Written on Tuesday July 15, 2008 at around 5 AM
So we had this brainiac idea to get away again this past weekend and man did it go south. We left early afternoon to go to Las Vegas with the kids and we were halfway there and the alternator belt went. Of course at the time we weren't sure if it was the alternator or just the belt but either way the lights were on and it wasn't home. We finally stopped at a gas station in Wikieup, AZ and the kids were very good but it was a long and boring wait for the tow truck to show up. You see, we were half way to Vegas and so that means we are now 112 miles from home and another 134 mile from the Nissan dealer in Lake Havasu City, AZ. So since the Nissan Roadside Assistance was on the car for the first 100,000 miles we thought this should be easy. WRONG!!!!! Come to find out that Roadside Assistance is a huge scam that is put on cars and I'm going to give you the lowdown right now!
You see, Roadside Assistance is the name of the company and the have signed deals with all of the car manufacturers which means if you are more than 10 miles from a dealer, you are going to be screwed. Do you want to know how? Ok, I'll tell you how. Just so you know how to look at roadside coverage when buying it you need to find out if it pays per mile or per dollar. If it pays for $100 then you will have a hefty two bill like we had. If it's paid per mile then the rate will be better to handle. We were stuck in a Shell station in Wikieup and there is absolutely nothing around and after talking with a not so helpful roadside assistance we found out how screwed we were. To go from the Shell station in Wikieup to the Peoria Nissan dealer it was 112 miles and minus the $100 the Roadside paid the bill still came to $700. Pretty nice huh. So do you see why you need to find something that pays per mile and not just a dollar amount? If we were to have had the middle of the road AAA plan we would have been out less than $100. The bill for the broken alternator belt was only $179 which is sad because it was way cheaper than the stupid tow.
Anyway, the tow truck gets there at around 7pm and we have been waiting since 4 or 5pm and the kids were good up until that point but shortly after the Murano was put on the truck and the kids were strapped in, it all went downhill because we now had a two hour drive back down the mountain and was waiting for The Man's friend at the dealership. All said and done after all of the temper tantrums and things, we were home by 10pm and ready to kill the kids.
I actually had a glass of beer after I put the kids down and then Saturday morning started calling babysitters because the kids we not helping at all. We had to get the truck in the shop and run the keys back down and wait for the diagnosis. After I dropped him back off at the dealership there were some choice words spoken because of the whole situation. That being the scam price of the tow being more than the cost to fix the truck. Yes I understand that things break on a vehicle and I'm fine with that, I'm not fine with the way I'm treated by being way over charged for the tow and then the service department blaming us for the broken belt. Had the dealership just kept their mouth shut and just listened to the gripe, there wouldn't have been choice words and we might have gone back there to buy another Nissan. Now we are selling the Murano (there are many reasons why, it's worth way more than my car and we want to be down to one car when we move to Chicago, etc.) and refuse to go to Peoria Nissan ever again. I'm debating on ever buying a Nissan again just because of the scammy roadside they have. I guess time will tell.
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