December 27th, 2007

A Christmas Story

My 18-year old daughter, Rachael works at Chapel Hills Mall. She drives an older Honda Civic and she is not an experienced driver. As everyone in Colorado Springs was struggling to get home safely last Wednesday, Dec. 20, she made it to work by 4 p.m.and stayed through her shift to serve what Christmas shoppers were out. By the time she was released from her duties, the weather had become worse and she was terrified just getting out of the parking lot. Her car slid and she managed to get it into the parking lot of a strip mall on Briargate Blvd. Her boyfriend picked her up in his truck and she stayed home safe on Thursday, as Colorado Springs was declared a state of emergency.

On Friday, she was scheduled to work again at noon. Her boyfriend drove her to get the car before her shift and they found it had been towed. No businesses at the strip mall had information. She went to work and Daniel, the boyfriend, worked on finding the car. After calling the police department and numerous towing companies, he located the car at Klaus's Towing in Fountain. They informed him that they closed at 5 p.m., (it was almost 5) they would be closed all weekend, and she could pick up the car on Tuesday. This changed her plans considerably for the weekend but there was not much to do about it.

On Tuesday morning she called me hysterical, telling me that not only was it going to cost $350 (in cash) to get the car back and the lady on the phone had been very rude to her, saying that they had in fact been open on Saturday, and that she was supposed to have picked up the car then. Rachael's father called them back. After talking with them, they agreed to drop the charge to $250 for unknown reasons.

I drove my daughter to Klaus's towing, in Fountain, on Tuesday afternoon. I was curious what the charges were actually for and asked to see the bill. I didn't see my daughter's car in the lot (or many cars at all) and I asked about that. The woman at the desk was indeed rude. She denied that she had talked to my daughter at all, refused to give me an itemized bill and threatened to add $100 back to the bill. I asked to see the owner. He came out, was equally rude and told her to add the $100 back to the bill. At this point, I decided to cut my losses, apologized for asking them any questions and handed them the $250 in cash. We followed him to a lot about a mile away where there was a sea of cars.

When my daughter was in her car, I told him, Klaus, that I planned to write the company that contracted him, Drive In Auto Sound, and let them know how I had been treated. He explained that his employees were used to taking abuse and that "people reap what they sow."

I guess I thought that at those prices, they would be a little more cheerful during what was definitely a Holiday windfall for them!

Marie Rush