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Old 06-28-2022, 06:53 PM   #1
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Safeco Insurance=Epic Fail

So I have the best policy they offer for roadside assistance and needed it badly yesterday. We had an overheat and coolant blowout-turned out to be serpentine belt on I95 at Savannah. Had to drive a mile to pull over due to no shoulder because of construction with warnings and overheat alarms going off.

Got over on shoulder and once I diagnosed there was nothing I could do called Spartan Roadside Assistance first- out of warranty on a 2020 coach so they blew me off. Called Safeco next and after going through all the explanations of what was wrong and where I was they said a wrecker would be there in 45-60 minutes. OK.

1 1/12 hours later I call and go through the whole deal again with someone hard to understand that said the wrecker had cancelled, Nice. I am stuck on 95 in a dangerous situation and they didn’t feel it important enough to let me know.

So I start calling local wreckers and no one can get there till the next day!!!! WTH is my insurance company? They text me that I need to immediately pay them $1855. For what? I called the underwriter and they confirmed my account was paid in full!!!!!

I recall the the wrecker company Cummins recommended to see if anything has changed and they said yes they could have a guy there in an hour for $1300. I said yes-please, at this point I didn’t care.

So a great guy, Chase from Sapp’s Towing showed up and did a great job disconnecting everything on the side of I95 in 95 degrees and got us to the Savannah area Cummins. Just so happens they have RV hookups and he backed us in. The Cummins guys were great. Found out it was the serpentine belt that they didn’t have in stock but I had one as a spare thankfully. Got us on the road this afternoon. All told I spent $2100 for towing, labor, coolant including a $200 tip for the wrecker guy who almost left us. No one wants to tow Class A’s!

Long winded but my experience with Safeco was terrible. The underwriter, Overland Insurance is pissed at them as well but the bottom line is when you need the help the most and feel like you have done all you can policy wise they let me down in a HUGE way! Will definitely be looking to change…any recommendations for a legit insurance company would be appreciated.
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Old 06-28-2022, 06:59 PM   #2
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My lesson from breaking down on the highway when the low air alarms went off: call a mobile mechanic. Most of the time they can fix/bandaid issues and save you a tow…

At least you know it gets diagnosed right away. If you get towed to a shop, they might not even look at it for a day or two…

If the roadside guy can’t fix, then tow…
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Old 06-28-2022, 07:13 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bpu699 View Post
My lesson from breaking down on the highway when the low air alarms went off: call a mobile mechanic. Most of the time they can fix/bandaid issues and save you a tow…

At least you know it gets diagnosed right away. If you get towed to a shop, they might not even look at it for a day or two…

If the roadside guy can’t fix, then tow…
I called one and he didn’t want to deal with it if I didn’t know the problem. Lazy I guess. This was my first breakdown and I figured this is what my $2900 per year policy was for-WTH is roadside assistance? I call Safeco, they handle it. WRONG!!!!! Really bitter over this experience. Blowout last year on I75 now this. Very stressful. Wife wants no part of this anymore and I don’t blame her.
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Old 06-28-2022, 07:15 PM   #4
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I called one and he didn’t want to deal with it if I didn’t know the problem. Lazy I guess. This was my first breakdown and I figured this is what my $2900 per year policy was for-WTH is roadside assistance? I call Safeco, they handle it. WRONG!!!!! Really bitter over this experience. Blowout last year on I75 now this. Very stressful. Wife wants no part of this anymore and I don’t blame her.
My wife took our breakdown better than expected… but it sucks. Makes you paranoid for awhile…

Go out, travel, enjoy it.
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Old 06-28-2022, 07:58 PM   #5
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Eastern...at a minimum Safeco should pay for the tow and any onsite assistance that is covered by your policy. Present them with copies of your bills for what they should have covered.

If they won't pay, You should notify your state's AG and or insurance board/regulators.
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Old 06-28-2022, 08:06 PM   #6
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I have heard that a site called coach.net is the best I haven't taking them out as of yet but I will do my research
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Old 06-28-2022, 08:20 PM   #7
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A couple of things where I'm not sure I agree with. These are only my understanding of the situation and personal opinions so as I say more and more on these forums, take what I say with a grain of salt.

First, many, if not most, of the insurance companies --similar to some car manufacturers-- contract their emergency-road-service out to independent ERS service providers. They do not run their own call centers, etc. It is not really an integral part of their insurance package or related to their underwriters.

