Deceptive billing practices

If you're ever in an accident, please do not use this towing service. At first we were pleasantly surprised that one of their bakkies showed up unexpectedly to the scene of our accident and offered to tow our vehicle to Montague Gardens. To our surprise the car was towed all the way to Brackenfell. We asked several times while waiting for the tow truck to arrive what we would be charged and were told each time that we wouldn't be charged because of a partnership they have with the repair shop, who pays them some kind of finders fee. In hindsight this makes absolutely no sense.

Little did we know that we'd eventually have to pay approx R6k in towing, "storage and admin" fees that are not stated upfront. The repair company commented on how excessive this fee is and advised us to chase this up with CRA, but unfortunately could not release the vehicle to us until we'd paid. CRA's response was that this is the going rate for cars involved in accidents as the vehicle is immobile, which honestly makes no sense. Other than the fact that our vehicle wasn't in fact immobile, it costs the same amount of time and resources to tow it from point A to B regardless of what's wrong with it. As for storage costs, the CRA employee we enquired with let us know that they charge R495 a day despite CRA not even storing the car for us as it was at the repair shop (which didn't charge us for this?!). Gobsmacked. I believe they take advantage of clients, specifically those who've been in accidents as you're in a tight spot and have to make split-second decisions.

A quick internet search (which I wish we'd done before doing business with this company) revealed that our experience matches that of another client (see Hello Peter review from 2016) so looks like this is how they run their business. This is daylight robbery and they need to be reported to the ombudsman.