Black Friday Towing Disaster
Black Friday is typically a day in which the biggest worry of a shopper’s mind is trying not to get trampled by the masses at the stores, but that was not the case for Sawgrass Mills Mall’s shoppers this past November 25. When some shoppers returned to their cars after a long day of bargaining they were horrified to find that their cars were not were they had last left them. A tow truck company had towed over 300 cars. This company towed automobiles from all around the mall, even from an Applebee’s across the street. Applebee’s said it did not want any cars towed on that day.
Shoppers say that there was a line of taxis waiting to take them to their cars in the middle of the night, but once they arrived to the scene the company announced that they had to pay the fees in cash, if they did not have the exact amount then they wouldn’t receive their change.
Sunrise’s Mayor Michael Ryan was furious with the transgressions, and Sunrise’s city commissioners decided to take action. On Wednesday evening, the commission approved a new law that will prevent towing companies from taking advantage of drivers. “It protects the consumer, so that at 4 o’clock in the morning, they can actually pay with a credit card,” said Ryan.
Under this new law towing companies now have to accept either cash or check payments. And for those poor shoppers that paid in cash and couldn’t get their change back, the towing company now has to pay the difference. The new law also states that towing companies must contact the owner of the parking lot before any cars can be towed. This is a great step forward in the world of service industries processing.
Attorneys for All County Towing argued against the new law and stated that there are plenty of other companies that only accept cash, but when asked to specify which companies or businesses performed such transactions the attorneys were at a loss for words. Perhaps if the company had mobile credit card processing, the owners would have saved themselves this embarrassing incident.
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