<p>nysmile, where he was towed off is actually a very nice area of White Plains/Harrison. I am still curious if this was RJT towing who had the call. My H and I have been AAA members for over 25 years, and I have to tell you that although we have had some bad experiences of waiting close to 1 1/2 hours for them, nothing approaches the nightmare you went through. I would absolutely go after AAA on this when the supervisors are in after the long weekend, and demand a refund of the towing charges or some compromise.</p>
<p>nysmile–</p>
<p>We’ve been AAA members for 20 years and have been towed many, many times (old cars 
I have never heard of a situation this bad. I would wait until Monday and then push it up to the head of your regional AAA and demand answers. That is outrageous.</p>
<p>I also think the Parkway towing contract thing is outrageous and you ought to complain to your state representatives. What an awful evening!</p>
<p>If nothing else, you’re within your rights to demand a refund of your annual AAA fees and then you could pick some other roadside assistance company. There are plenty of them out there including through insurance companies, credit cards, car companies, and others. I can’t imagine any of them could possibly be worse than the experience your S and you went through. </p>
<p>Note that if the car battery is oozing acid, it’s probable the cell phone car charger ‘wouldn’t’ have worked. I recommend going out to the car (if it’s still at home) and hosing down the engine compartment and especially the area around the battery to minimize damage from leaking battery acid if that’s what’s happening. </p>
<p>Another note - if the problem was actually the battery, AAA has a battery service where they’ll bring a battery to the car and replace it. This may or may not have helped your S and I don’t know if they could have done this in the middle of the night (after the 5 1/2 hour delay).</p>
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<p>Hmmm…this is a bad sign about AAA reliability. In our part of the country, AAA has a great reputation for service also and no one I know has had your nightmare. I buy the towing package as part of our car insurance. I call anyone I want, pay them if they don’t accept State Farm, and get reimbursed. </p>
<p>We rarely have to use it (thank goodness!!), but I broke down on I5 at night in the middle of Central California decades ago and had to be towed to Merced (!) to get my car fixed. We’ve had towing insurance ever since.</p>
<p>Check with AAA about a refund for the towing. My husband had to be towed and paid the driver, but he made a claim with AAA and was reimbursed. If there isn’t anything on the website, then call or go by an office on Monday.</p>
<p>We have had AAA forever without a problem. Yes, I have waited longer than I would like for a tow, but never as long as you. </p>
<p>I can not believe the first tow truck could not have taken your son to a place where he could have been inside a building. I don’t know the area, but I am sure there was a restaurant or hotel somewhere near where he could have been towed.</p>
<p>I found this form at AAA, but it doesn’t look like it will work for you, but I would argue about it anyway!!!
[AAA</a> Arizona - Emergency Road Services Details](<a href=“http://www.aaaaz.com/auto/ers2.htm#reimbursement]AAA”>http://www.aaaaz.com/auto/ers2.htm#reimbursement)</p>
<p>nysmile,
My H says that refusal to take a credit card if they normally do, may well be a violation of the tow company’s contract with AAA. I’m sure you’ll pursue every angle of this outrageous situation. (Still curious to know which tow company finally showed up.)</p>
<p>momof3 sons, It wasn’t the tow company that you mentioned in the pm. It was something like C & C (husband has the receipt in his brief case). The nearest AAA office is hour+ drive away (live near the most eastern part of LI). The first tow truck dropped him and the dead car just off the exit ramp and not in a parking lot near a restaurant. Not knowing the area, he didn’t want to go on a walking adventure to find an open business and he figured he would have to stay with the vehicle until AAA arrived. The car by the way is a 2001 Jeep Cherokee (we know the previous owner–keeps his vehicles cherry/he’s an employee of husband). The previous owner stopped by and after a quick jump, he noticed that the car didn’t have any water in it–it took 2 gallons. The car started to overhead within minutes and you could smell it. Then he realized that the fan wasn’t working. Also, battery looks like acid leaked and should be replaced. Of course, the car had a thorough checkup at the service station before son took it up to school but still things can happen to a car. </p>
<p>We have a 2008 VW Jetta that he’ll probably end up taking back with him while we checkout Jeep to see what needs to be done. I don’t want to rush to get all of this done during the 3 day weekend so that’s why we’ll send him back with the Jetta.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how we will followup with AAA. For now, just glad he’s home and will stop to enjoy the weekend. S2 (freshman) comes home next weekend for his visit–he’s not driving but will catch a ride with another student in her car.</p>
<p>If/when you have the time/inclination, just call up AAA. No need to go into an office to deal with this. The offices really just hand out maps, do trip planning/travel agency things. They don’t handle any of the roadside assistance. Best wishes and I hope you get to enjoy your S’s visit home.</p>
<p>What a nightmare!</p>
<p>I just wanted to add that people should also tell their kids that if their car dies on a highway–even if it is pulled fully into the breakdown lane–they should get OUT of the car as soon as possible and stand well away from it off the highway, even if they have to climb over a guardrail and stand on the edge of an embankment, preferably on the oncoming traffic side so that if someone hits the car it is not pushed into them.</p>
