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21st Century Towing Friend's Towing, Relentless Recovery I would never do business with 21st Century Towing Portland, Oregon
Yes, it is I...the Grim Tower, who
after several years of working in the towing industry has decided to
hang up my tow life forever. Now, this is the most difficult post to
place here, and the gods know that in a million years I never thought
I'd be posting about someone that once considered a friend. With that
being said, here is my final towing company post I will place on this
site. Once posted, I will NOT return to post about any responses.
21st Century Towing, that
also works with the names Friend's Towing and Relentless Recovery is
just yet another of the many towing companies that has some good
employees in place, but has an owner that acts like a tyrant and
slave master. It's funny how the wealthy will sometimes try and short
and keep as much money away from others than themselves.
A bit of background...I was employed as
a driver for 21st Century Towing back in Oct of 2009 after
I had left the road as an OTR truck driver so I could spend more time
with my family. About January of 2010, I was given the title of SW
Operations Manager and ran the newly opened SW division of the
company. Now, 21st Century is mainly a PPI (impound)
company that tows vehicles that improperly or illegally parked. In
Portland though, they also have 3 City police contracts, but that is
in Portland. The SW division did not do tows for police.
After a year and a half of doing my my
job, working countless hours over and beyond just to make a check to
take care of my family, I was terminated for a mis-understanding.
Personally I believe it was because I think he's having money issues
and wanted to get rid of the EXTRA $6,000.00 per year that I was paid
to manage the SW division. Why do I say this? Simple...on this last
Mother's Day, I was on routine patrol looking for illegally or
improperly parked cars to impound, when I came across a car at one of
their properties they patrol for (Brightwaters at Redhawk) in Tigard.
No one was around, no flashers, etc. The hood on the car was cold, so
I took pictures and hooked up the car. When I was getting ready to
depart with car in tow, the owner and her family came out. They were
upset of course but didn't have the $160.00 that 21st
Century Towing charges for a drop fee. As it was Mother's Day,
I gave them a huge break and only charged them $40.00. Now, I didn't
have an invoice with me as I had left them at home, and they weren't
doing a credit card transaction (I had those). I told them I couldn't
give them an invoice and they were fine with that.
A few days later, the owner of 21st
Century Towing, Clark, called and woke me up out of a sleep (I had
been out on patrol most of the night), and asked about the woman and
the $40.00. I told him that I hadn't dropped the money yet (sometimes
it would be a week or more as I was in SW and the main office was in
N. Portland). I told him about what happened and he asked about the
invoice. I told him I didn't write one for it but that I was just
going to give it to him when I saw him. He seemed irritated but hung
up. A few days later, he called me in to his office (broken down old
house, though not where he lives of course) and fired me. I offered
to give him the $40 right there and then and he said, don't bother!
That was kind of weird, but he does get into weird moods and even has
quite the angry temper when he's mad. He was calm with me, even
looked like he felt guilty about it. I asked him if he would not
challenge my unemployment claim while I was looking for a job. He
told me it wasn't even an issue.
Ok, a couple weeks go by and
unemployment calls to tell me that Clark has challenged the claim and
told them I was fired for THEFT! What a crock! As a manager for the
company I have held on to money for longer periods of time, have used
company money for petty cash for things needed at the SW lot, etc.
I've even used money to pay a personal bill like prescriptions, but
always put it back when my wife earned tips, etc. This was known by
him and never questioned for a year and a half!
That man's word is garbage and
worthless. Well, finally I got a job that requires a lot of travel
and time away from my family as an OTR truck driver again. We really
could have used that couple of weeks of unemployment as it was about
3 and a half weeks before I got hired with the new job. We almost got
evicted! That lying piece of crap called Clark of 21st
Century Towing is absurd. I still think that I was fired because he
was saving $6,000.00 a year extra that he didn't have to pay me
anymore.
His wife Judy is almost as bad. In this
industry, you have to drive around hundreds of miles per day/night
looking for cars to tows. It wasn't un-common for me to spend 17-19
hours out on patrol, get up early in the morning to go down to the
lot and do a vehicle release, etc. I also had a great relationship
with the clients in my division, whom were sad to see me go. I STILL
get calls from them wishing I was there as 21st Century
Towing isn't doing the great job that I was. To them, all I can do is
recommend a good company to switch to and that is Retriever Towing.
They are large and are always prompt and professional.
Oh yes, back to Judy....when I was
having to get draws just to pay my bills, she went off on me and told
me that if I wasn't making enough money that I shouldn't take ANY
days off! Oh, and BTW, my schedule consisted of working for TWO
straight weeks, available 24 hrs AND patrolling most of those hours,
then bringing the truck down to the main office and taking 2-3 days
off. How dare she! Can you say assistant slave master?
Now, I've worked for, and managed other
towing companies for owners that I considered friends before. They
were pretty humble and modest about their wealth. Even my friend that
owns one of the largest towing companies in the country never
flaunted his wealth to his employees. What do Clark and Judy
do? They park their expensive vehicles, like the two Mercedes (one a
large SUV) in front of the office. Clark sometimes shows off his
over-size International truck, they store their boat, ATV's, etc in
storage shed there, but....they will pay as little as they have to to
their employees. The one exception to this is the company Christmas
party. They buy food, give decent bonuses and have a raffle with some
cool gifts. Yes, this is a last minute write-off fro them, but I
think it makes them feel better about themselves for the way they
treat their employees.
I sincerely regret having wasted a year
and a half of my time with those two losers. I feel bad for the
employees who are there, even the salaried ones get run into the
ground. These two in my opinion are pathetic and don't deserve to
have a towing company. Oh, one last thing to help people not fall
victim to their drivers. If you have a 21st Century Towing
driver demand a drop fee, here is what you do. First, take a photo of
HOW their truck is hooked up to your car. Often, the drivers will
HOPE that you don't know the towing laws that exist. If they are not
FULLY hooked up to your car, going IN TOW when you come out, they
have to drop it FREE. That means if your car is front wheel drive and
they are hooked to the back only, WITHOUT the front tires on DOLLIES,
then it gets dropped FREE. your car is REAR wheel drive and they are
hooked to the front only WITHOUT dollies and its in gear or an
automatic, it gets dropped FREE. All Wheel Drive? ALL wheels have to
be OFF the ground, or its FREE. Here is another thing to look for
STRAPS! Ok, the car is off the ground, but are the STRAPS attached to
the tires OR did they just LIFT it up and demand a DROP FEE? All of
these scenarios require them to DROP YOUR CAR FREE! That photo you
take is worth its weight in gold! If this happens in the City of
Portland, contatct Marion Gaylord, the City Tow Coordinator. You will
get your money back. Elsewhere in Oregon, contact the Oregon Attorney
General's office. You'll get your money back and there is a GOOD
chance 21st Century Towing will get fined. They hope most people don't know about the laws so they can get a bunch of drop fees. So what if they have to give back a few here and there or get a fine or two? It's a numbers game.
Good luck to all....