Ballinger Chevron

The worst business I ever dealt with in my whole adult life.
They were extremely late, came 90 minute after the scheduled time to tow my car and wouldn’t even apologize claiming that they ‘just got the call 30 minutes ago’, when their own automated message system had sent me already 2 text messages reporting that they’re on the way 2 hours ago!
Refused to tow my truck to the body shop I instructed them to to the car to claiming that their lot would be closed this late in the evening, and insisted on storing the car in their storage for an outrageous fee.
Very rudely, the lady on the phone (Nicole) refused to release my car the following morning till my insurance company ‘authorizes it’, even though my insurance company confirmed they required no such authorization (why would they? It’s MY CAR, and they took it from me).
After my insurance company called to ‘authorize’ at 9.30 AM, they said they will tow the car to the body shop between 12 and 2 PM.
I waited at the body shop till 2.30, they didn’t show up. I called to check and the lady on the phone very rudely told me they ‘have a truck down and are scrambling’, so they’ll tow it by 5 PM. What kind of tow company ‘scrambles’ when they have a single truck presumably down!
I waited at the body shop till 5, they didn’t show up, I called them to complain so the rude lady says the body shop has a night drop so they’ll drop it in the evening. NOW THEY HAVE A NIGHT DROP ALL OF A SUDDEN? I told her why wasn’t that done the evening before, she said it was ‘insurance company instructions’. I told her they confirmed they instructed no such thing. She claimed she had it documented in email. I asked her to forward me that email and she refused, and told me I should just call my insurance.
It was very clear that they’re just delaying the delivery to have the car stored again over weekend. They were basically holding my car hostage for money, so I told her if they don’t release my car today and tow it to the agreed upon destination as expected I will call the cops. She kept repeating ‘call your insurance’ and hung up on me.
I decided I’m not going to deal with them anymore and called my insurance telling them that this business is scamming them, they told me they’ll take care of it and make sure that the work gets started on my car as soon as possible in my body shop.
NEVER do business with these greedy unprofessional rude people who call themselves a business. I called my insurance’s HQ and AAA and will be calling all entities I know about to remove them from their vendor list and never do business with them again.

Worst experiences with this company!!! Unfortunately my insurance company uses them so kinda stuck. Called roadside assistance at 1:22pm for towing service. I am told national average wait is 60min. I get a call from the tow driver at 2:15pm that he will be at my location in 25min. I called roadside assistance to see if there are any more options and I am told this is it or they can re send the job. I call Ballinger towing and the man on the phone says well, my driver alteady gave you an estimate and we are busy… ummm okay!
Its now 3:00pm and 45min since the tow driver called of his so called 25min wait… still no tow truck!

As you can see from my other reviews, I have never negatively reviewed a business before. When I have a bad experience somewhere, I generally like to assume that maybe someone is just having a rough day and let it slide, but my experience with Ballinger was too horrendous to ignore. I was involved in my first accident ever and naively assumed my insurance company would set me up with a decent tow company, but I was put in the hands of Ballinger. The bummer is most people involved in an accident are too upset and shaken up to check Unilocal reviews for the tow company while they’re sitting on the side of the road, but it is clear from the reviews that the company as a whole makes a habit of mistreating their clients.
When we originally spoke with the tow truck driver on the phone, we asked him to take my car to my normal mechanic. The driver laughed at us and told us we didn’t want to take it to a mechanic, and that we need to take it to a body shop — which made sense, so we looked up a collision shop on Unilocal that looked promising. The tow truck arrived at the scene quickly enough, but when we tried to confirm that the car would be towed to the collision shop, the driver said that it actually would be best to tow the car to Ballinger’s tow yard. According to the driver, a lot of insurance companies like to inspect damaged cars at the tow yard and since the tow company was arranged through my insurance company I assumed I could trust this guy. We were told we could expect to hear from our insurance company as things progressed. Six days later, my boyfriend gets a call from Ballinger saying that in order for them to release my car to the insurance company & collision shop, we would need to pay an $ 800 storage fee! We were never once told by them at any point that there would be any extra cost associated with having the car towed to their lot and THEY were the ones who convinced us to do so — apparently to prey on our vulnerability and make some extra cash.
I am a reasonable person. I understand the concept of a storage fee, but I have never once had anything done with or to my car without first receiving some type of estimate. No one from Ballinger ever breathed a word about there being a storage fee. When my boyfriend expressed his frustration and pointed this out to them, they let him «talk them down» to $ 250. Only $ 250 of unexpected unneccessary additional fees on top of the emotional, physical and monetary stress of being in a car accident?! Thanks Ballinger!
I called them expecting to have a rational conversation about my concerns. I told them that I felt they took advantage of us in a vulnerable situation and their driver persuaded us to store our car there with no quote. The woman I spoke with tried to convince me that they did us a huge favor by reducing the storage fee cost. When I asked if I could speak with her manager she said she already resolved everything with my boyfriend and that she shouldn’t even be speaking with me about my car because it’s not even registered under my name or insured under me (which is 100% false). Then she hung up on me.
I called back a few minutes later to again ask to speak to a manager, and the man who answered claimed to be a manager. I could hear him say «It’s her again.» — I’m assuming to the girl who hung up on me. I began to voice my concerns and he started to talk over me saying things like «Nah, nah… I don’t wanna hear it… quit your complaining… this is life, just be an adult and deal with it.» I asked him how he could run a business speaking to his clients in such a way, at which point expletives were exchanged… It was like something out of Jerry Springer and absolutely insane. I have worked in customer service all of my life and would never in my wildest dreams treat a client the way I was treated by Ballinger.
I really hated wasting more of my life and time on Ballinger to write this review, but if even one person reads this and avoids using this place, I will be vindicated. The saddest part is that since this place is attached to a gas station, which provides something essential, they’ll stay in business no matter how attrociously they treat people, as long as drivers continue to use their gas pumps.

