Total Car Recovery

I booked an appointment with 'Total Car Recovery' to have my car towed on Weds 26th Sept. The deadline for the job to be completed was 11am, so they gave me a 1 hour slot 10-11. They quoted £85 only. I received a text confirming this.

On the day of the tow, the driver charged me £102. I asked why the extra charge? He said the extra £17 was VAT. I accepted and paid in cash, then asked for an itemised receipt to be emailed. As you can see, the receipt below says 0% VAT... So what was the charge for?? I called the driver to dispute it, he said he would call me back. After hearing nothing for 15 mins, I tried to call several times but he ignored them. I called back on a different number. He answered straight away, then, after noticing it was me, he put on a Different ACCENT. I couldn't believe it. He tried to pretend he hadn't answered. He put on this accent saying it was actually 'his brother' I spoke to and that he would call me back. It was embarrassing. Clearly he wanted to avoid speaking to me. I waited for 20 minutes and heard nothing.

I called 'Total Recovery' which I assume is head office for 'Remies Recovery'. I explained there is 0% VAT on the receipt and asked why the driver charged me extra, when I was only quoted £85. They said I had to speak to the driver himself. I told them the driver is pretending to be different people to avoid my calls. They said they would speak to him to call me back.

The driver calls back and changed his story. He said we were charged extra because we were 5 mins late, which made him miss his next appointment. Bare in mind, he told me at the time of payment he was charging for VAT. So why the change of story? I was confused. Also, he was not late for his next appointment because I booked a 1 hour slot. My car had been delivered at 11:40 - TWENTY minutes earlier than it had to be. So that was a lie.

I asked which one it was, the VAT or the lateness? Because he was well ahead of schedule. £17 extra does not warrant being 5 minutes late. My arrival time had nothing to do with his next appointment because it was all within my 1 hour timeslot.

To cut a long story short, he changed his story from the extra payment being for "VAT" charges, to "late" charges when he noticed I realised it said 0% VAT on the receipt. These people are fleecing customers, pocketing money for themselves AND clearly avoiding tax payments. So I shall report them to HMRC and share my story to warn people about this company. Avoid them completely.