Good Sam ERS Surprise

[Oakman]

My friend who is currently camped next to us walked outside this morning and discovered he had a flat tire on his fifth wheel. He called Good Sam ERS and within an hour a road service arrived at his campsite. It didn’t take long for the service to take off the flat and put on his spare tire. The surprise was when my friend was presented a bill for $95 for a LABOR charge. The road service tech explained that Good Sam pays for the service call and the mileage to drive to the site but not the labor to fix the flat.

My friend called Good Sam ERS to complain and was told that in most cases, BUT NOT ALL, they cover the labor. This is good to know. If I ever have a flat tire my first question will be whether or not there will be a labor charge I will have to pay.

I looked on the Good Sam ERS website and didn’t see any information that I might have to pay a labor charge when service is provided.

[colliehauler]

Thanks for the update. I have had ERS platinum for 15 year's and have only had to use it once, thankfully.

[Kit_Carson]

Here locally Gateway Tire Co. Will fix a flat free no matter where the tire was purchased.

[Dtank]

csamayfield55 wrote:

seaeagle2 wrote:
Here in the Northwest, if you take a tire into Les Schwab, they usually fix a flat for FREE, (we've bought a lot of tires from them over the years)

If your tires are from them they will fix it free. If you know the guys in the shop they will sometimes cut you a deal.

The thing about Schwabs is you PAY for that service!! They are one of the most expensive tire shops around but I still get almost all my tires from them just for the piece of mind traveling in the weest

Chris

Which piece of (your) mind is that?

Does it work traveling in the eest also?

:B

[Walaby]

Nice to see the update. Too many times folks state an issue, and never come back to advise what the resolution was. Glad to see they stepped up and resolved it. Hope they removed the offending company from their list of vendors.

Mike

[ReneeG]

Thanks for the update Oakman! We have ERS Platinum and have had good service as well.

[Oakman]

UPDATE: My friend called me today to tell me the outcome and he was literally ecstatic. Good Sam has come through and went above and beyond expectations to make this right. I knew there wasn’t supposed to be a charge for changing a tire. Thank you Zack for your assistance in this matter. You da Man!!

I've been a member of the Good Sam ERS for 12 years and I always recommend their ERS service to other RVers. I will continue to do so.

[Bmach]

I would not have payed the charge. Call GS and ask about while the guy is there waiting. Then let him call the police if he wants. He was scamming you and he won. I would bet he would have left while you were on the phone. Losing money standing around waiting. But there is no way I would have paid.

[ReneeG]

csamayfield55 wrote:

seaeagle2 wrote:
Here in the Northwest, if you take a tire into Les Schwab, they usually fix a flat for FREE, (we've bought a lot of tires from them over the years)

If your tires are from them they will fix it free. If you know the guys in the shop they will sometimes cut you a deal.

The thing about Schwabs is you PAY for that service!! They are one of the most expensive tire shops around but I still get almost all my tires from them just for the piece of mind traveling in the weest

Chris

Agree on Les Schwab. We purchased our FW tires from them and every spring we take our FW over, have them inspect them before the year's travel.

[Charlie_D_]

bukhrn wrote:
$95 to fix a flat !!!!! :E Outrageous.
A tubeless tire should have just been plugged & re-inflated, 20 min tops. Unless it was other than a simple puncture.
Should have just taken the tire to a local gas station, around here, they'll fix a tire for $10, (which is also too much) but, times have changed.
If GS paid to change the tire with the spare, did they in fact repair the original tire & put it back on?

Around here plugging a tire is no longer done and documentation to that effect is hanging on all the walls. There are also pictures of acceptable damage that will be repaired. All require a dismount and a plug installed from the inside and then a patch over that repair.

Regardless, that tire is not repairable because of its location even if there is no belt desperation or other damage.

[2gypsies1]

csamayfield55 wrote:

The thing about Schwabs is you PAY for that service!! They are one of the most expensive tire shops around but I still get almost all my tires from them just for the piece of mind traveling in the west.

That was definitely not our experience. As full-timers we were in Missouri heading for Alaska. We wanted all new tires for the trip. We didn't care where we got them. We wanted best price and a manufactured date of 6m or less. We called many places in all the states to Washington. The best price came from Schwab and all tires matched the recent mfg. date. We were extremely satisfied with their service. We got our Michilins in Oregon.

[csamayfield55x]

seaeagle2 wrote:
Here in the Northwest, if you take a tire into Les Schwab, they usually fix a flat for FREE, (we've bought a lot of tires from them over the years)

If your tires are from them they will fix it free. If you know the guys in the shop they will sometimes cut you a deal.

The thing about Schwabs is you PAY for that service!! They are one of the most expensive tire shops around but I still get almost all my tires from them just for the piece of mind traveling in the weest

Chris

[seaeagle2]

Here in the Northwest, if you take a tire into Les Schwab, they usually fix a flat for FREE, (we've bought a lot of tires from them over the years)

[aguablanco]

ReneeG wrote:
Interesting. We had a flat, called GRS, they got there within the hour, changed it by placing the spare on, no charge.

Same thing for me on Tuesday of this week. I did tip the guy. Apparently so did the OP, just way more than I did. Please let us know how this is resolved.
RichH

[darsben1]

Oakman wrote:

darsben1 wrote:
Wonder why the guy paid?
I would have told the provider to hit the road!

My friend did challenge the bill but the service wouldn't leave without being paid. Telling someone to hit the road is very unrealistic and would have solved nothing.

It would have solved the $95.00 out of pocket. The road service guy is not going to call the cops when he is scamming.