Fri Feb 1st 2019 - I had parked overnight in the 58 Richmond Street Green P and went to work at St. Michael's Hospital. In the morning my car would not start in the -18 degree Celsius cold weather of the garage. I called CAA around 7:45am on Feb 1 2019 for a boost and charge to my battery. The person who showed up from CAA 30 minutes later did a battery check and said my battery had low voltage and would not start if he were to attempt a boost. He then offered to sell me a battery, but did not try to boost my battery or charge it at all. When asked why, he insisted that the battery would not start. He said I would have to tow my car out of the garage, and I would have to call CAA back to arrange a tow.
I went home and went to sleep. At 3pm I tried to arrange a tow with CAA, but no one picked up the phone even after 50 minutes. So I used the app to schedule service, and had a tow guy call me 10 minutes before they were to arrive at 4:50pm to say I did not put the address in the app properly. He did not show up. I scheduled another service request and the app said I would get help at 5:40pm. I went to the hospital before 5:40pm and waited. No one showed up or called, and the app remained active.
I finally called someone who was referred to me at 8:00pm and he came and boosted and charged my car with no issues, and I was able to drive it to a repair shop. The cost of his service was $150.00. He told me the boost and charge could have been done in the morning by the first guy CAA sent had he known what he was doing.
I would like to be reimbursed for the $150.00 I had to spend on the 3rd party person who knew how to boost and charge my vehicle's battery.
I also received a call from a CAA tow person at 10:00pm asking me if I still need service because the app said I needed service! I explained to him that the app said I was to get service by 5:40pm. I had waited at the hospital across the street from where I was parked until 8:00pm and I had to take matters into my own hand and get a 3rd party to help me.
Then I received a call from Alexa-AHP from CAA at 10:10pm. I explained the entire day's situation to her and she was very sympathetic.
My entire day was wasted, and my membership for nought because the morning CAA guy was more interested in selling me a battery, instead of boosting my vehicle's battery. He is a young Trinidadian-Indian guy. I am also Trinidadian, and it is surprising in his camraderie with me that he would neglect to do his job properly. Had he checked, as the 3rd party guy had, he would have seen that my windows had power, the lights came on, and since the stereo worked, the battery probably had enough power to start. He should have tried to boost my battery and not been so sure of himself.
I am thoroughly disappointed in CAA for the lack of quality service. This is not why I pay for a membership. I pay for the insurance of peace of mind, and now I don't have that peace of mind. There will always be extremely cold winter weather in Toronto and CAA has to do much better.