Okay folks..... Im going to tell a story that you arent going to believe. This story is liable to make some enemies for me in this town but I feel that it needs to be told. On the 15th early in the AM our store was broken into by a low life scumbag. He tried to steal a few customers units but since they were here for REPAIR he couldnt get any of them except one unit that was finished and ready to go home. We had damage done to our facility but nothing major that we couldnt readily repair. At around 2AM our awesome local PD caught the guy driving the mower and apprehended him on an unrelated warrant while investigating how he came to be in the possession of our customers mower in the wee hours of the morning. I want to thank our local PD for doing an excellent job. After they took the culprit to jail, they called the wrecker/impound that was next in the rotation which happened to be Buds Auto which happens to be located all the way out at Willow Springs. He picked up the mower and took it to Willow Springs to his impound yard. This is where the story takes a seriously sad turn for my customer. When approaching Bud Phillips to make arrangements to recover her property she was informed that without a receipt for proof of purchase then her property couldnt be returned to her.She was also informed that she was going to have to pay $300 which is the MAXIMUM allowed by law in Oklahoma to get her property back. She contacted me at my place of business and told me the story upset because since the mower was so old she no longer had the original receipt and she was upset at the amount of money it was going to cost her out of pocket.. I told her I was going to reimburse her myself for any expense because it was stolen from my establishment. I also told her that I would attempt to work with Bud Phillips and get the situation resolved. I made a phone call to Mr. Phillips and told him that with the age of the unit I could no longer reprint a purchase receipt for that unit since our computer only stored receipts for a 7 year term. I told him that I had sold her the unit new and had worked on it since new yearly for my customer. I also told him that I would be coming to get the unit for my customer to save her the trouble of coordinating it with her relatives who normally trailer it to me for her. I was under the assumption( right, and we all know what that gets you....) that as gentlemen we had reached an understanding and I was going to be able to get her unit home to her. I told Mr. Phillips that as another small business owner like himself, I had to be open til 5:00 and that I would close at 5 PM and be able to come get the unit that evening. I also told him that the owner would meet me there to sign his paperwork. I closed down as fast as possible, drove all the way home to hook to my own personal trailer and high tailed it to the lake to avoid making Mr. Phillips wait until past his own closing time, which he told me was 6pm. When I got there and told him who I was he smirked at me and said, I just need to see a copy of the purchase receipt and we can get you taken care of. I told him that I understood when we spoke on the phone that it was going to be okay because of the described situation for me to get it without an item that I was in NO WAY ABLE TO PROVIDE. He said, We had a misunderstanding then... Im not losing my wrecker license over a ladies lawnmower.... I of course was very mad at this point and through gritted teeth asked him what paperwork had to be sent in to the state at the conclusion of our proposed transaction and he said, none.... except that they might come check up on him. During our exchange he also told me that if she couldnt come up with a receipt, that will be okay, Ill just auction it off .I ended our exchange with a question asking him, Are you going to let me have my customers lawnmower tonight? And he said, not unless she shows up with the receipt To which, rather than lose my cool and lash out physically, I turned on my heel and left without saying a word. My customer had to call him 5 times today as well as the PD and the situation ended with the police Captain calling him personally and forcing him to release the mower to my customer today. To be even more petty, instead of allowing me to come pick it up for her this evening at closing time, he told her that today he was closing the doors at 5PM on the dot and if it wasnt picked up then it was more storage. My customer had to beg a friend to take off and help her pick it up since I couldnt close my store and do it for her. I would like any friends or others to please come forward with stories about this business that are similar because I am going to attempt to get him off the city PD wrecker rotation because no one who has already been victimized by a criminal needs to deal with this sort of issue as well. Im sorry for the long nature of this post but it couldnt be told in 140 characters on Twitter. Thanks in advance for any help with this folks.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 19:06:45 +0000
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