Smash repairers holding cars for ransom

[Bill M]

Suncorp reports spike in smash repairers car-napping vehicles and holding owners to ransom.

Insurer Suncorp has seen a 70 per cent jump in so-called car-napping cases, where damaged vehicles are held for ransom until the owner pays exorbitant towing and smash repair bills.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-0...ransom/6914588

[99AUXR]

How does this happen because here legally the tower must have signed permission from the car owner before taking the car. And on top of that any repairs have to be authorised first.

[XG_Falcon]

If you crash your car, it will need to be removed from the public street. A towie turns up and says he can take it to his workshop which is only 5km down the road - if you're still in shock, you'll sign that piece of paper.

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by XG_Falcon

If you crash your car, it will need to be removed from the public street. A towie turns up and says he can take it to his workshop which is only 5km down the road - if you're still in shock, you'll sign that piece of paper.

years ago I was t boned and my car was towed 8k's up the road. They tried to charge me $450 for the tow. I flat out refused to pay it and after many phone calls the bill was settled for a mutually agreed price.

In saying that one of my old flames was in an accident and the tow truck driver took her and her car to the repairers and he helped her sort out the paperwork and then he brought her to my work free of charge so I could take her home, so there are some good ones out there too.

[STINKY NINJA]

The dogs doing this are even worse than speed camera operators, dodgy towies prey on people in a difficult situation when they know their brain isn't functioning correctly,possibly hurt,in shock,they swoop in like starving vultures and they are the scum of the earth.

[b0son]

I'd pay the fee to get my car back if there was no alternative. I would then extract at least that by way of damage to the tow truck.

[Itsme]

This is why I leave it to my insurer to organise these matters, RACV

[xisled]

Originally Posted by trublu

This is why I leave it to my insurer to organise these matters, RACV

The tow truck drivers get in before the insurance companies as your insurance company is unable to arrange all tows.

If you have an accident in the metro area of Melbourne and your still within 2 ks of the accident scene your insurance will not organise the tow, it will all be done by towing allocations.

https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traf...ed-a-tow-truck

I have seen this happen a lot. Also if you have an accident and you use one of these solicitors and decide you want to lodge a claim with your insurance company later on, you may be hit with the legal fees and costs.

[WoodyAU]

I must have been lucky! About 13yrs ago I fell asleep and hit another car head on at 60kmh. I was in shock and bleeding from where the steering wheel had smashed my glasses into my face. The towie who turned up (and this was Wynnum in Brisbane where the towies were known to be ratbags) said " have you got full comp?" I said yes and he said "sign here". He loaded the car and cleaned the road. I was in no state to take control of the situation, so was grateful to him. Maybe it's more of a problem if there's no insurance company to gouge.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

This has been going on since Adam was a boy, not really news or anything new, as a matter of fact in the 80's it used to be a lot worse because they would send the 'boys' round to sort you out if you did not pay up.

Just have full comprehensive insurance and none of it will be your problem, you don't even have to talk to these guys, that's what insurance is for.

[Kingsley]

You also have the option of leaving the car where it is and organising your own tow if the car can be moved out of the way. Theres been a few crashed cars around the Maitland area sitting on the side of the road waiting to be moved. One or two have been there for a couple of weeks wrapped in police tape!!

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

This has been going on since Adam was a boy, not really news or anything new, as a matter of fact in the 80's it used to be a lot worse because they would send the 'boys' round to sort you out if you did not pay up.

Just have full comprehensive insurance and none of it will be your problem, you don't even have to talk to these guys, that's what insurance is for.

If you read the article it says there has been a spike or increase in these situations occurring so one can safely assume it is news and more people can be aware it is a growing problem.

[Davehoos]

maitland cars.
there is a roster for police call outs. you see the different green label. the tape is to stop people ringing 000. and who attended.

police only have to attend certian crashes these days, Tow trucks come only if there is safety concerns. After that the councils place impound notice and removals are done at council cost like dumped cars. regoed cars may not removed.

the recent tow jobs that ive been to with the RFS the tow trucks have told me that it was difficult to get payment as very few are insured and limit to how many they could hold in storage to obtain payment due to low scrap prices.

I towed a pajero to the edge of the road recently. during the storms work had been sued for towing vehicles to clear roads.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by xisled

The tow truck drivers get in before the insurance companies as your insurance company is unable to arrange all tows.

If you have an accident in the metro area of Melbourne and your still within 2 ks of the accident scene your insurance will not organise the tow, it will all be done by towing allocations.

https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traf...ed-a-tow-truck

I have seen this happen a lot. Also if you have an accident and you use one of these solicitors and decide you want to lodge a claim with your insurance company later on, you may be hit with the legal fees and costs.

The tow trucks provided to clear the scene of accident will be an accredited tow truck by drivers identification & registration which in most cases will be called in by police who attends the accident, this only applies to city/suburb areas only, If any other tow truck turns up tell them to P*** off if you wish to.
Country areas you must ring your insurer or triple 000 to select towing services.
What ever tow truck you get you have the right to tell the driver what address you want the vehicle delivered to, have it written on the consent form before signed & retain a copy before car is towed.

Your vehicle cannot be towed until you have signed an Authority to Tow [PDF 204Kb]. The Authority to Tow sets out the towing and salvage services to be provided and the costs associated with these services. If you are unable to sign the Authority to Tow, a police or VicRoads officer may sign the form on your behalf.

[XG_Falcon]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

years ago I was t boned and my car was towed 8k's up the road. They tried to charge me $450 for the tow. I flat out refused to pay it and after many phone calls the bill was settled for a mutually agreed price.

