I'm Not Too Happy With CAA

Back two Sundays ago when the van broke down while I was shopping, I called CAA to have it towed up to my mechanic. For you folks not in Canada, CAA is the Canadian Automotive Association. It's the Canadian affiliate of AAA. CAA actually operates some tow trucks of their own, but most of the time the truck that shows up is a CAA affiliate. An independent contractor who is able to brand his truck with the CAA logo and is paid by CAA for the towing that he does for them.

This time the truck was operated by J.A. Towing. The driver seemed to know what he was doing and quickly had me hooked up and off to the other end of town to my mechanics' shop.

Once we got to the shop, the mechanic (who was working on a Sunday!) told the tow truck driver where to drop my van. I started talking to Micheal about what had happened and after 5 minutes or so, he asked "What is he doing?"

Looking out into the parking lot, we could see that the driver had set the van down in the middle of the parking lot and was attempting to hook up to it again. Micheal pointed out that the driver had crushed the rocker panel under the passenger side door of the van. !!! Not sure how the hell he did that! A modern tow truck uses a wheel lift system. A hydraulic t-lift extends from the back of the tow truck. Locking bars are clamped to the front wheels and the vehicle to be towed is lifted up into towing position.

Somehow the driver had gotten the t-lift behind the front wheels of the van and had tried lifting the van with the t-lift under the floorboards of the van!



After a lot of futzing around the tow truck driver got the t-lift out and in front of the tires again, locked on to the wheels and got the van parked where the mechanic had originally asked. He said to call CAA and report the damage and they would take care of everything. He also diminished the severity of the damage done by commenting on the rusted condition of the van.


While there was certainly under body rust, the rocker panels on the passenger side were still intact, even if there was rust underneath. (Our old parking spot in the parking garage always seemed to have a puddle of water under the driver's side of the van and the driver side rocker panels are in worse shape).



He also covered most of the front quarter panel with heavy greasy hand prints. Unlike, every other CAA tow I've gotten, he did not required me to show my CAA card or sign any paperwork, just jumped in the truck and took off. Another CAA tow truck driver at the mechanics (who drove for a different company) confirmed that CAA would take care of the damage. He did recommend that I contact CAA as soon as I got home.

I took his advice and call CAA within an hour of getting home and reported what had happened. The operator told me that a supervisor would contact me within 48 hours with the results of their investigation.

It's not 8 days later. I've called a number of times and have not heard anything from J.K., supervisor assigned to my case. Each time I speak to an operator, I'm told that this should of been resolved withing th 48 hours. It might be a good thing that it wasn't resolved right away because I've had a couple of problems surface.

I've discovered that the automatic lock for the back door of the van no longer works. As well, the door ajar light is on constantly now. It would certainly seem that the tow truck driver did more damage than was originally obvious. It seems that he severed wiring that runs along the body of the passenger side of the van to the rear.

I've been a happy member of CAA since 1996. Twelve years. I have never had this kind of poor service with a tow or with the management. I keep looking at the membership renewal in front of me and wondering if I am going to renew for another year.

Good News About the Van and Some Bad News

I got the call shortly before the end of the work day. Wayne, my mechanic called to say that the van had been fixed. It turns out that it was the front axle. I park in an underground parking garage and apparently this is quite bad for cars due to the dampness accelerating rusting. Advice for people parking in underground garages from my mechanic. Oil coat the underside of the car and wash weekly during the winter. The dampness, salt and above freezing temperatures means that the salt is actively rusting the car when it is parked. Someone who parks outside or in an unheated garage won't have the same problem because it does not get warm enough for the salt to actively rust the car. At least that is my understanding.

What happened is that the axle had rusted so badly that it broke under the stress. Fortunately, the repair came to just under $300. Micheal, the mechanic who worked on the car say that the underside of the van is badly rusted and I might only get a year out of the body of the van.

This is good, because we can make a plan to be in a good position in a year to replace the van. Most of the tax returns are going into the savings account under the car replacement heading. The $257 extra in our biweekly pays that was going towards extra debt payments will also be going in to the car replacement fund. This should mean that we will have $7,000 to $9,000 saved up in a year to replace the van. Even if it does die earlier we will have a very good down payment if necessary.

We will take a little longer to get out of debt, but we'll be able to afford to replace the car!

I hate to think what would of happened six months ago!