Towing in Austin

Before I write this, any moderator or Rob Lay, I do not want to cause any rule infraction of the board, but I feel very strongly about what I have to convey to our Austin and surrounding Ferrari owners. I own (2) myself you know, a member of the Hill Country Chapter Ferrari club in addition to owning Moorespeed/Mooresports Independent Ferrari and Porsche Service, and I want the best service, not half arse.......

I don't normally do this, I've learned over the years if you don't have something nice to say, keep your mouth shut......but since I "recommended" this particular company to all my Ferrari customers before.....I need to UNRECOMMEND them.

Tiger Trux Towing, we no longer recommend their services to any of our customers.

Here's what happened as to the best of my knowledge and then you be the judge:

We started using these guys purely by accident when one of our customers broke down at TWS. Our normal service, Hyatt's Texas Towing (who we use exclusively NOW) were too tied up to get to College Station. I made a few phone calls to some other independents around town. One of the shops said hey there's a new guy on the block that's doing good work for us called Tiger Trux. So I called them. They had a very nice wrecker "flatbed" and did a super job. The driver's name was Estabon. He was super, used soft straps and was very careful. To boot, Tiger was cheaper than Hyatt's too, so a win situation I think for my customers.

Estabon ended up quitting. And that's where things went south in my view. I had a race car towed over to a chassis dyno and it took forever and then no soft straps used on the suspension arm (just this big huge steel hook) I kinda cringed and said since it's a race car it's not that critical but I want our customer's street cars stapped like they had been previously. The tow truck driver was none other than the owner. So I think, no problem, done deal, nip it in the bud.....customer service is A Number ONE priority.

Several weeks pass. One of our customers called them and needed his near concours 1966 911S towed in for some work. He called me after the car was dropped off to see if it was there and complained that the driver had not used soft straps but used this big hook onto one of the front control arms instead of the tow hook even after asking him to do so. The hook scraped all the paint off a portion of the A-arm and dented the bottom of the tub near the gas tank.....I know, as when the driver (the owner of Tiger Trux) dropped the car off at the shop I saw the big hook and even asked why no soft strap. I got a sneer of a look and "it does not hurt them" answer. I was busy delivering another car to a customer, so let it go for the time being.

So a few hours pass, the customer called me again to see if I'd talked to the towing company. I said no, but I planned on doing so to make sure it would not happen again. I told the customer that these guys had done such a super job in the past, I was not sure why the owner (who is now driving the truck) is not being more careful. He said, "Oh he was very careful, and took extra time, that was not the problem, it was the use of this monster boat anchor hook on my car".

Thus, I called Tiger Trux. The owner, Walter, was not in, but I talked to Linda and said please have Walt call me. I need to talk to him. She asked why and I said that I had a customer complain and I needed to discuss it with him. (Mind you, if I have an unhappy customer, I damn sure want to know about it and I will do whatever is needed to remedy the situation. So not only am I taking care of my customer, but I'm helping out a "fellow" small business owner by discussing and nipping the problem in the bud, right?)

Anyhow, Linda asks what tow, and I said the little 66 911. She promptly says "I don't understand that, the customer TIPPED Walt". "First I heard that", I said, "the customer has called me twice to find out if I had discussed his concerns. I just need to talk to Walt about it." She says, "I'll have him call you".....which he never does.

About an hour passes. I have a customer call me up with a dead battery, wants to have the car towed in...... I give him Tiger's phone no. He calls me immediately back and says, "Tiger says they no longer tow for Moorespeed".

WHAT?????? I'm thinking.....is this how they are going to respond by no response at all and then deciding to "black list" us for following up on a customer complaint.

So I send the customer to Hyatt's Texas Towing, no problem, car arrives soft slinged, and special ramps are on their truck to get one of our typically low customer cars off the truck.

In the mean time, I send an email to my 911 customer that had complained and told him the unbelievable response. He wrote back that "HE DID" tip the driver as he did take extra long getting it on the flatbed, but still was very concerned about the use of the hook.

I called Tiger, and talked to Linda, she's nice, but has no answer for me other than Walt will call you. Walt never calls me. A day passes by, I print out the email exchange between my customer and myself about his concerns and how it was handled. I fax it to Tiger. NO RESPONSE.

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In the mean time I've gone back to using Hyatt's Texas Towing, and even though they charge $100 or more to flat tow in, I'm glad to pay it now as I don't have to worry.

I still can't believe the "response" or "lack of response". It just seems to be very poor business and frankly if they really don't care and this is the way they handle a complaint/problem, then we don't need to use them to haul our customers beautiful and expensive Ferrari/Porsche/Lambos...etc. much less recommend their services.

I kept quiet til today. It has been a 3 or 4 weeks since the incident. And frankly I just decided they were not worth my breath.

However, I just rec'd a phone call from a Ferrari customer who wanted their car picked up and delivered home from our shop and had called Tiger for a tow. They got the "we don't tow for Moorespeed" response.

So I just want to tell EVERY Ferrari owner I know in Austin (which is damn near every single one of you) to please make your own decision, but we recommend Hyatt's Texas Towing and we have an account with them.

I guess you could say it's my mistake for going to a "cheaper" service, and it just goes to proove you get what you pay for...I was just trying to pass on some savings to my customers. I still can't believe how this was handled.

David Moore

 

Al, yes it was Hyatt's. How is that "Beast" of a car doing BTW?

Good to see you last Saturday and thanks for the help.....you really worked up a sweat dude ;-)

d

 

Thanks Steve....life's too short you know to not be straight up honest. I gave them ample time (a month) to settle things and then the call from my customer this morning.

I still don't get it. I wasn't an arse or anything of the such. I kinda feel like a young kid getting dumped by a girlfriend for no particular reason.....know what I mean?