Towing Issues: Towing damage, accent gsi, hyundai accent

Question
QUESTION: I recently had a tow and shortly after recieving my car from my mechanic i realized that there was damage on the front driver side of my vechile (2001 Hyundai accent GSI). I believe this was caused by the tow, and as such called the company up... They tried to give me excuses, got the original guy to use his tow to show how it couldn't have possibly been him.. However I still believe that he could have caused it...  

I want to know how this damage could have occured... its a dent on the driver side, near the hood with a krease which showed rust on it.. and a chip of paint came off..

my flat was on the right hand side... and that side wasn't damaged.. it was up on its front wheels... also before I even got there it was on the tow...

does anyone know if i have any recourse? what can i do to get compensation? thanks!

Paul

ANSWER: let me get this straight...

(this is what I get from the question here)


You had a flat tire on the right front side. Correct ?

You called for a tow truck to take the vehicle to a shop, and when you got to the place where you car was disabled it was already hooked up and in the air.


Now you did not see damage there at that time, and give the driver the keys (I assume) and then it went down the road to the repair shop...

Now you get to the repair shop and pick up your vehicle and find a dent on the drivers side of the vehicle with a crease and rust on it...

How long was the vehicle at the repair shop and what did they do ???

Rust takes anywhere from 2 days to a week or more to start forming in a manner which is visible.

Then you went back to the tow company and complained and they even hooked up the vehicle again and showed you that nothing from the truck even came close to the vehicle at the point it was damaged.


I am having a hard time "VISUALIZING" where the damage is on the vehicle and as such it makes it hard to answer correctly.

And if you even watched them hook the vehicle up, and seen it on the tow truck when you had the disablement, you still believe that the tow truck did the damage.  

I have a question, is there any chance that the repair shop might of done it with a tool box, jacks or jack handles, hoists, other vehicles doors or other people parking vehicles at the repair shop ????


Or is it never the repair shop but always the tow truck who charges for the services that is blamed...

Now I have to ask also, if you had a flat tire as the original problem, where is the spare tire and why was it not installed... Or is this one of those cars with the huge stereo systems which either require the spare to be removed for room or covers the spare with stereo equipment which can not be removed to get at the spare tire ???


Not that I am defending the tow company, but as a working tow truck driver and manager, I would have to look at all this information here and see what each answer is in order to help determine what happened and who is responsible.

But it seems to me that the tow company, by rehooking the vehicle in front of you and showing you that it could not be their truck at all causing the damage, kind of takes the blame off them...

But if you really feel that they are still at fault and you want the tow company to repair it, I think the only way that you have left is the small claims court route, but remember that you can lose there if you do not "present evidence which proves beyond a shadow of doubt" that the tow company caused the damage...

If you go that route, be advised that it can turn out that they are not at fault and you lose and have to pay costs to the tow company, or worse  yet, the judge might say go after the repair shop.


I hope this helps, if not then feel free to contact me again.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Ok so here are the details I missed... and a picture of the damage is posted here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26993758@N07/

do you know how this damage could have occuredÉ

To be exact the tow was required on sunday evening around 10pm at night... The flat occured on a relatively busy highway... i did have a spare.. however the fender around the wheel well was broken and thats what acctually tore up my tire and gave me the resulting flat...



I walked several Kilometers to a payphone to make a call for the tow.. by the time i got back  to the highway where it happened (my parent picked me up) the tow truck driver already had my car up on the tow truck, it was not a flat bed setup.. it rolled on the back tires...



The flat was on the front passenger side... and where the damage was on the driver side... When I got there I never went around to the side where the damage was because it was close to oncoming traffic.



From here my car was taken to the mechanic and parked in the parking lot in front of my mechanic and retrieved on Tuesday as Monday was a holiday here. I think it was safe there because if anyone was to damage the vehicle in that property it would have been noticed as there is a gas station there and busy main road. As well the damage shows like it could have only been done by something specific.



It is hard to describe the dent without a picture... It is a couple inches up from the left head light...and is on the hood and the left side panel. The hood was dented in and had a groove where a line was marked into it (note: I previously said rust... there was no rust...) it looked like what would happen when when something rusty and metalic rubed up against it.. however it was a very straight line several inches long... then on the left panel a chip of paint was taken off about a inch circular. When i actually opened the hood for the first time it made a popping noise and was harder to lift then usual. there was no transfer of paint like what would happen if a car hit it... it was in a place that would either would have to be hit from above.. (if that makes sense)



In follow up I called the tow company... and the manager compared the height of the damage to the part of the vechile which I believe may have caused the damage.. I wasn't satisfied because it was only a several inches off.. and he didn't even know which vechile it was from his fleet at that point.. I still had questions...

so then the manager got me to meet up with the actual guy that towed the vechile... he showed me how it couldn't have possibly have happened. Again i wasn't satisfied, infact the bar on the back of the vechile came very close to the height in which the damage occured.. and who is to say that it was in the towing that it occured but afterwards when he was leaving etc? those were the questions in my mind.. when i looked further the bar on the back of the tow had a white powdery like paint, as if it scraped something...

Now my mechanic... all he did was put it up on a jack and replace the tire...

Also do you know where I can find the laws for towing in Ontario Canada?    Thanks, hope this helps you.. help me.


Answer
Well in looking at the picture you have, it seems that something was dropped on top of the hood if I see it right...

Now I do not think that the tow truck lifting assembly was the cause, as that would leave a mark all the way across the hook and not just on that one side.

Now I am not sure what kind of tow truck was used, but I am thinking that a wheel lift was used and the "back bar" might of been dropped when the driver took it out of the holder.  But there are many kinds of tow trucks which all the parts are attached and can not be removed...
Like I say, its hard to say what kind of truck "EXACTLY" was used since I was not there.


The powdery stuff you seen on the bar, can be concrete scrapping from other tows, or who knows what... I do not think there would be a "powdery" substance on it if your car was the one involved. Paint transfer is fairly solid.


Now as to the towing laws for Ontario, I am at a loss to find any of them that are worth a darn for anything... I know that I can keep trying to find stuff, but I do not know when or what I am going to find.