Never EVER allow any FIRST HELP tow truck operator to tow your car, unless you have PROOF your insurance company has authorised the service.

I was involved in an accident on Malibongwe Road on Monday, 12 December 2022. A FirstHelp tow truck operator who towed my car did so under false pretence. He told me that he received authorization from the insurance company of the truck that hit my car. When my wife called the company that own the truck, they told her they had no knowledge of such approval.

My wife had to join me in Gauteng to come and assist me in getting the car out of First Help depo because I had to go for medical check up. When I finally joined her at First Help, we asked the depo manager simple 'compliance questions that he would not give answers to. The manager would not even tell us who regulates the towing truck industry or their business. While at his office, my wife called SATRA of which First Help is a member of. If First Help have nothing to hide, why are they so evasive? They would not even agree to call the driver in to answer to some of the questions we were posing. It was when we involved SATRA their association that they referred us to someone else to come and talk to us. The depo manager had given us a R12000 bill for towing and 1-day (say 2 days because it was then over 24 hours) storage, admin, security, recovery. Our bill was reduced from R12000 to R8600 and our car was released the following day, after back and forth calls and emails. Never EVER allow any FIRST HELP tow truck operator to tow your car, unless you have PROOF your insurance company has authorised the service. Or else you will pay big money or lose your car.