Last Wednesday, I was going into the office in the morning. I was briefly on a toll highway and my drive sounded odd. Sure enough, I felt that one of my passenger tires wasn't normal and finally exited using the next offramp. I immediately pulled off to a wide shoulder. I looked at my passenger front tire. It was shredded.
My car doesn't come with a spare tire. It's new, so you have no choice but to get a tow truck.
I called roadside assistance. I got a technician dispatched from a towing company. I looked at the link that I got in a text message. It was based in Oshawa, but had my city after its name. Weird. It's roughly an hour away.
I got an ETA of a maximum wait time of 90 minutes. Well, it was more like two hours.
This guy seemed to take his sweet time getting to me. He didn't have any calls. He called me four times. Excessive? Yes.
The first time was fine. I described my location. It was the same as what I had described to the roadside assistance agent. He would have had notes.
I was parked safely on the shoulder of the westbound exit ramp. It's not difficult. There's one offramp westbound. There's one toll highway. There's one street in my city with this name.
Nope, not for this guy. I could tell that he didn't like that I was on a toll highway. He said that he'd charge me $15 for hitting it. I'm covered by roadside assistance. Deal with them, not me.
He then said that I should contact 407 ETR, the toll highway, as they have roadside help and may get there faster than he would. Interesting. He said that he would send me a link. I never got it.
The second call came from him. He asked if I got a hold of 407 ETR. I said that I was waiting for his text message. I got nothing. He finally sent it.
I got a hold of someone at 407 ETR. The woman dispatched a technician.
I got a third call from this technician. He was now in Pickering. Yep, he was taking his time. I let him know that the 407 technician was coming. I didn't have an estimated time. He then asked me whether I could move out of the 407. I said that it was original plan, but I heard metal to the ground and pulled over immediately.
It was clear that this jerk did not want to help me because I was on the 407. Toll fees. He didn't want the extra charges, likely because he didn't have a transponder or want to incur these fees.
This guy called me a fourth time. He asked me how many feet away from the major street I was located. I lost it. He claimed that he was new to the area and needed more details. I say that he was a jerk heavily dependent on technology and reluctant to help me out. He seemed to be stalling.
He actually made me share my location with him through Google Maps. I hated it. It showed sheer incompetence. I had to switch my settings to sharing my location all the time. I told him so. He hung up on me.
Jerk.
What if I didn't have a data plan? You would need to rely on clear location details, like you should have in my case.
You know what's crazy? He never said his name to me. I now know why. He's a horrible technician.
407 ETR had a technician get to me. He was great. He was there to make sure I was safe and waited for this AA Roadside guy to arrive.
We talked. I told him that I've been waiting for 1.5 hours at this stage for this technician. This ETR man drove from the west end to get to me. He also said that he had no difficulties finding me.
So, the jerk arrived in a Subaru Impreza. What? No tow truck? Such a waste of time. I had to call roadside assistance yet again, but to dispatch a tow truck. I also shared my sentiments about this jerk. I look forward to the survey. It's a form of therapy.
The ETR technician waited with me for the tow truck from another company to arrive. He even had pylons set up around my car. That's the level of service and safety that I was expecting from this jerk.
The time that it took the second towing company to get to me after getting word that I needed a technician? Fifteen minutes.
After the jerk left, the 407 technician said to me, "He did nothing." He was right, except that he wasted my time and a bit of this 407 technician's time.
The good news is that my car has a new tire and I have wheels again.
My car doesn't come with a spare tire. It's new, so you have no choice but to get a tow truck.
I called roadside assistance. I got a technician dispatched from a towing company. I looked at the link that I got in a text message. It was based in Oshawa, but had my city after its name. Weird. It's roughly an hour away.
I got an ETA of a maximum wait time of 90 minutes. Well, it was more like two hours.
This guy seemed to take his sweet time getting to me. He didn't have any calls. He called me four times. Excessive? Yes.
The first time was fine. I described my location. It was the same as what I had described to the roadside assistance agent. He would have had notes.
I was parked safely on the shoulder of the westbound exit ramp. It's not difficult. There's one offramp westbound. There's one toll highway. There's one street in my city with this name.
Nope, not for this guy. I could tell that he didn't like that I was on a toll highway. He said that he'd charge me $15 for hitting it. I'm covered by roadside assistance. Deal with them, not me.
He then said that I should contact 407 ETR, the toll highway, as they have roadside help and may get there faster than he would. Interesting. He said that he would send me a link. I never got it.
The second call came from him. He asked if I got a hold of 407 ETR. I said that I was waiting for his text message. I got nothing. He finally sent it.
I got a hold of someone at 407 ETR. The woman dispatched a technician.
I got a third call from this technician. He was now in Pickering. Yep, he was taking his time. I let him know that the 407 technician was coming. I didn't have an estimated time. He then asked me whether I could move out of the 407. I said that it was original plan, but I heard metal to the ground and pulled over immediately.
It was clear that this jerk did not want to help me because I was on the 407. Toll fees. He didn't want the extra charges, likely because he didn't have a transponder or want to incur these fees.
This guy called me a fourth time. He asked me how many feet away from the major street I was located. I lost it. He claimed that he was new to the area and needed more details. I say that he was a jerk heavily dependent on technology and reluctant to help me out. He seemed to be stalling.
He actually made me share my location with him through Google Maps. I hated it. It showed sheer incompetence. I had to switch my settings to sharing my location all the time. I told him so. He hung up on me.
Jerk.
What if I didn't have a data plan? You would need to rely on clear location details, like you should have in my case.
You know what's crazy? He never said his name to me. I now know why. He's a horrible technician.
407 ETR had a technician get to me. He was great. He was there to make sure I was safe and waited for this AA Roadside guy to arrive.
We talked. I told him that I've been waiting for 1.5 hours at this stage for this technician. This ETR man drove from the west end to get to me. He also said that he had no difficulties finding me.
So, the jerk arrived in a Subaru Impreza. What? No tow truck? Such a waste of time. I had to call roadside assistance yet again, but to dispatch a tow truck. I also shared my sentiments about this jerk. I look forward to the survey. It's a form of therapy.
The ETR technician waited with me for the tow truck from another company to arrive. He even had pylons set up around my car. That's the level of service and safety that I was expecting from this jerk.
The time that it took the second towing company to get to me after getting word that I needed a technician? Fifteen minutes.
After the jerk left, the 407 technician said to me, "He did nothing." He was right, except that he wasted my time and a bit of this 407 technician's time.
The good news is that my car has a new tire and I have wheels again.
