ComplaintsforFrank's Automotive, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  09/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My daughter went to Bowling Green for a high school football game. After the game, they stopped at a gas station so one of the group could get a fountain drink. While he went in the others ran across the street to grab some cookies. While the one was in the store, the towing company stopped, went in and asked the clerk if he recognized the car. He didn’t. The towing company put a boot on the car. The towing company would not unboot the car until my daughter and her friends paid $60. The towing company claims that since my daughter wasn’t the customer that they were in their rights to boot the car even though one of the passengers was a customer. No where does it state that the driver of a vehicle is the sole determining factor of whether or not they a doing business in the store.

  Business response

  09/19/2022

  The Circle K store on Prospect Street in Bowling Green, Ohio is posted according to the ORC as a private lot for Customer Parking Only While Shopping. This parking lot is in proximity to other businesses and people tend to park in this parking lot and go elsewhere because it's convenient. The tow driver noticed 3 vehicles all parked together and on one in or around them. He then went into Circle K to ask the clerk if they belonged to anyone in the store that was shopping. The clerk asked if anyone was driving any of the 3 vehicles parked outside along the guardrail. There were 5 or 6 patrons in the store shopping and they all told the clerk they were not theirs. the tow driver then went outside and began preparing the first vehicle to tow by putting a pair of go jaks on it. This is the car in the attached picture that has the go jak on it. You can also see in the second picture that there are 3 cars along the guardrail. When the driver was finished putting the go jak on the first vehicle, he saw people coming toward him from across the street from DP Dough and some others came around the corner of the adjacent building to the parking lot. We are assuming since Dad said they went to get cookies that they were down the street at Insomnia Cookies. The group of people, who surrounded the driver, were all traveling together in those 3 cars. The driver told them to get the go jak off the car he would need a $60 let go fee. This fee is actually cheaper than what ORC says we should charge for a drop fee. The normal fee would be $64.50 +$4.35 Sales Tax = $68.85. We actually only charged $56.21 + $3.79 Sales Tax = $60.00. We charge this way so that the driver doesn't have to carry change as there have been many fights in this particular parking lot.

  The driver was going to tow this vehicle in good faith, knowing that he had checked with the clerk in the store to make sure no one in there was associated with any of the three vehicles. There was no one in the vehicles or around them. As stated earlier, the people who were traveling together came from two different directions when he was in the process of preparing it for tow. No one came from inside Circle K to claim the vehicle. If a person had been shopping at Circle K and then left that store, the vehicle needed to be moved after shopping as per the sign saying "Customer Parking Only While Shopping". That would have been the driver's responsibility to move it when the passenger was finished in the store. It was not okay to leave the car parked there and go to other business to shop.

  We feel that no refund is due. 

• Initial Complaint

  09/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The good-for-nothing punks who own Frank’s Automotive stole nearly $160 in cash from me. The owner told me I would have to pay $158 in cash because I parked in a CVS Pharmacy parking lot in Bowling Green, Ohio. He said I would have to give him cash because credit card charges could be disputed. When I asked the owner whether he forces everybody to pay cash, he wouldn’t answer me. He towed my car, and when I inspected my vehicle for possible damage after I was allowed to enter it, I was told I could inspect the vehicle somewhere else.

  Business response

  09/13/2022

       The weekend of September 9-11 is the Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green, Ohio. During this festival CVS (which is located within a few blocks of the festivities) has been overwhelmed with parking issues because people believe they can park there for the event even when signage states it is not event parking. This parking lot is posted as a "Customer Parking While Shopping Only" 24/7 all year. It is posted according to ORC as a private tow away zone. We posted extra signs that said "No Event Parking" to help deter festival parking during these three days. We work with management to identify which cars are customers in the store and which customers have left the store and walked off the property leaving their vehicle. 

