The following event happened last night and I felt other Back Roomer?s should know about it and comment about the service. All references to the motoring organisation concerned have been omitted under the naming and shaming policy.
Last night my wife?s car broke down on a rural section of a main A road. She thought the cause was a broken accelerator cable, as the pedal lay on the floor. She tried calling the well know motoring organisation on her mobile, but she was left in a queue. Worried she would run out of either battery or phone credits she ended the call and phoned me at home. I then telephoned the motoring organisation on her behalf and the call was recorded at 7.05. They advised they were busy but someone would be there in about an hour to an hour and a half. As my wife was about 2 and half miles from home and loaded with the weekly shopping I decided to find her. When I got there at about 7.40 she was in a tearful state, so I decided to load the shopping into my car, which she then drove home in my car.
I should mention I dropped what I was doing at home and came out without any money, but did have my credit cards in my jacket, also I do not have a mobile phone (after this event I think I will get one). Well I sat there waiting and getting colder by the minute. I worried for over an hour about the engine not starting and the excess petrol killing the Cat. Luckily the engine started first time without any accelerator and I could get warm again. I was beginning to feel very hungry, as I had not had supper. Well I thought by 9 I would have seen the motoring organisation, but no. Well at 10 I decided to walk into the nearest village (bypassed by the main road) to find a telephone box to find out what was going on.
The motoring organisation call handler exclaimed and said they thought we had been dealt with at 9. After checking she then said someone was looking for the vehicle and to return to the car. Luckily I had been advised there was a shortcut pathway that made the return journey only 7 minutes rather than the 13 it took by the circular road pattern. When I returned there was still no one there to help, so I sat back in the car and a few minutes later a vehicle pulls up behind the car.
Strangely this was not a vehicle from the motoring organisation. If this had been my wife in the car I think she would have been very worried by this. On both occasions when I spoke to the motoring organisation they did not advise that someone other than their own vehicle would turn up.
After a quick check of the car, it was confirmed that the accelerator cable was broken. But this Land Rover and trailer was for recovery only, with no spare parts carried at all. I know that cable is kept on the motoring organisation?s vans as many years ago I had an identical breakdown. That was repaired at the roadside, meaning this recovery was not necessary. After a chat with the man and their office I was advised to have the car taken to my home as the motoring organisation would come to the house to fix it. He also confirmed that his firm was not contacted until 9 about this breakdown.
When finally I arrived at home at 11.20 I called the motoring organisation and they confirmed they would come out in the morning and replace the cable, but it could not be pre booked so I must phone in the morning.
At 8.30 this morning I followed instructions and called the motoring organisation to come out and complete the fix. They point blank refused and they would not budge. They claimed I was told it could be up to a 3 hour wait. They also claimed that they had affected a recovery to my choice of destination and therefore the matter was closed, despite being told the case was remaining open at 11.20 the previous evening.
By this time I was going to be late for work so I grabbed the motoring organisation?s file and left. When I checked their handbook I saw they had a complaints number. I rang this number at 9.15, firstly being put on hold and then being asked for my name and number so they could call me back as they were busy. At 9.55 the call was returned and I went over the details of what had happened. The lady in complaints tried to get a supervisor to check on the action, but could not find one available. She then decided on her own initiative to start a new call out to my home (despite being only roadside membership) due to the very poor service we had received last night. She did mention they did have a red alert last night for the number of breakdowns (or in other words they did not have the capacity to cope with demand). The car was repaired within 60 minutes of the end of this call, so this saga has finally come to a satisfactory conclusion.
Do you think the motoring organisation was wrong to leave a lone woman stranded for over 3 hours? (They were advised I might change with her, but they still thought it was a lone woman when I telephoned at 10.)
Why did they not telephone my home, the contact number, with any updates?
Should they have advised that the vehicle coming was not one of theirs? Especially as it had no repair kit and was recovery only.
Why did they advise that they would repair the car the following morning and then say no?
Should it have been necessary to use the complaints procedure to get a satisfactory result?
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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What shocking service. I suggest a strongly worded, charming letter to their complaints department.
Other observations: make sure you have plenty of warm clothes in the car, just in case. When you went to replace her you must have been expecting a chilly wait, so - let that be a lesson for us all.
I've certainly had a non-AA vehicle arrive at my car.
Moral: don't break down on a cold foggy night - they will be fully stretched.
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I bet I can guess which organisation this one is. It's probably the same one which couldn't find me on the North Bound car park of Knutsford services 3 years ago. I placed the call at midnight and was told that someone would be with me within 30 mins.
After 90 mins I called to see where the patrol was, and was told that they had been hijacked by the police to remove an accident.
I called again 30 mins later to be told that they couldn't find me. I was one of about 5 cars on the car park on a service station.
When the truck did finally arrive at 0300, 3 hours after placing the call, the only thing the mechanic could do was to take me home. He told me exactly what you were told, that I could call in the morning and have the car recovered to the VW dealer.
I called in the morning, and was told that as the car was on my drive, I couldn't have it recovered to a dealer, even though I had homestart. I kicked off via complaints and a patrol man eventually turned up in a berlingo, even though I had told them that the patrol man of the early hours had told me a truck would be needed.
