November 03, 2009

Old(ish) Dog, New Tricks

Tonight I learned that if you call AAA to check on your service request, and they have lost your service request, they will flag your call as "urgent" and you will have an agent at your car in 10 minutes or less.

Ok, so maybe I locked my keys in my car tonight as I ran a quick errand for work. That errand, which could have taken 5 minutes, resulted in me sitting alone at an indoor/outdoor bar at a restaurant waiting for AAA for over an hour. Eventually, I called them to check on my service (she had warned me that it might take up to 2 hours for someone to get to me, so I wasn't too stressed). I found out they had either never put my service call in OR lost it in some kind of computer glitch. The customer service agent told me that "it's been happening today" and that it was "nervewracking for them." Um, I'm sorry your nerves are rattled, girl sitting in a warm AAA call center, but I've been waiting for an hour and a half(!) so anything you could do to expedite this process would be much appreciated. Please and Thanks.

8 minutes later a AAA truck pulled up (lights flashing- gee, I wasn't embarrassed enough before) and my savior got out. Between this big black man and a tiny airbag, my car was unlocked in 20 seconds, for free. I think that AAA roadside service agent must be the most rewarding job in the world. If I had a 1st born, I might have given it to him.

Next time (as M suggested) instead of waiting for an hour, I will just call and act like they've lost my service call the first time, and this will all be sorted in 5 minutes instead of 95 minutes. I have a feeling there's some sort of bigger lesson here about me slowing down a bit and putting more thought into my actions, but I'm too worn out to dwell on that.

2 comments:

Courtney said...

I love AAA. Whenever they show up and save me I have to hold back from hugging them. It's too bad they lost your request, but a good thing they have pretty damn good customer service to help you out so quickly. :)

Organic Meatbag said...

AAA does rock...and hey, they tow your car for free too if you're a member!