For chrissakes...
I am so fucking sick of all this legal shit. I’m still waiting on my lawyer to make a settlement offer from when I got rear-ended in October. I’m also dealing with an appeal (for $198) with Blue Cross Blue Shield. I wanted 2009 to be peaceful and free of this kind of crap, but it ain’t lookin’ too good right now.
So, ready for the crisis du jour? You know you want it.
This is gonna be a long entry, but I’d appreciate any comments/encouragement, and especially advice if you have any experience in this sort of thing. I’ll cut this so it doesn’t take up your entire friends page.
Enterprise towed my car (the old Taurus, not my new Hyundai) off their lot (illegally), didn’t notify before, didn’t notify me afterwards, and now the impound lot it was towed to says the fees are about $700 for towing and storage (although they’ll “settle” for $320).
Uh-huh. Here’s some background:
December 4th, my Taurus had been blowing a LOT of smoke from the engine, constantly. Jason said it was a blown head gasket after taking a look, and to go directly to Enterprise and rent a car, to not drive the Taurus any more in case it blew up/broke down/etc.
So I went to Enterprise, rented a car, then went out the next day and bought another car. Didn’t have much of a choice there; the Taurus wouldn’t be worth what it would cost to fix it.
I had the rental car until the 7th or 8th (don’t quite remember), so Jason drove the rental, since it was much nicer than his, and I drove the Hyundai. We returned the rental, but left my Taurus there, since we were both exhausted, and it was dark (not very conducive to looking under the hood to see if the thing will start, much less not blow up). We intended to go pick up the Taurus as soon as we could.
That ‘as soon as we could turned out to be a lot longer than we anticipated. We didn’t want to do it at night, so weekdays were out since we both work, and the few weekends we had were taken up by other things.
On December 21st, I called Enterprise to make sure my car was still there, and to let them know I would come get it ASAP, and would it be ok to leave it there in the meantime? The girl I spoke to went out to look, said it was still there, and not to worry about it-that it was fine, and to just come get it when I could.
We weren’t able to make time to go get it until this past Sunday, January 18th. It was gone. I called Enterprise, and they said they think it was towed by Enterprise TRUCK rental, which shares a building, half the parking lot, but is a different division. I was told they wouldn’t be in until the next day. They gave me the number of who their towing company is-Congo’s towing-as well as the number to the Truck Rental people.
I called Congo’s, and they said the car had been towed on January 6th, and that it was a $150 towing fee, plus $40 per day storage, which equaled over $600. At this point I shit a brick.
The next day, I called Enterprise Truck Rental and spoke with the manager, Chris. He readily admitted that he had my car towed, remembered seeing it and that it had ‘a bunch of stickers on it’, and said it was taking up space that he needed for his rental trucks. He also said it had been there for 3 months. I corrected him, saying, “No, that’s impossible, it had only been there a month when you towed it on January 6th.” He got a bit of an attitude with me, said he was sure it was about three months, and maybe I was thinking of a different car. I told him it was a 1998 light blue Ford Taurus (this is when he mentioned the stickers), and that I had a receipt showing that I rented a car from Enterprise on December 4th, which would PROVE that the car had been there only a month, and if he liked, I could come and show him the receipt to prove to him that it had not been three months.
At this point, he realized I knew what I was talking about, and began to tell me it was highly unusual to have a car sitting in the parking lot for one month, much less three months, and that he needed the space, so he had it towed.
I told him that I had talked to the car rental side, that they had said it was fine, and that it would be ok in that parking lot. He said he had asked Angel, the manager of the car rental side, if she knew whose car it was, and she told him no, so that was as far as he went with that, and had it towed.
I said to him “so basically you’re offering me no help here-you’ve towed my car without trying to find out whose it was, didn’t inform me that you were going to tow it, didn’t bother letting me know that you HAD towed it, and the only reason I know it’s been towed is because I had to come find out for myself. And now the impound lot is telling me I have to pay $700 to get it back, and you’ve got no help to offer.”
He said “Yep, that’s pretty much it. You really should be talking to Angel, since she’s the one who told me she didn’t know whose car it was.”
I said “Thanks, I’ll talk to Angel.” And hung up.
The next day, Jason (the hubby) called the same guy, who was a little more polite with him, but told him the car had been there 4-6 weeks, but offered nothing other than what he had told me.
At this point I had already done some research online, reading the Alabama State Code regarding abandoned motor vehicles, and had discovered a few things, particularly that you cannot have a vehicle towed off of private property without posting a notice on the car seven days before having it towed. Jason asked if Chris had posted any notice on the car, and Chris said no. Jason asked him if he knew it was against the law to tow a vehicle without posting a notice, and he said that although he was a ‘law school dropout’ that no, he didn’t know that.
Chris said something about it being an unfortunate situation for us to deal with. Jason said that we needed some kind of resolution, so he would need to speak with Chris’s regional manager. Chris provided him with the number for Mike, his regional manager.
Jason spoke to Mike, and it turned out that Chris had already spoken with him, and had told him that he wasn’t the one who towed the car, that it was Angel. Jason laid out the situation for him, letting him know that they didn’t have a right to tow my car without first posting a notice, and that they also were required by the law to notify the appropriate law enforcement agency that a car had been abandoned, before towing it, and also that it had been towed.
