JP Towing

According to Unilocal,I’m an expert at having my car towed now. Twice in two years.
It’s not their fault that my car was towed. And it isn’t their fault that they’re located ridiculously far away from downtown. They’re reasonably nice on the phone and in person.
The prices are insane obviously. There is no way that having a car towed costs this much. I’ve had to voluntary call a tow truck a number of times and I can usually negotiate the price down to $ 40-​$ 70. Their prices don’t come close to that and neither do their Parking Rates.

I had an unbelievably negative experience with J.P.s towing. I get that being a tow truck driver likely comes with a lot of harsh feelings being directed to you, however I don’t think that justifies being a full on jerk.
I was biking home from work along Dundas and a guy from J.P.‘s proceeded to block an entire streetcar from continuing down the street. Being a cyclist I also was blocked. The JPs guy was not towing a car, was not hooked up to anything… he was just being defiant to the streetcar who was ringing a bell at him. When I asked if he could take a step in so everyone could pass, the driver got in my face and threatened me. The TTC driver intervened, as did a parking cop, so I was able to go around him.
I called JPs towing to follow up on this incident – spoke to a very helpful woman on the phone and was connected to the Manager. He was apologetic, however did say he’d follow up with a formal apology about the incident – which was never received.
Perhaps they are good at towing people which is a thankless job… but poor handling of a very upsetting situation.

Can’t speak to their services, but I called them in a panic in early January on that –40 day at 6:30am when my car battery was frozen; CAA had a one-​hour wait just to have them answer the phone, and when we did finally get through, they were saying 3+ hours.
JP said two hours, $ 75+ tax.
Ten minutes later, my upstairs neighbours woke up, and gave me a boost. Before I could call JP to cancel the order, they showed up. Only 15 minutes after I booked them, on a day when EVERYONE had a two or more hour wait for a boost?
Like I said, I can’t speak to their customer service in terms of towing, etc, I can just tell you that when you need them in a crunch for a boost, they’re darned speedy!

If your car gets towed in the city of Toronto, it’s probably at the JP Towing lot.
Timeline:
–No parking after 4pm.
–Car towed at 4:12 pm
–Car at lot 4:30 pm
–I arrive at lot 4:47 pm and give them $ 176 to get my car back for their 30 minutes of work
Obviously, there are many reasons to write angry reviews about cars getting towed — but I will keep this review to my interactions/​observations with the company post-​tow in attempt to avoid bias and projection of apoplection.
1) Their lot is not easily accessible (North of Keele/​St Clair) on Glen Scarlett Road. This horrible little spot is packed in between a bunch of meat packers and slaughterhouses that smell disgusting and is generally creepy. It is also extremely unsettling to have to wander through them in the dark trying to get your car back.
2) Once you get to the lot you are greeted by terrible customer service (hopefully you’ve caught them on a good day and you’ll only get indifference instead of outright rudeness). The customer service agents /​attendants behind the counter, I can only imagine, are given shit by a good percentage of the people that walk in. This means they will try to beat you to it even if you don’t feel like being a dick.
3) Unfair pricing to get your car back:
$ 140 for medium size cars is what they advertise as the cost for getting your car back. High, but, OK. There is also a $ 12 hourly rate. As soon as they enter the car into the lot, it is charged that first hourly rate (so the base isn’t $ 140, is it?). This does not include whatever ticket the Toronto Parking Authority has given you (which I deserved).
I had my neighbour drive me up to the lot following behind my car being towed. We rode beside 3 other tow trucks pulling other cars on the way to the lot. This place is just racking it in as a city contractor.
I’m all for making sure streets are safe by removing cars that cause problems for other drivers — but it seems that the way this company operates (under contract from the Toronto Parking authority) it is predatory at best. Pay the fine to the city, no problem — pay a towing company $ 170 to get your car back after 30 min? Bologna.