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 5th
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!