The patrol man took one look at the car and told me he would need to call a truck to have it recovered. He was told that they couldn't send one, as my car was at home. He told me that he would give me a tow 1.5 miles from my home as they would then have to send out a truck! It didn't come to that, as another call to complaints got it sorted.
I asked to have the car recovered to a VW dealer in Stoke who had done work on the car just the week before. I was told that was not possible, and that they would only take me the 7 miles to the Stockport dealer. Luckily the patrol man's wife was the best friend of the service manager at that dealer, and he put a call in to her and she booked me in straight away.
I was told the truck would be there within an hour. It pitched up 4 hours later. Being a Stokey myself I recognised that the guy was from Stoke, and wondered if he had come from the depot there. He had. I told him that I'd wanted the car to go to Stoke, and he offered to take it. As I was already booked in at Stockport I decided to stick with that.
What a fiasco. I decided to trade the car in then, and got 3 years VW Assistance, so cancelled my membership with the recovery service that I had been with for 10 years.
They recently sent me new membership cards, and debited from my bank account, having renewed my membership, without contacting me, based on the fact that I had cancelled because I had 3 free years cover with VW.
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I'm with the RAC and on one occasion I had a non-RAC patrol attend. However the service I received was excellent. I understand that the breakdown companies have an agreement like this for when they are very busy.
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I once had to wait an hour for a truck to come out. I was sitting about 300 yards from their depot! They decided to have their tea before coming out. After all, they only promised to get to me within the hour. Why hurry!
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So I should be joining the RAC then, and not one of the other large breakdown organisations? :-)
Blue
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I've a grouse with Direct Line/Green Flag about the apparent lack of geographical knowledge in their call centre. But as far as recovery goes their SoP outside garage hours is to go to owners home/destination and then accept a follow up call next working day to flatbed the dead vehicle to a chosen repairer. Very reluctant to do otherwise. I was happy to drop the car at my local garage (village location, CCTV etc)but the contractor wanted a disclaimer signed.
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One thing that people should bear in mind is that these motoring organisations are there to assist in the case of a breakdown, generally by means of recovery to a safe location.
Having worked for all three major clubs as a contractor, It is amazing how many people call you out purely in an attempt to get a 'free' repair and get very irate when you then recover their vehicle to a garage where they then have to pay the bill. On several occasions, I have even had people who have reported a loss of drive present me with a replacement cluth kit upon my arrival and expected me to proceed to fit it in the driveway of their home under the terms of their membership!!
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> So I should be joining **** not one of the other large breakdown organisations? :-)
I had a bad experience with one of these organisations when I took the car to France on holidays two years ago.
Vectra was broken into and vandalised on the first night parked inside the hotel's indoor car park. It took a morning on the phone to make contact with the Motoring Organisation in question. They refused to recognise my policy as valid - because the office were unaware that the organisation sold policies in Ireland and did not believe me when I gave them the details.
Having called at 10am, at 4:30pm I was finally given directions to a repairer who, I was told, would replace my broken window if I got to them before they closed at 5pm. Only when I got there did I learn they offer a call-out service which could have solved the problem that morning. From start to finish the Motoring Organisation's staff were curt and unhelpful - I'm only grateful I wasn't stuck on the hard shoulder of an autoroute!
So I'm not surprised to hear your story, Roger, and suspect it wasn't a once-off either. The service this organisation advertised certainly didn't match the reality of what they offered - maybe that's an approach you should take in making your complaint to them?
- Gromit
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A visitor to home, on departure 30 mins later, found her old unserviced Polo turning over but not starting.
Called the AA, expected to wait up to a hour but within 5 mins their van had arrived.
Checked for sparks - none. Substituted coil pack - tested and OK so replaced it.
Visitor had no membership card with her, no bank card just a cheque book but they still accepted a cheque.
All sorted and on her way in no time. Fantastic.
This was an urban area at 11:30 am but absolutely no complaints from us.
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I called my rescue organisation out to a Saab Turbo a few years ago. The turbo was clearly rattling and needed tightening. Don't know why it came loose, but had just been serviced by local and dreadful Saab dealer, from whom I was 200 miles away.
All I needed was my socket set, but left at home. The patrol who came out looked completely clueless and basically I told him what to do and he did it. Car drove home without a murmur.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I am in the RAC and on each of the three occasions I've had to call then out they have been excellent. Last time on hearing that I was a woman travelling alone they put me on "priority" and asked me to leave my mobile phone switched on. They were with me within half an hour and phoned me twice during this time to keep me updated. However there seems to be a downside to this level of service if you are a man! My other half broke down at 7 one freezing winters night to be told that a patrol was on its way only to be phoned a little later to say that a lone woman driver had broken down and the patrol had been diverted. This happened twice more and he was finally rescued at 11 p.m. and he was only 10 miles from home!
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So much for gender equality eh.
I must admit, when I've had to call out my breakdown service (twice) they've been great. There within an hour, friendly, helpful and courteous. I'm with the 3rd one, through my car insurance.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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