How hard is it to follow directions

[Rahmota]

Hello, We had a rather interesting event happen on the road today. Within 80 miles of home the car trailer splits a rim, and cuts into the sidewall. So we pull over at a BP and call the emergency number. Well this is where the fun began.

TO preface things I realize many people here work in call centers and work customer care. I am not griping about the whole system or anyone other than the morons we dealt with tonight on the Ucarryit (with the big orange trucks) line.

We where broke in St Leon Indiana. 30 minutes drive west of cincinnati. Well since that place did not come up on their comupter the first person we spoke with asked for directions. These are the directions I gave them:

"We are at blah blah blah st rt 1 south saint leon indiana, thats 30 minutes drivetime west on interstate 74 to exit 764 turn left off the ramp onto indiana route 1 south." its not in our computer was the reply. So I proceeded to give this person step by step directions on how to get to where I was standing from cincinnati. Which they supposedly entered into the system. An hour later we call back and see what the hold up is this person has no clue where we are either. He thinks we are in Illinois! What part of repeating the words INDIANA! can these retards not understand. Are they so stupid that if it isnt spelled out on their computer screens for them they cannot think for themselves? So we wait after regiving the information again. Including the information the nice police officer who came and talked to us. Another hour goes by where we finally give them an ultimatum get somebody out there or else we are offloading the truck and goign on. Which we finally did. 2 hours of waiting that we could have been driving tham much closer to home wasted by their lack of ability to perform basic customer service skills. I will tell you this I found where I was tonight on google maps with utterly no trouble whatsoever. So either the people at uhaul's emergency road service are blind, illiterate, retarded or incapable of thinking outside of their pathetic little boxes or they where lying about being that stupid and just didnt
want to send a truck out for us. I dont know what their problem was but it definately was their problem tonight. This was a case of customer service sucking.

We finally got fed up with their stupidity and offloaded the car and dragged the trailer back to Ohio the last 80 miles with only 3 wheels. These people tonight where totally incapable of finding their arse with their hands and a roadmap.

[NotSoInnocent]

Hello, We had a rather interesting event happen on the road today. Within 80 miles of home the car trailer splits a rim, and cuts into the sidewall. So we pull over at a BP and call the emergency number. Well this is where the fun began.

TO preface things I realize many people here work in call centers and work customer care. I am not griping about the whole system or anyone other than the morons we dealt with tonight on the Ucarryit (with the big orange trucks) line.

<snippy>

Oh do I completely understand where you're coming from on this one. I rented a small trailer for a 200 mile move. Everything was fine until after we got everything packed and started heading down the highway. Suddenly my dashboard lights go out... as do my rear lights and the trailer lights. I, being the concerned citizen that I am, pull over immediately. I pull into a McD's parking lot and call the number...

Realize, please, that I was in a major city. (The kind of city that people in other countries can pinpoint on a map with a fair degree of accuracy.) I'm sitting, literally, 30 seconds away from a major highway. I had the address of the business that I'm waiting at.... and...

Six hours later I'm still sitting there! It's getting very late, so I must get some rest. After confirming with the service people on the phone that I will be reimbursed, I pull into a hotel and sleep for a few hours.

Back on the road, it's daylight and the concerns of the night before are a moot point. I head the rest of the way to my new place and call for service from there. I have everything unloaded and put away before the repair tech gets there. I find out that the problem was a blown fuse caused by exposed wiring in the freaking trailer.

Returned the trailer and did get reimbursed for the hotel stay... but oh how pissed I was. Never again. Never, ever again.

[MadMike]

Think that's bad? I once had to deal with a 911 operator who didn't seem to know how to follow directions.

I was with some friends, in the one guy's jeep, on our way back from a concert, when it started raining lightly. Which was fun, considering it was nice earlier, and we decided to go without the top. We hit a slippery patch of road and slammed into a guardrail, and my one dumbass friend who doesn't believe in seat belts, got thrown out of the jeep.

As soon as I realized what happened, I took off running and found a pay phone. (This was in '93, before cell phones were as common as they are now.) I called 911 and told the operator what happened and where we were, and she kept trying to send them to the wrong damn highway. I had to repeat myself 4 or 5 times before she finally got it right.

Thankfully, my friend was OK. He got off with nothing more than a concussion and a few bumps, scrapes, and bruises. But to this day, he does not remember the accident, or the 5 or 10 minutes leading up to it.

[air914]

I once had a flat tire and called AAA (Triple A). I was right near the college I was attending and I gave them FOUR of the streets surrounding me. Meaning basically that I was inside of a square and I gave them all four streets of that square and told them I was in the parking lot, color of my car, etc. and even some more landmarks of businesses right there where I was. Still an hour later, I didn't see them. If it weren't for some Mormons that were evangelizing the area and decided to change my tire, I'd probably still be stuck there waiting for Triple A. (Than you God for those Mormons!) I even was sitting on top of my car to make it very very obvious that I was in distress so if Triple A came anywhere NEAR that parking lot they could see me........ and by the way - not a very full parking lot either.

[protege]

I was ready to strangle an AAA employee last year when my car broke down. Upon leaving work, the car was suddenly down on power. Crossing the bridge, it was like the cylinders were literally shutting down on me I had just enough left to get across the bridge by the zoo...only for the car to stall at the light! At least I was able to get it rolled off the road, and onto the sidewalk. I had no idea what was wrong--so I put the hood up and waited. Called up AAA, and that's when the fun began Not only did I have to repeat myself about a dozen times...but she couldn't find where I was! Nevermind that I gave all the street names, route numbers, and other landmarks...she couldn't find my location! Didn't help that one of the streets had been renamed, but still....shouldn't AAA have known that?

