Okay, look motor club. You have tried 4 times. FOUR TIMES. To give us this call, and each time we have refused to take it.
You'd think that after twice, you would have given up.
But how many times do we have to say it?
The town you are trying to send us to is 75 MILES AWAY.
All on back-roads.
It will take a driver 2 and a half hours at best to get there, and then 2 and a half back, he'll essentially burn 80% of his shift on one call that will net us about $10 when the costs of fuel and labor are deducted from your payout to us. We just can't/won't do that.
Oh yes, we understand that person "really needs" help, but, when someone's drowning at the pool, don't call the Coast Guard, by the time they get there, the person will be as bloated and colorful as a beach ball. Call someone closer, and if you haven't got coverage in that area, well, shame on you. In fact, this could be seen as karma coming home to roost seeing as how often you've put the thumbscrews to us and retroactively refused to pay us for services rendered.
Yes, you, in an effort no doubt to increase profit margins, will refuse to pay us for anything if we, say, submit paperwork to you on a towed vehicle and don't include the odometer reading. Even if it's a digital one, like just about every car in the last 12 years has, and the owner took off before we got there and didn't leave the keys. Exactly how are we supposed to get mileage then? Or when they wreck hard enough to smash the battery terminals and cut the juice? Doesn't seem to matter to you, no odometer means we don't get paid. Yes, we're aware what the contract stipulations say, but, we physically cannot meet them in these situations. Oh, you don't care? Great.
Or when you show us that, according to your GPS, if our driver had taken an extra 40 minutes and made an absolutely byzantine amount of lefts and rights through that city instead of taking the freeway around it, he could have shaved .43 miles off the tow distance, so we're not getting paid our tow mileage because we "padded it out"? Have you considered the fact that the big ol' rollback truck DOESN'T FIT through some of those side streets? You might as well ask us to drive through someone's living room, in the front door and out the back? That we aren't keen on taking it down 10% grades in winter so we'll take a longer flatter way around? Or that in at least one occasion, we had to detour, on account of that tipped-over semi that managed to block EVERY SINGLE LANE? Oh, that doesn't matter? No pay for us?
Should it really be a surprise we aren't willing to bend over backwards for you in return? Looks like your practices have caused every other available tow company in the area to figure out how you work, and they've dropped you like a hot potato, so now you're down to us. Well, Bugger off.
Why did you keep calling back? Well, I know why, your automated system just brings up the *next* towing company once the current one turns you down and once the options are expended it just wraps around to the beginning, obviously. But really, after two turn-downs, what makes you think the third or fourth will work? We aren't a slot machine, we don't pay out if you just get enough yanks on the handle.
Unless that town is on a different tectonic plate than us, it ain't gettin' any CLOSER! (in which case, it may be getting FURTHER AWAY). 75 miles is still too far to go when we have local calls that we need to be ready for.
The cops don't like it when you can't send a truck out to clean wrecks of roads because you sent them out of town, and people who live locally don't LIKE waiting 2 hours for service from a garage 10 miles away because all the trucks have been sent to OTHER CITIES 50 miles away.
(This actually used to happen frequently under the old owner who accepted EVERYTHING under the annoying credo "Don't step over a quarter on your way to pick up a dollar!" Seemingly unaware that other people were racing FOR the dollar and would beat you to it. He'd even call people in and pay them overtime to drive 150 miles round trip to unlock someone's car, meaning he probably LOST money. Guess he expected to make it up in volume.)
That has mercifully stopped now that we're under new management, but I feel that's how we got on all these lists that have us as "available" for areas that have different PHONE EXCHANGES, much less zip codes. Yes, I guess it's partially our fault, but the MC's seem to be real slow on the uptake that we aren't doing it anymore.
And to the person who needed the service. It was a TIRE CHANGE.
Now, assuming you didn't throw away your owner's manual or that goofy stuff in the trunk you had no idea what it was for, except taking up space for you to stuff it with ceramic dancing bear figurines from that last flea market trip, you had with you EVERYTHING needed to do the tire change yourself.
If you DID throw that stuff out, then shame on you for calling your motor club and asking for a tire change and not a tow. Because you probably assumed we'd bring a spare with us. We don't do this. I'm willing to be a paycheck that if we had taken this call, we'd have gotten on scene and found out that we'd have to take even LONGER for a tow somewhere even FURTHER away because there was no spare. If I made the rules around here, I would flat-out *bwahahahaha! see whut I did thar?!* refuse to do tire changes and only offer tows to the nearest garage/tire shop. If you want that tire changed, do it yourself, if you cannot/will not, suffer the inconvenient consequences foolish mortal.
(You may recall I've ranted about this before. Calls for tire changes assume you have a spare, they even ASK you, and if you answer in the affirmative when not sure if you do, or even certain that you don't but assume we psychically know things we don't and will bring our own spare, well, shame on you. Your remains should be fed to hyenas, after being eaten and partially-digested by lions, who ran you down after we finished beating you to a pulp. Yes, I HATE people like this.)
So, I really don't feel quite as bad for that person in retrospect. Having never met you, I'm certain you could do it in under 4 hours. Yes, they waited 4 hours for service, assuming they got it. The first request for this call came in at 6pm, the last attempt was just after 10pm. So let this be a lesson for you as well, do not become willfully helpless! And I hope your motor club eventually either found someone closer or gave you a generous refund for THEIR willful helplessness.
