Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Joe's Towing & Recovery's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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Joe's Towing & Recovery has 4 locations, listed below.

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  Joe's Towing & Recovery

  2233 Springfield Rd Bloomington, IL 61701-8339

  
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  Joe's Towing & Recovery

  921 N Main St Creve Coeur, IL 61610

  
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  Joe's Towing & Recovery

  2915 SW Washington St Peoria, IL 61602

  
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  Joe's Towing & Recovery

  2905 E Cook St Springfield, IL 62703-2170

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/13/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My car was towed in the earlier hours of 6/13/25 while my son was driving it. It was towed by this business back to their Normal, IL location. I called the Normal, IL location and spoke with two different girls on what the procedure and price would be to pick my car up. One of the girls stated it would be $155 to release my car if I picked it up before 5pm on 6/13/25. If I couldn't make it before then additional charged would be added. When we arrived at the Normal, IL location they stated the cost would now be $260. When we spoke with **** in the Peoria, IL location-she was very rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. She said that the girl who told us the price was new and incorrect and wouldn't be sticking to the original price of $155. That they had to by law add the $105 in fees and that they wouldn't be offering any kind of solution to the problem-we just needed to pay the extra fees if we wanted my car back.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 06/16/2025

  On June 13, 2025 at approximately 1:50am, we towed a 2018 Ford Fusion from  Normal, for the Normal Police Department as the result of an arrest for DUI.  We are required by Illinois law to notify owners and/or lienholders of vehicles that have been impounded.  The notification to the lienholder is required to be sent with 2 business days.  Between the time the vehicle owner called for a price, and the vehicle was actually retrieved, this notification was sent out.  There is a labor fee for sending the title search to the Illinois Secretary of State, generating the letter(s) and taking the letter(s) to the post office, as well as the cost of the postage to send the letters.  Lienholder notifications are required to be sent Certified Mail, and this vehicle does have a lienholder of Ford Motor Credit according to the Secretary of State.  Office staff are not able to quote the exact amount of the notification fees, because we do not know if there is a lienholder, or how many individual owners are listed on the title until the title search is returned by SOS, but they are supposed to advise that these fees could be added at any time.  The additional fees that Ms. ********* was specifically told about was a late release fee if the vehicle is not picked up during office hours, and storage if the vehicle is not picked up the same day.   The fees that were added to the invoice for the Ford Fusion are only the ones that pertain to sending the required notification to the owner and lienholder.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/19/2025

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  
  The time between the price quote given by your office and the time I picked up the car was two hours. No one advised that there could be adjustments to the price given on the phone. I live over an hour and a half away-I was asking the price so I could be prepared upon arrival and avoid any problems. But because of your bad business practices I incurred problems that were TOTALLY avoidable. Do better

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/19/2025

  When I called Joes to complain about the payment difference they ended up transferring me to a “manager”. ****. When **** picked up the phone she didn’t introduce herself by name or title. I had to ask if I was speaking to someone different than the original person that I was on the call with because **** didn’t even say anything to indicate who she was. She was rude right from the start as well. If they record phone calls they should use that call for training purposes of what not to do.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/05/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 4-17-23, I had to call ***** roadside assistance to get my car out of a ravine I had gone down. They contacted Joe's Towing and Recovery and let me know this. I called Joe's and told them they would need a larger than usual truck to get me out. Two hours later, a driver named **** showed up with a light duty flatbed truck. He assessed the situation and determined that if he were to try and tow me out, he would get stuck as well. He took pictures of my car and the situation and sent them to Joe's and called them as well saying he would get stuck if he tried the job and that a bigger truck was needed. He was told by **** to go ahead and try it anyway. **** got my car on the back of his truck and proceeded to get stuck as he predicted. He called Joe's and a 8 ton truck was sent. It then got stuck as well. A third truck had to be sent out to get them out.
  
  Per Joe's policy, all of the phone calls were recorded.
  
  The next day when I went to get my car, I was presented with a bill for $1500. I have no problem paying a reasonable price - the cost of the second truck - for the service but I do not think I should have to pay for all three trucks, seeing as I told them they needed a bigger truck and - more importantly - their own employee told them he would get stuck and a bigger truck was needed.
  
  I called on 4-25-23 to discuss the charges and was told someone would be in touch. A week went by and I heard from no one. I called again on 5-2-23, was connected to an answering machine where I left a message asking to be called and heard from no one. I called back on 5-3-23 and spoke to Sandy. I explained what was happening. She said no one could help me but the president of the company. I told her I needed to speak to him the next day or I would have to contact the BBB. I got no call, so I am filing this complaint.
  
  Again, I will pay a reasonable price but I think I should be refunded some of the money. Had they called me back this could have been avoided.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 05/30/2023

  On April 17, we were contacted by ***** for a winch.  Upon arrival, we found a vehicle that had went off road, on what appeared to be a four-wheeler path and was approximately 1000’ from a solid surface.  The path was extremely muddy, and had ruts in some places that were 6-12” deep.  Our flatbed operator called for assistance because any vehicle that went down there was going to get stuck, and sent pictures to our management team so they would know what he was dealing with.  Due to the distance from solid ground, the width of the four-wheeler path and the depth of the ruts, our flatbed driver was instructed to try to get the vehicle onto his truck and see how far he could get before he got stuck.  When he got stuck, another driver was sent to see if he could get him to the roadway, and also got stuck after pulling the flatbed approximately 300’.   A heavy duty unit was sent to the scene, and he used all of the 200’ of wire rope on his truck, plus the 75’ extension from the light duty truck plus 100’ of chain to get to the light duty truck.  Sending only a bigger truck would not have gotten the vehicle out, because we do not carry that much wire rope on any truck, and we would not have taken our heavy duty unit onto the four-wheeler path due to the condition and width of the path.   Using a ‘chain effect’ is often the best way to get vehicles out of an area that they should not have been driving in.
  The only other option to reduce the number of tow trucks would have been to take our skidsteer and winch-box out and try to winch the vehicle back to the roadway.  This is the approximate price to send the winch box out:
  

  Flatbed           $800.00 4 hrs @ $200 per hour
  Winch Box      $1,500.00 flat rate
  Skidsteer        $780.00 4 hrs @ $195 per hour
                         $3,080.00 Approximate total for skidsteer/winch box
  
  This is just an estimate of a best case scenario.  If the skidsteer would have gotten stuck, it would have taken longer than 4 hours, increasing the price, and if the flatbed wouldn’t have been able to winch it up, would have required a second truck to get it out.  It also would have caused damage to the underside of the vehicle as it drug across the ruts.  Our tow trucks sit higher off the ground, therefore the depth of the ruts wasn’t an issue, like it would have been for a passenger vehicle.   
  

  We will not be refunding anything to Mr. *********, as the rates he was charged for the 3 tow truck units was the lowest amount possible.  Any fewer trucks would not have recovered the vehicle from its location, and the skidsteer and winch-box would have been even higher than he was charged.