Ken's Towing and Tire Service — Local services in Baker

Completely dishonest company who preys on stranded motorists by using deceptive scare tactics and false claims

My car was overheating about 20 miles outside of Baker and roadside service sent out Ken's towing.

A guy named David showed up and in less than 30 seconds, I had already caught him in his first of many lies.

He tried to manipulate, cheat and lie his way to convince me to pay $550 for a tow, even though I insisted that the vehicle just needed coolant which he didn't have. When I called roadside assistance, I specifically asked them to have the driver bring coolant, a message that David claimed to never receive.

In less than 2 minutes, in the dark, David was able to diagnose my vehicles as having a blown head gasket, and explained that I had no other alternative than to tow it. He gave me a list of completely bogus reasons why he knew the head gasket was blown. He must have just assumed that I was some dumb motorist with no basic knowledge of cars who he could easily take advantage of. He clearly didn't realize that I have worked at a car dealership for the past 12 years.

I persisted that I believed the vehicle just needed coolant and and he continued to come up with false arguments for his cause.

He lied repeatedly and used manipulation, threats, guilt and scare tactics to try to get me to agree to let him tow.

At first, he wouldn't even tell me a price to be towed. I had to ask him three separate times before he actually asked me how much I was willing to pay? Don't most tow companies either have a flat rate or charge by the mile?

Finally he blurted out $550. I told him politely that I was not going to pay 550 for him to tow me and that I was going to call people in Vegas and that his services were no longer needed.

When he finally realized that I wasn't going to submit to his misleading tactics, he suddenly remembered that he had water on his truck that we could fill the radiator with. Amazing that this hadn't been an option for the last 30 minutes.

He agreed to fill me up with water for the price of $110, and he told me that "when you break down again, I'm not going to come save you".

After I left David, I drove 460 miles straight at 70 mph with my a/c on full blast and I never had another problem the rest of the way. In fact, the temperature gauge didn't get past the halfway point the entire rest of my trip. Not too shabby for having a blown head gasket.

I assume that most people he encounters just fall for his scam and his dishonesty, but I wasn't about to. It got to be so bad that even my wife realized what he was trying to do and started video and audio recording him.

I will be filing complaints with the roadside service company that I called as well as the state and the better business bureau.

I believe that all businesses need to make money and they need to be paid for their services, but I don't believe that any business should ever take advantage of stranded motorists by deceiving them with false claims in an attempt to trick them into gouging for services that they don't need. Shame on David and shame on...

Let me tell you about the ANGELS that saved my life tonight! Ken’s Towing did! If I could give then 100 stars I would!!! So apparently these new electric cars will show you that there is a certain amount of gas in your vehicle and there is not, but it’s my fault— I ran out of gas in an area that doesn’t have gas for about 60 miles. I called my insurance company hysterically and they were going to arrange a towing company to bring me some gas. They called me back about 45 minutes later saying no one will come out to where I was because it was in the middle of nowhere, I’m on my own. My husband had contacted this towing company from Mississippi. I was broke down in between Ludlow and Needles California. Ken’s towing was an hour and a half away from me and she said absolutely no problem and these people came out in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere to give me some gas when no one else would! Then since my car is electric, it was going crazy because apparently you can’t let electric cars gas go empty. This man stayed with me and charged my vehicle until it got running (it took over 30 min, prob more) and then followed me to a gas station and made sure it still started after I got gas so that I could get to a charging station so I wouldn’t mess up my vehicle! Long story short I owe these people my life and they were absolutely angels looking over me tonight! Thank you so much to the dispatcher and man who came...

Sons truck was towed off the highway outside of Baker, he posted in dash we will pickbit up. CHP had it picked up next day due to expired registration. He just bought it last year and had a mother put in from California. Now he was trying to get it to Nevada. When we went out to pick it up ,it was gone. I called around and found it here and a $250 fee. $50 a day and they wanted him to register it in Cali before releasing it. We called told them we had a moving Permit with DMV reciept, Title and bill of sale, and drivers licence, we were told it wasn't good enough, called CHP, and they said it will be. So we went out and we finally got the truck released. We were told the truck was safe for the 3 days it was on there lot. Just to find out that someone physically ran over the hood and into the bed of truck tool box was taken, someone broke into the truck and stole the emergancy kit and a box of truck engine parts. . Don't believe your vehicle will be safe on...