ComplaintsforGombach Towing & Auto Salvage

• Initial Complaint

  04/20/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On January 13, 2023 my car was towed to Gombach after I was arrested for a bench warrant for missing a court hearing. I spend 90 days in jail awaiting my hearing. After 90 days, I had my hearing and was released from jail. I contacted Gombach over and over again when I was released and I was told that I had to pay $8,700.00 in storage fees that were accumulated during my time in jail. I asked countless times to speak with Joe (owner) and was told he would call me. I left my number atleast 6 times. Never one call back. I would like to settle this issue and pay a reasonable amount to get my car back. I'm a single mom of 2, with no car.

  Business response

  04/24/2024

  In regards to this complaint we understand the difficulties you are having. After your vehicle was impounded on January 13, 2023, we were instructed by the police to only release the vehicle to the registered owner which was you. We received multiple phone calls in regards to the vehicle and told those people that we needed to have something in writing that was either notarized or from an attorney stating that you gave permission to them to obtain your vehicle from our lot. After so many days, we are required to file with the state that the vehicle has been left abandoned on our property. Being that we had not heard from you or received any written notice allowing someone to obtain the vehicle, we had to proceed with that abandoned paperwork. Once the paperwork has been sent to the state, the owner has 30 days to reclaim the vehicle after receiving the letter from the state that states the vehicle has been declared as abandoned. We received the first phone call from you directly on May 11, 2023, which is more than 90 days after the car was impound, at which time we totaled up the charges and gave you the price of $6256.00, which included towing, storage, an admin fee, and the required state fee. The break down of the total charges are as follows, Towing $175.00, Admin $75.00, State fee $56.00 and storage at $50.00 a day. Typically daily storage rate is $75.00 a day so we were already trying to work with you by dropping the storage down $25.00 a day. After you called on May 11,2023 we tried to contact you multiple times with no answer and could not leave a message. We did not hear back from you until June 13, 2023 when you called asking if you could gather your personal belongings from the vehicle and we said yes and allowed you to come that day to gather your things. We tried our best to accommodate you as best as we could for this situation. We know you had stopped by our shop a few times since gathering your belongings trying to get the vehicle back, but at that time your 30 days to reclaim were up and we stated to you that the vehicle could no longer be claimed. Unfortunately at this time, over a year later, the abandoned car paperwork has been completed and the 30 days for you to reclaim the vehicle has passed. At this point there is no way for you to reclaim your vehicle. We understand the hard ships of being a single mom but at this time there is nothing we are able to do to accommodate you any further.  

• Initial Complaint

  06/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 6/25/2022 gomback towing towed a care for me from latrobe pa to kittanning pa by tom the driver: tom refused to position my car where I wanted it: beside a car he had towed for me the day before: the car isnt running and I cant push it the 8 to 10 feet further forward where it needs to go: I paid $ 455.00 for this disservice!

  Business response

  08/10/2022

  In response to the complaint with ID ********, the customer was requesting that my driver back our truck into a field with approximately 3-4ft tall weeds as well as a foundation under the weeds from a house that had been torn down.  It was a major safety concern just backing the truck into the weeds as the truck had been running for multiple hours and was very hot.  So the first concern was a fire hazard.  The next concern was not knowing what was in the tall weeds, and what was left in the foundation of the house being torn down.   The possibility of getting a flat tire or a piece of debris hitting the underneath of the truck causing damage or the possibility of puncturing the fuel tank.  Our tires are very costly, let alone the time and resources to repair the tire being approximately an hour and a half away from our shop.  Our driver backed into the field as far as he felt was safe and unloaded the car.  He did ask the customer if the position of the car was ok with him before he unloaded the car, his response was yes.  After the driver unloaded the car, the customer asked the driver if he could use our 2021 Ford F550 to push the classic car with our truck's front bumper back approximately 3 feet. The driver said no he was not able to do that as it was not safe, the truck is a 2021 Ford F550 and the customer's car was a classic. The customer's car could have been damaged as well as our truck. Our same driver delivered a different classic car to the same location the day before. The customer had him move the vehicle 3 times before it was exactly where he wanted it. Unfortunately we are not always able to position vehicles in the exact spots that the customer requests due to many different safety concerns.  The driver knew that day that it was not safe and did what he could in order to get the vehicle in the closest position as the customer requested.  As the owner, I stand behind our driver's decisions that day making sure everyone and every vehicle is safe.  If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me. 
  
  Have a great day! 
  
  Thank you,
  
  Caroline
  Gombach Towing
  

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