It's quarter after 3 Friday morning, and I am sitting here livid. That
stupid motorcycle of mine, same one that was stolen twice in the same
summer and has cost nearly as much to repair as it cost new off the
showroom floor broke down on me again. But that's not what I'm so pissed
about.
It's the AAA.
First off, I spent $168 buying their premium
service so that I wouldn't end up stranded somewhere because of
unreliable transportation.
So I call them and tell them I need a jump.
They tell me they no longer jump start motorcycles even if you'd paid
extra for motorcycle service (like I did). Okay, fine. Instead, I tell them I need it
towed from the Universal Studios parking structure to my house a couple
of miles down the road. This was at 12:30 a.m. when I got off work. They
tell me they're sending out a driver, but it could take two hours. I'm
not happy. But what can you do? So I wait.
Finally at around 2:03 a.m.
the driver calls me.
He's Hispanic and can barely speak English.
He
keeps asking if I have a flashlight. I say I do and ask him why he needs
to know that. He doesn't answer. Finally he asks if I can see him. I
say no and ask where he is. He says he's in the structure two sections
down from me. I tell him to just follow the arrows. I hear a lot of
radio chatter in Spanish, probably from a dispatcher. I ask him where he
is, because I should be able to see him. He doesn't answer. I repeat my
location. I hear nothing but radio chatter.
Finally, a pair of
headlights catch my eye and I turn. There he is...in the other
structure. I tell him I think I can see him and ask which section he's
in. Sure enough, he left the structure I'm in and somehow went to other
structure. I tell him he's in the wrong place and tell him once again
where i am.
I see him on the down ramp leaving the structure.
He hangs
up.
I try to call him back.
He doesn't answer.
I flag down some
Universal security patrolling the parking structure. I tell them what
happened. One of them tries to call the driver from the number retrieved
from my IPhone.
They get voice mail.
So they dispatch cars trying to
find him.
I call AAA and tell some woman what happened. She says she has
to look up information.
Meanwhile the security officers come back while she's on
the line. She hears what they tell me, that they can't find hide nor
hair of him. She's apologetic and totally useless. I lose my temper and
say, "look lady, I'm in a parking structure so big that it can be seen
with the naked eye from the space station, and you sent me the world's
biggest dumb fuck driver who can't find it. Since I bought your most
expensive product, instead of apologies it would be swell if you'd find
out WHERE THE FUCK HE IS cause I don't want to stay here all night."
I
hang up.
The security officers, who had, of course, been listening,
apologize. It isn't their fault. I ask them if I can leave my broken
bike in the structure overnight. They tell me I can, adding that they
are going to try and track the AAA driver down. "But even if we can't
find them, we'll be back." They leave.
They don't come back.
Now it's 2:50 a.m. The yacht (I'm a boat captain, in case you didn't know) closing
crew is going home. I wave them down. I had been convinced I'd have to
walk home. One of my fellow captains, Aly, offers to take me home.
God
bless him.
AAA left me stranded despite what I'd paid them. This is the
worst service I've gotten anywhere from anyone. it's not just bad. It's stunningly bad. It's unbelievably bad.
This is intolerable.
