Lew Blum Towing

As if getting your car isn’t horrible enough. These people are the rudest people I’ve ever encountered in Philly. The man at the place literally yelled at us when we arrived. Then he said they only take cash. $ 206 cash at freaking midnight. And when we brought the money he said that they only take exact change. Are you kidding me? If you’re going to demand cash, you better have change. This place embodies everything that is crappy about Philadelphia in one location — rude, stinky, and unreasonable.

Bunch of scumbags… they towed my car from in front of a make shift garage i.e. fenced in yard made with 2x4s with a large gate, on a street with no signage indicating where the «garage» door begins and ends, no painted lines on the road or sidewalk, and a totally intact curb i.e. no ramp leading into or out of said «garage.» Tried to address this with the «lovely» i.e. miserable, woman behind the counter, and even she initially explained that a garage will have a recession in the pavement, so when I pointed out that this garage didn’t, she told me that I’d have to take them to court. If you want to lose your faith in humanity and any semblance of justice or righteousness in our society, have your car towed by these corrupt lowlifes.

Worst place ever. Smells horrible. Don’t know how to use a credit card machine. Slowest service. Just a horrible place. You are already in a shitty fucking mood and the. Their credit card reader doesn’t work because they are getting a 40 page fax. Bull shit. This place is the worst place ever.

It’s never a pleasant experience to have your car towed, but having it towed by lew Blum is just the lowest of the low. First off, I’m so sorry this happened to you. It happened to me too. I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t. It’s surprising that lew Blum is an actual company. I took a cab over to the tow location (it’s way west, I live way east) and the cab driver insisted on waiting for me because he was terrified fort safety when I left to enter the unnamed, run down building that is lew Blum. There’s one room with a large tinted bullet proof glass window that you speak to an anonymous person through and give them your keys and license (sketchy). Their machines are always «down,» which means credit or debit is a no-​go so you’re going to have to go across the street and use the ATM. Be careful walking back to lew Blum with a fat pocket of cash. It’s a sketchy ass neighborhood. This place is terrible. Avoid it at all cost.

The unprofessional nature of this business astounding. A business that routinely charges hundreds of dollars didn’t have a working credit card machine, didn’t accept checks, and to add insult to injury they didn’t have change for cash payments. If you are lucky enough to not need to drag yourself out to this sketchy place consider yourself lucky.

Lew Blum towing do an excellent job in parking lot enforcement. Some jerk parked in my allotted parking space at my condominium complex. Lew Blum towing was called and arrived quickly to tow away the vehicle. Couldn’t ask for better service!

1 word: scumbag. These people are from other planet (no education, no idea how to interact with other human being).

I will preface this review by noting that I have a garage with a Lew Blum towing sign on it, because they’re aggressive and will tow at the drop of a hat.
However, being on the receiving end of a Lew Blum tow is not a pleasant experience.
When I went to pay my ransom, the window guy had all the charm of Louie from the TV show «Taxi», but without any of the redeeming qualities and about 50x the rudeness. He was condescending and insulting as he took my $ 235, and «answered» my questions by angrily arguing with me and walking away from the window four times for 5 minutes at a time.
Call me an old fashioned date, but at least smile when you’re screwing me.
I was towed from an area with street signage that permits parking 10 ft back from the corner. There was a private Lew Blum sign in over top of a rear entrance door to a business, but I was parked at least 15 ft up the block. Lew Blum interprets their realm to be the entire block. This is obviously a $weet $pot for them, given the ambiguous conflict of signage, a nice little money maker. Believe me, if it were clearly marked by the PPA, I wouldn’t have parked.
So, a one star rating for their predatory towing and surly attitude, but a star added knowing that I can unleash this vengeance on some poor schmuck who dares to block my garage.
Update on review — 12÷4÷14
To be fair about my review, I’ve updated it… I researched my incident above and found that I shouldn’t have been towed. I contacted the company, presented my findings, and they agreed to my refund request.

