On January 18, 2009, I parked my semi tractor & trailer WITH permission of the owner and the Lewisville Police at 2200 S. Hwy 121 in Lewisville, Texas. I was visiting my brother, who lived just a few blocks away. When I went back to check my truck less than 12 hours after I had parked it, it was gone, along with two others that had been parked beside mine.
After alot of phone calls, I was directed to Southwest Towing of Dallas, Texas. No one would answer the phone, so we drove down there. Up until now, I thought my truck was possibly stolen. Sure enough, my truck & trailer was in their impound lot, along with the other two trucks and trailers.
I was told that it had been parked illegally on the Albertson lot, my truck was not parked on the Albertson lot, but the CCA lot right next to that lot. My truck had been towed illegally. To make matters worse they wouldn't acknowledge this. After not getting anywhere with the weekend employee working and not being able to get a supervisor, I had to pay $874.00 to bail my truck and trailer out.
Upon checking, I found they not only towed my truck & trailer illegally, they towed it wrong. With a 18 wheeler, you have to disengage the power divider that drives the truck, in order to do that, it takes hours and you have to get inside of my truck to do it. I had to take my truck to the local Peterbilt dealership and have it inspected to see if they had done any damage.
Luckily, as far as we can tell, none was done. This could of been major, major damage and even bigger bill. I drive truck for a living and this was a major hit for me. I called some other towing companies and they, as well as Peterbilt, told me that it was towed wrong and could of caused considerable damage to the truck and the price that I was charged for towing was three times what it should of been. They said it is one flat rate fee, not every few hours, the fee goes up as I was told at Southwest.
Southwest is a major scam and should not be able to be in business. Their business is to rip off anyone that they can and a big truck and trailer is dollar signs to them and quick and big cash, they know that someone will come to claim them. They need to be taken out of business, they are crooks.
Duane ****
Crestline, Ohio
U.S.A.