Dominion Towing Inc

I have never written a negative Unilocal review in my entire life, but in seeing that my experience isn’t unique wanted to add my review to the list. Was heading out Monday morning when I noticed by car wasn’t in the parking lot of the apartment complex I live. Immediately started freaking out as I wasn’t illegally parked but called the posted number anyways and to my surprise learned that my vehicle had in fact been towed. This seemed odd since I had recently moved in, submitted all the necessary documentation, and received a parking pass which I had subsequently placed on the window. I called Dominion Towing and was admittedly frustrated, assuring them the tag was in fact on the window, to which they responded they had photos proving it was not. Feeling somewhat helpless had to cab it out to their rather industrial complex in Lorton, shell out $ 160 (including a $ 25 after hours tow fee, they had originally marked an additional $ 25 weekend pick up fee before realizing that 1:30AM ‘Sunday night’ is actually Monday morning), and then trudge into work three hours late. I knew I had that pass, so started looking around the back of my car, where I eventually found it, neatly rolled into a ball and wedged in the crevice in between my back seat and trunk space. It was still sticky enough when I unrolled it that some of the background had transferred off. I find the whole thing highly suspect, especially seeing so many others whose tags conveniently ‘fell’ onto the floor, and will be mentioning it to my apartment complex as well as the BBB. Ashley, please don’t bother responding, I also find it highly unprofessional that you post customer encounters on YouTube. I dislike having to post negative reviews on local businesses but wanted to share my story with anyone else facing similar unpleasant circumstances.

Calling the Better Business Bureau and filing a complaint. It’s the 2^nd time within 10 months they towed the same car out of (1^st time) a «visitor» parking space, 2^nd a non-​marked space with a permit hanging from the rear view mirror. Went to talk to them and spoke with management that stated «someone» called the «visitor» parked car incident in to be towed. Community management said this was not true, 2^nd, they said we were parked in a restricted parking space not available to us. Well, if NOTHING is written or marked on pavement and I couldn’t see it how is it ok to tow? We took pictures. These guys are vultures. I know business is tough but good honest business will take you further then the out to get anything or anyone approach. PLUS they towed a front wheel drive vehicle out enough to get enough space to tow it properly. How do we know that without being there. A maintenance inspection will determine if this going to get really ugly. Not right, not fair, poor business, will never use them ever.

$ 135 for legally parking in a guest spot at my friends’ complex, plus an extra $ 50 for it being «after hours» and on a weekend. But hey, since when does integrity matter to towing companies? When I called to find out where my car was, the meathead I spoke with sounded almost gleeful over how stressed I was. Wonder if he would have been that snarky to my face. Either way, he made Comcast look like a caring, moral company.
EDITED TO ADD: My friends’ complex is awesome and offered to pay the fee for me. I love businesses that treat people with dignity!
I’ll leave you with a couple of treats:
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I think her name was Stephanie or Samantha… My apologies I forgot. But she was awesome! Very professional. Very prompt. I was impressed. Thanks for it all :)

Easiest way to put it. They are good at what they do. My trailer was in good condition when I picked it up from their location. However, they are a bunch of crooks and will tow in a free parking, visitor parking zone stating there is no parking??? Yeah crooks.

Dominion Towing seems to have an abundance of issues according to BBB’s history & other consumer affairs sites. My family had a similar occurrence to others and we feel it is our duty to alert others looking to work with this company of their unethical and indecent business practices. We went to pick up our children from a family member’s home/​residence. It was late at night and our children were sleeping so we did not want to leave the car blocking other vehicles while we gathered them up. We pulled into the spot in front of our family member’s home which had no visible «resident only» or «towing enforced» signs. We went to retrieve our children and their belongings, my husband walked out to open the trunk and a Dominion tow truck was scoping our vehicle out to take. They had not touched it nor had they hooked anything up to it. They literally had just pulled up. They proceeded to tell my husband they were taking our vehicle unless he paid them $ 50 in cash as a drop fee. In our case– they hadn’t even picked up our vehicle– so not sure how they can charge us a $ 50 DROP FEE. He was very confused why someone would try to take our vehicle while he was standing next to it, attempting to load it up. Because he did not fork over money within 5 seconds and they didn’t want to answer any questions & risk the chance of making more money– so they backed up to the vehicle and made sure he was FORCED out of the way by steadily backing up INTO HIM with their large tow truck. This was inhumane and honestly, they should be shut down JUST FOR HAVING THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS MINDSET.
Once they took off with our vehicle and my husband ran inside to find out what we could do– we had to call the local police to discover who the tow company was and where they took our vehicle and to find out if what they did was even LEGAL. This was a gross misuse of their business and via officers on the scene– they seem to get away with it time and time again due to «grey legal guidelines» regarding towing. Once we arrived to retrieve our car– they charged us $ 185! With a family with two children making a minimum wage– this is not a small fee for something we were unaware of and unable to receive the proper information prior to the alleged violation/​incident. We will be following-​up with HOA and civil court. Businesses like these are necessary but those who don’t give appropriate time to gather information while they are standing next to their vehicle, nor have proper customer service or even downright human decency should not be allowed to continue to operate.

I have seen the negative reviews on here and obviously cannot speak for those events, but I had a great interaction with them, even under the circumstances. My car got towed from my apt. Complex. It was in a legal spot but the reserved spot wasn’t all the way blacked out like it should have been, no fault to the tow company. My apt complex realized it was their fault and paid for my vehicle to be released
cost to me.
However, during the tow, my oil tank got damaged and leaked oil everywhere! At first, I was very upset, understandably, and called the company ASAP! I spoke with Brad. Brad was very understanding and personable, very apologetic. He came out immediately to take a look. He acknowledged that it was definitely cracked and apologized again. He made some calls and took my car right then to their shop to fix it! You don’t see that very often these days! Despite the circumstances, I am very happy with how they handled everything. I understand accidents happen, but for the company to acknowledge the mistake and make it right is outstanding! I would not. give them a bad review. Obviously, getting towed is horrible and expensive, so I understand why people do not like tow companies, but like any other business, they really are just doing their job. And, they handle their business very well. Thank you dominion and Brad for making everything right and being a respectful company. As for businesses, I would absolutely recommend using this service if you are looking for one!

My daughter had her car towed on Saturday morning (3÷29÷2013) at 1:30 AM from her guest parking spot even though she has a valid guest parking permit. The reason that Dominion gave me for the towing was that her vehicle safety inspection tag had expired (dated February 2013).
In my daughter’s case, it was towed because of a lapsed safety inspection sticker on the front windshield of her Ford (a minor infraction) yet to retrieve the car from the towing impound lot cost her $ 175 which is a huge amount to someone who earns as small a salary as she does. Not to mention the emotional stress caused by the uncertainty in determining whether the car had been towed or stolen. At a minimum Dominion should leve a notice on the parking lot or sidewalk of whom to call to get your car back.
It is unethical to have your car towed on a Friday late at night when you cannot get a safety inspection done over the weekend and have to wait until the following weekday to get this done.
Furthermore, there is a conflict of interest here, in that the towing company (Dominion Towing) has a vested interest in finding as many cars as possible (no matter how minor the infraction) just so that they can capture the money to retrieve the car from their impound lot. This sounds like something that should be reported to the Better Business Bureau because this does not seem ethical and may not be legal.