I've had it with my auto club

popof9
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:07:56 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

I’ve been with this auto club, (a very large and well-known one that goes by three letters) for a number of years, and even upgraded to their “Premiere” level of service at a substantial extra cost.

Well, a couple days ago my wife calls me from the side of the road, saying while she was driving our '92 Dodge B350 van she started to smell coolant and the temp guage headed for the moon. She pulls over and, sure enough, coolant is flowing out like a waterfall from the front of the engine. (I later determined a heater hose had ruptured).

So, she calls the, um, cough-cough “Association we are All Aware of”. They verify she is an associate member on my account, and proceed to call their contracted towing company for the area.

A half hour later they call my (now shivering in the cold vehicle) wife back, saying “the towing company says they need a special HEAVY DUTY wrecker to tow your 15-passenger van, and theirs is not available. We can’t help you, you will need to call around and find a tow on your own.”

I know for an absolute fact that this is bunk, any tow truck can tow that van, from the sling type on up. So I got on the horn (I was 2.5 hours away in my car heading home from work) with you-know-who auto club and told them the towing company was feeding them nonsense, and to get a truck out there and get that stranded lone female off the side of the road and van towed, pronto. They assured me yes-yes, they would take care of everything, and said they would call ME once all the ducks were in a row.

Well, and hour later they call my WIFE (apparently didn’t have enough spine to call me back) saying she was on her own, reiterated she would have to find some other company to tow the van because their contracted company refused to tow it because “they needed the special heavy-duty tow truck” to tow the van.

Long story short, I finally made my way over there from 2 1/2 hours away and got my freezing, exhausted from hours waiting at the side of the road, sobbing wife home, and got the van towed home (yes, with a NON heavy duty tow truck no thanks to you-know-who auto club).

So much for you-know-who’s vaunted “Premiere” service. I am DONE with them. Does anyone know a good auto club that doesn’t start with three identical vowels who will actually PROVIDE roadside assistance?

27 posts - 17 participants