[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Corral

1. the fact you called AMA for the tow demonstrates your intention to pay AMA rates - an important piece of information here is whether the driver asked to see your AMA membership when he arrived and before he hooked your vehicle. If he did, at that point you and the driver have entered into a contract on AMA terms. If not, you still may have done so on AMA terms but it is less certain and much depends on the conversations you had.

This part I can see. This will be an interesting conversation with AMA.

2. from what you've described - you were misled in the truck on the drive back into paying extra for the tow - ie. $1300 plus whatever the company has billed AMA

Was he, though? He was presented with a different payment option. He was not forced to take this option, it was presented as an option. At a cutout here, he could have said "No thank you, I'm sticking with AMA only".

3. I'd be surprised if your insurance company doesn't cover your tow ... but when you are on the phone with the insurance rep ... ask about whether you have coverage for fraud such as this (completely apart from your vehicle collision .. and would not be an at-fault claim)

As mentioned above, he's not yet been frauded since he doesn't know if his policy will cover the tow or not. His reading/interpretation of his policy (long after the incident) appears to say that he may not be. But he may call up his insurance company today, they'll listen and go "Yeah, you are totally covered. Just send over the receipt, sorry for the issues over the weekend." From my understanding of his story the driver presented this option as a different way to pay, but because he was not able to contact his company to speak about his policy properly, he didn't know if he was actually covered or not...and when he was paying for it, he did so gambling on the HOPE that his insurance would cover it, not based strongly on the knowledge that they WOULD cover it. He was in no way misled about the price of the service he received. He just took a gamble on who ends up paying for it.

4. Phone AMA - but this is unlikely to get your $1300 back from AMA ... more likely is AMA will contact the company and you will get your money back from them ... for the reasons others have noted ... this is not a story AMA wants passed around

5. Give AMA a chance to fix this ... if not to your satisfaction ... go to the media with this

Yup. But keep in mind that they are not at fault here. They provided the service that they were supposed to. It is not their fault or responsibility that the driver provided an other option and their client took it. He had several 'outs' that he could have taken, but kept deciding to go in a different direction. This is not AMA's fault.

6. File a small claims in prov court against the tow company and the driver.

That would be an interesting court case, I think. The OP was provided a service, given a price, and paid for the service. He wasn't misled as to the price he was paying for the service he received, he just wasn't sure his insurance would cover it. I have a feeling that this case would go against the OP.

7. follow the advice on the fair trading act as well ... sounds like another mechanism to apply pressure for the tow company to return your cash.

I just kinda shake my head at this. I also wonder where the FTA would come into play and if it would. Again, could be an interesting court case about who's responsible for what. From my read of the OP, it seems like the OP made a handful of compounding bad choices, and that this is likely to end up being a $1300 lesson.

I think you'll get your $$$ back via one or more of these steps. But it may take a little while. Your insurance company will give you some time to decide whether you want to make the claim for the tow - so hopefully in that period you get a good sense as to whether one or more of the other steps will get your cash back first.

I still think his best bet is in talking to AMA about the behaviour of their subcontracted company. Given how good AMA is usually about these sorts of things, I can see him getting his money back and the contractor getting dropped or 'on warning'.