One Star to Good Sam Emergency Road Service –Not so Good Sam

Traveling in an RV can be challenging when you have an 1100 mile Road Trip.  You can be prepared – but things happen.  While making our way south for the winter, we noticed sparks out the passenger window on the 5^th wheel, okay actually Kenny noticed the sparks- yes the sparks were on my side and I should have noticed them first!  It was about 7pm and we were 20 some miles south of Lund, Nevada on a lonely stretch of Hwy 318. We were about 15 miles short of our planned rest-stop for the evening.

The flat was on the right side, so we pulled off the road as far as possible on a two-land highway and called Good Sam Emergency Roadside Service.  It was Saturday evening so we were hoping for a quick change before it got too late and too cold. Lows were expected in the teens.

Lance answered our call at Good Sam's and once we figured out exactly where we were (Our Garman GPS is wonderful). Lance assessed our emergency situation; we had a couple options, a change using the spare or a replacement tire. The replacement tire through a Goodyear dealer was 150 miles away, we considered this and Lance got a price of $425 for someone to come out and deliver it.  We then decided it was more important to get off the road, so we chose to just go for the change.  Lance went to work finding us someone.  After about an hour, we got a call back telling us they apologized for the delay, but they thought they found someone in Lund who could come out and once they confirmed the rate they would call back.  

Lance called back 45 minutes later apologizing that they couldn't find anyone, no one would come to our aid.  They had called the Highway Patrol – tired calling several people and no one could come until morning.  Ken asked what happened to the guy he had mentioned earlier, but Lance just stated he was very apologetic, and his supervisor informed him to tell us we were on our own,  if we found someone Good Sam would reimburse the cost.

Well, as you might imagine that didn't go over well on our end. Ken asked for his supervisor, he said he would put us on hold, and Ken said no, just put her on because she was the one that made the call to leave him stranded on the road in the middle of no-where.  He asked if it was okay to mute the call and she would be right on – a couple minutes later Phyllis came on and Ken asked how they could leave him on the road with semis in the middle of nowhere. She said, they had exhausted their search in finding help to change the tire and if he could find someone Good Sam would cover the cost. Ken asked her how she thought he would be successful at that when they weren't, it was now almost 10 pm.

 Ken explained our situation on the road and let her listen to the semis roaring by.  She said she was sorry. Then Ken explained that we have been paying for Good Sam Emergency Repair Service for years and if he went out there and changed the tire and there was any kind of incident, Good Sam would be liable for the damages, injury, etc.  She was sorry but there was nothing she could do. Then Ken asked if he could request a tow since he was parked partially on the highway.  She then said, "So you want to change this from a tire change to a tow", he said yes. She said she would put in the request and someone would call back.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Lance called back within 15 minutes and said he found someone outside Lund (20 miles away) he would be there in the 20/30 minutes to change the tire. In the meantime, Ken went out to check the damage, apparently a short 2x6 board from a semi lodged between the frame and tire wearing the tread completely off the rim. 

When the repairman showed up about 10:45pm, he said he would have been there 2-1/2 hours ago, except that the Good Sam never called back to authorize the work. The caller (Lance) had to check with his supervisor and she declined.  The repairman quickly got us back on the road. We even followed him home and he allowed us to park in his pasture overnight. We dropped the trailer there, while Ken headed back to Ely to get a tire. The repairman said there was a tire shop that had a weekend number for emergency service. On Sunday, after several hours we were back on the road – with a new 10 ply tire $240… 

***** Five Stars to Gardner's Garage of Lund Nevada for your great service and the extra mile you took to help us get back on our way- You are some special people! Thank You!

***** Five Stars and special thanks to Gale Oil and Tire, a Goodyear dealer in Ely, Nevada for opening on a Sunday morning.

* One Star to Good Sam for telling us there was no one willing to help us and not being completely honest with us about the repairman in limbo 26 miles away… the One Star is for the Good Sam operator Lance who tried his best!