This is THEEE WORST Towing company ever. RUDE, NOT HELPFUL AT ALL and intentionally screens your call when they’re done dealing with your issue that they can’t help you solve.
I’m from the insurance company and mistakenly referred them to a client who needed a tow. They damaged the car while being towed and when I called about it as a follow up to see how they can help, the receptionist, Nicole said she would ask her boss. I never got a call back and when I tried to call again, I was put on hold then later she disconnected the call. I attempted to call multiple times to reach her again only to be hung up on. WOW that is terrible and I don’t know why they’re not out of business yet. DON’T USE THIS COMPANY!!!

The owner of this gas station also has the Ballinger tow company. This is an awefull company! The lady answering the phone is very rude and has no care for her self or the customers who call. They work with aaa but will do whatever it takes to cut AAA out of the picture thus forcing you to pay it out of pocket! When you bring the issue to their attention they refuse to listen, laugh at you. Her customer service skill are none! She will call the customer names and hang up!
The driver I had to deal with which resulted in a 2 hour stand off, police being called and a major head ache as well as my family’s night ruined seemed to be a alcoholic. He pretended to be my fiancé and called AAA and cancelled my call to them trying to force me paying for the tow! When we tried to explain to him there was a communication issue he plugged his ears and acted like a child with a cigerett in his mouth! He said His name is Larry and drives truck #4, he wares a baseball hat with a long silver ponytail. This companies driver and 2 people working in the office made the worst customer service experience I have ever had! The driver tried to apologize for the MISUNDERSTANDING!
BEWARE! THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY NO MISUNDERSTANDING! It was truely something out of a horror movie!
This company forgot AAA records all phone calls and after review the manager and the Shoreline Police Department demanded this company to release our vehicle in our drive immediately. Big thanks to AAA and The Police in Shoreline for their patience and help with this issue.

Rude rude chick who answers the phone and hangs up on you when you call to them they have an idiot driver blocking 2 lanes of traffic for more than 10 mins! And then cries around and says hoow you never need a tow! I told her oh if I did I’d use Stans Mt. View! Dont waste your time or money in Ballinger nasty rude service and drivers who knowlingly block traffic! Dumb

My roadside assistance plan dispatched Ballinger Towing to pick up my car. I called at 9:30am and was given an ETA of 10:45am. At 10:30 I got a automated call saying the driver would be there in 15 minutes. He was not.
I waited until 12:45, because the weather was pretty bad and I figured they might be delayed, and still no tow truck, so I called back whereupon Ballinger Towing denied ever having received any of my information and refused to send a truck at all.

THIS NAUGHTY REVIEW IS FOR BALLINGER TOWING
Had to have vehicle towed at 10pm to a shop which is closed at that hour. All of them are!!! Having said that, I never thought in a million years that the tow company would leave two women stuck in December outside in the freezing a** cold and not make sure they stayed safe. By that I mean we had 2 choices… 1. Stay at the location our vehicle was towed from (the side of the road) 2. Get dropped off at the closed business where our vehicle was being towed to. Instead of arguing about it I just wanted to catch the bus anything to get out of the cold!!! Until I looked at the bus schedule and find out that they quit running at 7 :30pm AAA sent these folks to do this tow so I will be recommending an alternate tow company from now on, maybe you will too after reading these bad reviews. These reviews are to warn the unsuspecting public who you may be dealing with.

Excellent towing service. Friday of a holiday weekend and we were having trouble finding a towing company to come to Monroe and drive to Kent. Ballinger showed up within the hour we were told, got the car onto the truck quickly and safely, and got us to the shop in Kent where he helped get the car in the bay where it needed to be. Driver (wish I could remember his name) was really friendly and explained how everything worked to my 11 yr old son with aspergers who had never seen a tow truck in operation. Not sure about the cost because we have AAA. Will use them again if we ever have need. Thanks guys, you saved the day.

Place is a ripoff! Tow Truck company has incompetent Ripoff Drivers!
Unbelievable. STAY AWAY!

