ComplaintsforLone Star Towing Utah, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  02/20/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  They are predatory and do not abide by local codes and guidelines. Our car was towed last night from in front of our townhouse. There is no appropriate signage to indicate that the area we were parked in was a towable zone. The signs to indicate as much legally are required to be at the front of the entrances, there are none to indicate that it is patrolled, or passes required. We have lived here for years and never had a problem parking in front of our townhouse, haha. Getting towed is never fun, but when it's done illegally, please seek representation. We now have an attorney who will be coming after them legally. If you think you have been unlawfully towed, find representation, we use a local law office. We will remove this post if our car is returned, but we are prepared to fight this and are assured our car has been unlawfully taken.

  Business response

  02/21/2024

  I spoke with the complainant and her husband on the phone and explained that someone had called in and reported the vehicle. They were both very pleasant and understanding. I later met with the husband when he came to pick up the vehicle and I really don't recall meeting too many people in life that are as nice as he was. Anyway, I believe this situation has been resolved as I saw a ****** review that she had posted and it was positive. Let me know if you have any further questions. ****** Review "We made assumptions about the practices of this company that were not true. Not only were they extremely communicative with us, they also reached out to our HOA to improve the signage in our neighborhood. They really went above and beyond to sympathize with us and help improve the situation so that going forward this is not a problem for anyone else. Everyone we talked to was really nice and we hope to not be customers again, but it wouldn't be the worst thing ;)"
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I got towed by this company they told me they would release the car to me even if it wasn't in my name but they wanted cash only

  Business response

  10/28/2023

  Lone Star is a towing and impound company. Nobody likes to get towed as it’s expensive and typically means that your vehicle has broken down or you violated some law (possibly a police ordered tow or you disregarded a posted parking enforcement sign and parked where you shouldn’t have). We provide a service to property owners that removes unwanted vehicles that park on their property. 
  
  
  In this case, a business owner who has all the necessary State regulated towing enforcement signs posted at every entrance to their property called needing a vehicle removed. There was a vehicle (1996 Honda Civic) they believed to be abandoned in their parking lot that had neither a front or rear bumper, dents all over, a flat tire, not completely in a parking stall and was left unlocked with the windows down. 
  
  
  Provo has very limited parking and like every other business owner have invested and maintain their parking lot for their current customers only. They don't want broken down vehicles leaking oil and other fluids on the pavement as well as taking up parking reserved for current customers. 
  
  
  Unfortunately we live in a society where people often pay for a service (on credit card) and then later dispute the charge with their bank. This is especially true when people pay for a service that they sometimes don’t want. When we take a credit card from someone other than the titled owner we risk not being paid for the service or having to go through a dispute process that sometimes lasts several months and often times ends with us not being paid. The State set guidelines to protect us in these situations. We are not required take a credit card from anyone other than the titled owner. It’s very difficult to claim you weren’t towed when we have photos of a vehicle that has registration that matches the name on your driver license and vehicle registration. 
  
  
  The person wanting to pick up the vehicle wasn’t the person listed on the title registered with the State. She claimed to have a copy of the title but to pay with card she would first need to go to the DMV, get it titled in her name and then come pay, at which time she could pay with card. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This tow company impounded my vehicle from my apartment complex because it had broken down because my alternator went out, a friend who is a resident at the apartments was keeping an eye on it for me while I went to pick n pull to look for an alternator. My friend just happened to be in the shower when the tow truck arrived but they still IMPROPERLY IMPOUNDED my car as abandoned when it wasnt even parked for more than 3 hours. Now its almost 500 dollars to get out of impound and it goes up 40 dollars each day, I cannot afford that. I have proof of insurance

  Business response

  05/16/2022

  The vehicle was not impounded improperly. First off, this is a Patrol Property. When the property management company contracted us the authorized us to patrol the property and they listed all the violations they wanted us to tow for. One of those violations was that if a vehicle has expired tags or no tags or plates at all, they consider it abandoned and want it picked up. ** addition, the maintenance guy asked us the day prior to go around to all of their properties, specifically this one and pick up any vehicles that dont have plates displayed or have expired registration. He said that there is a huge amount of homeless people living out of cars and they want us to clean it up. We impounded the unit and the vehicle owners boyfriend/husband called the following day to get it. We explained fees and sent a text that explains all the fees. We explained that they were towed for being abandoned as well as no plates or registration displayed and that they also didnt have a permit visible. They said that they took their plates off the car so the plates and tags wouldnt get stolen. They were going to work on getting the money but had to catch Front Runner down from somewhere up past ******. We told them to give us an hour notice. They couldnt get down and asked how much it would be the following day. We told them $40/day. The next day we had not heard from them so we sent them a couple texts and got no response. Then they called back later in the evening saying they shouldnt have been towed. That some woman told them management didnt call it in. I asked who told them that but they gave me no name, just a woman in management. I explained that maintenance requested but that it didnt matter anyway as we are under contract to patrol. I told him that we were close by the yard and that we could meet them there and that we had tried to call and text. He said he didnt get any calls or texts. A few minutes later he was complaining that we didnt tow the car from the correct address. That on the State website it shows **** and that his address was some other number like **** or something.  I texted him a photo of his car when we were about to hook up to it and asked if that was his car and if that was the building from the property and if that was the correct place and he said yes. After he got that text, I asked him to scroll up and see if he got our other texts and he said yes and that he hadnt seen them before. I explained that when the manager contracted with us he gave us **** for the address. That sometimes that is the complex address at the street or possibly the managers unit but it in fact was a **** property. He said he wasnt going to pay. I encouraged him to get it out to stop the fees and work it out later. I still havent heard back. They did however file a complaint with the department of transportation (UDOT) who is the governing body that regulates towing companies. They asked us for all of our documentation and found that we did nothing wrong. The situation for them is unfortunate but we did nothing wrong. I would suggest them to borrow the money from somebody and come down and pick up the vehicle as soon as possible so they dont incur any more storage charges. Lastly, take this advice or leave it, but if your car is truly registered, it's a good idea to display your license plates. It will keep you from getting pulled over by law enforcement or getting towed off of private property.

  Customer response

  05/16/2022

   
  Complaint: 17204681
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  My car was impounded as abandoned which is funny because for one the blue car that was parked next to mine when I left and still parked when I got back is one of those cars that someone lives in I know for a fact he isnt a resident there and lives in his car, I know because he is a friend of a friend of my mine who lives at the apartments. The same friend was supposed to be keeping an eye on my car while I went to **************************************************************************

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