TOW TRUCKERS AND PANEL BEASTERS COLLUDE TO RIP UN SUPECTING MOTORIST OFF

• On the 14th of June 2023 I was involved in an accident with a Mr David Benjamin in Highlands North.

• At the scene he admitted to me that he was liable.

• 2 Tow Trucks arrived from First Help o Mark - HV67FL GP - *** o Kevin - - ***

• Mr Benjamin spoke to his broker Success Brokers, who gave the 1 tow truck driver Mark, permission to tow his vehicle to a panel beater.

• Kevin the said that as this was a straight 3rd party claim, I should not be responsible for arranging any towing.

• As I only have balance of 3rd party insurance, I told Kevin that I first wanted to report the accident to the police, and to find out what the procedure was regarding my vehicle.

• I then left my car on the side of the road where the accident occurred, and Mr Benjamin and I went together to the Sandringham police station to report the accident.

• When I returned Kevin was still waiting for me.

• He then told me that as this was a straight 3rd party claim and that all he had to do was to contact Hollard and get permission from them to tow my vehicle.

• He then made a phone call and said to me that he was talking to someone at Hollard and past me the phone. (I unfortunately did not ask the person his name and he didn't offer it).

• The conversation went something like this.

o " Hello Mr Gordon, I am from Hollard, I understand that our client Mr Benjamin has admitted liability and as this is then a straight third-party claim and you will not bear any cost of towing, I have instructed Kevin to tow your vehicle for you and as your home address is nearby he can drop you on the way"

• Accepting this info as being true, I spoke to Kevin, and asked him to tow my vehicle (which was not drivable) to the same panel beater / yard as Mr Benjamin’s car had been towed.

• I did not ask him where the yard was or the name of the Panel beater at that stage.

• Kevin then brought me a Tax invoice that he had filled out and asked me to sign it.

• I asked him why I need to sign as I was not going to be responsible, he said it was just a formality for their records.

• On the form it stated the destination as 91 Banfield Road.

• I ask him where this was - He said it was at their yard and that is where the panel beater could collect the car from.

• I accepted all that had transpired and been said & Kevin duly dropped me at my house. and proceed to town my vehicle to what I thought was their closest yard.

• I then thought I would give it 2 working days before I contacted First Help to find out the status and location of my vehicle so that I could contact a panel beater.

• In the morning of the 19th of June, I got a call from a lady at First Help, who said the vehicle was at their yard she did not say where the yard was)- I continued to believe it was somewhere close by to Highlands North, where the accident occurred.

• She said she wanted to know what I wanted to do with my Car, as there were a lot of charges accumulating.

• I asked her to send me a break down of the charges as I did not believe I was liable.

• I gave her my email address and she duly sent me an Invoice from a company called C & H YARD.

• On the Invoice it showed that the yard to which the car had been towed was in fact in Randburg, and the charges to date amounted to R 17 290.25 with the actual towing charge being R 6 200.

• I was obviously quite annoyed and phoned the lady at First Help back and tried to ask her the following:

o Why was I being charged with these costs, as Kevin had assured me that Hollard was going to be liable for the costs? Her reply was that Kevin was a subcontractor and they were not responsible for what subcontractors told the customer. This made me even more angry.

o I then asked her where the closest yard to Highlands North was? she said Kew.

o My next question was - how come was the car towed to Randburg? Her response was that the decision was totally up to the driver who drove the truck.

• By this time, I was extremely angry at the attempt to deflect any responsibility on their part and raised my voice on the phone.

• Another lady came on the phone and told me she wouldn’t tolerate me being angry with her staff and put the phone down on me.

• I followed up this phone call with a call to Success Brokers and spoke to a lady Collen (Mr Benjamin had given me her name).

• She was adamant that nobody from Hollard would have made such a call, and that as the 3rd party I had to make my own arrangements and then submit a 3rd party claim to Hollard so they could assess what their liability would be.

• I then phoned C & H Yard, having got their contact number from their Invoice.

• I asked the lady there where my car was and that it would remain in their yard incurring storage charges, until I told them what to do.

• I asked her where the nearest panel beater to the yard was, as I didn't want to incur and additional R 6 000 in towing fees back to a panel beater, if I didn’t have to especially as I didn’t believe I should be liable at all.

• She told me there was a panel beater on the same property, called Nu Wagon Auto.

• I asked her if they were independent or part of a group.

• She said Nu Wagon, First Help and C& H yard were all part of the same group.

• I asked her if she could arrange for an assessor from Nu Wagon to give me a quote to fix the car.

• Her reply was, “we all act totally independently, and I would have to arrange that with Nu Wagon directly.”

• She gave me a lady’s name - Denise and a contact no ***. for Nu Wagon.

• By this time it was 5 pm and Nu Wagon was closed

• On the 20th of June I called Denise who told me that they only acted on written instruction, and I needed to send an email to "***" to request a quote from them.

• On the 22nd, after having phone again to remind Denise, I got an email back from her, setting our all the conditions that they impose if one is a third party wanting a quote from them.

• Besides the numerous conditions contained in the email was one regarding a charged R 500 for them to give a quote, which amount would be deducted from the cost of repair if the quote was accepted.

• On the 23rd of June I paid the required R 500 deposit and sent Denise the Proof of Payment.

• On the 26th of July I received a quote from Nu Wagon.

• The assessor said that in his opinion it was not worth repairing the car based on its retail value.

• The car is still at C & H yard, where they have refused to allow another assessor from a panel beater in Kew, on to the premises to evaluate, the car.

• Meanwhile they won’t release the car unless the storage and towing cost, which by now must amount to more than R 22 000 is paid.

• I believe that the whole process that I have had to endure is a well thought our plan by both First Help, Nu Wagon and C & H yards, to milk unsuspecting drivers who have been involved in an accident and might not have comprehensive insurance and certainly not in a correct state of mind in the moment.

• They do this by fabricating issues which convince the driver to agree to them Towing and Storing their vehicles knowing full well that they can relying on possession thereof and the cer*****y that this provide them of being able to collect the exorbitant fees that they charge.