Automotive locksmith here. We don't do a lot of cash calls. Most of it is membership calls. It's always the cash calls that are a problem. I would open a car and have to grab the keys until I started asking for payment up front. I will never forget this one. A kid had a Nissan on Xmas eve. He was stuck in a shopping center. He didn't want a new Ing. He wanted me to remove the bad wafers and put it back in and cut a new key. I gave him a price and he agreed. I also told him no warranty. I pull the Ign. do my thing probably spent close to an hour. When it was time for payment the father showed up and didn't want to pay. I left with the keys and called the cops. They said to go back and they would meet me. They made them pay the bill. 2 days later they call back and say the Ign stopped working. I told them tough luck. I explained no warranty as they didn't want a new lock which I advised. I was over ruled by the club I was contracted to and I was pissed. They said if I didn't go out for this prick they were going to tell him to go to the dealer and charge me for it. I go to their house and they hand me a key that I didn't make. They had another Nissan and it was the wife's car key. They go back in and get my key and it still worked fine. This guy was actually very nice and apologetic after the mess he caused before.
If I require upfront payment it's 100 percent and non refundable. To send my truck out you have a truck occupied, a driver occupied, and you are providing a service, If they cancel you don't provide a service of course but you still have time invested and a loss of any other work you could have been doing in that time instead. This isn't a Mcdonalds if you cancel an order we can't just give your fries to the next guy at no loss to us, we have a loss of time, a loss of fuel, etc.
Great advice. I’ve been charging an upfront $20.00 dispatch fee and mileage if they cancel. Since I started doing that I literally haven’t had a cancellation since.
i always charge half of the service up front and there is a nonrefundable fee if they cancel when the technician is heading in route in order to have the customer be responsible and it allows us to make sure we didn't just leave for no reason allows the customers to be serious on the service they need preformed
I started doing the same thing after the third person didn’t want to pay so now pay up front or I will not move my tow truck. We are doing the same thing.
I’ve tried it in the past. But unfortunately there’s so many people that advertise buying scrape cars and not to mention you have to have a title here in Pennsylvania in order to get rid of these cars. so it unfortunately just complicates things for me. But I may consider it in the near future💪💪💪
Great video, its been company policy to collect upfront for 2 year now, probably one of the best things you can do to save yourself time and money. Keep hustling.
The only advice I could say is to keep trying, because unfortunately, in this line of work, you’re gonna have so much competition so you have to stand out from the rest
I did a heavy winch police call where the owner of the trucking company was dicking me around when it came time to pay the bill. I spun the gladhands off the airlines so they couldn't air up the trailer and took off. $40 at Napa they could have bought new ones and bailed on the $500 Bill, but the two drivers were clueless 😂 they paid and my boss drove their gladhands back out there and put them on.
I got ripped off they charged me and the people on the phone when you call are stupid they should not be in that job you tell them the weight and length of vehicle and tell them you have class c Rv three times they set the wrong vehicle to recover they don’t know shit
Also if you’re in a tow truck tow ! You shouldn’t especially be driving no Hiur one way in a truck for a tire change !!! If it’s a premium service that’s about the dna was your hookup like a $125 lockout or a $150 hiway tire on an suv fine but for anything else let the roadside guys have it . You don’t get tow insurance and buy a truck to go do shit that anyone can do . Even as a roadside guy it’s real demoralizing to have someone pay for a click , book and then pay for another click to call me back and say some good sumeritan pulled over and helped , or they tried again and it started , or they kept trying with the coat hanger and finally opened the door . I’d be PISSED. At 8 mpg in a tow truck . Towing is specialized . To passer by is stealing your tows . Not even hiway patrol will take your tows , which happens to me daily with roadside on the hiway .
sir am trying to do my own roadside business I have 4 years working for aaa on maryland I need help can you please recumbent me how to do this what Insurance.. I have plenty of experience. doing high Service, battery service and towing ..but this is my first time doing it myself am latino my English is decent but I need some help ..is any way to communicate with you ..thank you
If you charge on a credit card they will charge back . And no they won’t refuse free help . Doesn’t happen . Now if you get cash app or zelle payment which is harder to do then they may refuse other help .
