AAA DON’T count on it!, Ha ha, being left by the side of the road 18 hours! Options

[mgphoto]

Got stuck today on a ride from San Fernando to Venture.
Blowing fuses for the fuel pump.
Called AAA at 12:30 pm from Main Street in Ventura. You have to have a flatbed truck to tow, ok, you have to wait till 4pm. What the F***.
Send a regular truck, sorry it will damage the car. It hasn’t happened in the past when I’ve had it towed.

5pm on the phone with a supervisor, we don’t have the equipment, tow company said nobody wants to drive 50 miles to LA from Ventura.

They found a driver but doesn’t take passengers! That’s ok with you right? FU!

We can have someone there at 8am Sunday morning!

WTF never had an issue like this after 13 years a member, will not be a member for 14.

I counted on them being there, crawled under there car, found the problem, fixed in 10 minutes, Saturday night insurance jobs are to important to miss out on.

[Cairo94507]

I feel your pain. I had a coil die (right? when has that ever happened?) on Highway 5, about 9 miles south of Harris Ranch (MMMMMmm!) in 108 degree heat at 11:30 am. I have AAA 200 mile tow service. My home was 190 miles away- so should be good.

Call AAA and give them my exact location, mile marker, between exit XXX and exit YYY on northbound Highway 5 just south of junction XXX by 10 miles. I get a text message 2.5 hours later that the AAA truck is up in Redding CA (Northern CA) trying to find us. I call in and they apologize and say they made a mistake. Now they tell me they may have a truck to us in 6 hours. I tell her my brother and I are both senior citizens (Q-tips) and it is 108 degrees with no shade. We are slowly being baked. They find a truck and tell me 1 hour. I confirm it is a flatbed for low vehicles. They say that is all they use.

Truck arrives and it is a flatbed. The kid that jumps out looks like he just robbed a convenience store in Compton.... OK, maybe he knows his job. He immediately backs up to front of my car and starts to lower his deck. I stop him and walk him around the car, just fully restored, not a scratch or ding on it. He says "No problem". As he gets the deck lower and closer I tell him it appears it will hit the valance. I ask if he has any 2x6 scraps of wood or anything we can roll the car up on to ease the transition to the deck. He says, "Nope". Proceeds the slam the deck right into the valance- damaging it pretty good. Then he stops and says he will go get his low-haul truck. He never returns. I call his office from the number on the truck and a guy answers and says he refuses to haul my car as it is highly modified. I tell him it is a stock car, lowered 1"- nothing more. He refuses to return.

We ended up calling a friend of my brothers who owns a tow company and he immediately got in his truck and drove 2 hours to come get us. Loaded the car without touching it in 5 minutes and drove us home.

AAA ended up covering the $900 tow bill and approximately $3,000 for the damage to my valance.

The private hauler we used said he used to work for AAA but they have reduced their rates to the point it was not worth driving a truck. That is why you can not get a tow truck when you need one, according to him. I believe him. Based upon that experience, I have now added tow strap tie downs on my car in the event we need to tow it again, to try to minimize the damage potential. What else can you do? We drive my car and it is not uncommon to take it on 200+ mile trips from home. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)