Hugh at the exit. Hugh agreed also. Now, at this time there is bumper to bumper traffic going east on the bridge on 78. It took us about 25 minutes to get over the bridge. We left before Hugh. When we got to the meeting spot we saw no sign of my car or the tow truck so we immediately called the company to see if we could get in contact with the driver. The receptionist said that the driver had already came back to Elizabeth with the car. He said that the tow truck driver was waiting too long and was at risk for getting "in trouble" and had to come back to Elizabeth.
Now, for anyone with any reasonable sense of time and logic, this was impossible for Hugh to have driven to Bayonne and all the way back to Elizabeth in this span of time. We were blatantly lied to. He never drove back to Bayonne, he went straight to Elizabeth.
So we went to Elizabeth to pick the car up. Upon entering we questioned where and for how long Hugh was waiting. The receptionist kept saying he waited too long and because he waited too long he was going to get in trouble. I over heard her speaking on the phone with another client mentioning she was going to check the GPS of one of her trucks. After hanging up the phone I asked her if she could check the GPS of the truck that was supposed to meet us in Bayonne to see if he actually went. She said she couldn't do this.
We were reasonable and paid what we owed to the company without any further complaints. However, coming from a family who owns a small family business, this is a horrible example of customer service. This establishment is just in existence to rip you off and steal your money by the hour. Absolutely horrendous. My advice is to keep better track of your truck drivers. Oh, and don't ever let your car get towed by Tumino's. read more
