Yesterday I was irritated about having my car towed but still hoping that once everyone understood the misunderstanding, that my money would be refunded. As such, I initially refrained from mentioning the names of either the teashop, Tea Thyme and Lavender, or the towing company, Retriever Towing.
If you know of anyone in the car towing industry or is a self employed truck driver, you could look into Recovery Truck Insurance to help you find the best quotes on the market and to make sure you and your truck are covered.
As you can see, I have moved past that point after our conversations today.
After I spoke with Claire, one of the owners of Tea Thyme and Lavender, I waited to hear back from “Chuck” who she said was looking at my request as we spoke. Just so it’s clear who we are talking about, here are two articles about Retriever Towing from two years ago.
Charles White, the manager of Retriever Towing wrote to me at 2:31 pm and said:
Dear Mary,
Thank you very much for being honest about your intentions. Most people aren’t! I most certainly do not need to see a receipt as I believe your entire story here. However, you are only a customer at the time you are soliciting the business establishment. You can not leave your vehicle whether the business is open or closed. Once your business is conducted then you must leave.
You can not leave come back and then say you were a customer. You were not a customer at the time your vehicle was towed. You were only a customer when you were there. You can’t have it both ways. No one, not even the owner would know who you are or where you had gone.
My apologies but considering the facts, I respectfully deny your request!
Respectfully,
Charles White
I called back to Tea Thyme and Lavender and asked if Claire had time to talk. She said that she didn’t as she had a lot of customers in front of her at the moment. I said I understood and that we could talk later, but that I was also a customer and that I was very upset. She said that she didn’t know what to tell me because I was no longer a customer once I’d left the shop and that she thought it was very “unfair” of me to think that my car being towed was anything she should be involved in. In her opinion it was between me and the towing company. Then she said, “I’m hanging up on you now,” and did.
So, I wrote back to Retriever Towing at 7:17pm.
Dear Mr. White,
Thank you for your reply. May I ask you to reconsider your response? There is nothing posted in the parking lot of Tea Thyme and Lavender to indicates a time limit on how long one is a customer. The definition of customer is “a person who purchases goods or services from another.”
The fact that my car remained there after the shop was shut does not change the fact that I was a customer and had every reason to believe that I had the right to park there the night your company towed my car.
The shop confirms that your company patrols looking for cars and has discretion over how the compensation is handled in this matter. While I understand that towing cars is how your company makes money and that my unhappiness about the situation is not important to you, I would, again, like to ask you to reconsider your position.
Yours,
Mary
At 7:30 Mr. White wrote back:
Mary,
My answer is final!
Regards,
Charles White
Manager
At 7:47pm I wrote back.
Dear Mr. White,
That is unfortunate. You won’t even consider dropping the storage and after hours charges?
Since your driver was onsite when I arrived — he had not even had time to lock the gate — meeting me added no extra inconvenience.
Yours,
Mary
I do not truly expect an answer from “The Impound Experts!” Meanwhile, I have made myself familiar with the current laws in Oregon about towing. Ironically, Tea Thyme and Lavender has a picture of me on their Facebook page as a happy customer. Note: I am not happy.
Edited to add: I just want to be clear that all I really want is to not have to pay $252. Retriever Towing is the one that took my car and demanded a fee. I’m willing to believe that Tea Thyme’s response to my call was a lapse in judgment to a situation that surprised her.
Retriever, on the other hand, has a policy of “no negotiation on fees” according to their answering service.
This is the sort of situation where I would publicly announce that I’m no longer a customer. “I’m hanging up on you now” pretty much says “I don’t want your business.”
Sadly, it sounds like a nice place. At which I, personally, even if invited while in Oregon, will never, ever spend money. Nor visit, if I can help it.
I was shocked. After the lovely time we’d had this was not the response I expected.
Sorry to hear about all this. It is obvious they troll lots looking for cars in the lot minutes after a place closes just to get extra fees. I hope you have success in overturning this.
Now, I can understand how the lady at the tea shop was busy and may not even be able to do anything to help, but…wow…you’d think she’d at least pretend like she cared. That is not the way to treat customers. If I knew people in Portland I’d make sure to tell them to stay away from there.
