Charley’s Crane Service

TLDR: Don’t use this company even if they can get someone out to you quick, it’s shady and they accuse legitimate customers of insurance fraud. There are plenty of other tow companies in the area.
I wish I could rate this company lower. On Friday night I called a couple towing companies to tow my broken down car. The last one I called was Charley’s Crane services and after the operator told me that, with the extra costs, the tow would be upward of 300 and he couldn’t get a man out to me for an hour and a half one of their operators called me back on my cell saying that he could come get me in half an hour. When the operator arrived I told him that I did not have very much cash on me and could only pay by credit card, to which he said that the companies credit card machine was broken but it might be fixed by the time we arrived at my local auto-​shop. When we got there, of course, the machine still wasn’t fixed and the operator would not give me back my car until I paid him via check or cash. Not having either a friend loaned me money from a local ATM and that was that.
Days later when I tried to file a claim CCS couldn’t find my receipt for my insurance company (I have towing coverage). Finally they confirmed my claim, but now a day later they are insisting that the driver just «picked me up and had me call» instead of calling me first! Thank god I didn’t have the cash on me or actually get picked up on the side of the road by one of their vehicles before calling!
The funny thing is the operator did actually show up promptly and did manage to get my car into a tight and unwieldy spot with his truck. Had it not been for this mess I would have considered using them in the future, or suggesting their business to other marylanders/​friends stuck on the side of the road… but instead I will tell them specifically to avoid this company.

Charley’s Crane Service entered into a contract in our small private development, and installed an excessive number of large menacing signs all around threatening to tow «unauthorized» vehicles. A little while later they appeared and attempted to tow away a resident’s personal taxicab from the resident’s reserved parking space, even though taxicab parking is not prohibited in our development. Instead of towing, they issued a warning ticket, as if they were the police.