Roadside Assistance Plans

[LK23]

What roadside assistance plan do you prefer? Since we have no spare tire it seems important to repair or replace the tire on site. I am a member of FMCA and it appears their plan only provides towing and on on-site repair or replace.

I would appreciate your comments.

[TheRod]

Coach-Net, best in class.

[kwftlaud]

i got good sams last year. On my first trip out ( 300 miles from home) and memorial day weekend I needed someone to come out and change a tire valve stem. Good Sams was not available. I was lucky, I found a tire shop open and 3 miles away. I am not going to renew my membership with good sams

[ArtJoyce]

I have had AAA of Ohio and then Good sam's for years and never used either. Over the years, I have heard mixed reviews for all the services.

[Duner]

I have had CoachNet for 20 years and only had to use them once to remove a blown front tire and move one of the rear duals to the front so that I could drive off the freeway and stop a couple of miles for the night. In an hour the guy was there to do the work.

What I like about CoachNet is that they will have your coach towed as many times as it takes to get it to a shop that can actually fix the problem. I believe other services will only tow it once to the nearest repair facility. Also CoachNet will make sure the tow truck dispatched is big enough and capable of towing your rig.

I just looked into adding RV roadside assistance to my SoCal AAA and upgrading to 200 mile limit. Then I saw the details that stated for RV's "up to $500 for one service call" and "up to $1000 per year annual max". Then I called heavy duty towing in my area and it's $250/hr with the clock starting when the truck leaves the yard and stops when they get back to the yard.

My mom & dad were 100 miles east of Amarillo in their Mini Winnie when they lost all oil pressure. 1st tow took them backwards west to Amarillo to a Ford dealer who then said no way ..... 2nd tow took them 260 miles east to Oklahoma City. Calculate that out at $250/hr and AAA wouldn't make a dent in the out of pocket cost.

[PanJH]

a letter to the CEO about my not so pleasant Coach-Net experience --------

Subject: 29 Hours waiting for a tow


Mr. Ostlund,

Yes, we were on the side of the road for 29 hours and this was no rural country road. It was US 1 in Maimi-Dade county Florida with cars and trucks whizzing by at 60-80 mph literally a few feet from the side of our motorhome. To say I'm disappointed in the service and response from Coach-Net would be an understatement.

On Friday December 3rd we left our home in Apollo Beach, Fl to spend a few nights at Key Largo before going to Key West. At about 14:00 my coolant temperature rapidly rose and the alarm went off. I moved to the side of the road. This was at Mile Marker 122 on US1 south of Homestead, FL. The infamous 18 mile stretch. The road here is a narrow 2 lane highway with the lanes separated by Jersey barriers. The shoulder is very narrow and in many places not even wide enough for a car, fortunately I was able to find a spot that we could actually get out of the travel lane by about 5 feet without sinking into the mud .

After assessing the situation and finding a catastrophic water pump failure, I call Coach-Net at 14:30 for assistance.
The first person I spoke to asked a few questions and then passed me to a technical staff member. We discussed the situation and he said he would get a tow truck to the scene. I was told it would be about an hour before the truck would arrive. Well, that wasn't even close. At 19:30, a full 5 hours later, a truck shows up, the driver looks at the situation and says he isn't able to tow a motorhome due to the configuration of his truck.

I call back Coach-Net and after some discussion they start to try to find another tow truck. After a few more hours, they decide that it would be good to inform the Florida Highway Patrol of our situation. A trooper comes by and provides visibility to the oncoming traffic with his emergency lights. Another tow company was finally dispatched and when they got to the scene the driver said he could not tow from the front, but would tow from the rear by raising the coach by the trailer hitch. I told him and pointed out the label on the hitch, that the hitch was rated at 1000 lbs tongue weight capacity and that the coach weighs 42000 lbs and that there was no way I was going to allow him to even attempt to do that. If I hadn't stopped him, I'm sure there would have been tens of thousands of dollars damage. He left and soon afterwards, the trooper had to leave . It was now after 03:00 Saturday...over 12 hours since I called in the issue.

I called Coach-Net again. They decided there was nothing to do at this late hour and would resume their (feeble) efforts in the morning. I was told I'd be contacted at 07:00 .

07:00 comes and goes and a little after 08:00 I get a call and they are going to resume trying to find a wrecker. I was promised call backs on status, but never received them. I had to call back myself to find out what was going on. Finally at 16:30 Saturday a couple of guys show up and said they had it under control. These guys were super professional, efficient and demonstrated outstanding team work. After a short period of time, during which they showed me what they were doing, they had us all hooked up and ready to go. But, as we were staring to pull out, one of their airbags on the rear axle failed and in interest of safety, they decided to unhook and drive back to the shop to get another truck.

They returned with a different truck and reattached the motorhome and we were finally off the side of the road at 19:30 Saturday. A full 29 hours after the time I called in for assistance.

When we got to the repair shop they backed us into position and unhooked. As I was thanking them for their outstanding service , I asked why they hadn't been called earlier. They told me that they were not on Coach-Net's vendor list and were called in only in dire situations. These guys were by far the best. You should have them at the top of the list for towing large RV's. They are Edwin and Kevin from American Eagle Towing. The other companies that showed up should be removed from your vendor list.


