Argabarga, how you deal with road service companies, I have no idea.

[Aislin]

This week I am on a road trip. We were driving 8 miles from well known land mark A to well know chain hotel B. Between A and B we blow a tire.

We pull over, put on a spare, all is good for 1/2 mile when the spare picks up a nail and blows out spectacularly. We drive on the rim till we get someplace safe, 4 1/2 miles from B.
Next to a high way marker. With a number on it. We can see an airport from where we are. We know what city and state and zip code area code and all other vital information.
It is Easter.
We relay all the vital info to the road side service my insurance agent recommended we get. Ugh. My old insurance would just reimburse me for towing and I didn't have to call a service, they just cut me a check. Yes I had to pay but I always got my money back 100%
First the dispatcher tries to dispatch a tow truck from home city and home state. 900 miles away. We are asking to be towed 8 miles to a walmart, at 3 pm Which is open till six and has 4 replacement tires in stock. I called. The dispatcher insists on calling and making sure the tires are in stock.
This takes an hour. Then he calls 2 tow services, one won't tow unless we buy tires from them, and they don't even have the tires in stock. The other is closed. The third says we have to pay a fee. At this point we happily agree. Because at this rate we are calling that guy any way. This town has a total of 3 tow companies.
So the dispatcher sends the tow driver allllll the way to 15 miles the other side of A. They gave him an address of an abandoned building. Where they got the address is confusing as my phone location was the same gps info as my gps unit. Plus our detailed description of where we were. None of this was relayed to the driver.

The driver is understandably confused. Where the heck are we? He calls me, and asks, because he is a logical gentleman and is used to the roadside company being idiots. I give him details and he sighs. His company is located at the airport complex we can see from our car. A whole mile from our car.

He gets there, gets us loaded and on our way almost 3 hours after we called. It took him 30 minutes to get to us and get us taken care of. He is amazingly awesome. He drops me at the hotel and drops the car and hubby at walmart. The tire shop was just closing and so they didn't start our tires till the next day. Luckily one of the tire lube guys saw the hubby walking toward our hotel and picked him up and took him to our hotel.

This tiny tourist trap has no cabs so we walked to breakfast and to pick up the car next day. Thanks awesome tow driver, thanks awesome walmart people. Not thanks dispatch for not listening, not documenting and sending our driver on a wild goose chase.

[Argabarga]

The weak link in the Motor Club system is the dispatcher, especially because now that things like Google Maps and such exist, they don't see why they have to TRAIN people on how to effectively dispatch/find stuff. ANd in some cases, the dispatcher is in an overseas call center and has never seen US Soil, much less the road system, and they're under pressure to get off the line, so anything 'superfluous' to them, like extra details, gets ignored because the system isn't set up to process it.

Our first step after getting a call is to call the member and verify they're where the MC says they are, and frequently, they aren't.

Once you FIND a club that knows what they're doing, don't EVER let them go! Even if they ask for your firstborn!

[mathnerd]

When I had to be towed in Phoenix, I ran into a similar issue. It wasn't quite so bad, but the dispatcher did take some convincing before she figured out that I wasn't going to come with an address given that I was on the side of a major interstate. She kept asking if I could see any addresses from where I was. I kept repeating that no, "I'm on the side of I-10 westbound in the middle of downtown Phoenix on the west side of the tunnel and before you get to the next exit a few hundred feet way." I'm not even from Phoenix, nor had I ever been there before that moment, yet even I could figure out that this was a VERY good description of where I was, and for dog's sake, would you please get somebody out here because it's RUSH HOUR and I have three kids (and two dogs) in the car! All and all, my MC is pretty good, but dispatch needs a little improvement.

[LillFilly]

Wow; imagine if it had been a real emergency.

I recall a 911 dispatcher who kept insisting that hotel X on the south side of the highway in Town A was ACTUALLY hotel Y on the north side of the highway when we had to call for a guest having a heart attack! Nevermind that the front desk person kept CORRECTING the dispatcher, she said that's what was showing on her computer... and she still sent the ambulance to hotel Y, delaying them by a good 8-minutes.

[TimmyHate]

@ Mathnerd

I've been to Phoenix a grand total of 4 times in my life (and not since 2010) and I can actually VISUALISE where you were. How the heck someone who's job it is to dispach couldn't figure it out.... *Headdesk*

[MoonCat]

in some cases, the dispatcher is in an overseas call center

But the company saves money on labor costs this way! So it MUST be a good idea!*

*Sarcasm, if you can't tell....

[jedimaster91]

The last time I had to be towed, my car broke down just shy of an interstate on ramp. Downtown in a major city. In January. After dark. Sooooo not a safe place for a young female to be alone. Still took over 2 hours to get a tow truck to my location. By then I was cold, hungry, freaked out, and most decidedly not happy. In fact, I had just called my parents to come wait with me when the truck finally materialized. Dispatch said the truck had gotten lost or something. Even with clear directions. >.<

[Aislin]

The dispatcher was in the city we are from. I know because my friend was fired from there for using logic and common sense. I even confirmed he was at call center xyz on street q city I live in. He was just using a script and using their faulty map system. The driver didn't question him because he gave an address for where we were and kept confirming it when the driver would question him.

