AAA AND Us

My last post mentioned about our get together at fountain hills. Well, here is the second part of the story.

We got into our cars,ad n drove out of the parking lot, when suddenly we heard a loud thump from the car. We wondered what was wrong, and i asked Madhu, if he had driven over the pavement or something. Just as we turned left, the car gave a warning signal,and turns out, that our car's left front tire had burst. . We pulled into a side lane and called the others tolet them know. Both Balu anna and Muthu's cars came back to where we were. Madhu, in the meantime, had inspected the damage,and called AAA.( Automobile Association of America), of which he is a member. The call was made at 8: 19 p.m. And they promised to send help to change the tire within one hour. They also gave the name of the company whose truck will be coming.

So we waited. By 8: 50 p.m, the truck came. And the driver changed the tire,advised us not to go beyond 40 mph( since the stepny wasn't an actual Chrysler tire), and promptly left. No requests for tips, no money demanded, nothing.

And withing five minutes of his departure, AAA called up again,and asked if assistance had come,and, if the problem had been solved. Madhu replied in the affirmative, and thanked them.

This was a first time experience for us. Madhu had taken membership of AAA, only for such exigencies, since we were planning for a long trip to California. However, having such prompt service and follow-up, by AAA, and the very remarkable thing of no tips asked...was something that made all of us present there, immediately think of how different things would have been in India, if this had happened there.

On Monday, Madhu went back to the place where he had bought his tires from. He asked them to check for defects on any of the other tires, since all four had been changed just a week or so back, after we returned from California. So the guy there asked him to leave his car there, since he didn't have Chrysler tires on hand, and had to order them from another store. By evening, Madhu was able to pick up his car, with the new tire, and paid 30 dollars towards it, which included Phoenix city fees for disposing of old tires, taxes, etc.

Well, so that's one experience for us, where we learnt that all the money we were paying towards AAA, insurance etc, was well spent.