As we head into winter, check your roadside assistance.

We got a real consumer question from a real consumer that was a little unusual. The story is familiar: a car blows a tire, a tow company drops the ball, the driver is left stranded. But this one has a twist. The car is a Maserati.

When Ashantaki got a flat tire, she was glad she subscribed to a roadside assistance service. She called the service and asked them to send someone, which they did. But when the technician arrived, they were unable to fill her tire with air.

Frustrated and disappointed, Ashantaki called her roadside assistance again. This time she asked for a tow truck. She got off the phone and waited, but a few hours later no tow truck had arrived and it was getting dark. So she called again. Eventually her tow truck arrived, but she was informed that the tow ruck could not tow her vehicle.

Ahsantaki had been stranded with her car for nearly 5 hours by this point, so she finally gave up on her roadside assistance and just called a local tire shop. The shop was able to send someone to replace the tire on the spot, but it cost Ashantaki $250.

After this ordeal, Ashantaky reached out to us to see if she could get some relief from the roadside assistance company. At first, customer service told Ashantaki they couldn’t help her. So we placed a call to their public affairs decision and we were able to work out a satisfactory resolution. In the end, they agreed to make it right!

In this case, Ashantaki may have run into extra problems because she had a specialty car which may not have worked well with standard tire filling and towing. But before you go out driving this winter, check on your roadside assistance policy to see what it really covers. For instance, many policies limit the number of times or distance you can be towed. It’s good to know what help you can rely on so you aren’t caught by surprise.