On Friday September 23 we set off for a week of early fall colors in northern (Duluth) Minnesota. We had a mid-afternoon (2:30 P.M.) departure from Wichita on I35 (Kansas Turnpike). Less than 2 miles on the road we had a catastrophic tire failure on our F350 right front. By the grace of God we were able to maintain control and get the rig onto the shoulder safely. Having been a AAA member for over 25 years prior to changing to Good Sam's and familiar with roadside assistance usage we felt that this setback could be taken in stride as a "new adventure". Little did we know how prophetic and accurate that would be. After calling Good Sam it took approximately 45 minutes for our contact to locate a vendor who had the tire we needed and to schedule their technician to assist us in one to one and a half hours. Yes we were on the roadside, but we were also within the city limits of Wichita, Kansas, a metropolitan area of approximately half a million people. After that time window was missed and another call to our Good Sam contact it took another approximately 90 minutes just to make contact with the vendor to be told that it would be another one and a half to two hours for them to respond. From the time of our first contact with Good Sam to returning to the road was a little over 7 hours. We had the vendor blame the Club service and our contact blaming the vendor. From my consumer stand point I could care less who's fault it was as my service expectation was with Good Sam and was sadly disappointed. The worst response time I ever experienced with AAA was 2 hours and that was 35 miles from nowhere in the middle of New Mexico, not in the middle of a metro area of half a million.

On Friday September 23 we set off for a week of early fall colors in northern (Duluth) Minnesota. We had a mid-afternoon (2:30 P.M.) departure from Wichita on I35 (Kansas Turnpike). Less than 2 miles on the road we had a catastrophic tire failure on our F350 right front. By the grace of God we were able to maintain control and get the rig onto the shoulder safely. Having been a AAA member for over 25 years prior to changing to Good Sam's and familiar with roadside assistance usage we felt that this setback could be taken in stride as a "new adventure". Little did we know how prophetic and accurate that would be. After calling Good Sam it took approximately 45 minutes for our contact to locate a vendor who had the tire we needed and to schedule their technician to assist us in one to one and a half hours. Yes we were on the roadside, but we were also within the city limits of Wichita, Kansas, a metropolitan area of approximately half a million people. After that time window was missed and another call to our Good Sam contact it took another approximately 90 minutes just to make contact with the vendor to be told that it would be another one and a half to two hours for them to respond. From the time of our first contact with Good Sam to returning to the road was a little over 7 hours. We had the vendor blame the Club service and our contact blaming the vendor. From my consumer stand point I could care less who's fault it was as my service expectation was with Good Sam and was sadly disappointed. The worst response time I ever experienced with AAA was 2 hours and that was 35 miles from nowhere in the middle of New Mexico, not in the middle of a metro area of half a million. I could have changed that tire on my 3500 in ten minutes myself and I carry a spare. If you are physically capable why put up with this roadside service delay? It was seven hours of your time? It sounds like you do not carry a spare tire? Why? If you don't like GS try CoachNet.

Not having a spare becomes a big issue and pushes you to the back of the line if you have a roadside flat

The Op's experience is very much like our 3 experiences with Good Sam's road service. None of ours were tire related but the delays and excuses are why we aren't renewing and have already signed up with someone else. The help people at Good Sam just don't seem to care.

Just like the OP, I had a couple of similar experiences with Good Sam. I have had Coachnet for several years now and the one time that I have needed them, they went way beyond the call of duty to get our 40' motorhome taken care of.

glad good sam is consistent in there service, here I though I was going to read a good post.

First (and probably last) Good Sam Roadside Assistance use

Good_Sam_Care_T
Explorer
Feb 06, 2017
To All,

Thank you all for your time and participation in this thread. At this time this post will be closed since it is no longer addressing the original thread. Thank you again for all your time.

Thank you,

Mark
Good Sam Care Team
fulltimedaniel
Explorer
Feb 06, 2017
Bird Freak wrote:
RandACampin wrote:
SharshelF wrote:
jmtandem wrote:
If westernrvparkowner would have read the original post they would have seen that the vendor was identified and already had the tire in stock in 45 minutes AND had confirmed a service time OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING which, if it had been met would have had me back on the road in less than two and a half hours. When the vendor finally made his way to the roadside the actual work was completed in less than thirty minutes on the roadside. It sounds like this vendor and westernrvparkowner conduct business in similar fashion so it is probably best that he stay anonymous or he would have a perpetually empty rv park. I doubt that we have many things in common in that not only do I read, I am able to comprehend. LOL!

