I just gotta share this. I am a member of the Quebec affiliate of the Canadian Auto Assoc, which has a cross-agreement on road service with the AAA. I got a flat in northern Mass a few weeks ago. Since I am 72 with a heart condition, I called AAA. I had just seen a sign that I was 13 miles from Barre, MA. The computer I dealt with understood Massachusetts, but kept not understanding Barre (pronounced like Barry). Eventually I got through to a “human”, so to speak. I described my location pretty exactly, but she could not find either Barre or Route 122 on her maps. Try it on Google maps; if it takes more than five seconds, I would be surprised. They kept calling me back to try and find my location. No luck.
Finally, about 2 hours later, I decided to change it myself with the poor equipment that came with the car. I got the nuts loose and the car jacked up about half way when a state trooper drove up and asked our problem. (I might mention that several other people stopped and asked to help including a teenager on a bike.) Anyway, the trooper said he would put on his flashers to protect me. When I had the car about halfway up he came over and asked if he could finish the jacking. I gratefully accepted his help and removed the lugs, pulled the bad tire off and got out the spare. He mounted the spare using his far superior wrench while I undid the jack. That was just as tedious as doing it up in the first place and when I was about halfway through, he took over while I put the dead tire away. At some point, while I was distracted he even put my luggage back in the trunk! After I was back on the road, he followed for about five miles, presumably to make sure I was ok.
Two hours later I got a phone call from a garage owner in the town north of where I was asking if I still needed help. No thanks!
I wrote this up (not the part about the trooper, although I sent an account of that to the Mass state police headquarters) and sent it to AAA and a copy to CAA. Two weeks later I have no reply from AAA, but I got a call the next day from the CAA. The woman I spoke to found Route 122 through Barre in no time. Finally, in recompense, she sent me card good for $25 at a local convenience store good for either gas or merchandise! That’s service!
So I guess I have seen the best and the worst. Incidentally, the trooper remarked that he hoped that if this happened to his parents they would find someone to help out.