Bad experience with Kia's Emergency Roadside Service

[BigEdgar]

I had the misfortune to get a flat tire on the way to work yesterday. It was a clean puncture from a nail or screw and the tire rapidly lost air, so I had to pull over and stop driving. I mulled my options:

1) Use the fix-a-flat system included with the vehicle - seems easy, but I've heard that the slime can mess up the tire and require a new TPMS sensor, so this option had some risk.
2) Attempt to remove the wheel and take it to a tire shop for repair - tough to do with no jack in the car, and I also didn't have an easy way to get the tire to a tire shop.
3) Call Kia's Emergency Roadside service and get a tow to the nearest dealer - this option would be both free, and would have the added benefit of possibly allowing me to drop in and get a few of the recalls on the vehicle taken care of.
4) Call AAA and get a tow to the nearest tire shop.

I called the local dealer and asked the service manager what he recommended, and he advised me to just use Kia's roadside service and have the car towed to the dealer, and they could fix the flat and get the recalls done at the same time. He advised against using the fix-a-flat if I could avoid it.

I called the emergency roadside assistance number for Kia and this process was all very professional - they attempt to locate your car automatically via your cell phone, they were very nice and helpful on the phone, and they send you a text a few minutes later with the ETA of the truck and contact info for the towing company. They said they aim to have a truck there within 60 minutes.

After I hung up, I got a text informing me that the truck's ETA was 90 minutes. Ugh, longer than I wanted, but ok. 2 hours later, no truck. I called the tow company and went straight to voice mail. I called Kia back and they were able to contact the tow company, and told me it would be another 15 minutes. 30 minutes later, still no truck. I called Kia back and they called the tow company again, who now said it would be another hour. The Kia folks apologized and then offered to call another tow company. That company was supposed to arrive in 30 minutes. After an hour, I called them directly - straight to voice mail, and their voice mail box was full. I called Kia again - they couldn't even get ahold of tow company #2. They offered to call a 3rd tow company. By this time I'd been sitting in my car for 6 hours waiting for the roadside service. At this point, I just called AAA. They said they'd be there in 60 minutes, they showed up 20 minutes late, but at least they showed up!!

While I was waiting for AAA, one of the tow companies called and asked about the car, and I indicated that they'd need a dolly or a flatbed. The operator said that the Kia folks didn't include that info, and that he didn't have the right tow truck available and couldn't help. Great - even if they had showed up, there was a good chance that whichever operator showed up wouldn't have the right equipment.

Lessons learned for me:
1. Don't put faith in Kia's roadside assistance. My guess is that the auto manufacturer's emergency roadside services probably offer very low compensation rates for their tow companies, and thus they are probably low on the priority list for most tow companies. It'll be AAA for me from now on.

2. When you call for a tow, don't trust the dispatcher to understand what kind of tow truck to send. Emphasize the need for either a flatbed or a truck that has a dolly. An ICE Soul can probably be towed with the non-drive wheels on the pavement, but the electric can't.

3. Next time this happens, just leave the car on the side of the road, get to work and make some money, and deal with this crap off-hours

 

[blownb310]

That was a long day and I feel bad for you. I wanted to point out that the Soul EV is front wheel drive so there is no reason that your car couldn't have been towed with a wheel lift tow truck like this.

 

[mysoulev]

now option 1 seems way better than waiting 6 hours.
why do we have nails on the streets in the first place

 

[SoulEV2016]

call every 10min, the Kia Assistance.
simple.

In my case (and for an other petrol car), i call my local flatbed truck (72 euros :? ), but he comes in 20 minutes.

If i have an emergency, i call a local flatbed truck, but it's more expensive = 200 euros (45 minutes). :shock:

 

[tractioninc]

It's important to remember that Kia Roadside Assistance is simply a concierge desk that sends a dispatch request to your local towing company. Just like AAA, Kia has no real control over when a tow truck arrives at your location.

Can you add a little more detail about this bit?

When you call for a tow, don't trust the dispatcher to understand what kind of tow truck to send. Emphasize the need for either a flatbed or a truck that has a dolly. An ICE Soul can probably be towed with the non-drive wheels on the pavement, but the electric can't.

PS - The crappy experience you describe is pretty much what I've experienced every time I've ever had to get a car towed.

