A Tale of Two Tires
Or three, if you count the donut.
Yesterday...what can I say about yesterday?
Well, I now know that "roadside assistance" in my insurance policy does not cover having a tire changed on the side of the road.
I'm a typical helpless sort of female in that I never learned how to change a tire and probably wouldn't trust any tire I put on anyway. So when my front passenger tire blew out yesterday morning on the way to work I had to call a towing company to come and change it out for me. Nice enough fellow. Very friendly and helpful. Except for when he had me climb up into his truck so that he could fill out the paperwork and collect the check. I was uber happy I'd decided to wear pants as opposed to a skirt. He likely got a bit mooned as it were. LOL
At any rate, he put my spare (one of those silly little donut things) on there and cautioned me about how to drive on it. (don't get over 50mph and be careful when making turns. What he didn't caution me about is the possibility that it could go flat before I got to work. Which it did. And which Jana just limped on at 10mph until she parked at work because by that time Jana was so over the whole roadside damsel in distress routine.
So now I'm at work with a flat tire and flat spare donut. What to do?
I call my insurance to see what my options were as far as getting further paid assistance. This is when my agent informs me that the "roadside assistance" in my policy does not cover changing flats. If I'd had the dang car towed to a tire place, it'd have covered it. Next time I'll know. Now I'm out $52 because I'm a helpless female. *sigh*
But that doesn't even help with my current situation. So I call a tire dealer in town and they say it'll be $25 just to come out and look at the tire plus whatever fees it takes to replace or repair it. Jana so not happy about that.
Fortunately Jana has good friends. Mrs. B, a co-worker/friend offers her assistance and she and I load the dead tire in her jeep, carry it to Wal-Mart's auto service dept. and drop it off to be replaced. (I didn't even bother having it fixed because I'd been told MONTHS ago that I needed two new front ones.) Then she picked it up for me on her way back from lunch and had her son put it on for me. So God bless Mrs. B and her cutie pie son, S.
So after work I figure, I don't want to be caught with another busted tire on the way home so I go BACK to Wal-Mart to have the other three changed. When I get there they tell me they'll get 'em on and it'll be 45 minutes.
I must be stupid because I believed them. *rolls eyes*
So, I wondered around Wal-Mart for TWO HOURS last night before they even got to my car. They called me back there to tell me that, "Sorry, we only have one of the tires you requested." After I've waited two hours, they tell me this. Could they not have maybe checked on that BEFORE they told me they could do it???? Jana not happy. But I tell them to go ahead and put the one they do have on the driver's front so that at least the two most important tires are good.
Then I get home and am looking over the receipt and the dummy's charged me for THREE roadside warranties. I only bought one stupid tire. So now I've got to go BACK there today and get my $20 back. And I'm seriously thinking of taking my business elsewhere for the two back tires. Cheap tires do not make up for bad service, you know?
Sheesh! It was just not a good day for Jana in tires.
But, it could have been worse. I could have had an accident with the blow-out. The tires could have cost more. I'm seriously thankful for a wonderful friend who offered her assistance without even pausing to think about how it would inconvenience herself or her son. And I don't like taking advantage of my friends or their kind offers most of the time but after putting out $52 that first time I just couldn't make myself say no thank you. To thank her and her son, I baked them some sausage balls, one of the few things I can bake well and people say they enjoy. ;-)
I've got my fingers crossed for a drama-free day today.
Yesterday...what can I say about yesterday?
Well, I now know that "roadside assistance" in my insurance policy does not cover having a tire changed on the side of the road.
I'm a typical helpless sort of female in that I never learned how to change a tire and probably wouldn't trust any tire I put on anyway. So when my front passenger tire blew out yesterday morning on the way to work I had to call a towing company to come and change it out for me. Nice enough fellow. Very friendly and helpful. Except for when he had me climb up into his truck so that he could fill out the paperwork and collect the check. I was uber happy I'd decided to wear pants as opposed to a skirt. He likely got a bit mooned as it were. LOL
At any rate, he put my spare (one of those silly little donut things) on there and cautioned me about how to drive on it. (don't get over 50mph and be careful when making turns. What he didn't caution me about is the possibility that it could go flat before I got to work. Which it did. And which Jana just limped on at 10mph until she parked at work because by that time Jana was so over the whole roadside damsel in distress routine.
So now I'm at work with a flat tire and flat spare donut. What to do?
I call my insurance to see what my options were as far as getting further paid assistance. This is when my agent informs me that the "roadside assistance" in my policy does not cover changing flats. If I'd had the dang car towed to a tire place, it'd have covered it. Next time I'll know. Now I'm out $52 because I'm a helpless female. *sigh*
But that doesn't even help with my current situation. So I call a tire dealer in town and they say it'll be $25 just to come out and look at the tire plus whatever fees it takes to replace or repair it. Jana so not happy about that.
Fortunately Jana has good friends. Mrs. B, a co-worker/friend offers her assistance and she and I load the dead tire in her jeep, carry it to Wal-Mart's auto service dept. and drop it off to be replaced. (I didn't even bother having it fixed because I'd been told MONTHS ago that I needed two new front ones.) Then she picked it up for me on her way back from lunch and had her son put it on for me. So God bless Mrs. B and her cutie pie son, S.
So after work I figure, I don't want to be caught with another busted tire on the way home so I go BACK to Wal-Mart to have the other three changed. When I get there they tell me they'll get 'em on and it'll be 45 minutes.
I must be stupid because I believed them. *rolls eyes*
So, I wondered around Wal-Mart for TWO HOURS last night before they even got to my car. They called me back there to tell me that, "Sorry, we only have one of the tires you requested." After I've waited two hours, they tell me this. Could they not have maybe checked on that BEFORE they told me they could do it???? Jana not happy. But I tell them to go ahead and put the one they do have on the driver's front so that at least the two most important tires are good.
Then I get home and am looking over the receipt and the dummy's charged me for THREE roadside warranties. I only bought one stupid tire. So now I've got to go BACK there today and get my $20 back. And I'm seriously thinking of taking my business elsewhere for the two back tires. Cheap tires do not make up for bad service, you know?
Sheesh! It was just not a good day for Jana in tires.
But, it could have been worse. I could have had an accident with the blow-out. The tires could have cost more. I'm seriously thankful for a wonderful friend who offered her assistance without even pausing to think about how it would inconvenience herself or her son. And I don't like taking advantage of my friends or their kind offers most of the time but after putting out $52 that first time I just couldn't make myself say no thank you. To thank her and her son, I baked them some sausage balls, one of the few things I can bake well and people say they enjoy. ;-)
I've got my fingers crossed for a drama-free day today.
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