Tow Truck woes!
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Just had a customer come in complaining about a tow truck tying to steer him to a shop that pay’s about 15-20% of repair bills for tow truck referrals. He also tried to get him into a rental that pays referral fee’s too. The truck driver kept pushing for him to bring it their and the owner wisely refused. The driver then called our shop and said he was referring a customer to our shop and then say’s he heard we pay points, we informed him he heard wrong. He then called the customer again trying to persuade him (he did talk the guy into bringing it into his pound as it was late at night). I can’t help but wonder how many jobs decent shops loose to this kinda thing.
If the driver succeeded he would have made $650 for the tow & then about another $1000 for the referral! This is insane!!! My area has become overpopulated with bandits since surrounding regions capped the tow bills at $200, all the crooks are in my area now!!!!
How does the shop make any money? There isn’t alot of room for profit these days> That is crazy! I have not heard about this in my area.
Needless to say they get creative with the repair, charge replace and just repair…charge oem, put on lkq or aftermarket…..neglect structural / hidden damage….you name it, they do it. It’s the garbage shops involved, some are actually paying as high as 30% !!!!!!
This is really a huge topic/issue…it makes the industry look really bad. I thought about giving a small commission for referrals
which is no big deal, really. But there is fine line… There are MANY shops “greasing” field appraisers too…There is a shop across the street from me working on high-end cars and they seem to have a steady flow of them.
However, i completely disagree with their repairs (things you might do for a used car lot dealer). I even thought about
approaching a few of the owners but it’s not a line to cross.I’m glad the customer made the right choice!
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