Why are you so defensive? You are the one that sat on the side of the road for seven hours not western park owner or anybody else. You are the one that posted the thread here and you have to expect people to respond with how they see the situation. If you were looking for a bunch of folks that felt sorry for you or were showing great sympathy for you then you do not understand this (or most) forums. Sometimes posters need to be thick skinned because you will never know how others will respond.

I have little tolerance for folks who respond to a post when, in their response, it is very evident that either they didn't really read or comprehend what the post said. I was not looking for anybody to have pity on me but rather to communicate the facts of a less than acceptable experience. I use forums quite often (camp grounds, travel services, etc.) and had the experience been a positive one there would also have been a post to reflect that experience. I have found that it is pretty easy to filter forum posts that are informative as opposed to those that are serving an agenda, either positive or negative.

Long time members of this forum have forum have little tolerance for one-time posters (you) who come on here to piss, moan and whine about situations that are caused by their unreasonable expectations.

WRVPO and others with more than 1/2 a brain read your post and understood it for exactly what is.

Only the bleeding heart piler-oner CW bashers will agree with you.

You will be gone after this one-time rant anyway and good riddance to whiners.
And here you see a prime example of why new membership is down.

Could it be that this is not the case? That what the comments above really represent is a case of Peer Moderation, which to my mind is far preferable to the Moderators stepping in, and that it tends to bring the conversation back to what the OP REALLY wrote?

While I found WRVPO's remarks out of line but all too common they probably do represent the feeling of a small number of folks here. That does not make them right, or well written or empathetic in any way but I don't see any connection from this to the alleged decline of the forums. (See the topic under General RV forum on this subject)

I will take RVPO's kind of remarks over the snarky one-line, emoji ridden posts that seem to be proliferating any day. To my mind those are more pernicious to participation than a poorly thought out gotcha comeback such as RVPO wrote. (I just wish he would learn to use paragraphs)
Bird_Freak
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2017
RandACampin wrote:
SharshelF wrote:
jmtandem wrote:
If westernrvparkowner would have read the original post they would have seen that the vendor was identified and already had the tire in stock in 45 minutes AND had confirmed a service time OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING which, if it had been met would have had me back on the road in less than two and a half hours. When the vendor finally made his way to the roadside the actual work was completed in less than thirty minutes on the roadside. It sounds like this vendor and westernrvparkowner conduct business in similar fashion so it is probably best that he stay anonymous or he would have a perpetually empty rv park. I doubt that we have many things in common in that not only do I read, I am able to comprehend. LOL!

Why are you so defensive? You are the one that sat on the side of the road for seven hours not western park owner or anybody else. You are the one that posted the thread here and you have to expect people to respond with how they see the situation. If you were looking for a bunch of folks that felt sorry for you or were showing great sympathy for you then you do not understand this (or most) forums. Sometimes posters need to be thick skinned because you will never know how others will respond.

I have little tolerance for folks who respond to a post when, in their response, it is very evident that either they didn't really read or comprehend what the post said. I was not looking for anybody to have pity on me but rather to communicate the facts of a less than acceptable experience. I use forums quite often (camp grounds, travel services, etc.) and had the experience been a positive one there would also have been a post to reflect that experience. I have found that it is pretty easy to filter forum posts that are informative as opposed to those that are serving an agenda, either positive or negative.

Long time members of this forum have forum have little tolerance for one-time posters (you) who come on here to piss, moan and whine about situations that are caused by their unreasonable expectations.

WRVPO and others with more than 1/2 a brain read your post and understood it for exactly what is.

Only the bleeding heart piler-oner CW bashers will agree with you.