You'd think that after twice, you would have given up.
But how many times do we have to say it?
The town you are trying to send us to is 75 MILES AWAY.
All on back-roads.
It will take a driver 2 and a half hours at best to get there, and then 2 and a half back, he'll essentially burn 80% of his shift on one call that will net us about $10 when the costs of fuel and labor are deducted from your payout to us. We just can't/won't do that.
Oh yes, we understand that person "really needs" help, but, when someone's drowning at the pool, don't call the Coast Guard, by the time they get there, the person will be as bloated and colorful as a beach ball. Call someone closer, and if you haven't got coverage in that area, well, shame on you. In fact, this could be seen as karma coming home to roost seeing as how often you've put the thumbscrews to us and retroactively refused to pay us for services rendered.
Yes, you, in an effort no doubt to increase profit margins, will refuse to pay us for anything if we, say, submit paperwork to you on a towed vehicle and don't include the odometer reading. Even if it's a digital one, like just about every car in the last 12 years has, and the owner took off before we got there and didn't leave the keys. Exactly how are we supposed to get mileage then? Or when they wreck hard enough to smash the battery terminals and cut the juice? Doesn't seem to matter to you, no odometer means we don't get paid. Yes, we're aware what the contract stipulations say, but, we physically cannot meet them in these situations. Oh, you don't care? Great.
Or when you show us that, according to your GPS, if our driver had taken an extra 40 minutes and made an absolutely byzantine amount of lefts and rights through that city instead of taking the freeway around it, he could have shaved .43 miles off the tow distance, so we're not getting paid our tow mileage because we "padded it out"? Have you considered the fact that the big ol' rollback truck DOESN'T FIT through some of those side streets? You might as well ask us to drive through someone's living room, in the front door and out the back? That we aren't keen on taking it down 10% grades in winter so we'll take a longer flatter way around? Or that in at least one occasion, we had to detour, on account of that tipped-over semi that managed to block EVERY SINGLE LANE? Oh, that doesn't matter? No pay for us?
Should it really be a surprise we aren't willing to bend over backwards for you in return? Looks like your practices have caused every other available tow company in the area to figure out how you work, and they've dropped you like a hot potato, so now you're down to us. Well, Bugger off.
Why did you keep calling back? Well, I know why, your automated system just brings up the *next* towing company once the current one turns you down and once the options are expended it just wraps around to the beginning, obviously. But really, after two turn-downs, what makes you think the third or fourth will work? We aren't a slot machine, we don't pay out if you just get enough yanks on the handle.
Unless that town is on a different tectonic plate than us, it ain't gettin' any CLOSER! (in which case, it may be getting FURTHER AWAY). 75 miles is still too far to go when we have local calls that we need to be ready for.
The cops don't like it when you can't send a truck out to clean wrecks of roads because you sent them out of town, and people who live locally don't LIKE waiting 2 hours for service from a garage 10 miles away because all the trucks have been sent to OTHER CITIES 50 miles away.
(This actually used to happen frequently under the old owner who accepted EVERYTHING under the annoying credo "Don't step over a quarter on your way to pick up a dollar!" Seemingly unaware that other people were racing FOR the dollar and would beat you to it. He'd even call people in and pay them overtime to drive 150 miles round trip to unlock someone's car, meaning he probably LOST money. Guess he expected to make it up in volume.)
That has mercifully stopped now that we're under new management, but I feel that's how we got on all these lists that have us as "available" for areas that have different PHONE EXCHANGES, much less zip codes. Yes, I guess it's partially our fault, but the MC's seem to be real slow on the uptake that we aren't doing it anymore.
And to the person who needed the service. It was a TIRE CHANGE.
Now, assuming you didn't throw away your owner's manual or that goofy stuff in the trunk you had no idea what it was for, except taking up space for you to stuff it with ceramic dancing bear figurines from that last flea market trip, you had with you EVERYTHING needed to do the tire change yourself.
If you DID throw that stuff out, then shame on you for calling your motor club and asking for a tire change and not a tow. Because you probably assumed we'd bring a spare with us. We don't do this. I'm willing to be a paycheck that if we had taken this call, we'd have gotten on scene and found out that we'd have to take even LONGER for a tow somewhere even FURTHER away because there was no spare. If I made the rules around here, I would flat-out *bwahahahaha! see whut I did thar?!* refuse to do tire changes and only offer tows to the nearest garage/tire shop. If you want that tire changed, do it yourself, if you cannot/will not, suffer the inconvenient consequences foolish mortal.
(You may recall I've ranted about this before. Calls for tire changes assume you have a spare, they even ASK you, and if you answer in the affirmative when not sure if you do, or even certain that you don't but assume we psychically know things we don't and will bring our own spare, well, shame on you. Your remains should be fed to hyenas, after being eaten and partially-digested by lions, who ran you down after we finished beating you to a pulp. Yes, I HATE people like this.)
So, I really don't feel quite as bad for that person in retrospect. Having never met you, I'm certain you could do it in under 4 hours. Yes, they waited 4 hours for service, assuming they got it. The first request for this call came in at 6pm, the last attempt was just after 10pm. So let this be a lesson for you as well, do not become willfully helpless! And I hope your motor club eventually either found someone closer or gave you a generous refund for THEIR willful helplessness.
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