 

[BigEdgar]

Sure - the Soul EV owner's manual and emergency responder docs say not to tow with any wheels on the ground. I don't have the owner's manual with me right now to reference, but here's what the emergency responder's guide says:

It's odd that they don't say explicitly NOT to tow with the REAR wheels on the ground (they say not to tow with the FRONT wheels on the ground, twice, in fact). But they do have a photo that shows not to do it, and they also say that ALL wheels should be off the ground.

Anyways, since the tow dispatchers don't know the car well and likely don't have tons of experience with this car, my recommendation is to assert what your vehicle needs, and not leave it up to the dispatcher to figure out when he/she looks up your car's needs on his/her computer.

 

[tiburonh]

Very sorry you had this awful experience.

For what it's worth, I have encountered the same awful service from the road side assistance programs of both Mercedes and BMW. The ONLY service that seems to arrive with some degree of reliability is AAA. I suspect this might be because they have been in the business so long that they have the best local towing companies locked in to them for a long time, and all the car manufacturers (for whom this road side assistance thing is a relatively new addition -- and for whom it is an added expense outside of their realm of comfort) have had to make deals with the second tier, cheaper players. Just speculation on my part, but seems to match the level of service they (don't) deliver compared to AAA.

I had the misfortune to get a flat tire on the way to work yesterday. It was a clean puncture from a nail or screw and the tire rapidly lost air, so I had to pull over and stop driving. I mulled my options:

1) Use the fix-a-flat system included with the vehicle - seems easy, but I've heard that the slime can mess up the tire and require a new TPMS sensor, so this option had some risk.
2) Attempt to remove the wheel and take it to a tire shop for repair - tough to do with no jack in the car, and I also didn't have an easy way to get the tire to a tire shop.
3) Call Kia's Emergency Roadside service and get a tow to the nearest dealer - this option would be both free, and would have the added benefit of possibly allowing me to drop in and get a few of the recalls on the vehicle taken care of.
4) Call AAA and get a tow to the nearest tire shop.

I called the local dealer and asked the service manager what he recommended, and he advised me to just use Kia's roadside service and have the car towed to the dealer, and they could fix the flat and get the recalls done at the same time. He advised against using the fix-a-flat if I could avoid it.

I called the emergency roadside assistance number for Kia and this process was all very professional - they attempt to locate your car automatically via your cell phone, they were very nice and helpful on the phone, and they send you a text a few minutes later with the ETA of the truck and contact info for the towing company. They said they aim to have a truck there within 60 minutes.

After I hung up, I got a text informing me that the truck's ETA was 90 minutes. Ugh, longer than I wanted, but ok. 2 hours later, no truck. I called the tow company and went straight to voice mail. I called Kia back and they were able to contact the tow company, and told me it would be another 15 minutes. 30 minutes later, still no truck. I called Kia back and they called the tow company again, who now said it would be another hour. The Kia folks apologized and then offered to call another tow company. That company was supposed to arrive in 30 minutes. After an hour, I called them directly - straight to voice mail, and their voice mail box was full. I called Kia again - they couldn't even get ahold of tow company #2. They offered to call a 3rd tow company. By this time I'd been sitting in my car for 6 hours waiting for the roadside service. At this point, I just called AAA. They said they'd be there in 60 minutes, they showed up 20 minutes late, but at least they showed up!!

While I was waiting for AAA, one of the tow companies called and asked about the car, and I indicated that they'd need a dolly or a flatbed. The operator said that the Kia folks didn't include that info, and that he didn't have the right tow truck available and couldn't help. Great - even if they had showed up, there was a good chance that whichever operator showed up wouldn't have the right equipment.

Lessons learned for me:
1. Don't put faith in Kia's roadside assistance. My guess is that the auto manufacturer's emergency roadside services probably offer very low compensation rates for their tow companies, and thus they are probably low on the priority list for most tow companies. It'll be AAA for me from now on.

2. When you call for a tow, don't trust the dispatcher to understand what kind of tow truck to send. Emphasize the need for either a flatbed or a truck that has a dolly. An ICE Soul can probably be towed with the non-drive wheels on the pavement, but the electric can't.

3. Next time this happens, just leave the car on the side of the road, get to work and make some money, and deal with this crap off-hours