What a waste of time. Got 2 confirmations that Ballinger towing would arrive at 6pm. So I waited. Then I had to call Safeco at 630 pm to see where they were at. Safeco said 20 mins away. So I waited. 730pm arrives and nothing. Called safeco back to cancel the tow and get me someone else. They cancelled the tow and got me another company. 9pm comes around and guess who shows up! Ballinger tow. No communication period. What’s the point of owning a cell phone if you don’t use it to call anybody except when you are in front of their house, 3 hours late. What a waste of time.

Yesterday we experienced a very strong wind storm that affected power in most of the north end. The rains came in the evening, including torrential sheets of water. As I was driving a friend home, my windshield wiper broke in the worst of it. Darkness and heavy rains combined with no street lights and traffic signals made for an adventure as I slowly made my way to the ONLY light in the vicinity: Chevron. We had hoped that a quick fuse change would get us on our way. The young man working outside in the rain to direct traffic at the pumps took time to crawl on the ground to reach the fuses for us. He was totally soaked, and twisted upside down trying to help us. Unfortunately, the fuse didn’t fix it but they allowed us to stay parked safely at the station until the tow truck could assist. Ballinger Towing provided the service home, and I felt immediate safety when the car was loaded and I knew that home was my final stop in the adventure.
The staff at the station were friendly, showed me where I could «relieve» myself during the wait, and were more helpful than I could imagine in a treacherous and busy evening. We were so grateful for their hospitality, and I saw more than a hundred cars grateful to have one open gas station with a generator to get gas and supplies during the storm.

This review is for Ballinger Towing.
Really high rates and the driver was confrontational from the start. He was hostile to other drivers and pedestrians on multiple occasions in the form of flipping them off and yelling at them and didn’t exactly make anyone feel safe in the passenger seat for an hour-​long drive.
The worst part about it, though, was that he failed to properly secure both front tires to the tow truck and as a result, our fender was dented and they’re refusing to take responsibility for it.
Really bad. Don’t use even if you’re desperate.

I’ve tried multiple times to get propane tanks filled there, thinking that since they put the sign out saying «propane tanks filled here» that they actually want the business. they won’t fill if it’s busy, they won’t fill if it’s raining (which is most of the time in the winter)… it’s like they only have the propane tank to get the listing on AAA or something like that. generally a lame business.

Price gougers! Stay away! Crooks! picked up my car to take straight to the body shop to get fixed but they instead take it to their storage lot and held my car hostage to rack up a huge storage bill for my insurance company to pay. My insurance company was notified and will now not pay them. They dont even have a storage yard where it is supposedly safe fenced storage yard. They left my car out front of a gas station in a parking stop with doors unlocked for days on end. When I had another tow company go and get the car picked up with my permission they told the tow drive to get out of here and threatened to call the cops, go ahead and call them its my car they have to release it. After all of this I got my car back after I had to call the cops to have them come down and release the car back to me.

I was charged an extra $ 25 because the first truck wasn’t capable of towing my car because of a problem with THEIR truck. WATCH OUT for hidden charges, having to get your car towed is no fun, don’t make it even worse by using this business.

This review is for Ballinger Towing.
Everything seemed to be going well. Adam was helpful on the phone. I did think that since I had a flexible pick up time, and was willing to work on the scheduling of this tow for multiple vehicles, that the price was a little high but I was willing to do it to support a neighborhood business.
Lots of communication throughout the day had me feeling pretty confident.
I had requested service after midnight (but anytime before 6am) on either Thursday or Friday, and we had agreed on midnight Thursday. So, at 9pm when I received the text message saying that they were ready in the next hour, I explained, «No, we said AFTER midnight, remember?».
Ok, was the last message and contact I ever got.
No response to repeated texts and calls throughout the night.
When he did finally answer my call this morning (after I blocked my number), and inquired what had happened to our scheduled appointment last night, Adam responded,
«I was wondering the same thing…»
«Well, Adam, no calls and no texts from you and my cars are still in the same location. I never heard from you last night. I was hoping for an explanation or apology.»
I was surprised and disappointed when he rudely and abruptly said, «This conversation is over.»
Now, thankfully I wasn’t standing, in distress on the side of the road with a flat tire or disabled automobile.
But, I was very flexible, offered to work with them so that they could in the local area rather than have to cross to the opposite part of town and this is how I am repaid.
A good town truck driver is something that I use with regularity since I am in the transportation industry and routinely buy vehicles. I just looked it up and saw that I towed 8 vehicles last year. I will never use this company nor refer others to them.

I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times that we are living in or just the grave arrogance and greed of gas station operators. This station much to my chagrin is not only charging a difference between cash and credit card purchases, they are adding a 3% premium on top of that if you’ve paid by credit card.
Previously I’ve been pretty impressed with Chevron and the extra mile convenience stores however this particular station has instantly turned me sour towards the whole Chevron brand.
I apologize I cannot support a business that operates in this manner and would urge others to vocalize their choice and patronize gas stations down the street