No Good Sam

[captbanjo]

I've given this a lot of thought before posting. I don't want to use this site as a place to air my grievances about a company but I really do believe this has a potential impact on all RVers and so I thought I would pass it along for your information.

I have used Good Sam towing for over a decade. Last year, due in part to a couple of Goodyear Marathon tire blowouts (documented elsewhere here), we had to use them more than once. Prior to that, we used them about two or three times over 10 years. Having experienced terrible service from them, I later contacted them via email and outlined how long we had to wait on the side of I-95 for hours and the fact that their communication to us then was inconsistent and incorrect. I never received a single word or even confirmation that they had received my email. The next month, I received a written survey requesting my review of their services. I filled out the survey and was very specific and asked that they contact me. They did not.

What did happen is this, and this is the part I want to warn people about: we left Rhode Island in March of this year and drove to Florida. While in the Gulf region, we entered a Camping World and bought some items. While checking out, the cashier told us that our Good Sam towing service had expired and asked me if I wanted to renew it. Since I am very diligent about this I was shocked to hear it but I went ahead and renewed it just to be covered.

When we got back to Rhode Island about six weeks later, we discovered a cancellation of our policy along with a partial refund check from Good Sam. This was the original cancellation of our policy. They had sent me no notification via email and no notification via phone and so we were not covered while were traveling. About two months later, they canceled the policy that I had renewed in Florida. Their basis for both cancellations was that I had used their services too much.

Being a retired police detective I cannot prove it, but I am willing to bet that it is no coincidence that our policy was scrapped after I gave them a negative review and they refused to even contact me. I will obviously use another company going forward but Good Sam provided more than a horrible service; they left us completely uncovered while on the road without a single phone call or email, used by them anytime they wanted to sell me anything.

[CORattler]

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.
Marcus Lemonis, are you listening? Do you care?

[BB_TX]

I am often on the rv.net open roads forum. And posts similar to yours about Good Sam are not uncommon. Others have commented on being dropped if they had more than 2-3 calls in a year or so. And long wait times and poor communication were other common complaints. To be fair, there are often positive comments about their good service. So something of a cr@p shoot I guess. But at least if you post your poor experience on the open roads forum, Good Sam will respond to your post fairly quickly wanting your contact info for followup. Don't know what happens after that. No one seems to post the results. Maybe they are not allowed to.

Coach-net gets far fewer complaints on that forum. Don't know if they are that much better, or if there are simply fewer Coach-net members than Good Sam members. But that is why I chose Coach-net. Have never used it so can't comment on their service. Except that I had my an exhaust temp sensor fail on my truck about 30 miles from home not towing, called Ford since under warranty, they quickly sent a tow service, and took me and truck to my dealer. Found out later that Ford used Coach-net as their service provider. Don't know if they still do.

[mhs4771]

I think they are all Hit or Miss. Had an issue with our old SOB TT when we had AAA Plus and they we of no help at all. Know of others that had AAA and if you've had more than several calls in a year they won't respond.
So I guess you just take your chances with which ever company you go with.

[captbanjo]

Having been looking into this for the last couple of weeks, Coach Net seems to get the best reviews overall while AAA seems to get the worst ones. Nobody bats a thousand and I am not looking for perfection but the lack of communication and callous handling of somebody who had been with them for so many years definitely caught my attention.

[PackerFan]

Marcus Lemonis isn't listening, he just sucks the money out of Camping World for his TV show and cares nothing about customer service!!

[bigskyjimmy]

You got that Right!!!

quote:Originally posted by PackerFan

Marcus Lemonis isn't listening, he just sucks the money out of Camping World for his TV show and cares nothing about customer service!!

[DQDick]

We checked around a lot and while some had good experiences, many didn't so we went with Coach-Net and have had great service and they didn't cancel us.

[Mike117]

Captbanjo. I don't think you have to be a detective to see they apparently did not like your complaining. Even Stevie Wonder can see that. Thank for info won't use them.

[mlh]

Thanks for this.
Lynwood

[captbanjo]

FYI: as suggested, I posted this exact post on the Open Roadsforum:

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/f...1.cfm#28941113

An administrator from Good Sam has contacted me and I am willing to have a conversation about all of this. I will pass along the outcome here.

[richfaa]

We are also going to replace our GS roadside assistance with another service.I have not been able to find it yet but we are told there is a limit on the number of times you can use it in a year. We did not like that you are automatically renewed unless you call to opt out. My reply to them was...I did not have to call to opt in why do I need to call to opt out.We should be able to opt out on line as well.I consider that a deceptive practice. I have had Coach net and the service was OK.

[captbanjo]

I received a phone call from the Good Sam Roadside Assistance Director of Operations today and we had a conversation. I explained my major concerns were the lack of contact and notification in an era when cell phones and emails abound and that I was left uncovered by towing service while over a thousand miles from home.

The upshot of this is, Good Sam reinstated me and I opted for a three year deal. The price was right and the truth is, prior to all of this, I had no complaints.

I hope my concerns were taken seriously and I'll give the benefit of doubt and assume they were. Again, I was/am less concerned about the dropping of my membership than the manner in which it was done and the total lack of communication after three separate critiques (phone, Good Sam site, snail mail).

[Razrbk]

Thanks for the update. Glad you got a good outcome.

[Razrbk]

Why did they initially drop your coverage?

[captbanjo]

quote:Originally posted by Razrbk

Why did they initially drop your coverage?

The reason was that I used them too often. What had happened was because of the Goodyear Marathon tire problems I ended up using them about four times over the period of a year. I do understand that they have a responsibility to not let somebody use them frequently but my biggest issue was with the lack of response to my three messages and lack of notification to me that I was dropped while I was on the road and not able to access my snail mail. I'm hoping that in some small way my posting here and on RV.net will make a difference with them.

[Bill.vannuys]

I had great service from Coach-Net when "my wife let ME" lock MY keys in our truck in a small town late at night. They found someone to come from a distance and called me several times before and after the service.

[richfaa]

The truth is we have had good service from all the road service plan we have had over the years and there have been many. We usually change every couple of years just to get a freebee joining gift and the first year discount. This is our change year.

[Exnavydiver]

When we started RVing about 10 yrs ago we had GS but our truck was insured with AAA and I forgot that we also had the gold card and really great road service. On our first trip to the south east we blew out a trailer tire with about 3K damage and we called GS, we waited an hr and called again. After the third call we called AAA and they were on station within 25 Minutes. They brought a tire but we had a spare so they changed the tire and brought us cold drinks. We called GS and canceled the call after the 3 hr mark. GS road service called 5 hrs later and told us they could not get there that day. I told them to forget it and never looked back..

[captbanjo]

quote:Originally posted by RonD

I have had Good Sam for 7 years used twice, I don't have any complaints, remember all these company's use the same towing company's, AAA, GS, Coach net all the same, now regarding being canceled or other office issues is a differient matter

Exactly Ron. Customer service is the difference. All the rest is I simply a service company notification issue.