Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/21/2025

  Type:Facilities Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Terrible and Rude! Lied to my face that they only make $10 of profit per $175 tow and that drivers and property owners do not make commission off tows. They purposely prey on students on properties where there is intentionally not enough visitor parking. Death Valley towing is the definition of predatory towing. It is impossible for them to have a 5% profit margin and stay in business. They are working with housing properties around Clemson to purposely not have enough visitor parking. When people park in the empty lot that is only for “residents”, Death Valley towing stalks the lot. After being there for less than an hour, they towed my car out of an empty lot that was never reported. Visitors parking was full, so I had to park in a residential lot to unload groceries for my fiancé. They incentivize their drivers to tow as many cars as possible by paying a commission per car. They also pay what is called a kickback fee back to the property owner per car that they tow. This incentivizes the property owners to not paint any additional visitor spots. How can you not provide a grace period for loading and unloading when visitor parking is full?

  Business Response

  Date: 01/24/2025

  Death Valley Towing assists property management groups at Clemson area housing properties ensure that paying residents have a place to park.  We are not responsible for many of the issues the complainant listed. For example:

   - The property owner/management group identifies which parking spaces are for residents and which ones are for visitors

   - The property owner/management group establishes the parking rules and includes those rules in their leasing information.  The parking rules state that it is the responsibility of the resident to explain to their guests where they are allowed to park.  We are not involved in any of the decision making in regard to how many parking places are constructed or how they are assigned.  We only enforce rules created by the property owner.

  The vehicle owner towed in this incident was a guest of a resident who did not follow the rules created and provided by the property management group.  They did park the car in a visitor space, but this property group requires that a visitor hang tag be displayed from the rearview mirror.  Hangtags are provided to residents by property management (not Death Valley Towing).  If the hangtag had been provided by the resident and properly displayed this car would not have been towed.

  We have three drivers working day shift and one night shift driver that "patrol" 42 properties in the Clemson community. These drivers also have responsibilities responding to account tow and police department requests. They do routinely drive through parking lots to identify improperly parked vehicles, but they do not sit in a particular lot and "stalk". They must keep moving in order to work all of the properties.

  Unfortunately, there are many truly "predatory" towing companies working private property impound that pay their drivers commission only.  This practice does tend to create a predatory mindset. However, we are different in that our drivers are paid an hourly wage plus a minimal commission for each tow.

  Our employees are unaware of exactly what our margins are.  It is highly likely that our representative shared that high cost of keeping a fleet of tow trucks running and paying employees leaves very little profit per tow, but I am certain they did not share a dollar or percentage amount. 

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/06/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On February 27, 2023, My car was towed from a friend's parking lot. When I got my car back, there was damage to the undercarriage. The business refused to pay for the damages.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/20/2023

  We reviewed the damage with the customer when the vehicle was picked up.  The damage is in an area of the vehicle that cannot be reached by our equipment.  This makes it impossible for us to have done the damage.