Road side assistance!!!!

[Big Col]

Today Ive had a stressssssssss full day,
One of our vans were 40 miles from Northumbland to pick up a house for some great folks from the forum, After leaving Corby at about 8 ish was making progress up the A1 and the fan belt broke, as this was replaced about a month ago with the cam belt was surprised to get the bad news from the driver.We have breakdown cover 2 policy's for Spain and the UK.

The 2ND problem even letting the control people know, was the roadside assistance truck came out without a replacement fan belt and said that he was not able to recover the van either to the customers house ( so we can load the van up and source a fan-belt ourselves nor could he take us anywhere till Sunday night as the van needed a bigger transporter,!!! Our crew were told by the assistance guys he had no tools even!! he was just there to recover us but even that he couldn't do

This never happening to us before and indeed a customer waiting for his pick up, I made a lot of phone calls and i mean a lot of phones calls to the Roadside assistance co and i must admit losed it threatening all sorts my ulcer was well on the way, Having to let someone down i found to be heart breaking and finally after speaking to a manager and threatening with all sorts he finally agreed to get the breakdown Representative to drive to a dealer obtain and replace the belt, this was done by using our tools .

The question i like to ask is??, isn't this what roadside assistance is supposed to do!! for christsake .


We see images of these guys fixing cars and vans on the road side! on our TV sets every night, why is it I'm told now that most of these guys are not mechanically minded and are just recovery drivers to drive you to a garage or you home address, The cost of doing this today would have been horrendous, as it turned out the belt was £30 and our crew were able to carry out the move, the van will make the ferry tomorrow back to Spain and we ha vent have let the customer down.

we will be adding a fan-belt to our van stock in future, even though our trucks get serviced and looked over thoroughly at a dealers in Spain every six weeks.

I'm so happy that its all sorted, and the pick up finally happened, if not a bit late but on the day.Customers happy.

so be careful out there

Stressed Big Col

[Julie]

Hi Col

Sorry to hear about the problem, glad it was resolved.
Before retiring we did horse drawn funerals, promotions and wedding, we had 4 wagons , because we ran into a similar situation as you have, we took out breakdown for wagons which covered us for the wagons to be towed if necessary, don't think it was too expensive as i recall, but like you, we couldn't afford to be late, let alone not turn up.
Could be worth investigating.

[Big Col]

Dear Julie

Thanks for making me smile

You could obviously understand the preasure we was under,Folks pay for the service and quite rightly expect you to be there on time, our truck left southern spain Tues driving to Bilbao, then once arriving in the UK procedes all the way up north and the unthinkable happens only 40 miles from the customer.

It just proves it dosent mater somtimes how much the vechiel is
well prepared, A good commited crew , and a customer waiting.

*beep* happens!!


A college of mine who works from Alicante traded his Van in the UK for a brand new one, When in the UK he picked his new van up and went directly to do a pick up over 250 miles away and you guessed it a day waiting to be transported back to the garage on a sat, and then they had to let him use his old van, the pick up was 2 days late and he missed the ferry to go back meaning he had to drive through France.


Anyway the above does not even compare to stress of being late or not turning up due to unforseen breakdown on the way to the funeral.

Anyway thanks for making me smile

Big Col

[peteroldracer]

Just two thoughts - what can make a horse-drawn hearse break down, and how do you change a fanbelt on a Shire?!

[Julie]

Hey Pete,

The wagons for transporting, were the easy bit, well the horses were a different matter,Shoes can fall off, harness can snap, and no matter how new everything thing is, it can still go wrong, undertaker broke back door window on the hearse once, nightmare to get a replacement, but regardless the show went on, lucky for us, most people find it a ice breaker at a funeral when some thing isn't quite 110%.
It is nice to hear someone else (Col) that is so concerned about is customers, everyone used to tell me I was paranoid and over the top, wanting everything perfect, but it paid off we never advertised and always had more customers than we could deal with
Keep up the good work Col

[tjtops]

I can utterly sympathise with Col, especially after all the glowing recommendations he has had on this site (PS. If and when I move I know who I'll be contacting!)

[HKM]

And our goods arrived all in order and on time..

Another good Job, few hours late in picking up but so what! Arrived on time and all in excellent condition.

Will keep recomending...

Cheers Colin and Co...