We’ve all been in this situation—you get in the car and it just won’t start. And somehow this always seems to happen when you’re in a hurry. Of course, Hilary Smith Callis knew exactly who to call. Even though she’d been a AAA member for years, Hilary was surprised at how quickly AAA took care of her—fixing the problem right on the spot.

“I have a long freeway commute, so having reliable transportation is really important to me. But I had been having some trouble lately getting my car started in the morning. Occasionally it would just take a long while for it to get going.

“Well, this particular morning, it just flat out wouldn’t start. I’d turn the key and…nothing. And I thought, ‘Great, now what am I going to do? I’m probably not even going to make it to work today. I’m going to have to call my boss and he’ll be upset…what a drag!’

“So I called AAA Road Service. Of course, I’d used AAA before and had always had great experiences, but you always worry that things like this are going to take forever to get resolved. But when I think back, I don’t know, it felt like it took about five minutes for the tow truck to get there. I mean, it seemed almost immediate.

“Naturally, the driver was really nice, and right away he started checking the car, doing tests, and he quickly determined that the battery was toast.

“Wonderful, I thought. This is going to be expensive. I’m going to have to get the car towed to a service station or someplace, and who knows how long this will all take.

“But it turned out the guy happened to have a spare battery right there in his truck. They actually carry batteries around with them! Who knew? Anyway, he told me he’d install it right then and there, and he wouldn’t even charge me for the labor. I just had to pay for the battery.

“So I got in my car. It started right up, and I ended up getting to work much, much sooner than I expected. Which is great, because I really like my job.”