<p>Many people have been killed when trucks or others cars plowed into their broken down car at high speed, even when in the breakdown lane.</p>
<p>">>One NON-AAA tow truck left his cell phone number with son just in case AAA didn’t show up. <<</p>
<p>Hmmm…this is a bad sign about AAA reliability."</p>
<p>Or just a good marketing tool!</p>
<p>While going over the paperwork in glove compartment of the Jetta that son will bring back to school with him (it’s a 2007, not 2008), we realized that when we purchased the vehicle it came with a complimentary 24 hour roadside assistance plan which is good for 4 years. If a situation happens again when son needs to call for assistance, he can call both the VW toll free roadside assistance AND AAA and see which one shows up first. </p>
<p>The Jeep is at the repair shop now–curious to see what started the problem. </p>
<p>Consolation, good point. </p>
<p>Son is home enjoying the weather, home cooked food, visiting friends and family, and is currently doing some work on a college assignment. Now that his adventure on the highway is over, he’s loving retelling the story to his friends via the cell phone.</p>
<p>$580 in cash in the middle of the night? That driver would towed <em>ME</em> to an ATM to get his money!</p>
<p>Good advice on the hosing down all areas where battery acid could reach. We had a Ford Explorer that leaked acid … and required a whole new wiring harness which was $$$$$! Don’t remember the details, but do remember being SHOCKED.</p>
<p>More and more cars are coming with roadside assistance. We still used AAA. When D’s Prius quit… called AAA and watched 2 of them drive by us!! But one came within the window. AAA here just really cranked down on the miles to tow. Now it is 5 free and it used to be 50 free miles. Plus I think only gives you 75 miles.</p>
<p>And If the guy couldn’t have taken a check, then he wouldn’t have gotten paid, IMO. He had your address! and a AAA approval; he wouldn’t have gotten stiffed. and I never have $500 at home !</p>
<p>I always have roadside assistance, never signed up for AAA. I am not going to lie, but I’ve called RA to come to my house to jump start my car and change flat tires a few times. They are always surprised that my car is in my driveway. </p>
<p>My husband also lost a rental car’s keys one time (the car was sitting in our driveway), we actually called the rental car’s roadside service to toll the car back to the car rental so we wouldn’t incur an extra day of rental(it would have taken another day for them to send us another set of keys).</p>
<p>I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for you worrying about son for so many hours.</p>
<p>Thank goodness all’s well that ends well! And I agree about not keeping that much money in the house. But, one thing, thank goodness for cell phones, right? Even though his was fading away, they are such a life (and worry!) saver. I would suggest that rather than just have a car charger, which might not work if the battery totally dies-- happened to me once-- I would suggest carrying an extra cell phone battery. You can get them pretty cheaply online. Just make sure that the one you get is compatible with your phone. That would be a good thing for kids who don’t have cars, as well. That’s what I do…</p>
<p>I have a phone charger that is powered by AA batteries. Got it at Target.</p>
<p>I drove down the Hutch yesterday morning trying to imagine where on that stretch an unfamiliar traveler would feel extremely stranded. I think that that particular exit, and only that one (!) at night would feel deserted, although as I recall there’s civilization both north and south of the exit fairly quickly. And … if I have the exit right, a nice city park on the north side of the parkway.</p>
<p>He was towed to the side of the road just off the exit ramp----not in a parking lot, not in park, not in front of a restaurant or retail building. Imagine being stuck on the side of a road just off an exit ramp in the dark for 5 hours waiting for AAA. It definitely wasn’t a pleasant experience. To top it all off, imagine finally getting home and the tow truck driver won’t take the car off the flatbed until we could come up with $580 in cash only in the middle of the night (1:30am). The driver told him about the CASH ONLY thing when he picked him up but S didn’t relay the message to us until he got here. I think he was just so happy to finally have a AAA towdriver willing to drive out here that he didn’t care what the terms were. We were lucky enough to come up with it between the three of us but I’m sure many other parent’s wouldn’t have been as fortunate.</p>
<p>It’s over–done with. Because we don’t have AAAplus (you have to be a AAA member for at least a year before you can upgrade to the plus plan which will tow free for 100 miles), we didn’t have any choice but to pay. It sucks but those are the rules of AAA. He’ll drive our VW Jetta back to school and he’ll be covered by VW roadside service as well as stupid AAA.</p>
<p>He has a great story to share with his friends when he gets back to school. He’s enjoying the break and will head back to school on Tuesday.</p>
<p>I’m curious, if you had to pay anyway, couldn’t he have come home with one of the other tow trucks that stopped?</p>
<p>Looking back on the whole thing, he probably could have just had one of the 5 NON-AAA members tow him home. Truth is, this has never happened to him or us before so we assumed that the safest thing to do was to rely on AAA. I don’t know what the Independent Tow Truck Services would have charged. If anything like this happens again, he’ll just ask the non-AAA guys for price quotes, take their numbers, and go with the cheapest price. After one year, we’ll upgrade to the AAA plus even though right now, I’m still bitter and despise them.</p>