I want to preface this by saying I have never written a bad review in my life about any business — UNTIL NOW. A couple of weeks ago, I drove into Philadelphia to meet friends for lunch. I hadn’t seen these friends in 45 years. I was so excited to meet them that I parked in the first parking space I found near the restaurant, neglecting to see a «No Parking» sign on a row-​house garage door. The space itself was not clearly marked, so I partially blocked the garage.
After a wonderful lunch, we left the restaurant only to find my car hooked to a tow truck across the street — a Lew Blum Tow Truck. My car was still in its parking space, but the wheels were hooked to towing equipment. Since the car had not yet been towed, we asked the driver to unhook my car. He said he would do it for $ 175. I would have paid the money, until we noticed the damage to my car. There were large dents on the fender above the wheel. This was bad enough. We then noticed that the driver had broken into my car. The top of the door was bent, and the black molding around the two doors looked like it had been sawed. The white color of my car was showing through!
The driver rudely denied causing the damage, but fortunately, a neighbor witnessed the whole thing. He saw the driver push the car with his body and actually saw the dents being made. So, we called the police. One of my friends called Lew Blum Towing, but no one returned the call.
The police arrived and immediately doubted the driver’s story… and after seeing the condition of my car and taking a statement from the witness, they demanded my car be unhooked at no charge. The officers said even THEY can’t break into someone’s car! The two police officers even called their superior who arrived some time later. They spent quite a while interrogating the driver and investigating. This whole incident took almost two hours. My friends stayed with me the whole time — calling the police, calling Lew Blum, looking up the towing laws, etc.
When the body shop looked at my car, the owner said the behavior of the tow company was despicable. I couldn’t agree more.
I learned two things that day. First, Lew Blum Towing is the most unprofessional, unethical, and crooked business I have ever met. And second, my friends were the same caring and thoughtful gals I knew 45 years ago.

A commercial building at the corner of my street has signs posted that all cars will be towed who park in their lot. The building is for sale. Cars park there all day and night.
I, myself, have called Lew Blum and the person (s) who answer the phone are unprofessional and unconcerned. The owner of the building lives in another state and cannot monitor. the cars who park there. Lew Blum never has towed the illegal cars.

So I was actually parked in front of Lew Blum when my car was towed… to the garage five feet away. And, to make it even better, I walked up while my car was being towed. I was informed that because it was already up, no on the truck, but just up, I still had to pay the fee. Wait, but also, I live two blocks away. So while waiting for my mother to make the 30 second drive down the street they decided to put my car in the garage anyway, which resulted in me having to wait an additional half an hour to get it back out.
The attendant snatched my keys when going to get the car.
The place smelled like urine.
The attendant was on his phone the entire time.
The whole situation just makes me very wary of supporting small business owners, it looks like making an extra $ 175 is more important than businesses longevity and good customer service.

My story is more of the same. I parked in a private school lot that my friend who lives down the street said would be fine for a Saturday night. When I came out Sunday morning, my car was gone. There was a $ 175 plus $ 25 storage fee on the only sign there. When I called, they told me it was $ 265 and that the $ 25 storage fee only applied if I caught the tow driver with my car (apparently $ 25 to store the back of my car on his towing equipment). The additional $ 65 was the daily storage fee. My apologetic friend drove me to Lew Blum’s «offices», which are extremely shady looking and in a rough area. The whole transaction felt dangerous, quite frankly. The guy working there was pretty rude. The city should really crack down on these guys.

I had the misfortune finding that my car had been towed one morning because it was parked in an area that must be clear when it snows. So I called up the number on the sign, got the address in West Philly, used my Google Maps app to find a Septa bus route there. It’s in a bad neighborhood in West Philly. The office is decrepit. Lew Blum obviously puts none of the massive profit he makes into maintaining the office or providing a remotely professional atmosphere. The employee there tried to rip me off by saying that I owed $ 230 instead of the $ 205 it was supposed to be for $ 175 towing +$ 25/​day storage +$ 5 tax. After I kept insisting I only owed $ 205, he finally relented and said «ohh, umm, we had a similar car in so I was confused…».
It might be good to take a picture of the Lew Blum sign with pricing on it before you pick up your car, just know that you should not pay more than $ 205 if you’re picking your car up the next day. And also their credit card machine is conveniently «broken» so you have to use the ATM in the market across the street. I’m guessing it’s been «broken» for 20+ years. You also need to get them to break change at the market since Lew requires exact change.

Look I get it, no one is going to give a positive review to a towing company. Still, there is a special job in hell disimpacting Satan’s unholy bowels awaiting these guys.
I doubt anyone will check Unilocal before wandering out into the war-​zone that is West Philadelphia to find your car, but if you did be warned THEY WILL TRY TO SCAM YOU. Also be sure the BRING EXACT CHANGE as they will not break any bills for you (kinda goes along with the whole being scammed thing).
The charge (per their sign) is $ 175 + $ 25. My girlfriend was told that she owed $ 300 then $ 265, before finding out she really owed $ 200. Consider bringing a picture of the Lew Blum sign to avoid being scammed. Also consider telling your family you love them, going to confession, and getting your will in order because West Philadelphia.

This place is where your car goes if a private establishment has it towed (ie. parked in front of a private driveway). It is in the worst neighborhood and is cash only. The people aren’t particularly nice but not rude. It’s $ 205 (exact change only) to get your car out on the first day, and $ 25 a day extra for a holding fee.
If you end up here, I’m sorry. It’s not a great start to your day. But at least your car isn’t stolen– you’ll just feel like you got robbed to get it back.