They arrive and are like guardian angels, but the moment you are hooked onto their tow truck the nightmare begins and you have no way out

TLDR: Swannies Towing scammed us out of R7000 and never actually fixed anything. They forced us to stay in their dodgy room for the night. They are Liers and thieves.

We broke down on the N3 25km from Villiers, a tow truck driver from towing 24/ swannies towing (they change their company name to avoid bad reviews) stopped to assist. I asked if they were affiliated to Momentum insurance and was told no but if we do repairs at their workshop the towing is for free. We were told that the job would be about 2 hours to change the belt that had snapped and machine out a part. He informed me that Momentum would send a tow truck from Germiston and would take 2 to 3 hours to get to us. The tow truck driver also informed us that the repair service was a 24 hours service. It is not safe for us to sit on the highway for that period of time.

Since we had to have the vehicle repaired and we would sit on the highway for the time it would take to repair the vehicle it seemed a plausible offer, so I never phoned insurance. A flatbed tow truck was sent and loaded us and took us to the workshop which was at a residence. As there was a passenger in the tow truck we were asked to sit in our vehicle, which I thought was strange as in my uninformed knowledge I thought that was illegal.

Once we got to the workshop we repeatedly asked for a quote for the repairs and indicated that we did not have a flush cash flow. Each time we asked there was a different excuse why we could not get the quote, waiting for the cost to machine the part, waiting for our boss, have to strip first etc. 4 hours later we were told that the place that was going to machine the part was not available and they could only take it to another workshop the following morning. They "kindly" offered us a bed for the night at an unknown cost. When shown the room, it was filthy, did not even have a kettle or towels, but we agreed beggars can’t be choosers as we did not know where we were, cell phone coverage was poor and we had no transport.

The next morning the “boss” arrived and came to speak to us with a quote. The quote was a piece of paper with some figures on it. To our shock there was a towing fee, call out fee and R550 for the room. We negotiated the price and it came down from R7000 to R6000.

Our 2 hour job turned into a 26 hour job, with the motor mechanic trying 4 different belts. Watching them put on take off and struggle, not knowing anything about cars, I started getting nervous about the workmanship as it seemed trial and error.

Eventually the job was finished and we asked for the invoice, to our surprise we were told they would come and fetch us and take us to the “pub” to pay and the cost was R7000. Once we had paid they would give us the invoice. I tried to dispute this as ethical practice and was told that they would not release our vehicle till we had paid. After 26 hours with nothing to eat or drink we were loosing our drive, we just wanted to get on the road. We were told that if we did not have the R7000 we could stay in the room at a cost till we could raise the money.

On paying the money we got a slip of paper that said “order” from “cash” to Land drover defender with services that did not even match what was originally decided on the quote piece of paper, which by the way they don’t give you. Instead of towing they put travel R1200, there was a call out fee just so they could get the full R7000 they thought i would be worth to them.

Just happy to be on the road again and away from the night mare of being kept hostage all we wanted was water and something to eat. We were not even 100km away and the belt that they had replaced came off and we had to be towed, but this time through our insurance. We are still waiting the full report but the preliminary report is that they part that had to be machined was never machined, the incorrect belt was fitted. We will get a full report from the mechanic according to the quote.

I sent a message and tried to phone Towing 24 (Swannie Towing) but no response.

I have read the reviews now, and this is their business plan. Ride up and down the N3, pay the N3 toll assistance, petrol stations etc a referral fee if they see someone broken down. They arrive and are like guardian angels, but the moment you are hooked onto their tow truck the nightmare begins and you have no way out.