One of my pet peeves in life is when I encounter situations in which actual experience — from a product, from a service, from a person — doesn't match up to what was promised... at all.
We live somewhat "out of the way," and we drive older vehicles... as a result of which is subscribe to "roadside assistance," in case we wake up one day and one of the cars is dead... or there's a breakdown while we're out and about. After all, we do go to Seattle to visit the kids fairly regularly, and that's a two-hour trip.
So, the month of June got of to a "fine start" (insert sarcastic tone here!) today when our normally very reliable pickup truck broke down while we were on our way home from running errands.
One moment we're going along just fine, and then all things electrical fail and 20 seconds later we are rolling along without engine power. Luckily, there was a little "pullout area" so we could get safely off the main road.
So there we are — and it's pouring down rain — at the side of the road, nowhere near anything... so, time to call Roadside Assistance and get a tow to our usual garage and hopefully a lift home.
Seems like a simple enough thing... except it turns into a total circus, in short order.
The agent on the other end of the line — who's obviously in a call center, 2,000 miles away — is having a hell of time navigating how to get a tow truck out, and how to get to the mechanics' place.
Somehow, she turned something that is not rocket science into something very complicated...
After much repeating ourselves... and really making sure that the tow truck will end up coming to our location and not to the garage... we're told that we "should get a call or text from the tow driver within 30 minutes."
Fine.
30 minutes pass. Then an hour passes. It's raining and gloomy... matching the mood inside the truck.
Another phone call... in which a different agent is having a great deal of difficulty locating our "ticket" but eventually does. Only to discover that it... ends. As in, the information was taken, but no tow company has been dispatched.
WTF, Over?
So, Agent Number Two goes to work on getting us an actual tow. Except that also turns into a munted shitshow, because she evidently has zero familiarity with our local geography which often means that the "nearest" in a straight line can mean a 90-minute drive around a long bay with no bridge... OR a 30-minute ferry ride on a ferry that sails every two hours.
Part of the problem seems to be that our particular Roadside Assistance provider doesn't have a contract with a towing service in our town... so getting someone out requires getting to an "out of network" service... which she evidently has no idea how to do!
After a good 15 minutes, she asks if she can call back when she's set up the tow.
Fine.
But this is really not what we're paying $130 a year for!
After the phone has remained silent for 15 minutes, we decide to just look up and call our primary local tow company (incidentally, only three miles from where we were stranded!) and just pay for the service. Roadside Assistance will just have to reimburse us... a whole new headache.
And wouldn't you know it? The local tow service had someone out in about 15 minutes! And he gave us a lift home.
We explained the whole backstory to the driver... who just nodded and offered that "they have a very weird way of dividing up their service network, and sometimes the tow service comes from 50 miles away."
Of course, now we're out $145 where we weren't supposed to... and we can likely look forward to an $800 truck repair bill.
I just don't know how people can afford to live, anymore!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Sunday!
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Created at 2024-06-02 02:15 PDT
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