Safeco used to contract their ERS out to Cross Country Automotive Services. I'm not sure if that is who they still use or not. Subaru, for example, also uses Cross Country.

Second, ERS is only as good as the contractors they dispatch. The best ERS service may send a lousy towing company or one with a bad reputation but they, the towing service, is contracted also. You may get a good one or a bad one no matter the ERS you use. And even if the towing service does have a good reputation, you may get one of their inexperienced or marginal employees on that call. Even Coach-Net has been know for dispatching a bad contractor from their call center from time to time. And I'm not sure if Coach-Net even has call centers anymore ...don't they contract that out now too? Not sure.

So I'm not sure if you should put all the blame or be so harsh on Safeco themselves. ERS is optional or may be included as part of the package of insurance service you picked. No matter, you chose to have Safeco provide the ERS.

I used to pretty much go with Coach-Net at the time we were full-timing for ERS as they were/are experts with RV and motorhome issues. Safeco or most other insurance companies may not have that same emphasis especially if the "farm out" their ERS service.

I'd also suggest possibly looking into using a separate ERS rather than going with the one your insurance carrier provides.

Believe it or not --and I haven't really been a fan of Good Sam through the years-- but they typically are rated very high when it comes to general automotive ERS plans and, of course, we all know they also specialize in RVs so their ERS for RVs, like Coach-Net, can be more focused when the time comes to use the service.

A few examples of reviews for "general" ERS (not exclusively RVs) ...it can be and has been discussed on other threads but I'm always surprised that Good Sam is always rated well generally:

Who Provides the Best Roadside Assistance? (GS #1)

Best roadside assistance services 2022: Breakdown and towing plans (GS #2)

What is the Best RV Roadside Assistance Plan? (GS #1)
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Old 06-28-2022, 08:29 PM   #8
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9 hours for me waiting for a tow on I80 couple of weeks ago. Crazy but it is what it is. The tow driver said a lot of companies/drivers don't like towing motorhomes so they blow it off and say they are not available. Must be nice to be so busy they can blow of a $2000 tow. I don't know what mine cost as my roadside assistance plan paid 100% to tow to the nearest place that could work on it (and that wasn't close).
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Old 06-28-2022, 09:26 PM   #9
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Sometimes it goes smoothly and sometimes no one seems to have a clue about what's going on, who to call, where the tow truck is or when it's really going to be available.

From what I've read, pretty much all the insurance companies (roadside assist companies) use the same tow truck services since there really are not that many BIG tow trucks around that can tow a motorhome with any competence - so, they the roadside companies call and try to get you into the waiting line.

I've read great stories where one phone call for help results in great service in minutes - and other stories where you sit for days on the side of the road.

We were stuck with a ruptured upper radiator hose in the boondocks of western Washington state. The ONLY tow truck capable of towing our motorhome was 80 miles in the other direction picking up some other truck. Once that was done, they could travel in our direction - meanwhile, we sat for 8 hours. Long story shorter - when they did show up the senior fellow (called Greasy - I swear) knew what had to be done to properly tow our Freightliner.

To me, it's not the insurance company it's the roll of the dice about what's available in the area. And, yes, I can admit that some customer service representatives can drop the ball - again, roll the dice and hope you get the good folks on the line.
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Old 06-28-2022, 09:26 PM   #10
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All law enforcement agencies have contracts with tow companies. To keep those contracts, the tow companies need to do a good job, or they get dumped. If you get in a situation where your ERS is unresponsive, call or flag down local law enforcement and have them send one of their contracted wreckers and then worry about billing your ERS later.

What really surprises me and is wrong.....these ERS providers KNOW that they're dealing with large RV's yet only go with the cheapest tow companies who can't handle a large RV.
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Old 06-28-2022, 10:13 PM   #11
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Quote:
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First, many, if not most, of the insurance companies --similar to some car manufacturers-- contract their emergency-road-service out to independent ERS service providers.
That would strike me as their problem. They took his hefty premiums for quite some time, it sounds like, and never thought to mention that, oh, yeah, our service might be very poor because we're captive customers of lousy service providers.
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Old 06-28-2022, 10:55 PM   #12
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So I have the best policy they offer for roadside assistance and needed it badly yesterday. We had an overheat and coolant blowout-turned out to be serpentine belt on I95 at Savannah. Had to drive a mile to pull over due to no shoulder because of construction with warnings and overheat alarms going off.



