Post by pipandwill on Aug 9, 2015 20:26:20 GMT
So yesterday on the way back from a show, not too far from us, just over an hour usually, with two relatively big horses on our 7.5 tonne lorry, and 4 females on board.
We had only been on the motorway for a couple of minutes when the most almighty bang happened, the lorry swerved and mum(driver) managed to pull it over onto the hard shoulder, as we all dispersed out of the lorry and saw that the drivers side front tire was flat as a pancake.
So, we called our breakdown company- and was told that it would be 60-90 minutes, not ideal, as we had very very little water, and it was now 2:15 so was veryyyy hot. Anyway, the breakdown people were aware that the blowout was on the drivers side and you would think that it would be common sense to know that a lane would need to be coned off... The police were 'aware' of us.
Then about 15 minutes later we remembered we hadnt put the hazards on, so tried to put them on... Wouldnt work... Tried to start the lorry- lorry is dead.
Great
So we rang the breakdown people again, and told them we would need some help regarding this... So just to keep you up to speed, the tyre man was going to be 60-90 minutes, and the recovery man was going to be about an hour.
So we waited and waited, no police or nothing, finally just after 4 the tyre man came... The first thing he said was that we couldnt of stopped in a worse spot- on the hard shoulder, but had slightly creeped onto the start of the slip road.
His attitude was awful, we must of torn him away from the football or something but all he did was moan about where we had stopped, anyway, he was extremely rude, and it was clear that he thought it was accpetable because we were all females. Now i am never one to pull out the sexist card, as i have never felt like a man has spoken to me in such a way.
So he then looked at our spare tyre, just to tell us he didnt have the tools to take it off!
At no point did he re assure us that it would get sorted, or apologise for being late, he basically said he wouldnt do anything, and would wait half an hour and if the lane wasnt coned off by then he would go...
So after having to chase the recovery serivce for policd etc, we rang the police ourselves and they came out very quickly and coned the lane off. Then the very nice breakdown man arrived, and fixed the lorry- just must of been a bit of tyre fly up and switch the isolater switch! Both he and the traffic warden were quite wary of this tyre man, and despite the recovery man fixing the lorry he stayed and kept an eye of the tyre man.
Non of us were filled with confidence as this man had turned up, without the right tools to take a spare tyre off, after he conned us out of a new extremely expensive, 3 figure tyre, we then had to wait another ten minutes so he could have 'authorisation' to fit the tyre, finally he fitted a loose tyre, and that was that.
We were all appauled by the service we recieved, we were on the side of the motorway for 3 hours, with two big horses on, and you speak to peoply, and pay for a service where you are meant to be helped, but we spent the whole 3 hours on edge, having to keep chasing them up as to where the police and tyre man was, and were getting no where, after this amount of time, and being very polite to them, it came to the point where it was like bangimg our heads against a wall, they had no idea how much damage the horses could do if they became bored of standing on the lorry, in the heat, they could cause alot of accidents had anything of happened and gotten onto the motorway. So along with complaining that we had waited a ridiculous amount of time, we had also recieved the most rude man I have ever met in my life, and that really is saying something, thankfully a lovely traffic warden arrived eventually and a lovely recovery man who both made sure that the tyre man was doing it properly.
I cant even explain how distressing it was, sat on the side of a motorway like sitting ducks with no hazards and no lane closure for 2 hours, and it was only because we had rang tne police ourselves that they had come out.
The service wd recieved was by far the worst we have ever had in any breakdown situation, 3 hours those poor horses were stood in the lorry on the side of the motorway, even with all the windows and doors open it was still very hot, thank god they were patient and didnt have a tantrum, which would of been understandable after that length of time.
Just needed to get this off my chest, we are of course sending a letter of complaint, not that they will do much, but it will make us feel better!!
We had only been on the motorway for a couple of minutes when the most almighty bang happened, the lorry swerved and mum(driver) managed to pull it over onto the hard shoulder, as we all dispersed out of the lorry and saw that the drivers side front tire was flat as a pancake.
So, we called our breakdown company- and was told that it would be 60-90 minutes, not ideal, as we had very very little water, and it was now 2:15 so was veryyyy hot. Anyway, the breakdown people were aware that the blowout was on the drivers side and you would think that it would be common sense to know that a lane would need to be coned off... The police were 'aware' of us.
Then about 15 minutes later we remembered we hadnt put the hazards on, so tried to put them on... Wouldnt work... Tried to start the lorry- lorry is dead.
Great
So we rang the breakdown people again, and told them we would need some help regarding this... So just to keep you up to speed, the tyre man was going to be 60-90 minutes, and the recovery man was going to be about an hour.
So we waited and waited, no police or nothing, finally just after 4 the tyre man came... The first thing he said was that we couldnt of stopped in a worse spot- on the hard shoulder, but had slightly creeped onto the start of the slip road.
His attitude was awful, we must of torn him away from the football or something but all he did was moan about where we had stopped, anyway, he was extremely rude, and it was clear that he thought it was accpetable because we were all females. Now i am never one to pull out the sexist card, as i have never felt like a man has spoken to me in such a way.
So he then looked at our spare tyre, just to tell us he didnt have the tools to take it off!
At no point did he re assure us that it would get sorted, or apologise for being late, he basically said he wouldnt do anything, and would wait half an hour and if the lane wasnt coned off by then he would go...
So after having to chase the recovery serivce for policd etc, we rang the police ourselves and they came out very quickly and coned the lane off. Then the very nice breakdown man arrived, and fixed the lorry- just must of been a bit of tyre fly up and switch the isolater switch! Both he and the traffic warden were quite wary of this tyre man, and despite the recovery man fixing the lorry he stayed and kept an eye of the tyre man.
Non of us were filled with confidence as this man had turned up, without the right tools to take a spare tyre off, after he conned us out of a new extremely expensive, 3 figure tyre, we then had to wait another ten minutes so he could have 'authorisation' to fit the tyre, finally he fitted a loose tyre, and that was that.
We were all appauled by the service we recieved, we were on the side of the motorway for 3 hours, with two big horses on, and you speak to peoply, and pay for a service where you are meant to be helped, but we spent the whole 3 hours on edge, having to keep chasing them up as to where the police and tyre man was, and were getting no where, after this amount of time, and being very polite to them, it came to the point where it was like bangimg our heads against a wall, they had no idea how much damage the horses could do if they became bored of standing on the lorry, in the heat, they could cause alot of accidents had anything of happened and gotten onto the motorway. So along with complaining that we had waited a ridiculous amount of time, we had also recieved the most rude man I have ever met in my life, and that really is saying something, thankfully a lovely traffic warden arrived eventually and a lovely recovery man who both made sure that the tyre man was doing it properly.
I cant even explain how distressing it was, sat on the side of a motorway like sitting ducks with no hazards and no lane closure for 2 hours, and it was only because we had rang tne police ourselves that they had come out.
The service wd recieved was by far the worst we have ever had in any breakdown situation, 3 hours those poor horses were stood in the lorry on the side of the motorway, even with all the windows and doors open it was still very hot, thank god they were patient and didnt have a tantrum, which would of been understandable after that length of time.
Just needed to get this off my chest, we are of course sending a letter of complaint, not that they will do much, but it will make us feel better!!