I thought I would tell you my little story about non-run flats that wasted 5 hours of my life yesterday.
I went down to the coast for a day out yesterday and on the way back I picked up a puncture on the M20 - about 40 minutes form home. I've pulled over to the side of the motorway and sure enough the nearside rear is completely flat. Like many of you I am running on Falken 452 tyres and so I have no spare, only a can of goo. I have AA relay and so I got on the phone to them expecting to be put on the back of a flat bed so that I can get the car taken home where I can get new tyre fitted by Event tyres. Simple. This was at about 3pm.
An hour and 10 minutes later a subcontracted flatbed turns up to take me to medway services and get me off the motorway, fair enough I thought, but on arrival at the services the subcontractor is told to take me to Kwikfit to fit a replacement tyre. I tell them that Kwikfit are unlikely to have a replacement but he just shrugs and says he can only do as he is instructed and if Kwikfit don't have a tyre then he will leave me there to be picked up by the AA and taken home.
Once a Kwikfit the only tyres that have are bridgestone run-flats at £260 each, obviously I am not interested in mixing tyres and so I ask Kwikfit to see if they can repair the tyre. They took the tyre off to have a look at it but told me it could not be fixed. I asked them to put the tyre back on so that I can get it on the back of a flatbed but they refused to put any air in the tyre and so left me with the flat tyre flapping around off the rim. Its now 5:45pm.
I call the AA asking them to take me home but they are now questioning picking me up because its the second call in one day on the car. I insist that they have stranded me there and need to take me home. An hour and 10 minutes later an AA van turns up, not a flat bed. To be fair to the AA guy he was really helpful and arranged for a flat bed to be dispatch as there was no way he could move my car.
Eventually the flatbed turned up, between the 2 of them they managed to get my car on the back of the flatbed by bringing Maidstone to a halt due to the location of the kwikfit I had be abandoned at. I finally got home just before 9pm.
I have nothing but praise for the AA guys on the ground but their dispatch office and policies are questionable. Maybe I should of attempted to fill the tyre up with goo and carried on, but now I'm thinking a space saver in the boot might be the best bet.
Anyone else had any problems like this?
I went down to the coast for a day out yesterday and on the way back I picked up a puncture on the M20 - about 40 minutes form home. I've pulled over to the side of the motorway and sure enough the nearside rear is completely flat. Like many of you I am running on Falken 452 tyres and so I have no spare, only a can of goo. I have AA relay and so I got on the phone to them expecting to be put on the back of a flat bed so that I can get the car taken home where I can get new tyre fitted by Event tyres. Simple. This was at about 3pm.
An hour and 10 minutes later a subcontracted flatbed turns up to take me to medway services and get me off the motorway, fair enough I thought, but on arrival at the services the subcontractor is told to take me to Kwikfit to fit a replacement tyre. I tell them that Kwikfit are unlikely to have a replacement but he just shrugs and says he can only do as he is instructed and if Kwikfit don't have a tyre then he will leave me there to be picked up by the AA and taken home.
Once a Kwikfit the only tyres that have are bridgestone run-flats at £260 each, obviously I am not interested in mixing tyres and so I ask Kwikfit to see if they can repair the tyre. They took the tyre off to have a look at it but told me it could not be fixed. I asked them to put the tyre back on so that I can get it on the back of a flatbed but they refused to put any air in the tyre and so left me with the flat tyre flapping around off the rim. Its now 5:45pm.
I call the AA asking them to take me home but they are now questioning picking me up because its the second call in one day on the car. I insist that they have stranded me there and need to take me home. An hour and 10 minutes later an AA van turns up, not a flat bed. To be fair to the AA guy he was really helpful and arranged for a flat bed to be dispatch as there was no way he could move my car.
Eventually the flatbed turned up, between the 2 of them they managed to get my car on the back of the flatbed by bringing Maidstone to a halt due to the location of the kwikfit I had be abandoned at. I finally got home just before 9pm.
I have nothing but praise for the AA guys on the ground but their dispatch office and policies are questionable. Maybe I should of attempted to fill the tyre up with goo and carried on, but now I'm thinking a space saver in the boot might be the best bet.
Anyone else had any problems like this?
Liverpool
