So... I went to work for Emerald's Towing in Portland, OR. about a month ago. Five days into the job, my daughter (5 wks old at the time) was admitted to the hospital due to life threatening events. I informed the manager, Kevin, and I was allowed to go be with my daughter, who stayed a total of 3 days. The very next day the company told me I still needed to work, forcing me to leave my other 3 children with a babysitter while my wife was @ the hospital w/ baby. During my daughters 3 days in the hospital it was never actually stated, but hinted at several times that if I didn't work, I would be fired.

I worked 8 days straight, 24 hrs a day on call before they gave me one single day off, and I only got 24 hrs exactly! I proceeded to work another week or so, and was given one night off, from 7pm to 7am. This company and the people who run it were sending me from around 6am to 11 or midnight towing cars, often times with no breaks!

After 4 weeks on the job, I was finally awarded 48 hours off! The working conditions are unfair, and illegal. Emerald's Towing does not follow any state or federal wage compensation laws or working laws. They do not allow uninterrupted time for meals, showers, sleep, etc. They pay 25 to 27% of all calls, after they deduct some sort of mileage (makes no sense), so the pay is not what they promise the employees.

They offer no benefits, all pay is under the table, with no taxes taken for state or federal. They literally gave me a hand written check for $439 for my first week of work (keep in mind, on call 24/7) they gave me no pay stub and no explaination of hours or pay. I patiently waited for my second check 2 weeks later, and in the meantime spent almost no time with my children, and when the paycheck arrived, once again, a hand written check, no check number printed on it, no pay stubs, no taxes, and was for $1097 for 13 days of being on call 24/7!

I asked several times what the pay periods were, and nobody was willing to answer my questions. My wife proceeded to call the Manager, Kevin, and just as soon as the conversation started, he was rude and ignorant to her. She asked him why the paycheck was less than it was supposed to be, and received no answers. She told him that she was not "okay" with no pay stub and no taxes, and he refused to finish the conversation. She tried to ask him to look into the matter, and he proceeded to call her a f**king b**ch, told her to "go to h*ll" and hung up on her.

Kevin called back about 5 minutes later, and when my wife answered the phone, he told her to tell me to bring the truck back to the yard, that I was FIRED! and hung up on her again, but not before she told him to "shove the truck up his *ss". I spoke with him briefly afterwards, where he changed the story several times, claiming that he wasn't firing me, and then he was, and back, flopping the story like a fish. My wife called the owner, Gene, and was very calm, collected, and respectful when she tried to explain that it was not okay to fire me for something she said, or for asking questions, that it was not only illegal, but morally wrong. He told her that he would fire me for any reason he wanted to, but that he'd never admit it was because of her!!

I met the manager, Kevin, at the yard to turn in my truck, and we tried to go over my pay, but conveniently, the copies of the invoices I had done were nowhere to be found!! This company is crooked, has a horrible reputation w/ the public and in the "towing world", and does not follow any laws.

The trucks may be brand new and fancy, but they have no DOT numbers, and the drivers have NO medical cards, which is needed to cross state lines into Washington (which they do on a daily basis, I actually live in Washington). The drivers are not drug tested, they are not on police rotation, obviously for a reason. Emerald's towing doesn't offer any benefits, unfair and illegal working conditions, no personal time, not enough time to sleep/rest, they are cocky bastards, poor businessmen, the commission works out to be far less than minimum wage, they do not pay taxes, rumored that they use offroad diesel in the trucks, and they even made me wear uniforms that are 5 times too big with someone elses name on them!! But they're worried about me shaving my face daily!! LOL!!

They require the drivers to wash the trucks daily, but do not give them time to do so, nor pay them for that, and they force the drivers to use thier personal cell phones for business and refuse to pay even a portion of the bill!! They even made me buy my own batteries for the pager!! Not to mention, the women from the dispatch company they use after hours are complete B**ch's!!

I would never advise anybody to use this service, I personally, would rather push my truck home, or walk!! They are unfair, a ripoff, and care nothing about thier employees, thier families, and thier sick babies!! The owner and manager both are immoral, crooked, and should be allowed to do business.

Chris

Vancouver, Washington

U.S.A.

Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on Emerald's Towing, Emeralds Automotive

6 Updates & Rebuttals

David

Beaverton,
Oregon,
U.S.A.

Happy as a clam!

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Wed, October 28, 2009

lol....STILL happy as a clam. :)

Joe

Austin,
Texas,
U.S.A.

LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE OUT OF WORK--YOU DON'T LIKE AN EMPLOYER--LOTS OF PEOPLE TO REPLACE YOU WITH

#3Consumer Comment

Tue, February 24, 2009

NOWADAYS, CONSIDER YOURSELF FORTUNATE TO HAVE A JOB, ANY TYPE OF JOB. YOU KNOW THAT WRECKER DRIVERS HAVE HOURS VERY SIMILAR TO COPS AND HAVE TO BE READY TO ROLL 24/7. YOU KNOW IT IS A LABOR INTENSIVE JOB AND IT REQUIRES A LOT OF HOURS. COMPANIES DO HAVE TO PROVIDE MEDICAL LEAVE TIME FOR EMPLOYEES BUT I AM NOT SURE THIS COMPANY HAD ENOUGH EMPLOYEES TO QUALIFY FOR THE MANDATORY MEDICAL FAMILY LEAVE OR NOT. PROBABLY NOT SINCE IT APPEARS TO BE A MOM AND POP OPERATION. I AM WONDERING WHY SOMEONE IN THIS GUY'S FAMILY COULDN'T HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THE KIDS OR SHIPPED THE KIDS OFF TO A RELATIVE LIKE MY FOLKS WOULD DO WHEN THEY HAD FINANCIAL ISSUES. YOU HAVE TO WORK NO MATTER WHAT. IT'S AN EMPLOYERS' MARKET THESE DAYS AND IF YOU GIVE AN EMPLOYER ANY PROBLEMS, HE WILL BE ABLE TO FIRE YOU WITH NO PROBLEM AND THERE WILL BE AT LEAST 50 PEOPLE HERE IN THIS TOWN, POSSIBLY MORE, STANDING THERE WANTING A CHANCE AT THAT JOB. ANY JOB! AND THEY WILL PROBABLY BE MUCH MORE QUALIFIED THAN YOU AND WILLING TO WORK CHEAPER THAN YOU. BECAUSE THAT IS THE JUNGLE THAT THE WORLD HAS BECOME. IT IS NOT RIGHT. IT IS NOT FAIR BUT NOT SINCE THE 1930S DEPRESSION OR THE STUPID CARTER ADMINISTRATION HAVE I SEEN THINGS THIS BAD... YOU GOT TO DO WHAT THE BOSS SAYS OR YOU WILL GET FIRED AND HE HAS THE RIGHT TO DO IT. AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH BLACKBALLING GOING ON!!! FORMER EMPLOYERS CAN DESTROY YOUR LIFE WITH BAD REFERENCES --REAL OR MADE UP-- AND NOTHING IS BEING DONE ABOUT THAT EITHER. YOU THINK YOU LEFT ON GOOD TERMS AND THEN, YOU FIND YOU CAN NOT GET ANOTHER JOB BECAUSE OF THE REFERENCES FROM HELL YOU GET FROM THE FORMER EMPLOYER OR PERSON THERE WHO DID NOT LIKE YOU WHO JUST HAPPENS TO ANSWER THE PHONE... THE BOSS HAS ALL THE CARDS AND THE WORKER HAS NO RIGHTS. NONE OF THE FEDERAL AGENCIES WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO HELP OUT THE WORKER ARE LISTENING..THEY DON'T CARE... GOOD LUCK FINDING ANOTHER JOB IN THIS ECONOMY FROM HELL.

Alex

Santa Clara,
California,
U.S.A.

Scheisty much? I know so.

#4UPDATE EX-employee responds

Tue, February 24, 2009

Grain of salt? Please. I am an ex-employee that quit because of all the under-handed, slime-bag things they did. They did fire Chris for his wife asking questions...I heard both sides of the story and they admitted to the firing to me. They withheld wages from not only me, but at least one other driver. They got me for $350 and him for $1000. I have counted upwards of a dozen(if not more) state AND federal laws that they broke while I worked there. Off-road diesel? True. Non-payment of taxes? True. Multiple DOT laws broken? True. Multiple labor laws broken? True. Rob and Gene are two of the biggest scumbags I have ever met and would not wish anybody to have to deal with them. Hell, I saw Gene tell a paying customer to meet him out back behind their shop. What does that tell you? Have a great day Rob and Gene, I'll be seeing you two in court soon enough and I WILL win.

Iknowtow

Portland,
Oregon,
U.S.A.

An Interesting Observation

#5Consumer Comment

Wed, February 18, 2009

I find that it is not only interesting but telling that both reports filed on this company have been filed by disgruntled former employees. The words "payback" and "revenge" come to mind when reading these reports and I would suggest taking this information with a grain of salt.

Emeralds Towing Management

Portland,
Oregon,
U.S.A.

David YOUR COMMENT IS COMING FROM HAVING EXPERIENCE IN HAVING TO CLOSE YOUR COMPANIES

#6REBUTTAL Owner of company

Tue, January 20, 2009

DAVID, YOU ARE A PIECE OF WORK< HOW MANY TOWING COMPANIES HAVE YOU OWNED AND CLOSED ? TWO THREE, HELL I LOST COUNT, I KNOW YOU WILL BRING UP YOUR REWARDS FOR BEING A PROFESSIONAL a*s KISSER SO HAVE AT IT, I HAVE MY OPINION ON THIS SITE ( THAT IT IS FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING TO BASE A REAL CLAIM AGAINST A COMPANY ) SO ONCE AGAIN DAVE GET A LILFE AND GET A JOB !!!

David

Beaverton,
Oregon,
U.S.A.

100% agree!

#7UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, January 15, 2009

Yup, as you can read from my own report on here, Emerald's isn't worth a dime in my opinion. I don't see them lasting too much longer, and I have reported them before for the off road diesel violations.

Reports & Rebuttal