I have not had time for creative writing the last few weeks, I have been busy cranky writing. I am cranking out complaint letters in the spirit of the persistent widow in the Parable of the Unjust Judge. The friend we have been keeping in a running car, and sometimes a functioning house, for many years has been getting bills from a towing business for a car she no longer owns. Since I am sure they would prefer to remain unnamed, I will call the business EVERGREEN STATE TOWING of Spokane, Washington. Our commitment to keep Diane in a running car has morphed from repairing the old wrecks she could afford to providing newer, less wrecked wrecks we could afford, thanks to our thoughtful, thrifty auto mechanic (soon to be aircraft mechanic) son. We also provide recycling, which is very important to her, by selling her old cars when they require more fixing than fuel, to people even more desperate than Diane. Unfortunately, what we meant to be a blessing has boomeranged on her in a big way. EVERGREEN STATE TOWING (Spokane,WA) is billing her for towing and storage on a vehicle we sold on her behalf in October 2019. Diane is a very hesitant person and I am a very assertive writer, so I took on the project of Daviding her Goliath.
My first letter to EVERGREEN STATE TOWING included a copy of the receipt, the buyer's name, and an explanation that in the state of Montana all that is required of an auto seller is to provide a signed, notarized title and remove the license plates. We eagerly removed them, since the buyer turned out to be a former friend of our son who had "bought" a car from us on payments (son's idea, not ours) and skipped the payments part. Since we were asking $300 for Diane's Mazda and he handed us the cash almost before getting out of his girlfriend's car, we agreed to sell it to him. It was a junker, he was a junkie, he deserved it. Our son managed to get the Mazda started for him and none of us would have lost sleep if the engine blew up a week later. We did not think about him not getting a new title. Or that the car would last long enough to need a new title. Or that he probably had lots of spare, stolen license plates on hand and would not need to apply for a title. But instead of his engine, our minds were blown when we found out the Mazda managed to make its way to Spokane, Washington. Unfortunately, we found that out because Andy did not transfer the title, so Diane was still listed as the owner of record. EVERGREEN STATE TOWING honed in on her like a hound on a scent, undeterred by annoyances like facts.
I assumed that my strongly worded letter showing Diane had not owned the Mazda for more than two years, would cause EVERGREEN to hound Andy for the money. He would have been easy to find, being both on Facebook and on probation. Andy finding the funds would have been the hard part. But in Washington, which EVERGREEN STATE TOWING and a ridiculous amount of regulations call home, has a 10 day notification rule. Washington titles come with a tear-away portion and the seller is required to notify the state within 10 days of the sale or be held liable for the vehicle's future expenses. Trying to convince EVERGREED that this does not apply to auto sales in Montana has involved cranking out letters to the following:
Montana DMV--whose unhelpful response was to hire a lawyer
Montana Attorney General's office--crickets
WA bureau of licensing for towing companies--claimed no jurisdiction, hire a lawyer
Consumer Protection--referred to WA Attorney General's office for informal arbitration
WA Better Business Bureau--our best bet, is mediating our complaint process
Despite this, EVERGREED sent Diane a second bill explaining that if the amount received when they auctioned the vehicle mid-February did not exceed their $312 towing and $54 per day storage fees, she would be responsible to pay the deficiency. Even with Covid inflated demand for used vehicles, a car that sold for $300 two years ago is unlikely to cover $2000 storage. So I sent them a second letter and played my two hold cards, emails to Montana Gov. Gianforte and Sen. Steve Daines. Gianforte's constituent office called Diane the next day, unfortunately, she missed the call--not unusual for her. My second letter to EVERGREED included a quote from the Montana Department of Justice "You do not need to notify the County Treasurer's motor vehicle office that you sold the vehicle." I am sure billing owners of record and/or sending them to collections is a longstanding and lucrative business practice for them, not to mention the great fraud potential. All scammers would need to do is bill people whose names were with VIN numbers from unlicensed out-of-state, or even out of country, vehicles--no tow truck required. I am hoping that if EVERGREEN STATE TOWING will not respond to the quality of my logic, perhaps, like the unjust judge, they will react to the quantity of my complaints, do the right thing in spite of themselves, and just be just.