The reason I am sending this letter to you is to make sure you are aware of how poorly this call for emergency assistance was handled and that hopefully you will take corrective actions to prevent this from happening to someone else.

Some thoughts to consider :

- make sure the vendor you dispatch understands what is being towed and make sure they have the equipment to do so.

- the second tow operator obviously had no experience in towing a motorhome and if he had tried to tow from the trailer hitch as he had wanted to do, he would have caused extensive damage. It is likely that if it had been another person in my situation they might have taken him for his word and their motorhome would have been destroyed. You need to thoroughly vet your vendors to help prevent unnecessary damage.

- we were in a potentially very dangerous situation on a heavily traveled road. Police notification by your team should not have taken over 10 hours.

- When your staff says they are going to call back in a certain period of time, they need to do so. Other than a couple times when they did call back as promised, in general, I had to call back and wait on hold to get status.

- Scrub your vendor list. You obviously have incompetent service providers that are wasting your time, my time and their time and at the same time destroying your reputation as a quality service provider.

- A 29 hour wait to get EMERGENCY service is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Try to put yourself in the situation that we were in and see what your reactions would have been.


I look forward to your response.


Sincerely,

[Americanrascal]

No good experience here. My understanding is FMCA and Escapee's use SafeRide.

We broke down with a major engine failure not far from a major metropolitan city. We had our service through Escapees. We waited 32 hours for a large wrecker and a wrecker never came. We gave up and called one ourselves and it was dispatched immediately. Safe Ride did pay us properly, but the experience was not fun at all.


Not sure where I'll look next??? I had thought about taking on towing insurance through our Progressive policy for towing, but I have read that use of towing insurance through one's insurance company impacts your CLUE rating and ultimately your entire rate, thus is not advisable?

Just to let you know my total towing expense was over $4000 involving 2 tows to an adequate repair facility in excess of 150 miles in another state--- I do need coverage!

[jaydee325]

PanJH, did you get a reply from Coach-Net?

[Gary RVRoamer]

Nothing wrong with the FMCA "SafeRide" plan - SafeRide is a major dispatching service. They all have the same risks - you are at the mercy of the actual shops in the area and at the time of your problem, whether a tire or something else. A Sunday evening in East Podunk can be problematic regardless of what service contract you have.

I am a member of FMCA and it appears their plan only provides towing and on on-site repair or replace.

I think you are misunderstanding the FMCA SafeRide plan. It definitely cites providing tire change, which is obviously an onsite service. And most providers can be asked to bring a new tire to mount assuming they have the right size in stock (which is a crap-shoot no matter where you are).

[LK23]

Gary,

Since I have no spare tire, I am seeking a roadside assistance plan that provides on-site tire repair like patch nail holes. A nail hole seems more likely to occur than a blowout on a new vehicle. The FMCA plan does not provide on-site tire repair. Instead, they tow you to a tire repair facility as I understand.

[Tha_Rooster]

I had good sams and progressive road side assistance on my policy. I had a blow out thanksgiving weekend 10 o’clock at night. Good sams did get someone but it takes a lot of time for them to get a tire store to open that has your tire size and bring it to you. Also expect to pay twice the cost of the tire.

[BillJinOR]

Yes you are misreading the FMCA ( safe ride) plan …. They all read the same, they provide the same service , towing for some stated distance and removing and replacing a tire ON a rim you provide. Some will send a mechanic as an option to you but YOU pay ADDITIONAL for the mechanic time and parts just not travel to and from you
Coach net and all the others do not provide a tire. They all will locate a tire and have the service pick it up and bring it roadside , dismount and mount it .
You pay $$$$ extra for that.
I’ve had several in the years we have RV’d one Coach net experience has been long ( hours ) in helping . Good Sam has a 50/50 record and I’m on escapees safe ride the past few years and the only time I used it for my toad flat they were quick but I was in a large city
Keep in mind keep in mind if you are in the middle of knowhere with few service rigs they all will fail. They don’t have their own rigs they just make phone calls and offer service/ towing companies Pennies on the dollar to go to you. My sister in law worked for a towing service in a small town. The company refused ALL the services because it didn’t pay enough to cover costs The roadside service had to call a company that was 60 miles away in a large town
Food for thought. I keep it for the insurance of an expensive tow. A simple motorhome tow can easily be a thousand bucks.
Good luck

[Grog]

So after reading everyone's replies, would i be wrong to draw the conclusion that roadside assistance no matter who provides it is a lost cause ?
I've been going back and forth between AAA, Progressive, and Good Sams.

[oldenavy]

Originally Posted by Grog

So after reading everyone's replies, would i be wrong to draw the conclusion that roadside assistance no matter who provides it is a lost cause ?
I've been going back and forth between AAA, Progressive, and Good Sams.

Yes it is. Had coachnet from dealer on a couple of RVs, never needed it. Had Good Sam when full-timing several years ago. On two occasions, we tried to use it and both were miserable failures on Good Sam’s part. We go without any plan and will just pay for what we need when we need it. Roadside assistance is like extended warranties, the only one who comes out ahead is the company offering the service.