Forum Discussion

4X4Dodger's avatar
4X4Dodger
Explorer II
Jun 04, 2015

Comparing Plans GSam needs some justification

At present I am comparing Road Side Service plans from AAA and Good SAM. I am looking to buy the Premium level of both. I am comparing them side by side.

Given the constant litany of the virtually same problems that so many people have with Good Sam and that despite the intercession of the Marcus Response Team, there never seems to be any indication that this company is truly addressing these issues.

So Here is your chance Good Sam...I (and I am sure many others)would very much like to hear how GSE (The Road Side Assistance arm) is dealing with the issues brought forth here and would like to have a full and complete explanation of the steps (if any) being taken to improve the RSA service.

I assume this part of the GSE is headed by Mr. Mike Siemens President of the Good Sam Club. While it needn't be directly from him it would give me much greater confidence if it came at least from one of his assistants.

Many many people have posted on here that they carry TWO plans. The AAA and Good Sam. But this is truly a vote of no confidence in Good Sam. Your customers should not have to buy another plan just to cover the defects in service we hear so much about on this forum.

This is a chance to step forward and let your current and future potential customers know what is happening in the background to improve what is arguably a broken service system.

The GSRSA plan has some definite advantages and I would like a good reason to buy it over the AAA, however those may well be outweighed by the knowledge that so many customers are very unhappy.

I look forward to a (meaningful) reply

With Best Regards
Roadside Assistance

15 Replies

  • peaches_cream's avatar
    peaches_cream
    Explorer
    Jun 10, 2015
    4X4Dodger wrote:
    Bucky1320 wrote:
    Everything that we buy in life should have some sort of justification. Insurance should have a potential ROI.(return on investment)
    If you find yourself having to buy plans from two different companies in order to rest assured you have coverage.....you need to consider the ROI. How often have you been towed in the past? How often would you need to be towed in order to justify carrying two plans? Sure an RV two is going to run $500 to $900. But how much are your premiums? If you are paying half of a tow expense every year in premiums, maybe your roadside assistance plan is reaching in your pocked and pulling out two years of premiums that you didn't spend?


    You misunderstood my use of the word justification. It relates to GSRSA justifying their service in terms of what they are doing to improve it in light of so many virulent complaints. And why they don't explain what they do in a situation to help the upset customer (here on this forum).


    You want GRSA to justify their service. I think http://roadside-assistance-services-review.toptenreviews.com/ justifies it all. You stress the complaints on RV.Net as being accountable. The few that complain here are inconsequential compares to the "happy customers" they have. Do you want 100% satisfaction? I think you as well as everyone else know that will not happen. Some people will complain if you hang them with a new rope. Forget about the few that complain on this website. GRSA will handle the few that can be fixed, the others need to move on to other things.
  • 4X4Dodger's avatar
    4X4Dodger
    Explorer II
    Jun 10, 2015
    Bucky1320 wrote:
    Everything that we buy in life should have some sort of justification. Insurance should have a potential ROI.(return on investment)
    If you find yourself having to buy plans from two different companies in order to rest assured you have coverage.....you need to consider the ROI. How often have you been towed in the past? How often would you need to be towed in order to justify carrying two plans? Sure an RV two is going to run $500 to $900. But how much are your premiums? If you are paying half of a tow expense every year in premiums, maybe your roadside assistance plan is reaching in your pocked and pulling out two years of premiums that you didn't spend?


    You misunderstood my use of the word justification. It relates to GSRSA justifying their service in terms of what they are doing to improve it in light of so many virulent complaints. And why they don't explain what they do in a situation to help the upset customer (here on this forum).
  • Bucky1320's avatar
    Bucky1320
    Explorer
    Jun 09, 2015
    Everything that we buy in life should have some sort of justification. Insurance should have a potential ROI.(return on investment)
    If you find yourself having to buy plans from two different companies in order to rest assured you have coverage.....you need to consider the ROI. How often have you been towed in the past? How often would you need to be towed in order to justify carrying two plans? Sure an RV two is going to run $500 to $900. But how much are your premiums? If you are paying half of a tow expense every year in premiums, maybe your roadside assistance plan is reaching in your pocked and pulling out two years of premiums that you didn't spend?
  • 4X4Dodger's avatar
    4X4Dodger
    Explorer II
    Jun 07, 2015
    DKeppner wrote:
    I think those nits have been well and truly picked. A 96% customer satisfaction rating is nothing to sneeze at when you consider there are 3rd parties involved (the various tow companies with their own various drivers).