At least getting the car home was the easy part

[PuckishOne]

Think that's bad? I once had to deal with a 911 operator who didn't seem to know how to follow directions.

Wow, I seriously didn't realize that this is such a big problem. WTF?

One typically rainy Seattle night, my ex and I were driving home from a hockey game and spotted an elderly woman standing next to her Honda Accord, which had developed a flat tire. Standing on the road, mind you. On the lower deck of a 2-level viaduct, just on the blind side of a bend in the road. At night. In the rain.

Naturally, we pulled over to help her, and I called 911 to ask that an officer come to make sure no one plowed into this poor woman (and us, of course!). Apparently I reached a dispatcher located on the Moon, because she had no idea where I meant when I said the following: "Highway 99, southbound, the lower deck of the viaduct, just south of the Kingdome exit, across from Pier 56." That is about as precise as I could have been short of GPS coordinates. The cop who showed up about 5 minutes later said that he'd just happened to be in the area and hadn't been dispatched.

Having said that - Rahmota, I'm glad to hear that you made it back okay and that nothing any worse happened.

[Rahmota]

Madmike: Oh My gods! That is definately not a good thing to have happen. 911 is the one people I would hope have the best mapping software at the least and the most knowledge of the area at best.

Puck: Thanks. yeah the trip wasnt that bad. 99.5% normal driving and only .5% adventure. The way I like it. Good job with helping the old lady, too many people probably drove past without even blinkiing.

[CurlyLocks]

I had a bad experience with AAA once too. Several years ago I had to take one of my dogs to a specialist and my car broke down on a well-travelled highway. I was able to get off the road and pull under an overpass. Thank goodness for that overpass as it was a brutally hot summer day and without the car running to provide us AC, the pup and I would have been even more miserable if not for the bit of coolness provided by the shadow of the overpass. Anyhoo, I called AAA and similarly ran into problems when I tried to give my location to the operator. I finally asked her why she didn't know of this well-known highway in Northeast PA and she said she was in Baltimore, probably about 4 hours away! On all my previous calls to AAA they had local dispatchers but apparently they must have started using outside call centers. I can't think of a less efficient way to quickly provide emergency road service than by involving people who aren't familiar with the area!

[Jack7957]

I don't like UHaul because of the conditions of their trucks. Around here, they always have the nice new trucks parked alongside the road, but whenever I rented, they pull up with a 70's era truck (AM radio, stick shift, no AC) from the back for me to use instead.

[Banrion]

On all my previous calls to AAA they had local dispatchers but apparently they must have started using outside call centers. I can't think of a less efficient way to quickly provide emergency road service than by involving people who aren't familiar with the area!

If I recall correctly, if you call the national number 1-800-AAA-HELP, you get routed to a national call center, who then will determine the correct local office to help you, but if you call the local access help number, you will speak with someone locally.

[MadMike]

I don't like UHaul because of the conditions of their trucks. Around here, they always have the nice new trucks parked alongside the road, but whenever I rented, they pull up with a 70's era truck (AM radio, stick shift, no AC) from the back for me to use instead.

Wow, I thought that only happened to me. I've used them several times, and most of the time, I did get the nice new trucks. But when I moved my then-girlfriend (now my wife) into my apartment, they stuck me with a truck like the one you mentioned. Fortunately, I still remembered how to drive stick. Not so fortunately, it had no passenger seat belts, the door rattled the whole time, and you really had to force it to get it in gear. Oh, and the battery was dead. Every time I shut it off, I had to call them to come out and jump the thing. And the one time, I literally had to let the phone ring for half an hour before someone picked up.

When it came time to move into our house, I used a different dealer, citing what happened at the other dealer. Apparently the other one was notorious for renting out crappy vehicles. Thankfully, this one gave me a nice new one, and they even knocked some of the price off and extended my time because the only ones they had available were slightly smaller than what I had wanted.

I guess it depends on the dealer.

[CurlyLocks]

If I recall correctly, if you call the national number 1-800-AAA-HELP, you get routed to a national call center, who then will determine the correct local office to help you, but if you call the local access help number, you will speak with someone locally.

On my membership card there are 2 local numbers, a number for Rural PA, and a number for Road Service Outside of PA. I called the local number as always but got the call center in Baltimore, so perhaps the policy has changed.

[Rahmota]

Never having rented before I couldnt compare. I've never personally moved before and when I've helped others we've always used our pickups before. The truck we had wasnt too bad it had ac (like we needed that with snow on the ground most of the trip) am/fm automatic transmission and was realtively new. The trailer on the other hand was rather less new condition. But We figured most of it was cosmetic and it wouldnt be allowed out with any potentially hazardous damge. (One ramp was orange the other silver, the paint was missing on one fender etc...)

And yeah having a local person answering the phones would be a wonderful thing. It almost sounded like a bad stooges routine with us shouting indiana into the phone and them going illinois back at the one point. How do you confuse illinois with indiana? With a local for even a region there is a better chance if you go I'm on route 1 near the BP then if the person you are talking to isnt even in the same time zone.

[AFpheonix]

Hmm....Well, I'm glad our pickup died close enough to home my sister and I could hop in the Mountaineer with some rope and tow it home ourselves. Yeesh.

[SuperB]

Just the other day I called chp to come pick up a hitch-hiking nutcase. I gave him as much information as I could and he still couldn't find us. (I know, next time don't use the cell) Then he asked the nearest cross street, which I told him but then wanted to know the nearest offramp.
I clearly told him that xx street was the nearest cross street but that there were no offramps up here.
The idiot argued with me that there had to be an offramp otherwise you'd be "driving forever". The concept of a mountain road was completely foreign to him. The discussion continued full circle to the very first thing I told him: "xx is the nearest cross street but no offramps!".

"Same thing" he told me.