Inept or not properly trained dispatcher

HappyKayakers, thank you for your post. The Good Sam Roadside Assistance commitment is to provide you with safe, professional, and courteous service in response to your call to our 24-hour, 365-days-a-year call center. In response to your call, we will address your disablement, and tow you to a repair facility, or “bring the repair facility to you” through a mobile mechanic. To address safety or traffic management issues, at times, law enforcement may become part of the process. As the Member Benefit Brochure specifies: “At their discretion, law enforcement officers may radio for a non-program emergency service provider.”
It is not Good Sam standard operating procedure to ask our members to contact local law enforcement, or to call local service providers, to secure service.
Thank you for your membership, Frank

GSRoadsideAssistance wrote:
wbwood, thank you for your post. As an initial response to your question, I have included a Good Sam Roadside Assistance website FAQ, which addresses our service provider network, our approved list:
“Q: What towing service would you call in my area?
A: Good Sam Roadside Assistance has a network of over 40,000 service and repair facilities across the U.S. and Canada to provide towing and roadside services. The selected tow provider is chosen based on how close they are to your location, if they have the proper equipment for your particular vehicle and their availability for a timely dispatch.”
Our network service providers are bonded and insured, and hold our members’ safety and well-being as first priority. On occasion, to supply needed service to a Roadside Assistance member, a Dispatch Agent may contact a capable and willing out-of-network service provider to assist a member.
Regarding tire purchases, Good Sam Roadside Assistance utilizes a core provider network which is capable of meeting the special needs of the RV industry. On occasion, the Agent may go outside of the network to meet a member need.
Thank you for your membership, Frank

Sorta of what I had figured.... but what bothers me a little bit is the statement that your dispatchers will go out of network if they need to, to assist a member. In the OP's statement here, there was one who was able to assist that was not far away. Unfortunately, the dispatcher did not attempt to go out of network to find someone and told them to call the state police to get someone to help. Why couldn't the dispatcher find this willing assistance without the need of the state police? Same goes with tires. There have been numerous postings of people being told they couldn't find a tire for them, but the member found one themselves just down the road themselves. Are there not levels of service providers that the dispatchers could go by? I mean a dispatcher is given the tools of who they can call, and also the ability to research the area. Are they not given the authority to do this? Are supervisors blocking the ability and turning down requests for this?

Don't have GS service plan but seen enough stupid things that it seems to make more sense to just call up a local place rather than pay for a service plan(smart phones are wonderful things).

Have only called twice over the years and both times were a disaster. Last time we had an issue, got back from a trip by plane late at night and the battery was dead (left the dome light on). Explicitly stated it was a large diesel pickup. They sent a guy in a minivan with jumper cables that wouldn't reach the front of the truck after 3 hrs of waiting. After being told it would be another 3-4hrs, we got a $19.99 car rental, went to walmart and bought a couple batteries.

Supposedly, there are ERS SUPERVISORS, listening in on your conversation or very close by the agent, who should ask the supervisor for help.

It it also incumbent upon you to say: LET ME SPEAK TO A SUPERVISOR.

wbwood, thank you for your post. As an initial response to your question, I have included a Good Sam Roadside Assistance website FAQ, which addresses our service provider network, our approved list:
“Q: What towing service would you call in my area?
A: Good Sam Roadside Assistance has a network of over 40,000 service and repair facilities across the U.S. and Canada to provide towing and roadside services. The selected tow provider is chosen based on how close they are to your location, if they have the proper equipment for your particular vehicle and their availability for a timely dispatch.”
Our network service providers are bonded and insured, and hold our members’ safety and well-being as first priority. On occasion, to supply needed service to a Roadside Assistance member, a Dispatch Agent may contact a capable and willing out-of-network service provider to assist a member.
Regarding tire purchases, Good Sam Roadside Assistance utilizes a core provider network which is capable of meeting the special needs of the RV industry. On occasion, the Agent may go outside of the network to meet a member need.
Thank you for your membership, Frank

Funny you should have that sort of experience. Years ago my truck broke down far from home, and the roadside assistance people insisted that they had to use the cell phone number as their only way to determine which 100 mile radius to fetch help from, never mind the cell phone was from the OTHER coast. Pointing out that summoning a tow truck from Virginia was going to cost a LOT more than getting one from near my then-current location in Utah did no good.

GSRoadsideAssistance wrote:
Thank you for your post, Leo482. I regret any difficulties you experienced regarding your membership. I would like the opportunity to speak with you concerning your post. I would be more than happy to contact you…please send me a private message with your Good Sam Roadside Assistance membership number and contact information: telephone and e-mail. I am looking forward to speaking with you. Thank you, Frank

Frank, can you confirm or deny that your dispatchers work on an approved list? Do they have the capability (and allowed) of going of a list and finding someone else?

Many people speak on here about things like this poster finding someone right down the road that your dispatcher didn't know about, apparently. Also people able to find tires that your dispatchers couldn't locate. Are you not allowed to get them from places like Walmart, etc?

Would be a big help on here to know these type of things.

GSRoadsideAssistance wrote:
Thank you for your post, Leo482. I regret any difficulties you experienced regarding your membership. I would like the opportunity to speak with you concerning your post. I would be more than happy to contact you…please send me a private message with your Good Sam Roadside Assistance membership number and contact information: telephone and e-mail. I am looking forward to speaking with you. Thank you, Frank

Besides talking privately to the OP, maybe you could also clarify something for the rest of us. This isn't the first post I've seen where a member was asked by a customer service rep to call local law enforcement. Is this SOP for GSRA? If you can't find a tow at the right price, tell the customer to start calling locals?

I have used GS roadside service four times in the last two years for flat tires on my fifth wheel. I have received good service and feel the service has more than paid for itself. I guess i got the good dispatchers every time!

GS towed me to a Pilot service center that would not and could not repair my brakes. They towed it the next day again, to another state, while it cost me a night in a motel. Turns out they never talked to the Pilot Center, they were closed on Sunday. So who did the dispatcher talk to?