Broke down in Death Valley

[spritz]

Originally Posted by SarahW

Your insurance may include towing, but does it include "roadside assistance?" (Plus, we find the technical help line from Coach-net worth the annual fee. Once when we couldn't get our hydraulic jacks to retract, their technician walked my husband through the manual override on the phone.)

Ha Sara, got me, I'll take my own advise and reread my policy Cause I'm not sure.
Thanks,Tim

[wa8yxm]

After talking to a camper and tow driver here at Cathead Creek park.

Good Sam's pays for so much time, If they pay for 3 hours, then the driver has 3 hours of paid time to get to you and back to the barn.

IF it takes him an hour to reach you and 2 hours to fix it, he's run out of time.

[Beyond]

This comes directly from the Good Sam Platinum+ booklet on-line:

"If necessary and whenever possible, depending on the disablement,
there may be a local mobile mechanic available that can perform
minor repairs or adjustments to the Member’s RV. In these situations,
we will attempt to assist in arranging for a mobile mechanic
to come to the disablement location as an alternative to towing the
RV. Member and Associate are responsible for all cost of parts,
labor and any additional trip charges/runs for more parts."
...
"For each disablement event under this agreement, Member,
Associate or Extended Family Member is entitled to a maximum
of two hours of either Towing Preparation Services or Recovery
Services. Towing Preparation Services include any of the following
services: winch-out, extrication services and preparation for
towing. Recovery Services include winch-out or extrication services
to allow the vehicle to proceed safely under its own power."

What we have experienced is that some of their service providers don't like the contracted limits and tell the customer they need to pay additional amounts. It happened when a mobile mechanic came out. We asked him before coming to make sure he had the common parts and tools we thought were needed. He was with us for just under an hour but charged us for two, saying he had to get the bolts we wanted. We paid, then contacted Good Sam. They assured us our request did not warrant the extra fee and gave us the choice of a full refund or extend our membership.

This year we required a tow. The tow company refused to come out unless we paid $100. We told the dispatcher we would pay, if that was the best they could come up with, but we would be filing to be reimbursed. We have found they record all the dispatch calls, so it is easy for them to verify what was said. The tow company said it was because it takes 3 hrs to prep for the tow and the Roadside Assistance company only pays for 2. Truthfully, they had us hooked up, delivered and off hook in 2 hrs (only needed to go 10.7 miles). But we paid the $100, and then another $75 to the repair shop to put our drive shaft back on. Both expenses were reimbursed.

The second tow we needed, the dispatch couldn't find a tow company except for one that wasn't on their list and we would need to pay the bill in full. They estimated it at $1,555. We had been waiting for a tow about 5 hours by the time they came up with that plan. So inconvenient to have to put in for reimbursement, but Good Sam did pay it in full. That tow operator was very clear about all the roadside assistance companies being pretty much the same, and that many operators will just tell them the trucks are not available for large RV's if it at a busy time or when they don't have sufficient staff so they don't lose a more lucrative tow.

We were happy they finally got us off the road, and sent us a check before we had to pay the credit card bill.

[BigDBright]

It's all kind of making sense now. When I originally called GS on Monday, they had a provider out of Vegas on the hook. When I specifically requested the mechanic to bring a list of parts with him, including a compressor, he balked saying he would have to pay restocking fees on any unused parts. I told him it would be more cost effective for me to pay a 15% restocking fees on $1,000 worth of parts than to pay him time and mileage to make the 120 mile trip back and forth to Vegas to get parts after he determined exactly what was needed. And I wasn even figuring his return to the barn after finishing. After grumbling a bit, he asked GS what they wanted to do. They wanted to confer with their in house "expert" and call me back in 10 minutes. When GS called back 15 minutes later, all the sudden the original provider "was no longer available". The guy who came out was from Baker, not Vegas. I guess they're not used to dealing with customers who know as much as they do and know what parts to ask for in advance. Can you imagine what the time bill would have been for three 120 mile trips?? At 60 mph (two lane roads), that would have been 6 hours in just windshield time. Multiply that times $95.00 per hour...
Obviously, the providers do not make their $ on GS's time; they make it on the parts runs on the customer's time. Quite the racket, eh?

[twogypsies]

We were on our way to Alaska and instead of taking our reliable motorhome we bought a used V10 truck and small 5th wheel. We were in Death Valley and the engine blew on the truck.


We had a $4 add-on with our vehicle insurance policy for road service. We called our insurance and was told TWO (2) tow trucks were on their way from Lone Pine, CA (approx. 50 miles). They arrived promptly and put the truck on one and the 5th wheel on another. The 5th wheel was towed to a campground in Lone Pine and the truck to the towing/repair facility.


To make a long story short, we didn't have to pay one cent for the TWO tows.


The towing facility found us a retired state police vehicle's engine for the truck. We hooked up and returned to Arizona where we had left our motorhome. We unpacked the 5th wheel and put it all in our motorhome and once again, took off for Alaska. . . this time without any incidents. We should have taken our motorhome in the first place. Upon our return we easily sold the truck and 5th wheel.

[Beyond]

Originally Posted by BigDBright

It's all kind of making sense now. ...
Obviously, the providers do not make their $ on GS's time; they make it on the parts runs on the customer's time. Quite the racket, eh?

The time we used the mobile mechanic, we were 20 miles west of Yuma and only five minutes from the freeway exit. He said he would come out to see what we needed and then go get parts. He estimated it would take an hour each way to drive plus the shopping time (because he was based on "the other side of town" and heavy traffic). This was our first time asking for help. Knowing now what we do, I would have borrowed a friends truck (he pulled us from the sand to the hard pack) and gone for parts ourselves.

But fortunately the Mobile guy did bring what we asked. He extracted the broken bolts for our u-joint and cleaned sand off the old parts. He wasn't happy, but my husband was sure we could get home on the old parts, which we did. DH then took it all apart and fixed it right with new parts for less than what the parts run would have cost us.

I didn't mind paying for the 1 hr and shop parts, considering he was only boots on the ground 54 minutes and spent much of that taking other calls on his phone, I thought that was generous enough. His insistence we pay for a 2nd hour and said his credit card machine wasn't working did not instill trust.

We shouldn't have to ask GS to "fix" things their providers (or dispatch) do wrong, but my experience is they do make it right for the customer.