Today, our campervan sales took an interesting turn. This is mostly reconstructed by what Petri has told me. We took the campervan to Ellerslie Car Fair, one of Auckland’s biggest car fairs. We set it up, all was well. I was going for an appointment, and a friend of ours joined to keep Petri company.
A girl was interested in the van. Very interested. She wanted to conduct a pre-sales inspection that AA (Automobile Association), which they do on site. Petri and her agreed that she would drive over there, to get to try the van out at the same time. There was a gear in when she started the car – without pushing the clutch. The car sort of jumps forward and then dies – understandably. When they try to start it again, it’s dead. Nothing happens.
So Petri calls me. Because I am the owner, and I have the car insurance in my name. And oh boy were we happy that we 11 months ago decided to pay for roadside assistance as well. I just needed to find the number and my necessary information and someone would be able to help him out, or at least to get the van to a different location.
But that phone number was not easy to get a hold of. For the record, we’ve been with ANZ car insurance, don’t do it! Apparently I was supposed to have gotten a card proving me having this insurance back then, and on this card the phone number to call. Got no such card. Tried to google search. Called one place (within ANZ), who connected me to a roadside assistant company. Only that my insurance doesn’t cover for that company. So he connected me back to some part of ANZ. The guy answering said he’d connect me through to the ANZ insurance to answer this. I had to choose a few options, and when I finally throught I’d get to talk to a human, I reached a automated messaged saying that it’s closed and opens again on Monday.
Are you freaking kidding me?!
It took another 2 phone calls, before I finally came to the right place, a roadside assistance company where our car was covered by. Finally! I gave her all the things she needed to know, and last second remembered to ask her for the straight number (had gotten connected to her from someone else). So now we have it. Like 2 weeks before leaving the country. Better late than never, right??
Petri in the meanwhile had borrowed a multi-meter and figured out that it at least wasn’t the battery that was faulty. The roadside assist arrives, Petri describes the problem and the guy says “it’s probably the battery or the fuse box”. Battery got checked again by him, still ok, not the problem. Next he checks the fuse box, and there the problem was. And the advice; if you can’t get the car to start, give the fuse box a shake. So he helped to start it, and Petri came over to me. Since then we have started the van 4 times with no problem.
And I can’t really get this. We have had minimal problems with this van. And today it chooses to have this problem, ONCE, for a potential buyer. What’s also a bit mind boggling is that every now and then, we have driven on roads very far away with few people passing by and difficult terrain that “wouldn’t wanna get a flat tire here” and the response is “but hey, we got roadside assistance!”. And we’ve had zero need for it. Until today. In the middle of Auckland, on a parking ground, with a potential buyer.
Maybe there’s a reason for all this, but right now it just feels like things are working against us. But maybe this will prove to be to our advantage?
One thing for sure is that we can now with confidence say to people DON’T GET THE ANZ CAR INSURANCE! Rather go with AA. I haven’t had AA car insurance, but I’ve heard a bit here and there, and it seems like good stuff. I guess that’s always a learning outcome.
-Petra
P.s. the buyer “ran” away.. So our car is still for sale…