Let down by AAA

Every single car that B has owned has stranded him by the side of the road, on at least one occasion. Thursday night, the Subie lived up to its expectations and refused to start at the local commuter rail station after he rode the train home from work.

He called AAA while I rode over to wait with him. Back in 2007, I upgraded to the AAA gold plan after the Dec 13 storm (worst day ever), so we could have the car towed the local dealership at no cost to us.

AAA told us that they couldn't get a tow truck out to us for 2 hours, and would we mind returning home and coming back. Not a problem--if the truck showed up on time, we'd still get home from the dealership at a reasonable hour. Two hours later, when we hadn't heard from them, we called back. They told us to meet the tow truck driver at the lot in 30 minutes--at 9:30.

We drove over and waited. And waited. And waited. A little before 10, we called to inquire about our tow truck. They put us on hold and investigated and promised a call back from the dispatcher in 5 minutes. Twenty-five minutes later--with no phone call--we called back to ask again about our tow truck. By this time, we had been sitting and idling in the parking lot for an hour and were tired and wishing we could just go to sleep.

The woman that I reached said that the dispatcher should have called to say that the truck would arrive at 10:40 PM. I explained to her that we had already been promised a truck (that didn't show up) and a phone call (that never came), and how were we to know that this truck would actually show up? She told me I could call back if the truck didn't show--what a consolation.

At 10:50--no truck in sight--B's cell phone rang. It was AAA, checking to see whether the truck had arrived. B told them it hadn't, asked for a manager, and handed the phone to me. I have a knack for working up righteous indignation when I feel that I have been wronged, and I had nothing but disappointment for the way that AAA had handled this situation. The manager was apologetic--though what good is an apology when you've been waiting for nearly five hours for a tow truck--and put me on hold to investigate further. While I was waiting, the tow truck finally arrived, a little after 11 PM. It was a cold night--26 degrees--so I stayed in the car while he did his thing.

He hauled the Subie up onto the flatbed and we headed off to the dealership, where he deposited the car directly in front, and B dropped the keys into the box. We got home a little after midnight, exhausted.

The next day, the dealership explained that cars had been towed in all week, and they weren't sure when they'd look at it, but they'd let us know when it was ready. They left us a voicemail this morning--the Subie was ready and the cause was so simple that we're kicking ourselves for not trying to just jump the car. The battery was dead and needed to be replaced. Luckily, the repair was covered by our warrantee, so the cost to us was in time only.

As for AAA? I intend to send them a letter of complaint. I'm already working up my righteous indignation.