I filed a complaint with Call for Action. They have previously investigated this as they have received so many complaints. Apparently, as it is a PRIVATE LOT,they can legally tow ANY vehicle. The towing company said 300-400 vehicles per week. Keep this in mind if you risk eating there, but make sure you keep your receipt, then you get a FREE tow to a backlot shanty.
I would like to open with the fact that if I could give negative stars, I would. I used to live downtown a few years back and would eat here fairly regularly with fair treatment by the staff.
Today, I had to return a failed cable router and was excited to go eat here. I live on the north side of town and used to remember this as a pretty good place. So I park my car and walk over to comcast to drop off the router and then go eat. By the time I walked through Comcast's doors a tow truck was hooking up my car. I come back out and say, ""Excuse me, I'm having lunch here."" The tow truck guy replies with ""I watched you walk over to Comcast and now your car is on my truck. If you had wanted to eat there, you should have went in the restaurant first, but you didn't. Call the number."" It's 40 degrees outside and I am not allowed to even get my coat as the guy drives off with my car. Nice! So then I go into the restaurant. I speak with a 'manager' Jason who says that I should have come in and told them I was going to be inside in a few minutes so they wouldn't tow my car. I'm sorry, I understand wanting to have parking for your clientele. I would understand more if you had more than five cars in your lot. Apparently I should have parked in Comcast's lot, then driven my car 25 feet from Comcast so that I could go eat lunch. Jason informed me ""We have signs all over and maybe you just couldn't understand what you read."" I was irate. Not only did you take my car, which, on principal is offensive as I was a customer, you additionally insult my intelligence. BRAVO! And BTW...The towing company sits and waits for people to leave China Village's property so they can tow the car. The office at Pinky's towing informed me they have a contract to tow vehicles, but if I had brought a receipt from the restaurant I wouldn't have had to pay the fees. This leads me to believe they have erred in the past, taking vehicles of customers who 'walked into China Village first'. In the 45 minutes that they had my vehicle, I accrued a $30 'storage' fee. And interestingly enough, the restaurant said they called on me, the tow truck driver said he watched me walk in and the tow truck office said they received a phone call to tow my car from China Village. Interestingly enough, he received the call 5 minutes after it was already gone and I was stranded on the street with no coat in the cold. I am fairly young and in decent health. I am not excited about the bill, but had a savings account to be able to pay for it. In this economy, with elderly and ailing customers, how many other people would have been left in this condition with the ability to repair it in an hour? I know many people who would have lost their only car. Simply because they chose to step over a curb before eating lunch. Keep this in mind next time you eat there. I will NEVER go back.
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