You will be gone after this one-time rant anyway and good riddance to whiners.
And here you see a prime example of why new membership is down.
Bird_Freak
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2017
SharshelF wrote:
No, westernrvparkowner, didn't expect anything other than what a reasonable person would, that being that they meet their initial time commitment, which nobody twisted their arms to make, or have the common courtesy to make contact when they realized they would not meet their commitment and communicate a new schedule. Of course, by your post you would not recognize nor employ common courtesy. I would hide behind anonymity too rather than having the guts to be known.
We really need a like button here!!!:B
floridaguy
Explorer
Feb 05, 2017
RandACampin, speak for yourself not others. I rarely post but read this forum every day and find it helpful and informative. The OP had a valid issue and posted it in the right forum. I found your post neither helpful or informative. I'm speaking just for myself and not other "long time" members.
fulltimedaniel
Explorer
Feb 02, 2017
westernrvparkowner wrote:
Did you expect them to just poop a tire mounted on a wheel for your vehicle? When I get new tires for any of my vehicles I expect a minimum turnaround of two or three hours, even when I take the vehicle to the tire store and have an appointment scheduled. Doesn't matter if it is a large city or a small town, most shops don't have someone just sitting on their arse waiting for the phone to ring. This isn't Gotham City and their isn't a tire equivalent of a Bat Signal. Your service call is going to queue up just like everyone else expecting services. I would be stomping mad if my three hour tire purchase turned into five because they felt it was more important to mount up a spare for someone than it was to finish my service call.

Well this is a bit overblown for sure. Most large tire stores have roads service trucks and dedicated employees on those trucks. While one may find one's self in a line to get serviced that's normal. I have seen an experienced tire guy put a new tire on a rim with hand tools in ten minutes...on the side of the road. I have seen tractor trailer tires done in less than twice that without ever removing the wheel from the trailer.

The time it takes for you to physically go and buy a tire and wait in line is not an apples to apples argument.

There are different factors at play and there is in the case of a road call the expectation of an "Emergency" not in the physical danger sense of course but in the sense of being at risk broken down on the side of the road. There is no such expectation or situation when you go to buy a tire and wait in line for the 4 cars that came ahead of you.

My sense (and bet) is that this is just another case of failed communications on the part of GSRS. As a GSRS member I watch this forum to track it's potential problems and have felt for a long time that this is where most of these complaints start and end.

And I agree with the other poster who thinks you might lighten up a bit and show some empathy for a persons situation and not just jump right down their throat.

Not every poster with a problem is right of course. Some have unrealistic expectations but that doesn't seem the case here.
Jarlaxle
Explorer II
Jan 22, 2017
Travelon wrote:
That was not an attack but a reality check from westernrvparkowner...IMHO.

Travelon

Naah...he basically chugged a bottle of milk of magnesia, dropped trou, and blasted diarrhea everywhere.
Good_Sam_Care_T
Explorer
Oct 06, 2016
Hello Scottiemom,

Thank you for contacting Good Sam, I apologize for the expereince you had with Good Sam Roadside. I would like to look into this, can you provide a contact number and the date of the incident in a private message and I will follow up.

Thank you,
Ella
Good Sam Care Team
Lantley
Nomad
Oct 06, 2016
The OP was in a F350 vs. a motorhome. There is not a big demand for roadside tire services for pick up truck size tires hence the huge delay.
However if you are in a 18 wheeler or MH that requires larger tires you will find more companies available.
Commercial truck operators are more willing to accept and pay fees to get their rigs back on the road. An roadside tire industry has evolved to service the big rigs. However standard passenger size vehicles is more hit or miss.
Having a flat with no spare in a passenger size vehicle may result in a long wait. Somewhere in all this the OP needs to accept some of the responsibility for the delay for not having a spare. All of my pick ups for the last 20 years had a factory installed spare tire.
Scottiemom
Nomad
Oct 06, 2016
Our first experience was similar. We were stopped with a flat on our Phaeton at 2:30 p.m. It was after 9 p.m. before we got a replacement tire and had it put on. We now carry a spare, unmounted, but that isn't a problem for a road service.

We were told a number of things, including the fact that our 2 year old Michelin was shot and obsolete and no longer available. Since we had plenty of time to research, I called Michelin. Found out there was a tire vendor 22 miles away who had over 200 of our tires in stock, but "they didn't work with our Road Service." Hmmmmm. But we could have called that tire vendor and they would have sent a truck out with our tire and either fixed the one we had or put on a new one. It would have been 45 minutes and $75 plus the tire. It was over $360 with our road service. At that point it was too late for them to come. As it was, the used tire that was brought was very bad with a repaired sidewall, so we drove the 22 miles to the tire vendor, boondocked in their back lot and in the morning they came out and patched and plugged our 2 year old tire and we were on our merry way. That tire ran for another 50,000 miles.

So, before I sit for 6 hours again, I will check out other solutions as well. BTW, if you are in Florida and need a tire on a big rig, call Boulevard Tire. They have numerous locations throughout the state and can change all 18 tires on a big rig if necessary. Very professional and don't gouge you on their service.

Dale