  On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at roughly around 430 pm Mr. X vehicle was towed off the property and Mr. X approached the tow truck in the street and asked why the vehicle was being towed. The driver was trying to explain why he was being towed. At this time, Frank, who is the owner of Frank's Automotive, and who was working with CVS management, noticed the interaction and went over to see what the concern was. He asked Mr. X to come towards him out of the street for his safety. Frank instructed the driver to bring the car back around into the parking lot. Frank explained the options for release of Mr. X's vehicle. His first option was that he could pay the tow fee as of that moment which was $137.71 ($129.00 Plus $8.71 Sales Tax) He was charged this amount because the vehicle had already left the property. His second option was that he could pick his vehicle up at the shop for $155.86 which is the $137.71 plus storage of $17 and of course Sales Tax. Mr. X asked multiple questions and as Frank was answering them Mr. X began walking aggressively toward Frank. Frank kept backing up as Mr. X moved forward as to diffuse the situation. Mr. X demanded three times to take  a picture of Frank's ID. Frank said no three times. Mr. X then took two pictures of Frank. Frank then explained to him that he was done with the situation and instructed the driver to take the vehicle back to the shop. Frank then called the BG police department. When the officer arrived, he explained to Mr. X this is a civil matter and directed him to go to the shop to retrieve his vehicle. Mr. X came to the shop and he still seemed agitated. He was told how much his vehicle was to get it from impound. He then stated to ***** that he better not have any damage, need an alignment, or have anything stolen. Mr. X was told that everything was fine with his car. He then gave ***** $160 in crumpled up 20's. She gave him back $5 in change. Her and another employee escorted Mr. X out to his vehicle due to the comments he made. The other employee took off the wheel lock while ***** watched Mr. X. get in his car from a distance of about 8 feet. Mr. X rummaged around his car for a few minutes and then shut the door and preceded to drive around the parking lot to in front of the garage door where we were releasing vehicles. He stopped, got out and began walking around his vehicle looking for damage and did not say anything. I asked him to either move his car to the street which was about 50 feet off the property or to take it home to inspect it. I did this because of his aggressive behavior earlier with Frank. 

  We believe this incident was handled properly and the tow was done correctly. No monies are owed to Mr. X. According to ORC we have the lot posted correctly. Management does not want vehicles sitting on their private property unless they are in the store shopping. Once they are finished shopping and pay they are to leave the store and remove their vehicle from the parking lot. We charged the correct amount according to ORC. Mr. X was also given a receipt and pictures were taken of his parked car at CVS before it was towed. It is also industry standard to not take credit cards for impounds as they can be disputed after the service is rendered on an impound. 

  I have attached Mr. X's receipt, pictures of his vehicle at the CVS lot, the BGPD Incident Report, and a picture of the No Event Parking sign. I can send pictures of the other tow signs at the entrances that are there 24/7 upon request. 

   

• Initial Complaint

  09/15/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On September 12th, 2021 Franks automotive illegally towed my vehicle. In realizing their mistake, later returned the vehicle. They did not notify me that the car was towed and returned. After being towed, there is a vibration in the steering. I called the owner, ***** and his initial response was that the the car was legally towed. After I explained the details to him, he agreed it shouldn't of been towed. After my second conversation with him about this issue, I am not satisfied with his response. His company, admittedly made a mistake, and refuses to put anything in writing that will right this wrong.

  Business response

  10/18/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/09/17) */ On 9/12/2021 our tow truck operators were checking a private parking lot against the list of vehicles allowed to park behind it's business. At that time our drivers missed that the vehicle WAS on the list and mistakenly began the towing process by putting go jaks on the vehicle and pushing it out of the parking spot to tow it. After the vehicle was on the wheel lift of the tow truck they double checked the list and realized their mistake. They then placed the car back into the parking spot but in the opposite direction that it had been facing originally. The distance of movement from beginning to end was roughly 20 to 60 feet. At no time did the vehicle leave the parking lot. We did not notify the complaintent because per ORC we do not have to notify a customer at the moment their car is being prepared for tow. The parking lot the vehicle was located in is posted per all ORC. The complaintent, who is the father of the driver of the vehicle, has spoken with ***** on several occasions. ***** acknowledged the mistake and told him that if there is an issue with the car that we caused, we would take care of it. However, the complaintent has not or will not take the car to be looked at per the last conversation 9/15/2021. ***** gave several options to him. One was to take it to ANY of his trusted car repair shops and have them call ***** with their findings. If they find that we caused damage then ***** agreed to pay for it. Complaintent wanted ***** to offer an unspecified amount to make this all go away and not to file a complaint or go to social media. ***** reiterated, "I don't know if we did, or didn't do any damage until the car is looked at." He offered him the amount of what a private impound tow would have been if we had actually towed the vehicle. The complaintant refused the offer and felt he needed paid for his time and repairs that he hadn't even had looked at yet. ***** offered to pay a $35 checkout fee from complaintant's own repair shop but again it was refused. Complaintant wanted in writing that ***** was going to take care of any and all repairs to vehicle and that is just something that no business would agree to as there could be other things wrong with the car that have nothing to do with this instance. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2021/09/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Frank's towing did not offer me "the amount of what a private impound tow would have been if we had actually towed the vehicle". Franks did in fact tow the car. Franks towing violated portions of orc Section 4513.601. Franks stated that I must prove any damage to the car was caused by their illegally towing the vehicle. I asked him how was I supposed to prove they caused the damage and he said it's up to me to prove it. Franks has lied to me twice, along with illegally towing my car. I don't trust this company that they will pay to have my car inspected by another company, nor pay for damages. I did not create this issue. There wasn't any issues with the car prior to being illegally towed.

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