Salvage tow got me
08-27-2008, 06:11 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
Salvage tow got me
Well, let me start from the beginning.
July 4th, we headed to the beach with another couple. Anchored off the beach about 100 yards or so. Spent the day there, and now its time to leave. My buddy(non boater) is up on the deck trying to pull the anchor up. By this time the waves are rolling in pretty good. As he is struggling with the anchor, i move from the helm to grab the anchor line and pull it up. Well in about 5-10 seconds, the boat gets sideways, and a big roller washes me right on to the sandbar. Stuck.
My buddies and i try to free the boat with no luck, as we didnt have enough line to get his boat into deeper waters at that point. So I call for a tow, the sun is going down, and the women on board are getting pretty nervous.
I get in touch with "chicago marine Towing". They tell me that they can be out there in 1 hour. They said that they cant give me a price without assessing the situation. They said it could be a salvage situation, or a standard tow. Not knowing better, i tell them to come out.
They show up, and by this time its dark out. The one operator gets in the water, and walks to my boat, and hooks the line to it. Tells me its gonna take some time to get me free.
Ok, after about 20 minutes of tugging, he gets me free floating. I opted to have them tow me 3 miles to the nearest harbor, since its dark, and my sea strainers are loaded and packed with sand. They get me back to the dock, and hand me a Bill to sign. They tell me they gave me a break, and only charging me 3500.00. Trying to control myself, I read over the bill briefly and they take down my credit card info. Its midnight by this point, and everyone just wants to go home.
Anyways, 3 weeks goes by. I noticed my card was never charged. I thought this was a little odd. No phone calls, no letters, no nothing. Im starting to think maybe they lost their copy of the bill, and somehow i got lucky? Well, my wife decides to close out that credit card and transfer the balance to another card, since it was a 0% deal.
I get a letter in the mail about 3 weeks ago, stating that they filed a lien for 15000 dollars, and criminal charges for financial fraud(since they must have tried to charge the card and it didnt go thru).
So I call and talk with the owner, well, who I think is the owner. I told him that we did cancel the credit card, and that I intend to pay him and clear this up. He tells me"its no longer 3500 my friend, its gonna cost you a lot more than that". So we both calm down a bit, and i ask him "Where is your office, i will bring you your 3500 in person tomorrow". He Tells me that they really dont have an office. That i should just mail in a check, and this will be over.
Well, here it is 3 weeks later again. Check was mailed out two fridays ago. Checked my account online, still not deducted. So now my wife calls. The guy who i talked to"john" is now claiming to be "scott" on the phone. Guy has a distinct voice, one i wont forget. He tells her that they havent recieved the check. Then after 5 minutes, he states they did recieve it, but not sure when it was deposited. All she wanted was a reciept stating this bill is paid and everything is kosher. He says he cant do that until the check is cleared in his bank. I can understand that.
She asked if once the check cleared, can she come in person and get something in writing, and again, no. His business adress thats listed is just a mailing address. So no office, Chuck is scott, and scott is chuck, they did recieve the check, they didnt recieve the check.
I am now a boat us member with unlimited towing, but was not at that time(july 4th). I been reading about companies like sea tow, and some of the BS maritime laws that are on the side of these tow companies. Its all pretty damn scary.
Not sure whats SUPPOSED to and whats GONNA happen next. I did get a abstract of title from the USCG yesterday, and there was no lien put on the boat(yet).
Please excuse my ignorance on this subject, its all new to me. Sorry for the long post.
July 4th, we headed to the beach with another couple. Anchored off the beach about 100 yards or so. Spent the day there, and now its time to leave. My buddy(non boater) is up on the deck trying to pull the anchor up. By this time the waves are rolling in pretty good. As he is struggling with the anchor, i move from the helm to grab the anchor line and pull it up. Well in about 5-10 seconds, the boat gets sideways, and a big roller washes me right on to the sandbar. Stuck.
My buddies and i try to free the boat with no luck, as we didnt have enough line to get his boat into deeper waters at that point. So I call for a tow, the sun is going down, and the women on board are getting pretty nervous.
I get in touch with "chicago marine Towing". They tell me that they can be out there in 1 hour. They said that they cant give me a price without assessing the situation. They said it could be a salvage situation, or a standard tow. Not knowing better, i tell them to come out.
They show up, and by this time its dark out. The one operator gets in the water, and walks to my boat, and hooks the line to it. Tells me its gonna take some time to get me free.
Ok, after about 20 minutes of tugging, he gets me free floating. I opted to have them tow me 3 miles to the nearest harbor, since its dark, and my sea strainers are loaded and packed with sand. They get me back to the dock, and hand me a Bill to sign. They tell me they gave me a break, and only charging me 3500.00. Trying to control myself, I read over the bill briefly and they take down my credit card info. Its midnight by this point, and everyone just wants to go home.
Anyways, 3 weeks goes by. I noticed my card was never charged. I thought this was a little odd. No phone calls, no letters, no nothing. Im starting to think maybe they lost their copy of the bill, and somehow i got lucky? Well, my wife decides to close out that credit card and transfer the balance to another card, since it was a 0% deal.