In saying that one of my old flames was in an accident and the tow truck driver took her and her car to the repairers and he helped her sort out the paperwork and then he brought her to my work free of charge so I could take her home, so there are some good ones out there too.

When I was 19 I got into a minor fender bender which resulted in a $500 bill for about 2.5kms worth of towing. The truck rocked up while the police were still talking to us and he made me feel like I had no option but to sign the paper. I'm sure they don't all operate like this but it's just my personal experience.

[Blue Shadow]

Just be insured and they will sort it out,

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by Bill M

If you read the article it says there has been a spike or increase in these situations occurring so one can safely assume it is news and more people can be aware it is a growing problem.

Thats probably because people in general are getting dumber, anyone that is stupid enough to sign any of this stuff on the side of the road deserves what they get. And they feed into peoples greed, like signing up the so called 'victims' with third party insurance promising her BS.

Then there is the wording a 50-60% increase, so what does that mean?? It could mean they had 2 cases before and now they have 3. I mean if you have one case a month and now you have two, you have a 100% increase. So you could report a massive spike with these incidents doubling in the last month.

[cram_it_frog]

sadly this has been going on for many years and it will keep going

I was in a accident and when I went to get the stuff out of my car all my spanners and tools are missing this was 30 years ago

I saw my tool box on the tow truck he said it was his and if I touched it I would regret it

so I rang the police they came and I explained they were mine and my name is on the tools now they know my name was Alan and I had marked most of the tools with my name

The tow truck guy said he has same name but I got him my name is Allein a Galic way of spelling it he had to hand the tools over , I was lucky they know the law and use that to there advantage most of the times

But many are decent hard working but there is a lot of them who are just rip off merchants and should be kicked out of the industry

[XG_Falcon]

Originally Posted by Blue Shadow

Just be insured and they will sort it out,

I was but as a student working with only a part-time job I couldn't afford full comprehensive and since the collision was admittedly my fault, the tow wasn't covered...

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

Thats probably because people in general are getting dumber, anyone that is stupid enough to sign any of this stuff on the side of the road deserves what they get. And they feed into peoples greed, like signing up the so called 'victims' with third party insurance promising her BS.

Then there is the wording a 50-60% increase, so what does that mean?? It could mean they had 2 cases before and now they have 3. I mean if you have one case a month and now you have two, you have a 100% increase. So you could report a massive spike with these incidents doubling in the last month.

Stupid is indeed relative, thank you for your informed comments.

[Pis-ton broke]

can you imagine how many poor women have been ripped off by these a-holes

[devilcv8]

Originally Posted by trublu

Country areas you must ring your insurer or triple 000 to select towing services..

Never ever ring 000 to select towing services. 000 is for emergencies only....

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by devilcv8

Never ever ring 000 to select towing services. 000 is for emergencies only....

Read the article in this link, contradicts what you say about ringing 000, mind you I was surprised myself when reading it.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traf...ed-a-tow-truck

Cheers.

[Dave3911]

Originally Posted by trublu

Read the article in this link, contradicts what you say about ringing 000, mind you I was surprised myself when reading it.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traf...ed-a-tow-truck

Cheers.

I work for 000 (ESTA) in Victoria. I'll flag the vicroads website up the chain for someone to have a chat with them tomorrow. Something has been lost in translation here. Happy to confirm that if you ring 000 for the purposes of organising a tow only, with no injuries, traffic hazards, drunk drivers, uncooperative third parties etc. You won't get a response. This has been standard practice statewide for years.

[Davehoos]

had a chat a few weeks ago with an inlaw that supervisor for insurance call
center.

she was documenting cases for comprehensive insurance cases, and passing to corporate legal. She was providing hire cars [Like Taxi] for customers with the cars still in workshops. The tone of the discussion was to scare the dodgey operators and lower repair hassel cost.

[BadMax]

To be fair, this has been going on for many years. But in the case of Victoria, you must ring towing allocation and they will arrange the tow. If you want the car towed to your house, be prepared to cough up, if you want it to your repairer you or they will have to cough up.

Now, this has been a bit of a ploy on Suncorps behalf also. How many of you know Suncorp is a bank? Not only will they loan you the money to buy a car, they will also take your money for insurance and they will also repair it as they either own or have heavily invested in smash repair facilities.

Why have they done that? Cut costs, they don't care about you or your car, they want it done well below market rates so they can continue to make huge returns for investors.

You want choice of repairer? DO NOT pretty much ANY Suncorp brand! You're far better off with Allianz even RACV or QBE.

How many of you have read you PDS?

[Express]

Originally Posted by BadMax

How many of you have read you PDS?

I do because I care about my cars.

It’s also the reason I don’t insure with all those cheapie companies that are now starting to take over the market so I can still have some input in what is going on.

[devilcv8]

Originally Posted by trublu

Read the article in this link, contradicts what you say about ringing 000, mind you I was surprised myself when reading it.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traf...ed-a-tow-truck

Cheers.

Just because you read it on a state based article doesn't make it true.
http://www.triplezero.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
This link however is the national website for 000. No where I can find does it say ordering a tow truck is acceptable.
I know which one I believe, after all they don't answer police fire ambulance or tow truck.
Edit: didn't see the next post. Dave has answered beautifully.

[OLDFORDNUT]

This is the reason i always have my favorite Towies number in my phone,even if your car has to be removed from accident scene you can choose your own towie thats not rostered on ,

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by BadMax

Suncorp ... they will also repair it as they either own or have heavily invested in smash repair facilities.

That's probably because they get routed on 'insured' repair costs when done by independent repairers.