[Argabarga]

Dispatch said the truck had gotten lost or something. Even with clear directions. >.<

Yeah, their idea of "clear" leaves a lot to be desired, especially when I get a fax with an address that includes an intersection, with two roads, that don't cross....... yeah, it's all very clear, there's only one little problem with it........ IT DON'T EXIST

[lachesis]

Once my neice and I were in a meineke parking lot next to a dunkin donuts waiting for a tow. There was another car in the lot waiting to be towed, but they had called about an hour after we did. The tow guy circled the parking lot looking for my neice's car and couldn't "find it" even though we were watching him circle the lot and were waving him down. He took the other car and left even after I approached him and said we were waiting for him first. He blatently tried to ignore me and then told me he had no such pick up orders for my neice's car. I called my MC and made a thorough complaint about him. 15 minutes later, guess who pulled back into the lot, dropped the other car, and started loading up ours? And yes, he was cursing and pissy the whole time.

I found out later that the reason why he didn't want to take our car was because the travel time to tow to my parents' house would have been a round trip of roughly 2 1/2 hours. Sucks for him, but my plan with my motor club covered the distance.

[Jetfire]

Thankfully I've never had to deal with autoclubs since I don't usually have a car. Twice in my life, I've had vehicle issues that we couldn't handle with calls to friends in town.

The first time, I was driving back to Ottawa from my parent's place. In the middle of Quebec, Easter long weekend I think (Since I was just changing my winter for summer tires), I had a blowout. Got pulled over to the side of the road (the fast side of the road at that), and was trying to figure out where to go.

A Quebec Highway services truck stopped to see what was going on, helped me get the spare on so I could limp to Montmagny's Crappy Tire. And they were able to get 2 new tires put on for me about an hour before closing. No charge for the spare tire change on the highway; I think they just wanted me to get going (Major kudos for their help regardless).

Second time, I was moving from Ottawa back to New Brunswick. We had rented a U-Haul and dad was travelling with me. We'd stopped somewhere in Quebec for lunch and for something else (I think it was banking related), and stupidly, I locked the UHaul's keys in the cab. Called a locksmith and he popped the door for us.

I hope those of you who have had issues from calls to Auto Clubs have filed official complaints about your incidents. Sure they may just be a drop in the ocean, but enough drops can cause a flood and spur changes.

[An Haddock]

Some people just don't listen.

I've posted before about ordering pizza in my area... we have two towns right next to each other that share the same zip code and the same main street. I made the mistake of calling Dominos the other night instead of ordering online. I specifically said to the guy "we're two blocks from your store" - but STILL, the driver insisted on using his GPS which took him ten minutes down the main street to the wrong town.

As much as I loathe moving this weekend, at least the new apartment will be easier to find for delivery drivers.

[EricKei]

I'm kinda scared to order where I live now -- I'm in a "rear apartment"/separate building behind another house, but the layout is such that my actual *address* is on Street A, but you can only get to where I am via the connecting sidestreet. Basically, I have to hope that the delivery guy actually reads the note that says "come around the side to the back yard" >_<

[bhskittykatt]

The tow truck and 911 dispatches here seem to know what's up. I've become good friends with one of the local tow companies. Sometimes it takes a while to get a truck, but that's due to short-staff rather than lost drivers and the dispatch is good about letting me know.

Only thing I saw once that befuddled me a bit was one morning on the paper route where I smelled smoke in a neighborhood full of chimney-less apartment blocks. We discovered a mulch fire in someone's landscaping, called the Fire Department, and waited. The blocks here are laid out very simply, with a 1100, 1200, 1300 blocks and so on. The fire truck, from a station in the same general neighborhood, came down, stopped twice on each block to look at addresses, and just took way too long. Just count the blocks and verify every other block or so. And of course we're in the street waving but it's dark and they're taking their time....I understand wanting to make sure you don't pass the address but it's so easily laid out there and even if it wasn't just look for the block full of smoke!

I'm kinda scared to order where I live now -- I'm in a "rear apartment"/separate building behind another house, but the layout is such that my actual *address* is on Street A, but you can only get to where I am via the connecting sidestreet. Basically, I have to hope that the delivery guy actually reads the note that says "come around the side to the back yard" >_<

In my delivery area, there's an apartment complex with an address of "123 A St". Except "A St" doesn't go into the 100 block. You have to turn into an alley past a building on B St, go around, and you're in that building's parking lot, and then there's another little driveway, go down that, and you're at 123 A St. There's nothing on B St that indicates there's a secret apartment complex hiding down the alley and that that secret apartment complex is an A St address. In fact, "123 A St" has no building numbers as far as I can tell to indicate that you've found the right place once you're there.

If I hadn't had a customer there when I was being trained on the route, I don't know how I would have found any subsequent customers there. I imagine pizza delivery there must be a nightmare.

[jedimaster91]

Yeah, their idea of "clear" leaves a lot to be desired, especially when I get a fax with an address that includes an intersection, with two roads, that don't cross....... yeah, it's all very clear, there's only one little problem with it........ IT DON'T EXIST

Considering my directions on the phone to dispatch was something along the lines of just before <interstate ramp> on <street> across from <fast food joint>, I dunno how they screwed it up so badly. That one was equally as bad as the time I got stranded on <major interstate> within sight of <next exit> on a weekend (so not much traffic, but still enough to where I didn't want to be standing on the shoulder) in the middle of summer (so dangerously hot in a car you can't start) and still it took 2 hours. Makes you wonder why they bother asking if you're in a safe place because some companies will show up when they're darn good and ready to.

Maybe they get crap directions so often they don't know what to do with good ones?