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Old 05-11-2013, 08:09 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TurtleKent View Post
What I did on Spring Break!

In March at Sun-n-Fun RV park in Sarasota, on departure day our former Itasca Horizon would not turn over, no starter, no instrument cluster, but batteries ok, and Freightliner 24/7 phone tech thought a short somewhere. Good Sam sent out truck road service, mechanic thought we had a bad starter, although he couldn't get the starter to turn with a jump from a fresh battery(still wouldn't explain dead instrument cluster). He rebuilt starter, no help.

Now, with an obvious chassis problem that road service cannot correct, and safely in a campground at 8pm Thurs, I call Good Sam requesting tow to nearest Freightliner(Tampa, 55 miles) on Friday morning. They say call back after 9am Friday, they can't set up a scheduled tow, only a tow the same day. Call back 9am, they will only pay tow to nearest service center(2 miles away, a dealer that only sells campers). Not acceptable I say, it's a chassis problem and needs a chassis service center, nearest one in Tampa. GS finally agrees to tow me 28 miles(why?) and I have to pay the balance(about$200) to get it to Tampa. I request Stepp's Towing in Tampa, biggest in state and recommended by LazyDays. Nope, can't do that, the towing co. must be based where tow originates. I explain that they have the proper equipment, that the towing co. must drive a round trip anyway(it's the same mileage) so why would it matter which end the towing co. is based. No matter says GS. I told Good Sam that it's a 40 foot, 32,000# coach, and towing it will require a heavy duty bus lift, the driveshaft must be disconnected, it's stranded in an RV site in the campground, and the towing co. needs to call me first before they come out so I can make sure they are coming with the correct equipment to do the tow.

Then the real fun begins... The first two towing cos. that call me after GS assigns the job do not have large enough trucks to handle the tow. The third towing co. assigned calls me and wants to put the coach on a flatbed. OK by me, I say, but it is stranded in an RV site and it will still require a tow truck to get the coach out of the site and on to a straight road so it can be loaded onto a flatbed. He hangs up. Soooooo... at 1pm, four hours later, the fourth towing co. is assigned, and guess who??? It's Stepp's Towing, who drives down(from Tampa 55 miles) with the correct equipment for the job(which I had requested when I called Good Sam at 9am) and tows our coach back to Tampa. Stepp's, by the way, was courteous, prompt, efficient and in all ways excellent for the job.

What have I learned about Good Sam ERS?? The local road service was not up to the job of diagnosing our problem, not really Good Sam's fault. The Good Sam CSR had never seen a motorhome before, had no idea what a Class A diesel pusher was, and it apparently was his second day on the job. Beyond that, the problems with Good Sam 1) assigning an inept newbie to the telephone, polite as he was, does not foster goodwill or give me warm fuzzies for Good Sam, 2) their protocol for assigning Towing cos. based on location without consideration for the size of motorhome seems ludicrous, 3)their inability to forward my basic information on the job to the towing co. is incompetence, 4) their requirement to tow to the nearest 'service facility' without consideration of the qualifications of that service facility or of the problem requiring the tow seems equally ludicrous.

I am moving my ERS to Coach-Net. I fully realize that the both ERS companies use the same pool of road service companies, that they too may have some inept people on their phones, and that their protocols for towing may be equally restrictive and ludicrous.

End of rant(and this occurred two months ago)!
To the best of knowledge only AAA ers will tow you up to 200 miles to a location of your choice for no additional charge. This is with the Premier RV coverage. They will tow any vehicle you are in. I have used them for several auto tows but I have not used them for the rv. I hope I never need to. I did call once to have a tire valve repaired. I can't remember if i had AAA or GS at the time, but they wanted to tow my mh to a shop. I denied service and found an auto parts store with the extendable tire valve fittings and replaced it my self in just a few minutes. The operator would not set someone up just to come repair my tire. There is definately financial and time wasted by these operators who have no auto/rv experience.
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Old 05-11-2013, 08:10 AM   #22
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Don't know about CoachNet yet but it appears GS now has an introductory rate of less than $80.00 for new members. Like most companies now days if you are an existing member the rates keep going up and up regardless of whether you have needed service. Out GS renewal due now is $139.00 per year.
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Old 05-11-2013, 08:14 AM   #23
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What turned out to be the problem once you got it to Freightliner?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TurtleKent View Post
What I did on Spring Break!

