Many, yes. Some encounters have just been purely business. But I've had a few catastrophic breakdowns during cross country travel, where a generous and helpful tow truck driver and his local connections really made terrible situations bearable.
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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The situations that require them suck by default but I've never dreaded the ride with them
The one exception was a mishap with parking enforcement where I was erroneously impounded but that was simple human error and fixed by day's end
So far only positive experiences. My car broke down on the freeway and he towed me home. He was generally pleasant and want too rough with it.
When I worked for a Kia dealership, I was sent to drop off a car for a customer and bring back a car that the customer claimed had overheating issues after it was just worked on. The tech who just worked on the car thought it was fine and the car would make the drive on the highway and sent me with a bottle of coolant. Was only 2 offramps away, just had to limp it to the dealer, not a big deal. It was a Saturday and I was set to clock out in 10 minutes.
Well, surprise surprise, it WAS overheating. So I pulled over on the side of the highway and opened the hood to check if it just needed coolant or something (what it actually was was a gasket inside the engine was installed the wrong way which was blocking coolant flow, pretty easy to do on the V6s). Then I had to call my manager, who wasnt in. Nobody was still there except the Warranty Administrator, she was a nice girl. She called a truck and sent them out to me, but I had to wait 3 hours for the truck to show up. It was a hot day, like 93F outside, and the car couldn't run so that meant no A/C, only the fan.
The truck driver showed up, loaded up the car, and had me in the passenger seat on the way back in less that 15 minutes. Seemed like a nice guy, probably late 50s early 60s. Was quiet most of the ride, but he was blasting Duran Duran, which I enjoyed. Got me back no problem.
Not a single one. Between just not showing up, trying to make you sign a damage waiver so they can destroy your car, charging absurd fees, etc nope. Hell, we even had one show up, to tow a customer car, and then immediately drive away because it didn’t have fenders in it (mind you it was registered, insured and running).
My car was broken down, in the middle of nowhere’s at night, and I was by myself. Not a sketchy part of town, but I didn’t want to be where I was by myself. No less than 5 different tow companies either just never showed up, after they said they were on their way, or showed up and tried to either have me sign a damage waiver, or just straight up drive off before even saying anything to me. The car was still drivable, but unsafe to drive more than onto the tow truck.
I've only had to interact with one once but he seemed like a decent guy. Was taking my car to the shop for me after I called AAA when it wouldn't start for some reason. We ended up talking about my experience with social anxiety, and he shared that he'd also had challenges getting used to social settings and explained that his girlfriend had helped him with it. He offered some advice- can't say it was especially helpful, but it wasn't unhelpful either. He just made some kinda rudimentary recommendations, but they were obviously well intended. And we talked some about how he was trying to make money to support his child at home.
Like I said, seemed like a decent guy to me. 🤷🏻
My one experience was good. Randomly picked one place to call, they straight up told me it was gonna be a while until they could get to me, and to call this other company to see if they could help faster.
The place they recommended rerouted a couple of their drivers while I was on the phone to get to me faster, they were there in 30 minutes, did a good job, and the whole experience was very pleasant.
Definitely have both places in my contact list if I ever need another tow.
Other than being pricey every experience I've had with tow truck drivers has been positive/neutral. But I don't live in a city or a place where people get involuntarily towed often.
Had like 5ish total. All good. One time I called and was quoted something horrendous, called another shop for something like half price
Any time I've had to call one, it's been great.
Once when I was like 9, I was with my mom hauling horses down the coast and her old Ford shat it's transmission out for the third time. The commercial tow truck driver(s) was a husband and wife team that were really fun when riding with them. I left my prized stuffed rabbit in their truck and they went out of their way to get our address and express mail it back to me.
The one time I "randomly" encountered one (you know why), he was an absolute fucking shithead.
It all depends on what they're trying to get out of you. The ones that make their bank off of cruising around town for parking "violations" are straight up illegal scammers that need a good punching. The ones doing recovery and roadside are saints.