Mike said that he was shocked that Chris had towed a car without telling him, that he hadn’t heard anything about the situation, and that he had actually never had a car towed before, so didn’t know anything about what was required. He told Jason that he would speak to Chris, find out what happened, and call Jason back today (Wednesday January 21st).
It’s only 11:30, so no call yet from Mike. However, in the meantime of Jason making all those calls and me reading more thoroughly through the Alabama Code (which is available at http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/1975/coatoc.htm ), I also discovered a few more things.
I’ve copied and pasted the actual code here, so you can read through if you’re interested-I’m fairly sure I’ve interpreted the law correctly.
1: My car was not actually abandoned, according to Section 32-13-1:
"Abandoned motor vehicle" defined; posted notice.
For the purposes of this chapter, an "abandoned motor vehicle" shall mean a motor vehicle as defined in Section 32-8-2:
(4) Which has been abandoned, has an expired license plate, or is inoperable in a parking area on private property maintained by the property owner or his or her agent for use by his or her tenants, residents, or their guests. A vehicle shall be defined as abandoned or inoperable under this subdivision if it has an expired license plate or has remained in the same parking lot for a period of 30 days or more. To bring a vehicle within the provisions of this subdivision, the property owner or his or her agent shall post a dated notice in a conspicuous place on the vehicle in question stating:
a. That the vehicle has been determined to be abandoned or inoperable and will be removed at the direction of the property owner or his or her agent upon the expiration of seven days from the date of the notice.
b. The name and address of the last registered owner of the vehicle in question and the name and address of the property owner or his or her agent and a daytime phone number for the person giving the notice.
A copy of the notice shall be mailed by regular mail to the last known address of the registered owner, if ascertainable, on the date of posting or not later than the next business day. Calculation of the seven-day notice period shall commence on the date of posting of the notice on the vehicle.
Since they never posted a notice on my car, it doesn’t fall “within the provisions of this subdivision”. Since it wasn’t an abandoned vehicle, they had no right to tow it.
2: According to Section 32-13-2, Enterprise had no right to tow the car, since it was not an 'abandoned motor vehicle' as defined in 32-13-1, paragraph 4. Also, when they did tow it, and did NOT notify the proper law enforcement agency, they became liable for gross negligence. This also means that Congo's Towing, as the towing agency employed "at the direction of the owner", does not have a lien against my car.
From Alabama State Code, Section 32-13-2:
Peace officer's responsibility; lien on vehicles removed; removal by property owner, etc.; notice of removal.
(d) The owner or lessee of real property or their agent upon which an abandoned motor vehicle as defined in Section 32-13-1 has become abandoned shall be authorized to cause the abandoned motor vehicle to be removed to a secure place. Any owner or lessee of the real property or their agent who shall cause the abandoned motor vehicle to be removed from their real property shall, within 24 hours of the removal, give written notice to the county or municipal law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the abandoned motor vehicle was situated. Any person or corporation removing the vehicle or other property at the direction of the owner or lessee of real property or their agent in accordance with this section have a lien on the motor vehicle for a reasonable fee for the removal and for storage of the motor vehicle.
(e) The owner or lessee or agent of the real property owner, lien holder, and the towing agent or wrecker service employed shall be liable to the owner or party in possession of the vehicle only for gross negligence under this section.
3: According to Section 32-8-84, Enterprise was required to notify law enforcement that the vehicle was abandoned. Also, because the name and address were known to Enterprise (the car rental side), it was technically not 'unclaimed'. Also, unless Congo's Towing reported the car as unclaimed, they have forfeited any claims or liens against us for storage, and they are guilty of a misdemeanor.
From Alabama State Code, Section 32-8-84:
Reports to department of stolen, converted, recovered and unclaimed vehicles; suspension of registration of stolen or converted vehicles.
(c) An operator of a place of business for garaging, repairing, parking or storing vehicles for the public, in which a vehicle remains unclaimed for a period of 30 days, shall, within 30 days after the expiration of that period, report the vehicle as unclaimed to the department. Such report shall be on a form prescribed by the department.
A vehicle left by its owner whose name and address are known to the operator or his employee is not considered unclaimed. A person who fails to report a vehicle as unclaimed in accordance with this subsection forfeits all claims and liens for its garaging, repairing, parking or storing and is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $100.00.
So. Today I will call Congo’s Towing, ask first of all if they’ve notified the authorities that they towed my car, and then inform them that the car was not considered abandoned according to Alabama State Law, which means they have no hold against it.
Hopefully this will all get resolved quickly, and I can get my car back soon. The only other problem is that if Congo’s has damaged my car (transmission is Jason’s worry) by towing it all around, then they AND Enterprise are liable for the damage. That might be even more of a pain in the ass to get taken care of, but luckily for me, Enterprise is accredited with the Better Business Bureau, which means they’ve agreed to use arbitration to resolve any disputes with customers.
Anyway. That’s the story. Let me know what you think, if you’ve gotten this far.
EDIT/UPDATE: Regional Manager Mike called Jason back this afternoon (actually, Jason called him), and said he was very sorry, that he made sure they would never be towing a car again, said he hoped it wouldn't affect our decision to do business with them, and that he would get the car out of impound, have it brought back to Enterprise, and call us to come pick it up as soon as it was back (before Friday).
I'm honestly astounded that it got resolved this quickly and painlessly, and I'm REALLY impressed to see a manager actually acting like someone who wants to keep customers. Granted, I don't have my car YET, so I'm still a little anxious, but it sounds like we're moving in the right direction.