Again, I hope you can get this resolved in some way.
Thanks for the information. I plan to visit Portland next year, and I’ll be sure not to give them my business, and be extra careful where I park.
If you paid with your credit card, which I think you said you did, consider disputing the charge.
I used my debit card and the charges are still pending. I have to wait for it to drop out of pending status before I can do anything else.
Ridiculous! People do this sort of thing all the time. Leaving their cars for a a bit in a business lot to pop over somewhere else. It sounds to me like the towing company just wanted fees and the tea shop just wanted to pawn it off and not deal with it. What a crock!
You should threaten to report them to the Better Business Bureau. Or, in fact do it and let them know that you did. Nothing makes a company squirm like dealing with accredited third parties.
http://www.bbb.org/us/
I did, in fact, report them to the Better Business Bureau.
They got a little note from me. While the chances I might patronize them were small, they did exist prior to this. Now they can be certain I won’t be a member of their client pool at all. There is no excuse for poor customer service. Your money pays their bills – you deserve at least as much consideration as it takes to hear your concerns politely and promptly. It’s nothing short of sheer stupidity to alienate someone who has already spent money in one’s establishment.
Wow. So glad we have jerks out there ready & willing to make a buck. When I think of the time a writer has to spend just *making* $252, I want to punch them. Way to spread the Christmas cheer, guys. Thanks for giving America such a good name.
Why do I believe that people are inherently good again?
I left a yelp review of the place pointing to this post. I hope you don’t mind.
Not a bit!
Ugh! This is the opposite of customer service. The point of making your parking for customers only is so that you can *have parking for your customers,* yes?
This is the letter of the rule, not the spirit of it.
$252 is a high price for a Regency tea!
It was actually $303.94, since I also had their $9 teatime and bought $42.94 of antiques.
I would return the antiques, under the premise that the tea shop is not interested in having you as a customer. Ever. Again.
Nothing causes negotiations better than losing money.
Dr. Phil
Mary,
I would not be so easy on the tea shop. Technically, they “had” your vehicle towed. The towing company patrols that lot on contract with them, and they could insist the company reverse the charges for you quite easily. It is unacceptable that after you patronized their establishment, they had your car towed.
I hope you get satisfaction in this matter. Don’t give up. Your car was not parked illegally. Grrr.
Catherine
Actually they can’t, we have a similar policy where I work because we have a lot of problems with a bar near by and people parking there after hours and then causing damage from drunk driving. The towing company is paid by the business, but once the car is gone there is nothing the business can do about it anymore.
I just want to add that it is boggling that the tea shop isn’t working with you, because they must know it’s a guaranteed loss of at least one customer, probably more. Why is that parking lot real estate so much more important than retaining customers?
Ironically, Tea Thyme and Lavender has a picture of me on their Facebook page as a happy customer.
I definitely think you should leverage that. Maybe a sharply worded lawyer letter.
And leverage your clout. (Really, Mary, you have it.) Ever since Jeff Jarvis v. Dell, I’ve had high expectations for what a social networking megaphone can accomplish.
Unleash the full ginger orneriness I’m sure you have lurking within.
And in case they should delete the evidence…
In this photo: Mary Robinette Kowal (photos)
Added December 16
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Mary Robinette Kowal Lovely shop. Nice tea.
I was smiling until you had my car towed. Even that was something that could have turned into a funny story.
2 hours ago ·
I think you were as polite as possible in your reply to the photo on Facebook. I would’ve been much more vicious.
Dr. Phil
I could almost side with the tea shop IF it had been during business hours and you had left your car there for the whole day, denying other customers a place to park. But if I’m understanding this, this was after the shop had closed. It’s not as if you planned to park there all night on a regular basis. And her hanging up on you is the final straw. Wow. Call them up and demand they remove your picture from their Web site that claims you’re a ‘happy customer’.
Yeah, it was really the hangup that pushed me over the edge although she at least announced that she was going to do it.
Here via Cherie Priest. You poor thing, that kind of nonsense drives me nuts. I’m glad I ran across this though, because I have a few tea-fancying friends in the area who could not afford such a charge.