Got over on shoulder and once I diagnosed there was nothing I could do called Spartan Roadside Assistance first- out of warranty on a 2020 coach so they blew me off. Called Safeco next and after going through all the explanations of what was wrong and where I was they said a wrecker would be there in 45-60 minutes. OK.



1 1/12 hours later I call and go through the whole deal again with someone hard to understand that said the wrecker had cancelled, Nice. I am stuck on 95 in a dangerous situation and they didn’t feel it important enough to let me know.



So I start calling local wreckers and no one can get there till the next day!!!! WTH is my insurance company? They text me that I need to immediately pay them $1855. For what? I called the underwriter and they confirmed my account was paid in full!!!!!



I recall the the wrecker company Cummins recommended to see if anything has changed and they said yes they could have a guy there in an hour for $1300. I said yes-please, at this point I didn’t care.



So a great guy, Chase from Sapp’s Towing showed up and did a great job disconnecting everything on the side of I95 in 95 degrees and got us to the Savannah area Cummins. Just so happens they have RV hookups and he backed us in. The Cummins guys were great. Found out it was the serpentine belt that they didn’t have in stock but I had one as a spare thankfully. Got us on the road this afternoon. All told I spent $2100 for towing, labor, coolant including a $200 tip for the wrecker guy who almost left us. No one wants to tow Class A’s!



Long winded but my experience with Safeco was terrible. The underwriter, Overland Insurance is pissed at them as well but the bottom line is when you need the help the most and feel like you have done all you can policy wise they let me down in a HUGE way! Will definitely be looking to change…any recommendations for a legit insurance company would be appreciated.


Do you have a rear radiator?
A side radiator serpentine belt would take maybe 10 minutes tops.
Sorry you got stung.
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Old 06-28-2022, 11:44 PM   #13
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I have an old friend that owns a tow truck company with 5-10 tow trucks, over the years I would occasionally drop by his office and visit when I was in town, and therefore I have seen how these ERS services operate from the other side. Back in the old days before everyone had high speed internet, the ERS companies would call around to the tow truck operators in the area, slowly raising their bid on what they would pay for a specific service. The routine would go something like this


1 pm, call comes in car needs towed from 25 miles away and 10 miles down some side road off the main interstate to shop 5 miles on the other side of town, offer is $50 when the standard rate for this tow for someone calling in direct is $200. So they would pass on this job.


1:45 pm, after calling all the the other tow truck companies in the area, the ERS calls back and raise there offer to $75, again pass, though now it is up to nearly break even money for gas and driver pay.


3:00 pm they are up to $125, and the shop takes the job, but that is just because they happen to have an empty truck passing near be the stranded car as it was returning from dropping off another tow, all the while the motorist has been sitting on the side of the road wondering when their tow truck will show up.


These days the system has been updated with more of an online bidding system, where the price slowly creeps up until one of the local tow truck companies takes the bid. At what price they accept the bid will again often be determined by factors like already having trucks in the area, or having scheduled tow pickups near the drop off location. Though it can still be a dice roll on how long it takes for the bid to go high enough for someone to take the job, and these ERS services don't ever seem to factor in remote locations into their initial round of bids. RV's just make it worse with them being harder to tow, and more likely to be damaged than when towing commercial trucks thanks to all the fiberglass body panels, low clearance, etc.
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Old 06-29-2022, 04:38 AM   #14
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I have a rear radiator and didn’t know it was the belt. My story is s short synopsis of the entire stupidity I had to deal with in a very stressful day. One of the Safeco idiots told me my roadside assistance only covered towing within 15 miles. I about lost it with her when I said the Cummins place was only 11 miles away!!!

I made 4 calls to the state police before they finally sent a safety truck. You telling me that in 6 hours with a 40’ motor home and a pickup truck with flashing warning lights no cop or safety vehicle went by??? I guess it was too hot outside.

I contracted with Safeco and have paid them for 3 years so when I call their roadside assistance number that is what I expect-not a 4 hour runaround dealing with 3 different people that were clueless. The final straw is when they texted me that I owed them money and they were ending the call. I will try to attach the text,
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