As a member I called AAA and they put me in contact with Prestige Harris Towing service. They came on Friday to jump start my car because of a patcially dead car battery. A Prestige van came with heavy duty cables and jump started my car within moments. No issues. We let the car run for 45 minutes tio recharge the low battery and made a few trips shopping, stopping and starting the car. Again, no issues.
However, on Sunday morning we again had an issue starting our Subaru Outback due to a low battery charge. Called AAA and again they sent a vechicle, this time a long flat tow truck. This time the person only had a small battery volt charger, no heavy duty battery jump starting cables. I asked why no cables.Person said they do not carry jumper cables, it could be a liability if damage was done to the car. They use these battery jump starting devices. Well, I know that everyone always says... "use only good heavy duty jumper cables" to ensure a good jump to start your car. But, I decided to let the person try his battery jump starting devise with these small cables. Nothing happened, after more than a half hour trying, his device readout only showed an 8.6 to a maximum of 9.2 volts. He couldn't get my car to start. The person told me my battery was completely dead and that a jump start wouldn't work. He started talking me into having my car towed to the dealership in Middletown, NY. He advised me not to call the dealer for a tow... said to me "they will rip you off". As a AAA basic member the towing charge would only be .49 cents a mile, after the first 3 miles to Middletown, about 40 miles away. I made a quick calculation and realized that it would be relatively inexpensive and about $20. to have my vechicle towed throught AAA. Not a bad deal at all. But, I wanted to wait until the next day, Monday morning, to have them come back and tow me if the car still would not start. I didn't feel comfortable leaving my car at tyhe towing station until the following morning.
Anyway, he kept insisting that he was here so why not just let him take the car. It would be at the dealership the next morning for service. My wife & I made a decision to have thecar towed right then and there. But, he was unable to get the car in neutral, and put on heavy shid shoes under the tires to yank the vechicle out of the garage area. I wasn't happy with this, but he struggled and finally after about 15-20 minutes got the car out and unto the flat bed truck. Then, he tells my wife the charge would be $289. to tow to the dealership. Not the .49 cents for each mile charge to dealership. Well, not happy, after all of this my wife & I agreed to have it towed. What else could we do at this point.
The car was not delivered to dealship the very next morning as promissed. Instead, it arrived at about 1:30 pm in the afternoon. I was frantic calling them all morning and finally was told that they were busy and the car was on its way to the dealership. Johnstons Subaru was able to jump start the car and drove it directly into the service area in the back. They noticed a small head light that was switched on in the car. They said that this probably was left on accidently and why the battery was loosing its charge so often. Anyway, interesting that the dealership was able to immediately jump start the car but Prestige had to tow the vechicle. Anyway, I had the dealership replace the car battery at this poiunt just to avoid any future problems starting.
This entire ordeal has left us completly stressed out and unset about the way this entire matter was handled. We fell we were misled by Prestige, they didn't come with proper cables to jump start our car and then had us go through this whole expensive towing charge, whch apparently was not neccessary. We just want other people not to be taken by this scam. We hope this helps others avoid a similar mistake. read more