We have had road side assistance with Good Sam for two and a half years. Purchased because we thought we would be well covered in our motor home and tow vehicle. SO NOT. We just returned from a 3-week RV trip up through Northern CA and the Oregon Coast. During this trip, we had two experiences with this service. The first one was in Grants Pass. When we arrived and went to start our vehicle, it was totally dead - nothing. We really were no sure if it was the battery or something else but we needed a tow truck to come and jump the battery and if that didn't work, tow us 2-3 miles to the Honda dealer in town. It took many conversations mostly involving the issue of they were not able to locate one one of their providers. It took 3 hours to get someone to come to us in GRANTS PASS Oregon. Good thing we were not stranded on the road somewhere NOT IN OR NEAR A TOWN. Our second issue was at the end of our trip and we were in Sonoma, CA. We had caught the rear of the motor home on the guard pole next to the gas pump in downtown Sonoma, CA. The pole went through the fiberglass and was lodged between the frame and the back fiberglass wall of the motorhome. We needed a town truck to get us out of that siutation. Now I thought this would be easy, we had a bigger issue this time and in what is still considered part of the Bay Area. In a 3 1/2 hour period, I talked to Debra at CFW Dallas. She didn't understand what we needed, didn't know if she could get anyone to come to that area, etc. She was going to try and call me back. The call back was she was having a hard time finding a provider in the area. I explained we were near Santa Rosa, CA a fairly large town that was just north of San Francisco - it is not a small area. She then told me she didn't think that this was covered and had to talk to her superivsor. I believe I ended up sending a picture. She said she would try again. She called back and said that she located someone in San Rafeal. I told her that would take 1. 5 to 2 hours to get here - Friday night traffic. She tole me it was only "20 minutes". I tried to explain what the traffic was like and what this area was like and that I could NOT believe there was no one local and that this coverage is supposed to be with you on a RV trip - should have coverage almost everywhere especially in a metropolitan area. Then she said they only have certain providers. I asked if she could please try again. Finally, she called and found Tri County Towing and asked if I could send them pictures because they could not understand what the problem was. I sent pictures and they acknowledged that they understood. They were waiting for Debra to send the service incident number. I said I couldn't help with that because I had not gotten a text yet from Debra with that information. So we were at a stand still. He said he couldn't come unless he got a COD from them because Good Sam is one of the worst. I tried to reach Debra with the Good Sam number I originally called and got someone else (Bryon) . I explained the problem and they looked up with my name, the incident and there was no incident number. In the mean time, the service station we were at gave my husband the name and number of a local tow service. It was now almost closing time for most businesses and we were getting desperate to get out of that situation because we were blocking part of the station. I asked Bryon if we could be reimbursed if we paid a local service to help us and he thought that was possible and would transfer me to Member Services so I could make the request. I talked to Richard in Colorado Good Sam Member Services. I went through the whole situation and he was so sorry and that he would either text me a form to fill out or mail it to my home. I asked for it to be mailed because a text at this time would not help me at all. We paid the tow truck operator ($100 cash or $200) credit so we gave him cash. What we ended up doing was having to cut the fiberglass on the motor home so we could drive straight out. It was not possible to tow because the pole was lodged in place so we could go forward or back. Bottom line, there was NEVER a service incident number issued. Debra never got back to me nor did she ever get back to Tri County Towing (which actually was in Corte Madera, CA.) She basically just dropped the entire thing. I have been home for a week and a half and never have received a from from Richard in Member Services who was so sorry and wished me a better day as I sat waiting for the tow service that WE called on our own. So having Good Sam Roadside service is like NO Service - I feel sorry for anyone who is stranded on the highway in the middle of no where. We will be canceling our service before we start RVing next season. read more
