roadside-assistance

—>Earlier this month we shared Jason's tale of incompetent Verizon Wireless Roadside Assistance—how the operator "helping" him acted like she'd been huffing paint on her break, and eventually just abandoned him with a "Sorry, I can't help," left on his voicemail. Verizon saw Jason's story and contacted him about it. Below is the follow up he sent us yesterday.  More »

Here are the morals of this story:  More »

—>Reader Chris spent some extra money on a Toyota extended warranty which comes with free roadside assistance in the event his vehicle breaks down or runs out of gas. Unfortunately, that's what happened to Chris' girlfriend one day when she ran out of gas on a Cleveland freeway. She called roadside assistance for help, but when the rescue driver finally arrived he'd only brought a half-gallon of gas, not enough to get her RAV 4 started. Since the roadside assistance terms allow for 3 gallons of gas she asked the driver to bring additional gas to which he replied, "They don't pay me enough for that," and drove off. Chris' letter, inside...  More »

—> We've received a follow-up email from Chuck, who has spent the better part of the week trying to determine why Progressive's Roadside Assistance service—for which he pays an additional monthly fee on top of his normal insurance premium—sucks so badly that they'd leave a motorist stranded for 45 minutes on a busy Interstate on a weekend morning.  More »

—> According to a reader, Progressive—the insurance company that sends private detectives to secretly tape-record church support group meetings—took 45 minutes this past weekend to put a live person in contact with a woman who was stranded on a busy Interstate in Nashville after a tire blew out on her car. Eventually, a Tennessee Department of Transportation officer stopped and helped her.  More »