Subaru roadside assistance faulty

[tenplay]

Recently my wife had a blowout on the Interstate in Washington in her 2004
Forester and was stuck on the median. She used her cell phone to call Sub
roadside assistance. The operator was located somewhere in the Southwest.
She was not able to find the location and told my wife that she would call
back when she had the information. After waiting 15 minutes, my wife called
again only to get another operator, who had no information related to the
previous conversation. The Highway Patrol had shown up in the meantime.
When they decided that it was too dangerous to continue waiting on the
median while Sub roadside assistance got their act together, they called
their own towing service to tow the car off the Interstate and change the
tire. Has anyone else had any bad (or good) experiences with the Sub
roadside service?

 

[Todd H.]

Recently my wife had a blowout on the Interstate in Washington in her 2004
Forester and was stuck on the median. She used her cell phone to call Sub
roadside assistance. The operator was located somewhere in the Southwest.
She was not able to find the location and told my wife that she would call
back when she had the information. After waiting 15 minutes, my wife called
again only to get another operator, who had no information related to the
previous conversation. The Highway Patrol had shown up in the meantime.
When they decided that it was too dangerous to continue waiting on the
median while Sub roadside assistance got their act together, they called
their own towing service to tow the car off the Interstate and change the
tire. Has anyone else had any bad (or good) experiences with the Sub
roadside service?

I called them once when I destroyed a tire running over some
construction debris.

I was told it'd be 50 minutes before someone would be out. Then I
was called back later to extend that by 30 more minutes.

I changed the tire myself in the dark--almost out of sheer boredom
waiting for these clowns.

It seems roadside assistance is marketing. And then the service they
subcontract is such garbage, no one will use it and give up before a
truck actually has to show up. They seem to have taken a play out
of the playbook of software and internet support services. Ignore
the customer long enough, they'll fix it themself or just go away.

Best Regards,

 

[CompUser]

It seems roadside assistance is marketing. And then the service they
subcontract is such garbage, no one will use it and give up before a
truck actually has to show up. They seem to have taken a play out
of the playbook of software and internet support services. Ignore
the customer long enough, they'll fix it themself or just go away.

Well before you get too feisty on Subaru's
program, I'll tell you AAA (and most likely
anyone else) is about the same.

I've used AAA a couple of times myself, and
witnessed it with several dozen "stranded
motorists", and a 60 minute ETA is normal.

You're talking to a "corporate" customer service
rep, who's going to refer to their database of
tow operators. They'll start trying to contact
the closest ones until they get an answer, and
then you'll be in the queue for that operator.
You might be waiting for a one-man, owner-
operator tow guy to respond, or a larger
outfit...won't know till he/she shows up (I guess
there are female tow operators, tho I've *never*
seen one...not sure I'd want to either, lol).

Depending on if the one-man show operator is
watching his favorite team, or if there's been a
multi-car pile up that's sucked up all the tow
resources in the area, there's a ton of factors
that can result in wildly extended variations
from the customer service rep's ETA. It's just
the nature of the beast.

Steve

 

[Todd H.]

Well before you get too feisty on Subaru's
program, I'll tell you AAA (and most likely
anyone else) is about the same.

Oh, I suspect all of them suck equally.

I'd hate anyone to base any purchasing decisions on them though, cus
when yer most likely to need help, it's when others will need it too,
and without a quality-of-service guarantee, it behooves the
contractors to keep expenses as low as possible. Which means the
negotiated rate for getting someone out there is probably marginal, so
if there's more than one job to do at a given time, the tow operator
is likely gonna go help someone who called them directly.

 

[MJG]

Recently my wife had a blowout on the Interstate in Washington in her 2004

<SNIP>

I guess his will not be something particular to Subaru's service.

When on vacation this year in Orlando from the UK I broke down in my
Dollar hire car in the car park at Sea World Orlando......

Try explaining that to somebody in (Chicago I think it was....)

No sorry Sir I need a road/intersection.....

Yes I'm from the UK I have broken down in the parking lot (car Park in
UK speak) of THE Seaworld in Orlando Row X.

Yes Sir but which road/intersection is that on.........

I don't know but this is THE PARKING LOT OF SEA WORLD
ORLANDO..............

and so it went on..........

Only a member of staff from Dollar when I rang back after I limped
back to my hotel was able to help.......