I get a letter in the mail about 3 weeks ago, stating that they filed a lien for 15000 dollars, and criminal charges for financial fraud(since they must have tried to charge the card and it didnt go thru).
So I call and talk with the owner, well, who I think is the owner. I told him that we did cancel the credit card, and that I intend to pay him and clear this up. He tells me"its no longer 3500 my friend, its gonna cost you a lot more than that". So we both calm down a bit, and i ask him "Where is your office, i will bring you your 3500 in person tomorrow". He Tells me that they really dont have an office. That i should just mail in a check, and this will be over.
Well, here it is 3 weeks later again. Check was mailed out two fridays ago. Checked my account online, still not deducted. So now my wife calls. The guy who i talked to"john" is now claiming to be "scott" on the phone. Guy has a distinct voice, one i wont forget. He tells her that they havent recieved the check. Then after 5 minutes, he states they did recieve it, but not sure when it was deposited. All she wanted was a reciept stating this bill is paid and everything is kosher. He says he cant do that until the check is cleared in his bank. I can understand that.
She asked if once the check cleared, can she come in person and get something in writing, and again, no. His business adress thats listed is just a mailing address. So no office, Chuck is scott, and scott is chuck, they did recieve the check, they didnt recieve the check.
I am now a boat us member with unlimited towing, but was not at that time(july 4th). I been reading about companies like sea tow, and some of the BS maritime laws that are on the side of these tow companies. Its all pretty damn scary.
Not sure whats SUPPOSED to and whats GONNA happen next. I did get a abstract of title from the USCG yesterday, and there was no lien put on the boat(yet).
Please excuse my ignorance on this subject, its all new to me. Sorry for the long post.
08-27-2008, 08:04 PM
#3
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Thread Starter
Chris that would be great however, it became a "I thought you took care of the ins?" "no, i thought you did" between my wife and I. Somehow when we got our quote from our agent, you need to actually confirm and get the policy!(new boat to us) Trust me, that is/was a sore subject at the homefront. So I believe that is part of the reason why i am getting somewhat dicked around on this, since i have no insurance company to arbitrate this and the tow company knows this. (insured now!)
08-27-2008, 08:20 PM
#4
Registered User
Then I'd stop thinking or worrying about it. They have a valid check for $3500. That's way better than a lien they have to spend money to litigate, then collect upon. They'll cash it & go away.
08-27-2008, 08:27 PM
#5
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Location: Long Island New York
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Just recently used sea tow for a tow (water pump cooked). They came in about 1/2 hour. Not a member so I paid on a credit card. $300, put it through insurance (Progessive) recieved payment in about a week. I'm now a sea tow member even though my insurance covers $500 per tow. Sea Tow membership was $130 for the year and unlimited free towing.
08-28-2008, 12:47 PM
#6
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Location: Clearwater, Florida
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Just recently used sea tow for a tow (water pump cooked). They came in about 1/2 hour. Not a member so I paid on a credit card. $300, put it through insurance (Progessive) recieved payment in about a week. I'm now a sea tow member even though my insurance covers $500 per tow. Sea Tow membership was $130 for the year and unlimited free towing.
08-28-2008, 08:06 PM
#9
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Thread Starter
Yea, how about it. He got upset when I questioned the bill amount. He told me that he gave me a "great" deal, and that I should be happy. Ive seen upside down semi trucks get uprighted and towed for less than that. The boat was dispatched around 8pm, and i job completed at towed in at the harbor around midnight. (towed me at about 2 mph, and also had us freefloating for about an hour for whatever reason in the middle of the lake). So I guess 900 bucks and hour is a deal.
I guess they had a opportunity to make some $$$, considering they can get away with it since there were no ins. companies involved, or boat u.s.
He kept telling me about the salvage operations, etc. I asked about whats considered a soft ungrounding, and he said theres no such thing.
08-28-2008, 08:09 PM
#10
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Platinum Member
Yea, how about it. He got upset when I questioned the bill amount. He told me that he gave me a "great" deal, and that I should be happy. Ive seen upside down semi trucks get uprighted and towed for less than that. The boat was dispatched around 8pm, and i job completed at towed in at the harbor around midnight. (towed me at about 2 mph, and also had us freefloating for about an hour for whatever reason in the middle of the lake). So I guess 900 bucks and hour is a deal.
I guess they had a opportunity to make some $$$, considering they can get away with it since there were no ins. companies involved, or boat u.s.
He kept telling me about the salvage operations, etc. I asked about whats considered a soft ungrounding, and he said theres no such thing.
I guess they had a opportunity to make some $$$, considering they can get away with it since there were no ins. companies involved, or boat u.s.
He kept telling me about the salvage operations, etc. I asked about whats considered a soft ungrounding, and he said theres no such thing.
A buddy of mine ran his fountain up on a sandbar and didn't have boat US. He gave them a credit card and it was $350. He put the claim in under my boat US and they changed the bill to $495. and refunded his credit card. How does that work?