I would second the BBB, and if you voted for or bothered with any city council shenanigery recently, you might leave a comment alerting the various civic-minded individuals on a city councilman’s Facebook page about horrible towing companies. Not sure what you can do to get out of 252$, though.
I don’t know how it works with debit cards, but with my American express card one can dispute a charge and refuse to pay it, which is exactly what I would do.
I’m with you, Mary.
Though I once had a rousing argument with a store owner who took the same line as the towing operator did with you. The gist of his point was that his limited parking spaces were a courtesy extended to patrons who were bringing him business that day. Which would be hampered if his first customers of the day abandoned their cars for the remainder of the store’s hours. When I asked exactly what instance in time did he or the towing company expect to know when a person was not forthcoming with any more business that particular day and therefore in need of relocating their vehicle, he shrugged it off as a discretionary item for the towing company. I had no idea tow-truck drivers were such good mind readers, which I told the owner, right before I informed him he wouldn’t have to worry about my car being parked in his lot ever again.
Take no prisoners!
I think the first article you posted explains exactly what is happening. “…the driver, who works on commission…” Yeah.
I’m not worried. You are your mother’s daughter after all.
I’d also seriously consider returning the antiques. As someone who once left his truck on the dealership lot for two months to protest an improper repair charge, let your conscience be your guide.
This has gone through my head as well although I was happy to have both when I bought them.
You’d think people would learn their lesson – don’t mess with a Bard. They have the voice and the audience to make themselves heard and the wrongs done to them public in a way that SHOULD give the original perpetrators pause.
There was a time when Kings trembled at the power of a Bard.
Your coffee shop lady and the towing company boss should, I think, be reminded of this fact…
Good luck, Mary. Sadly, this sounds like this was mostly the towing company doing business as usual, although the tea shop clearly doesn’t care enough to exert any negotiating power on your behalf. Money is pretty much the only language most businesses speak, so pretty much the only thing you can do is return the antiques (and trust to karma that you’ll find better replacement ones in the future), and when you’re there, promise to never frequent their establishment again as well as warn friends away… which you’re already doing. Sounds like they’ll only do anything about the situation if they’re forced to.
I can safely say that I will never be a patron of Tea Thyme and Lavender, although the chances I was ever going to visit a tea shop in Portland were slim. As Brett said above, however, my chances are now reduced from slim to zero.
It was actually a visit to pick up my towed car that made me appreciate my own job. The young woman behind the gate was so hardened, I realized she only dealt with frustrated, irate people all day long, every day. I am impressed that you got the initial courtesies that you did… though, of course, they are meaningless without the refund… very much the towing company’s point. In the letter of the law they are correct, but certainly not in the spirit. The woman I argued with at the towing place last time (I had parked for 10 minutes in the empty lot of a closed business, in no way denying their customers parking, as they were not open for business), explained that the lot was private property, and likened my parking there to someone breaking into my house to sleep on my bed during the day “since I wasn’t using it”. The business owner, who I later spoke to, said that the towing company was contracted by the building’s owner, and that he had no power to influence them at all. I have been towed twice, and both counted as some of the most enraging and frustrating experiences of my life. I love my job! Good luck.
I’d also file a complaint with the BBB against the tea shop.
Mary-
Do you have Chuck’s e-mail address? My aunt and uncle took us to Pastini tonight and both our vehicles were towed at 7:30pm from in front of Bull Run Distillery-there are no signs saying no parking or Retriever except on the property line adjoining the lot for a yoga place. We each got charged $210 while our kids waited in the restaurant with their aunt. Thank you!
What a pain. When I called to complain, they sent me to a complaint form. There are two possible emails for Mr. White Chuck@retrievertowing.com or charles@retrievertowing.com. He is not replying to me so I’m not sure if they actually work at this point.
If you haven’t already, you might ask your credit card company to stop payment on the card. And here is the link to the Oregon Better Business Bureau.
http://alaskaoregonwesternwashington.bbb.org/
I’m not a lawyer so this doesn’t constitute legal advice, and so forth BUT I’ve been reading the law on towing recently and just want to draw your attention to this bit of Oregon State Law which says
Good luck.