Early Rescue
On Tuesday night, I had to drive down to Geelong to pick up my 14 year old daughter. It was at the end of a long tiring day (sob) and as my car was at the Werribee train station, I got out of the train, into my car and headed straight down the coast to Geelong. It was sunset, and I had already had one SMS from Casey asking me if I was on my way. For a dad, this is pressure.
5kms before Avalon Airport my car died. Pulling over to the side of the road, I popped the bonnet,(hood!!) climbed out, but in the failing light, was unable to detect the reason. I had plenty of petrol, water, and the electrics all worked, the engine just wouldn't fire up. I rang my wife (the client !) to ask her to begin to drive to Geelong instead of me, and then I rang RACV. I'm a member, so I had no reason not to call them.
RACV answered the phone within a minute, after a bit of option selection, and once they had confirmed my membership, I told them my situation. They dispatched a van to rescue me. Within 5 minutes of my first call, I received a call from Dave, who told me where he was "on the road passing Corio shops, be there in 10 minutes, everything alright?, will you have your hazard lights on? Great, see you soon" I felt relaxed, my client (Dee) was doing something so my daughter wasn't stressed out about me being late because I'd SMS'd her about the situation, RACV had contacted me to confirm that they were on the way.
Dave turned up , lights flashing, and we looked at the engine again. Turned out that the ignition module always craps out on these Fords, so it will be a towing job. Did I want Dave to sort something out for me.? At 8pm in the middle of nowhere, I said "yes please". Dave got on his computer and my details were passed on to the towing division. Dave leaped into his van and left me sitting in the dark, still relaxed, because I knew that it was being looked after.
Ten minutes later, Tom the Towee called up and said he'd got the job and was passing the Ford factory. I told exactly where I was, and he said " he'd be there soon, was everything alright? Did I have my hazards on?." I relaxed knowing RACV were looking after me. I felt important and cared about.
Three minutes later, Dave rang and told me that the towee was on the way because he'd just seen him passing the Corio shops. Was everything alright? Yup I said, thanks very much.
Tom turned up ten minutes later, and because he had a modern tow truck, the Ford was on the back of it in no time flat. "where to?" he asked. "Back to my mechanic in Hoppers please" was my reply. "No problems" said Tom "we will charge you $3.50 per kms, playable when we get there, is that OK?" "Sure!" I said. "So jump in" said Tom and we were off.
On the way into Hoppers, Tom and I chatted and he had been doing this job for 15 years. He was on call 24x7 and there were 4 vans and 3 tow trucks working the Greater Geelong area. By 8:30pm that day, the RACV team there had already dealt with over 300 calls to breakdowns. They did not attend accidents. Tom loves his job, and his helpful style was self taught but RACV still have a regular training session in Noble Park to keep their operators up the speed on technical aspects of their jobs.
When we got to Hoppers, Tom backed the truck into the mechanic's lot, I signed the Visa paperwork, and the car was slid off the back to the truck, ready for the mechanic to look at it in the morning. Then Tom checked that I was OK one more time, and he was off to tow someone else.
My lessons learned from the "shoe being on the other foot" was that RACV kept me informed of the call's progress all the way through the evening, When the call was passed to the next person they had all the details from my call, and they all showed me the same level of concern for my situation. They never actually fixed my car, but they made it real easy for me to put it where it could be fixed. At no time was I worried that they'd forgotten me.
5kms before Avalon Airport my car died. Pulling over to the side of the road, I popped the bonnet,(hood!!) climbed out, but in the failing light, was unable to detect the reason. I had plenty of petrol, water, and the electrics all worked, the engine just wouldn't fire up. I rang my wife (the client !) to ask her to begin to drive to Geelong instead of me, and then I rang RACV. I'm a member, so I had no reason not to call them.
RACV answered the phone within a minute, after a bit of option selection, and once they had confirmed my membership, I told them my situation. They dispatched a van to rescue me. Within 5 minutes of my first call, I received a call from Dave, who told me where he was "on the road passing Corio shops, be there in 10 minutes, everything alright?, will you have your hazard lights on? Great, see you soon" I felt relaxed, my client (Dee) was doing something so my daughter wasn't stressed out about me being late because I'd SMS'd her about the situation, RACV had contacted me to confirm that they were on the way.
Dave turned up , lights flashing, and we looked at the engine again. Turned out that the ignition module always craps out on these Fords, so it will be a towing job. Did I want Dave to sort something out for me.? At 8pm in the middle of nowhere, I said "yes please". Dave got on his computer and my details were passed on to the towing division. Dave leaped into his van and left me sitting in the dark, still relaxed, because I knew that it was being looked after.
Ten minutes later, Tom the Towee called up and said he'd got the job and was passing the Ford factory. I told exactly where I was, and he said " he'd be there soon, was everything alright? Did I have my hazards on?." I relaxed knowing RACV were looking after me. I felt important and cared about.
Three minutes later, Dave rang and told me that the towee was on the way because he'd just seen him passing the Corio shops. Was everything alright? Yup I said, thanks very much.
Tom turned up ten minutes later, and because he had a modern tow truck, the Ford was on the back of it in no time flat. "where to?" he asked. "Back to my mechanic in Hoppers please" was my reply. "No problems" said Tom "we will charge you $3.50 per kms, playable when we get there, is that OK?" "Sure!" I said. "So jump in" said Tom and we were off.
On the way into Hoppers, Tom and I chatted and he had been doing this job for 15 years. He was on call 24x7 and there were 4 vans and 3 tow trucks working the Greater Geelong area. By 8:30pm that day, the RACV team there had already dealt with over 300 calls to breakdowns. They did not attend accidents. Tom loves his job, and his helpful style was self taught but RACV still have a regular training session in Noble Park to keep their operators up the speed on technical aspects of their jobs.
When we got to Hoppers, Tom backed the truck into the mechanic's lot, I signed the Visa paperwork, and the car was slid off the back to the truck, ready for the mechanic to look at it in the morning. Then Tom checked that I was OK one more time, and he was off to tow someone else.
My lessons learned from the "shoe being on the other foot" was that RACV kept me informed of the call's progress all the way through the evening, When the call was passed to the next person they had all the details from my call, and they all showed me the same level of concern for my situation. They never actually fixed my car, but they made it real easy for me to put it where it could be fixed. At no time was I worried that they'd forgotten me.
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