    4X4, here's a link I think you may find illuminating: Top Ten Roadside Assistance Be sure to read each pro/con on each program.

    As for AAA, how about this: Consumer Affairs

    You hit the mark though, the gentlemen took the time to answer your post. I have yet to find similar in other programs.


    thanks for the links I will read them...
  • DKeppner's avatar
    DKeppner
    Explorer
    Jun 06, 2015
    I think those nits have been well and truly picked. A 96% customer satisfaction rating is nothing to sneeze at when you consider there are 3rd parties involved (the various tow companies with their own various drivers).

    4X4, here's a link I think you may find illuminating: Top Ten Roadside Assistance Be sure to read each pro/con on each program.

    As for AAA, how about this: Consumer Affairs

    You hit the mark though, the gentlemen took the time to answer your post. I have yet to find similar in other programs.
  • 4X4Dodger's avatar
    4X4Dodger
    Explorer II
    Jun 05, 2015
    westernrvparkowner wrote:
    Since you obviously have already determined that Good Sam is full of problems, you need to go with AAA. It is impossible to disprove anecdotal evidence. The Good Sam people could give you all the statistics in the world, showing whatever success rate on calls they have, and it won't disprove or guarantee that something won't happen to your claim. I am reasonably sure that the executives at Good Sam will quickly see through this veiled attempt to bait them into a debate about their ERS plans. Please buy the AAA and when you have a problem with them,, find their forums and complain there.


    All companies have problems. What I wanted to know was how GSE was handling theirs outside of the forums.

    As for baiting them. That was not my intention and I think they saw that. I have real concerns and questions, many raised right here on this forum about their service.

    And yes Buying a AAA as backup is mostly a vote of no confidence on GSE because AAA's focus has traditionally been on cars as was pointed out in their answers.

    While I don't have access to the complaints and I am not sure what constitutes a "successful recovery" as defined by GSRSA I am not sure that the numbers quoted are necessarily all happy customers.

    But the fact that both gentlemen took the time to answer me does give me a much higher confidence level that IF I have a problem I can get it resolved to my satisfaction. And that was the reason for the post.
  • 4X4Dodger's avatar
    4X4Dodger
    Explorer II
    Jun 05, 2015
    RoadsideGuy wrote:
    Hello 4x4Dodger and thank you for your post. My name is Darren White and I am the Senior Director of Operations for Good Sam Roadside Assistance.

    We take all customer concerns to be of a serious nature, and welcome the feedback received not only on this forum by through our Member Services department, US mail, and all other means for communication. By doing so allows us to continuously strive for improvement.

    While it is easy to view the concerns expressed here as a large issue, I can assure you that we take great pride in providing the best solutions to each unique situation we deal with on a daily basis. Our overall satisfaction with service provided is in excess of 96% with our members. While not perfect, we strive daily to meet the unique needs of each and every member in their time of need.

    In comparing our 25+ year history of providing RVers with RV specific resolutions and expertise to AAA, I will say this - AAA is a good company. The difference in my opinion is that we specialize in RV, and also do a great job with passenger vehicles, while AAA specializes in passenger vehicles and can also "cover" RVs.

    We successfully resolve over 125,000 disablements per year, and have over 2 million successful roadside rescues to our credit. At the core of our expertise is all of the things that make RVs unique - and potentially difficult to service on the side of the road - while also providing best in service for all makes and models of passenger vehicles too. Our Dispatch Team, Master RV Technicians, Member Services Associates and Roadside Operations Group work hard every day to resolve each and every need as they happen.

    Thank you again for your post. I wish you safe and happy travels!

    Darren


    Thank you Darren for responding to my concern.

    I of course have the same concern about AAA and their focus traditionally being cars not RV's. And this is one of the reasons I posted this. I was poised to buy both because my confidence in GSRSA was not very high.

    Rather than repeat here what I wrote to Mr. Siemens I would ask that you read that response also.

