insurance roadside assistance---worth anything?

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Hi all;


just generally want to know if those roadside assistance packages you get with your insurance company are worth anything?

are some better than others? horror stories with specific ones?

so far with my current insuance (king Price) I am really unimpressed;

they outsource to europeassistance.co.za and Im not that happy with what I got;

first time I called them, said the standard spiel of 30-45 min, but ended up waiting over 2 hours for them to find me on the freeway in the dark;
second time I decided to be clever, called them well in advance and said to them come collect my car from BEDFORDVIEW in the morning;
ended up the driver in BENONI SOUTH? how, why, who knows????

third time, was already expecting very bad service, and guess what, took 3 hours to find me in a very centralized location;
always excuses, always appologies, but no real action,

their managers were very nice and called me to try calm me down, sent me a very official looking letter formally applogizing;
but guess what, less than a week has gone and they still suck! even worse than before;

anybody dealt with AA roadside before, worth taking out a policy with them?

 

[phoneJunky]

anybody dealt with AA roadside before, worth taking out a policy with them?

I only have Discovery's road side assistance. Haven't used them. I have on the other hand used AA, and they were really good (there was still an +-hour wait there though). AA wasn't on my name, someone I gave a lift to had AA, and they phone and everything was sorted even though it wasn't there car. AA didn't care about that for some reason.

 

[supersunbird]

Have generally had good experience with AA, one or two long waits. They always offer to send armed response.

They now have an app, you click the Rescue Me and it will send your location details based on GPS and I guess other details, will also notify the 2 people you setup in your contacts per SMS I guess.

 

[smallearth]

Had an experience with FNB AA Roadside assistance. Cellphone battery dying. Car in dodgy place. Still took them 10 minutes to 'verify' my account before actually contacting a local tow truck operator (who arrived 2 hours later), which would have been fine had it not been night time on a deserted road in a dodgy location. They advertise that if your car is in a dangerous location that they move swiftly to secure the incident scene. Their idea of 'securing' the incident scene is to call the SA Police. When they told me that I said 'You're kidding, right?'. Anyway, 2 hours later as I was being towed off the SAPS had still not arrived.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Had an experience with FNB AA Roadside assistance. Cellphone battery dying. Car in dodgy place. Still took them 10 minutes to 'verify' my account before actually contacting a local tow truck operator (who arrived 2 hours later), which would have been fine had it not been night time on a deserted road in a dodgy location. They advertise that if your car is in a dangerous location that they move swiftly to secure the incident scene. Their idea of 'securing' the incident scene is to call the SA Police. When they told me that I said 'You're kidding, right?'. Anyway, 2 hours later as I was being towed off the SAPS had still not arrived.

so 2 hour wait is normal then? even with AA assistance through FNB?

thats not good; is there any that come quickly? im not a girl so what about this guys with the pink BMW's?
first for women? do they come any quicker? I mean Im a guy; scared but not the end of the world for me;

can only imagine the horror stories for them; this isnt the safest place in the world to have a breakdown;
especially when travelling alone at night; asking for trouble,

 

[smallearth]

so 2 hour wait is normal then? even with AA assistance through FNB?

thats not good; is there any that come quickly? im not a girl so what about this guys with the pink BMW's?
first for women? do they come any quicker? I mean Im a guy; scared but not the end of the world for me;

can only imagine the horror stories for them; this isnt the safest place in the world to have a breakdown;
especially when travelling alone at night; asking for trouble,

2 hours is normal for out of urban areas I would say. I'm not scared either. But not eager to die. There are people that rely on me, who regard me as their world. That is my main concern.

 

[Pitbull]

All insurance companies contract the same places so it's not something you should base your insurance purchase on.