In March at Sun-n-Fun RV park in Sarasota, on departure day our former Itasca Horizon would not turn over, no starter, no instrument cluster, but batteries ok, and Freightliner 24/7 phone tech thought a short somewhere. Good Sam sent out truck road service, mechanic thought we had a bad starter, although he couldn't get the starter to turn with a jump from a fresh battery(still wouldn't explain dead instrument cluster). He rebuilt starter, no help.
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Old 05-11-2013, 09:55 AM   #24
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What does CoachNet cost per year? Do they also cover all family members? Does it cover all vehicles you own, not just your coach?

Good Sam covers all this. I've been a GS Platinum member for 3 years. Used it once with excellent service. I had a flat tire and thankfully our 35' Winnebago at the time had a spare. Not sure what I'll encounter on our DP without one if the need arises.
Coachnet covers all family members and vehicles owned by the member. My last renewal was $118.00.
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Old 05-11-2013, 10:14 AM   #25
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From what I see, Good Sam is concentrating on aquiring Mom and Pop RV shops at a rapid pace and doing damage control with its customers. It doesn't look like they are paying much attention to what they already have on the front end.
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Old 05-12-2013, 06:25 AM   #26
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It is a crap shoot on road side service, which was adequately outlined by o/p. I settled on Coach Net, and have been very satisfied so far. I was happy with G/S I quit due to excessive mailings.
As a member of GS it takes a few minutes to edit your personal preferences on their website, and total eliminate any piece of mail they would like to send you. I'm no fan of GS, Camping World and the rest of the empire they hold. However, it doesn't take long to recover the yearly member fee in camping discounts. I just stopped at CW for one of the big "Woodalls" guides. It cost me a $20 and included a one year renewal of my GS discount card. Tough to beat the math on that one. As for ERS, I'll stick with Coach-Net, far too many stories of unhappy stranded RVers on the forums start out with, ...... " I called GS and....."
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Old 05-12-2013, 04:02 PM   #27
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We have AAA, have had them for many years. Only used them a few times but never for the MH. Always had good luck....
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Old 05-13-2013, 06:42 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adonh View Post
What turned out to be the problem once you got it to Freightliner?
Towed it to LazyDays vs. Freightliner Tampa, same distance and I was paying the extra mileage. Decided I'd rather be stranded several nites at LazyDays than at Freightliner. The tech found two loose wire connections, the 2/0 neg to starter, and a 14ga pos to the MMDC. The tech worked on both of the spades, although neither one appeared loose, corroded, or rusted. Ran fine after that for 2k miles. Spent four nites in LazyDays service bay. Plenty of time to look at new motorhomes, which we did. Ended up trading it on a newer model, so it turned out to be quite the expensive service call!! All's well that ends well, and we weren't stranded by the side of the road.
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Old 05-13-2013, 07:00 AM   #29
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We have AAA, have had them for many years. Only used them a few times but never for the MH. Always had good luck....
Six years ago on a Sunday afternoon in August, good weather, on the interstate in Chippewa Falls, WI(not a small town) we had an inner dually blowout on our 32' Winnebago. We had AAA Plus RV, so I called. Seven hours and many calls for road service to show up, the poor guy had to drive 105 miles, as no one closer 'had the right equipment' or 'wanted to respond'. I told AAA I had a spare and could use the jacks to raise the motorhome. AAA told me it was not their policy to change an inner dually on a motorhome. I argued and talked to a supervisor. Road tech arrived in a pickup, not a tow truck. The tech was great($50 tip) but not so with AAA.
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Old 05-14-2013, 03:07 AM   #30
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Have had GS ERS for six years, used them three times.

First was a broken fan belt (frozen alternator) with our 32' diesel Winnebago. Called, was naïve, trusted the operator to send out the right service truck. Nope, they sent a guy in a little pickup, he looked over at the rig, saw the belt hanging down from the rear, and said, you got a broken fan belt, please sign my form, I can't help you. I wrote across the form, that the guy was not equipped nor knowledgeable to help in my situation, and should not have come out. Then I called GS again, explained very clearly, the rig that was needed to tow my RV, and all was taken care of.
2nd two times. out on the road, hundred miles from anywhere, I very carefully explained the RV I had, the help I needed, and where it would be found. The correct technicians arrived in very timely fashion, corrected the problems (air brake issues), and all was good.
I think all of these road services have good and bad phone operators, so it is up to us to clearly explain and insist on what is needed. Then ask if they really understood what we need.
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Old 05-14-2013, 06:55 AM   #31
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We have had Good Sam's for several years with excellent service on the toad twice. Last month our DP needed towing in Dallas. Bottom line is that they handled it well, the towing service only sent a dual axle wrecker, ours is a 43 ft. DP with 16,000 lbs on front axle. They damaged the fiberglass in the front and destroyed the mudflap. Working with Good Sam's claims fora month now, more later!
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