After reading lots of good things about Good Sam Roadside Assistance and the company, we decided to sign up at CW for both the RA and the Club. We need some things for our NTU camper, so figured the discounts could be helpful.
Unfortunately, the signup and processing does not allow a new member to actually *use* the discounts, or possibly event the RA (?)
Instead, we received an email saying it will take 2-3 weeks to get membership cards
We used one of the many banners on CW advertising shipping discounts, up to 30% discount on CW purchases, sign-up today, etc.
So that means that we either buy from CW at full price, wait the better part of a month for anything we need, or purchase elsewhere.
We've started making our purchases from other vendors.
So are the banners just for show and new memberships are *not* actually capable of saving shipping or prices 'today'?
Also, what happens in about 2 weeks when we take our first trip with our NTU camper and need RA? Are we still billed for this first, non-usable month?
You should beable to call Good Sam members service number 800-234-3450 and get your members number from them. I know they use to give you a temperary card good for up to something like 60 days.
GoodSamFamily wrote: JC - Thank you for the valuable feedback regarding your new Good Sam Club membership. We apologize for the inconvenience of the delay in receiving your membership number. We're constantly working to improve our systems and plan to roll out a new system which will give new members instant access to their numbers later this year. Thank you for your patience as we work through this transitional period.
Also, thank you for your valuable feedback regarding the savings available to Good Sam members at Camping World. We are working to make these benefits more clear to potential members. To provide additional clarification on the free shipping offer, new members can receive free shipping instantly on the same order as they purchase their membership. After that, you can take advantage of this limited time offer after the 24 hour period once you receive your membership number.
While it takes 2-3 weeks to receive your permanent membership cards, once you receive your membership number, you can start taking advantage of your other benefits - including the 10% discount at Good Sam RV Parks - by printing off a temporary membership card which is made available at GoodSamClub.com. To print your temporary card, you will first need to register for an online Good Sam Club account. This is to protect your account information and to give you private access to all of your membership details as well as the other valuable information on GoodSamClub.com. After registration and logging into the website, simply hover over the black arrow located beside your name in the upper right hand corner and click on "My Account". Next click on "Print a Temporary Membership Card" located on the right side of the page. Hope this helps to clarify!
Thanks for joining the Good Sam Club and for your patience as we work to continually improve the Club for members like you!
I've tried calling to cancel, but they aren't open yet. I'll try again after 8am Mountain Time when they open (according to the message)
BTW, the mandatory 60 second GSC membership drive advertisement on the phone before any options are given is quite annoying. I'll bet if you asked customers to "Press 1 if you want your call to be delayed an additional minute to hear our sales pitch," that you wouldn't get many takers. Forcing it on them at the beginning of the call- before entering a hold cue- is very different than integrating it into your hold loop.
Thank you for the number and your fast and helpful reply. I called and spoke with Michelle (an incredibly friendly and helpful person).
Here are the answers.
1. Dial the number and be patient through the 60 second set of commercials that greet you
2. Hit 2 for membership status request. Don't bother waiting for it to time out when asking for your membership number, it will simply repeat and repeat. Instead, enter zeros and BE SURE to hit #, else it will also wait and wait It asks for something else then, but hit zeros and # again.
3. Give your Order number and Web number so they can look it up with Camping World (the hold was very short).
4. The order was confirmed as 'processing'
5. During this time, there are 2 separate delays in the signup process
a. Roadside Assistance has a 48 hr delay while it gets into all the systems. Not too bad as this is actually an "insurance" type of service
b. Good Sam Club has a 24 hr delay at least (in this case it will be 48 hrs) if you sign up through Camping World. If you call Good Sam directly instead, the club membership is supposed to be instant (I couldn't test this as I already made the mistake of going through CW)
6. The CW discounts and shipping special are *supposed* to be available after that time. I'll post back when they are activated. In the meantime, you cannot use or view special pricing
Some suggestions.
I understand GS and CW are working on the merger thing. I suggested at minimum the club membership be activated immediately upon order and the discounts and shipping specials become available for the new member to use immediately. After all, it was the banner ad touting these benefits that convince the customer to place the order *today*
I also suggested that instead of the invoice from CW printing this:
"Good Sam Club Membership - 1 Year Join
Direct Ship (Shipped directly from the manufacturer. Allow 2 to 3 weeks) "
It should at least give the GS number (see above courtesy from a member for the number) if you "need it sooner."
The CW and GS systems should 'communicate' better. In today's world where one can purchase software worth several thousand dollars and have it available for download within the hour, there shouldn't be any reason a membership order should cause such a delay.
So please take these as suggestions rather than complaints from a "brand new signup" perspective. I'm sure you guys have LOTS of things you are working on with the changes, hopefully you can see the benefit in making these improvements.
After all, you got me to click "order" but then lost the addon room and a number of other purchases I wanted to make in preparation for our upcoming trip.
And if Michelle wasn't so polite and helpful, I may have even just cancelled the order completely.
And...this site and it's very helpful members' opinions about GS were a major reason we chose to try Good Sam.
It's all good. A few kinks and bumps in the process, but a little programmer's time can fix that
Oh, and we do not have a CW near us, the closest is a few hours one way, so most (if not all) of our business will be at the (currently down?) website.
JC - Thank you for the valuable feedback regarding your new Good Sam Club membership. We apologize for the inconvenience of the delay in receiving your membership number. We're constantly working to improve our systems and plan to roll out a new system which will give new members instant access to their numbers later this year. Thank you for your patience as we work through this transitional period.
Also, thank you for your valuable feedback regarding the savings available to Good Sam members at Camping World. We are working to make these benefits more clear to potential members. To provide additional clarification on the free shipping offer, new members can receive free shipping instantly on the same order as they purchase their membership. After that, you can take advantage of this limited time offer after the 24 hour period once you receive your membership number.
While it takes 2-3 weeks to receive your permanent membership cards, once you receive your membership number, you can start taking advantage of your other benefits - including the 10% discount at Good Sam RV Parks - by printing off a temporary membership card which is made available at GoodSamClub.com. To print your temporary card, you will first need to register for an online Good Sam Club account. This is to protect your account information and to give you private access to all of your membership details as well as the other valuable information on GoodSamClub.com. After registration and logging into the website, simply hover over the black arrow located beside your name in the upper right hand corner and click on "My Account". Next click on "Print a Temporary Membership Card" located on the right side of the page. Hope this helps to clarify!
Thanks for joining the Good Sam Club and for your patience as we work to continually improve the Club for members like you!
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It asks for something else then, but hit zeros and # again.
