Shell

Alone and Afraid On A Dark Rainy Night but No Help From Shell Station on Pembroke Road

On November 19, 2013 around 10PM, I was traveling north on I-95 to my Hollywood home when the clutch in my car failed, disabling my vehicle. I rolled onto the exit for Pembroke Road, pushed my car to the side of the road, and having left my cell phone at home earlier, I locked my car and walked a dark block to the Shell station at 2801 Pembroke Road in Hollywood, Florida.



At the Shell station's food mart, I asked an employee if there was a pay phone. She told me no; therefore, I asked if there was a phone I could use to call for help or if she had a cell phone I might use. I explained that my car broke down on the Interstate. She told me she did not have a cell phone I could use and also, I could not use the store phone. I asked her if she would call help for me. She said no and told me to ask someone outside the store.



Right outside the door to the Shell food mart, a man (wearing a Shell Oil Company shirt) gladly let me use his cell to call my daughter, and he said to get the number of a tow truck company off the sign hanging in the Shell gas station. With the tow company number I got off the sign in the Shell gas station in hand, I asked another man if I could use his cell phone to call for assistance. A woman in a car nearby suggested I call Florida Highway Patrol Road Ranger, which I did.



Next, I went inside the Shell store and asked the man who had let me use his phone if he would tell my daughter I was waiting the I-95 Pembroke Road exit for FHP. He said he was leaving, so I asked the woman. Instead of saying 'yes, sure,' and being helpful, she acted like I asked her to clean the rest room, finally nodded her head and dismissed me by turning away from me.



I walked back to my car on the I-95 Pembroke Road north exit, and while I waited for FHP Range Rover, my daughter arrived. Since Range Rover still hadn't arrived, she called the tow company whose number I had gotten off the sign at the Shell Station and was told by a dispatcher that no tow trucks were in my area, and I should call another company. While we search for another tow company phone number, the FHP Road Ranger driver showed up. He picked up my car, explained that we had to get to a safe, well-lit area, and he towed my car to the same Shell station at 2801 Pembroke Road.



In the empty Shell parking area, the FHP Road Ranger driver called two or three companies but because of the inclement weather, he could not find anyone to tow my car the three blocks it needed to go to the South Park Sunoco Station, where my mechanic works. He suggested I leave my car where it was, at the Shell station, and call a tow truck first thing in the morning. I asked him if he would go into the Shell food mart and explain this t the woman behind the counter because she was not very nice or helpful earlier.



He did go in, but when he came out, he began hooking my car to his tow truck and picking it up again. He said he was told we could not leave my car at the Shell station overnight; it would be towed away (a bit odd that the tow truck company dispatch couldn't get someone to help me when I asked for help earlier).



I am disgusted with the way this Shell employee treated me. Not only unhelpful when I so needed help, but down right rude.

I am a regular customer, as well as my family members, of the Shell gas station on Johnson Street and US1, which is near my home. Well, actually I was before this incident. I am totally insulted and outraged by the way I was treated when I was most vulnerable.