SafeClear

I am so glad that my friend Farrah had a good experience with this service. I, on the other hand, did not.
At 6:15 pm on a Sunday in the middle of the Houston summer, my alternator dies and my car breaks down on the side of I-​10 near Taylor/​Studemont. After calling my insurance and roadside assistance, they inform me that a normal wrecker service cannot service me because I-​10 is a restricted highway and I needed to call the City of Houston.
I do as I am told and get a dispatcher that tells me a truck will be on their way but gives me no additional information, ETA, or confirmation number of this report. 30 minutes later I call again. Then 20 minutes after that. Then 15 minutes after that. Then every 15 minutes until the truck finally arrives TWO HOURS AFTER MY INITIAL CALL. I was FUMING. How could you leave a motorist stranded like that? They couldn’t even send an officer to sit with me and put his lights on? The dispatchers kept asking me «Ma’am, are you in a safe place?» to which I would reply «NO! I am stuck on the narrow shoulder of I-​10 with cars speeding past at 70 mph inches away!»
When the truck finally arrived TWO HOURS LATER, the driver was very nice. However, it was NOT the case that they would tow me for free to a destination a mile away. I was supposed to be charged $ 145 for this tow no matter where I was going. Fortunately, the driver had mercy on me and only charged me $ 50 to take me to my mechanic’s shop about 10 minutes away because he heard on the radio how long I had been waiting. This driver is the ONLY reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1.
I found out after talking to the driver that his shift had started at 7 pm and I was his first pick-​up of that day. My car broke down at 6:15. I was stranded for 45 minutes before this guy was even at work.
I never got an apology from the city. I never got an explanation on why I was waiting there for 2 hours. Was there a massive pile-​up elsewhere? Did you not have enough staff on the clock? Did someone drop the ball on my request? Why do you hate me?

How could I not give five stars to the program that helped out this airhead? Yes, folks, I got on the freeway without looking at my fuel gauge. So somewhere along 59 S and Newcastle, my car jerked and I was out of gas, only with enough to pull one lane over into the left shoulder.
My initial reaction? Doh! Next, I called up the guy and with no offering of assistance, he simply recommended me to SafeClear. Here’s how it works (taken from site):
*If your vehicle stalls, has a flat tire and is not in a moving lane, you get a free tow to a destination of your choice within one mile of the nearest exit. They’ll even change your tire for free if you have a spare.
*If you run out of gas, the destination can the nearest gas station, even if it is beyond a mile after the nearest exit.
*If a tow results from a police investigation, i.e. accident or arrest, or if the vehicle has been abandoned, the tow fee will be the city rate, currently $ 143.50.
So I call the city hotline, 3−1−1, and get directed over to the SafeClear dispatcher. Have a pen on hand, because depending on your location, they give you another number. It was busy for the first 10 minutes. Their advice? Just keep calling. Lucky for me, it was 5:30, meaning bumper to bumper traffic and no speed daemons whizzing by me. Finally got a hold of them, and the gentleman was extremely kind. I described my exact location, and with cameras on the freeway, he found me: «Ma’am. Are you in a black SUV? With your left arm on the steering wheel?» Oh. Mah. Gah. «Creepy,» I respond.
During my 40-​minute wait in the heat, I sit there, wondering what I could have possibly done in the past few weeks to deserve such bad Karma. But alas, my white knight on a white horse arrives … well, more like a white dude in a white tow truck. Garrett was super cool, poking fun at me and my idiotic ways. A few documents needed to be signed, and off we were to the nearest gas station.
If I could, I’d deduct one star for the previous jerkface tower that drove right passed me and waved. I just thought he was being pervy. However, when I got into his truck, Garret was snickering at some correspondence going over the CB. He told me that another guy was assigned to help me (idiot who waved), but when an accident was up ahead (read: more money), he went to check that out first. «Some of those guys don’t realized there are people in these cars they’re supposed to tow,» he says. Funny thing is, that dude arrived to the accident scene too late, and when finally headed back to me, well, once again late … and then late again to another site. «That’s what that asshole gets,» I say. «Karma.»
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