I decided to take a weekend trip with the family from Ft. Lauderdale to Lake Placid, FL. On a Fridaynight at 6pm, the tire on my trailer blows half way to my destination. Thetotal trip was 2 hours and the blow out happened 1 hour in. Lucky for me Ithought, I had purchased trailer insurance from Sea Tow. Unlucky for me is thatSea-Two uses Coach-Net roadside assistance, and even less fortunate for me isthat Coach-Net uses Total Roadside Services out of Okeechobee, Fl. I called in my claim and they said that it usually takesabout 45 minutes to get a new tire and all I would have to do is pay for theparts, which in this case was a tube for my tire. 15 minutes later they called back and said itwas going to take 90 minutes to get a tire there from Okeechobee. No problem I said. I told them that I was onhighway 27 just outside of Belle Glade, Fl but the gps has the road marked ashighway 80 so the road has two numbers. We were right at the crossroad of MuttThomas rd though so we should be easy to pinpoint. It took a minute but she said that shefound our exact location.
90 minutes later we get a call from the tow truck guy. He isjust leaving Okeechobee and wants to confirm where we are. I ask if he has agps so I can give him the location but he says he does not have a gps becausehe was shopping and was about to by one but had to stop his shopping to comeassist us. I would guess this implies we ruined his night. Nice thing to tell acustomer. I tell him the same thing I told the dispatcher about our location. He tells me he spends lots of time in BelleGlade and knows exactly what I am talking about. Great I thought. Two hours later I get a call from him saying he is stillhalf an hour away because of the rain. It had rained earlier in the night butit was clear at this point so I was a little confused. Alas, another hour goesby. I call him again. He says he is just driving slowly because of the rain andhe would be there in 30 minutes. I hang up and then his boss calls me 15minutes later. He tells me that I said Iwas on highway 80 but that he just used his gps and realized I was actually onthe 27 in Clewiston and his guy had been driving around Belle Glade for twohours looking for me. I informed himthat the 27 and the 80 were the exact same road and I was right where I said Iwas from the beginning a few miles past Belle Glade heading to Lake placid. I called his bluff. He apologizes and hangs up quickly. My guessis that they did another service call right before mine and they were trying tofeed me false excuses to make up their unprofessionalism. 60 minutes later, the tow truck guy finally arrives. It takes him forever to change the tire andthen he disappears for 20 minutes. I golook for him and he is writing up a receipt. At this point it is a comedy of errors because he is writing one letterevery 5 seconds. I have never seen anything like it. He finishes writing thereceipt, I am ready to run, and he grabs another blank receipt to make aduplicate. I ask him if he can do that later so I can go. He says sure and that I need to pay 55. I askif he takes American Express. He says yes. He calls it in through a phone system which takes 5 minutes. The card is declined. He tries two moretimes. Declined and Declined. Tick tock, tick tock. He calls customer service. Oh wait, they dont accept American Express. He says that no one ever told him. Great. I dont mind the extra wait, right? So he has to run my Visa. 5 more minutes. He finishes and then grabs theduplicate receipt and starts filling it out again. I let him do that for about30 seconds and 6 letters of the alphabet and then I ask if I can go. He says he is filling out my copy. I tell him he can have it. Can I go? He says sure. So, its 11:30 at night and I have missed the first night ofmy vacation. At least I will get there. I drive 30 minutes and the brand new tireblows. At this point I say F* it and Idrive the last 30 with a flat and I drink myself into a stupor when I get thereto forget the incompetence I had just experienced. Alas, I have to wake up eventually. I call Coach-Net and tell them my tire didntlast long. They said they will see what they can do. They call back and tell methat they found me a tire but it was 60 miles away in Okeechobee and that it wouldcost them too much to go get it so Iwould have to go get it. This sucks that I have to drive 120 miles on thesecond day of my vacation. But it is my only choice. I do just that. Another 3 hours off my trip. I forget aboutthis for the rest of the weekend and try to get it resolved come Monday. So I call Coach-Netand tell them what happened. When it comes to the 5 hours on the side of theroad, they say it was my fault because I gave the wrong location. They do not care because they think I made amistake. This is totally false as I will prove it in a moment. They call TotalRoadside Services. Total roadside services said it is not their fault. They bought the tire from someone else so Iwould have to drive up there and that place would have to check on the warrantyof the tire to replace it or maybe get $17 dollars back. Keep in mind that Okeechobeeis 2 hours from my house and I am not going to drive that and spend 50 in gasto get 17 of the $55 dollars back. Alas, now it turns out that they want me to pay for the labor to put the tire on? Shouldnt my insurance have covered that? There story keeps changing. Partsonly you morons! Coach-Net calls me and tells me that I am responsible to geteverything fixed. They did their job perfectly and so did Total roadsideservices. The person in the wrong wasme. I asked if a 6 hour response timewas a good job? They said I gave mywrong location. I asked if a tirelasting 30 miles was a good job? Theysaid Total roadside services did everything just fine. I get pissed and hang up and write an email. I get a call back from Coach-Net customer somethingdepartment. He has about half the details as he was only quickly briefed. He says sorry about the 6 hours but that itwas my fault. I tell him that is lie and ask if the conversation was recordedwhen I gave my location. He quickly saysyes. I challenge him to listen to the tape and write down what I said because Iknew I was 100% correct. He agrees. Helistens to the tape and low and behold I gave my exact location just like Isaid. We both look at Google Maps and see that I was exactly 6 miles outside ofBelle Glade. Victory was mine! Wait for it But wait he says. No, you werein a town called Lake Harbor so that is why we were confused. Lake Harbor was the next town up. Thefollowing link shows the exact location where I was in relation to Belle Glade. It can be seen that I was 6 miles past Belle Glade at Mutt Thomas Rd. Was I inLake Harbor? No. Was I close to Lake Harbor? Yes. But how the hell would I know that beingbroken down on the side of the road. Alas they are sticking to the story that Imade a mistake somewhere. I do not seeit. Complete incompetence.
So anyways the guy keeps on going and tells me that I amgoing to have to be a part of the solution and drive the tire back to Okeechobee. I tell him I already drove 120 miles topick up the tire on Saturday. I want a refund because my tire only lasted 30minutes. He tells me and I quote, Yourwanting it your own way only." Excellent customer service! This is a bunch of crap. I paid 55 dollars for a tire thatlasted a half hour. Every customer service rep at Coach-Net was rude and didnot care about the customer. This is an attitude that gets passed down from management. Their way of thinking is that the only thing customers do is try and takeadvantage of them. This is a horrible positionfor the company to have. The customer service and management need to cleanhouse if this is the pennies first, customers last approach they want to take. These two companies want to blame me for everything. The owner of Total Roadside Services is a complete and totalliar. He lied to me straight up on the phone and I was able to prove that hewas wrong. Then he lies to Coach-Net andrather than taking their customers back, they believe the owner even thoughthey have all the evidence showing that I did not make one mistake. I am furious. This was a complete service failure from the beginningto end by both companies. I would highlyrecommend that both companies be avoided at all costs. Consumers have no timefor this in their lives and they can find much better service elsewhere.
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