Towing Issues: Towing and storage., full coverage insurance, tow driver

Question
I hit a deer on rt 78 in Bridgewater nj and my car was disabled. I parked on the shoulder and the state police came and called a tow co. after I told them that I had no one myself to tow it. The tow driver came and before he hooked it gave me a verbal price of aprx. 200 for towing and storage. He told me to pick it up the next day after 9 am. and to bring the title because there was 2500 dollars of damage and they could take the car if I did not want it. When I got the bill it was for $437.00 and was given a bill for 2 days storage @ 49 per day, yard fees of 49, and adm. fee of 49, and 4 per mile towing for 14 mile. The supervisor then gave me two bills one if I gave him title to the car 437.00 and one without the title. $255. I signed over title to the car and now I feel cheated and feel that some  thing was not legal here and I feel like I was scamed out of my car. what recourse do I have?     Sal

Answer
I am really at a loss here in an answer for your question...

First of all, if you had insurance they might of covered the repairs and towing if you had full coverage insurance...

If you had the bare minimums then you would be responsible for repairs and towing


Now the tow company sounds like it did pull a bit of a bait and switch scam here, but I really can not be sure, as its hard to provide answers when I was not there. But something does not seem right to me.

Now the difference in the tow bills is interesting as nothing adds up right.

They want you to pay a bill after you surrender the title, well that part is usually right and normal, but full price is not always done. Your car even if it has damage has value and as such that is a bargaining chip on your side.

I am not sure what kind of vehicle you had but it sounds very strange to me.  

Now as to what to do, I am not sure what you can do as you did give them the title to the vehicle. But I would talk to the state police and see what they say. Also the insurance commissioner in your state might be able to provide some kind of guidance on what happened and or what should of happened. Also if you do have ANY KIND of insurance talk to them, as they will help you with answers also.


Good luck and I wish that I could provide a better answer for you.