    One of my concern with GSRSA is the vague answers I was getting regarding some questions I had posed about what the coverage is in Mexico and along the highways leading to Alaska. My interest was exactly how is reimbursement handled when it is impossible to contact GSRSA by phone due to being in a remote area. (I got several different answers...none on the forum, all by telephone)This is still an outstanding question for me and one that I would appreciate a full answer to. Reading the forum it seems that some folks in this position were reimbursed and some were not.

    To my main question about what is GSRSA doing to improve it's service and address the complaints you see here so often. I can understand your wanting to talk about the positives of the service and your numbers are impressive. So assuming they are accurate why do you think so many that come to this forum seem to come away with the opposite feeling? Sometimes the responses make you wonder more about the service than the original complaint.

    In any case accept my thanks for taking the time to answer and I hope to hear from you regarding the question posed above regarding service calls in remote areas and Mexico.

    AP
  • rockhillmanor's avatar
    rockhillmanor
    Explorer II
    Jun 05, 2015
    One of the reasons Marcus wanted to offer you this forum is to give us the opportunity to resolve issues that occur – ...


    Why do members have to resort to posting their problem to a public forum?

    Why doesn't GS just take their phone calls and resolve it one on one?:?
  • 4X4Dodger's avatar
    4X4Dodger
    Explorer II
    Jun 05, 2015
    NewGoodSam wrote:
    4 x 4 Dodger

    Thanks for your post and an opportunity to weigh in on the topic!

    We have been serving Good Sam members with RV roadside assistance for many years. As of today nearly 500,000 of our members are enrolled in the program.

    When working with members and independent network of service providers we do occasionally experience issues. AAA experiences this as well. However, I can assure you that if you have a problem we’ll stand behind the service and we’ll do our best to resolve the issue.

    One of the reasons Marcus wanted to offer you this forum is to give us the opportunity to resolve issues that occur – to your benefit. We want to fix problems and we want members to be satisfied. This often requires us to take the problem off line so that we don’t compromise the privacy of the member. Many members do not post the resolution and close the loop on the post – but I wish they would!

    AAA has a good product. We feel our program is better and we can provide more points to show you why we feel that is the case. I have invited our Program Director, Darren White to respond to this forum with a comparison and ultimately you can decide if Good Sam Roadside assistance is the right program for you.

    Regards,

    Mike Siemens
    President
    Good Sam Club

    Msiemens@Campingworld.com


    Thank You for taking the time to answer my post. And your words are reassuring. I do of course realize that forums like these do attract the unhappy customer possibly more than the happy ones. After almost a year of following closely the complaints posted and allowing for the ones that were clearly not the fault of GSE I still came away with a very uneasy feeling about the trend that I was seeing.

    I will give GSRSA a chance and buy your plan. Hopefully I will never need to put it to a test.

    To be honest I think that while these forums serve both the interests of the customer and the company I feel that often times the way complaints are handled here leaves me, and I believe many others, with the feeling that nothing is really happening in the background.

    While privacy must be maintained I do think a review of the way the response team handles complaints might help not only the company from a public relations standpoint but also give those GSE customers and potential customers a higher degree of confidence that we aren't just hearing boilerplate answers to mollify public frustration on the forum. I know that this is the feeling I have come away with many times. I am sure there are resolutions the team could post without compromising privacy.

    Again thanks for your response and taking the time.

    AP
  • NewGoodSam's avatar
    NewGoodSam
    Explorer
    Jun 04, 2015
    4 x 4 Dodger

    Thanks for your post and an opportunity to weigh in on the topic!

    We have been serving Good Sam members with RV roadside assistance for many years. As of today nearly 500,000 of our members are enrolled in the program.

    When working with members and independent network of service providers we do occasionally experience issues. AAA experiences this as well. However, I can assure you that if you have a problem we’ll stand behind the service and we’ll do our best to resolve the issue.

    One of the reasons Marcus wanted to offer you this forum is to give us the opportunity to resolve issues that occur – to your benefit. We want to fix problems and we want members to be satisfied. This often requires us to take the problem off line so that we don’t compromise the privacy of the member. Many members do not post the resolution and close the loop on the post – but I wish they would!

    AAA has a good product. We feel our program is better and we can provide more points to show you why we feel that is the case. I have invited our Program Director, Darren White to respond to this forum with a comparison and ultimately you can decide if Good Sam Roadside assistance is the right program for you.

    Regards,

    Mike Siemens
    President
    Good Sam Club

    Msiemens@Campingworld.com

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