rac recovery a joke

[eugene]

rear diff broke so had to be recovered i phoned up at 7.30 this morning and didnt get recovered til 1.30 but a hour after phoning and telling them what was wrong they still sent a little van out seems to me to be a total waste of time and money
and it still took two and a half hoiurs to get to my brothers garage which is only 45 min max away any one else have thes probs  :roll:

[MudRat]

they are either great or rubbish, had to call em out on saturday, said 2 hours even though it was late and had my little boy in the car, came after 1 hour, bloke was excellent. Guaranteed every time you call them they say 2 hours due to large amount of call outs!

[pux]

I had this in swindon in my Hybrid. And i said to them exactly what had gone and said i need a slide bed. But alas they sent a van with a fella who when looked did not even notice the problem :roll: :roll: until i showed him :lol: :lol: :lol:

[eugene]

sound familiar they even fone me to tell me truck was on its way to me brothers and she still sat there i had to laugh

[laser_jock99]

rear diff broke so had to be recovered..............any one else have thes probs  :roll:

No, I drive a Toyota.

[Yoshi]

They will always send a van no matter what, this is due to the politics within the company.  A friend of mine works for them and what happens is each dept gets penalised for using recovery - so the call centre wont call out a recovery, they let the drivers department call out for them.

Plus to be fair, how do they know that you know what your looking at?  It costs them a fortune to send out a recovery truck, but it costs them nothing to send out a patrol to confirm what is wrong.

[zulublue]

I'm with Green Flag, and they guarantee with 1 hour, and have an average of 40 minutes waiting time, I pay £116 for recovery only but that take me to anywhere I want not just to the nearest garage, this works for me as I would want to do the repair myself.

I can't see why if we club together we could try to get a club discount got to be worth a go?

So to start lets see who you are with

Does anyone know how to make a Poll up, if it can be done might be worth doing it in a new thread.

AA
RAC
Green Flag
Other

[Gordo]

Sounds like the AA - gave them a full postal address, but they sent the wrong one to the patrol who ended up ten miles away and refused to come to where I actually was. He said I needed to call control and start again. :x

Then they tried to claim I'd given them the wrong address...   

As much use as a chocolate teapot.

[Terranosaurus]

They will always send a van no matter what, this is due to the politics within the company.  A friend of mine works for them and what happens is each dept gets penalised for using recovery - so the call centre wont call out a recovery, they let the drivers department call out for them.

Plus to be fair, how do they know that you know what your looking at?  It costs them a fortune to send out a recovery truck, but it costs them nothing to send out a patrol to confirm what is wrong.

Used AA a few times over last couple of years (left RAC after attrocious service one night when my other half was pretty heavily pregnant and it took all night to get 25 minutes to home), mainly for my van (renault master) but also once for the 4x4 when LPG tank fell off. On all but one occasion they have sent a reovery wagon be it slide bed or spec lift and on the ocassion they didn't it was warranted, it was possible they could have got it working only they sent a clown instead of a patrolman, must have been he told me it was getting fuel but there was no ignition - err hello bug 2.8tdi, it doesn't have any ignition (it wasn't getting fuel either, that was the problem the key code thingy had gone kaput and it had imobilized itself.

Anyway I've always managed to convince the AA them to send recovery out when I've needed it, broken gearbox, turbo gone x2, LPG tank fallen off, half shaft broken on a Sunbeam Rapier in the depths of wales, small accident in Seat Arosa but rad gone etc

[JIMBOBLY]

eugene,if you ever have any trouble like that again,call tears recovery,they are good,we have them recover cars where i work,they can recover anything,they have vauxhall combo vans right up to a lowloader artic,i'll give you their number on sunday if you want it,jim :D

[kizz81]

No, I drive a Toyota.

doesnt go anywhere in the first place then  :lol: ( just kidding )

my timing belt snapped just after christmas, told the RAC that theres no cance of fixing it at the road side, and the sent a big flat bed about an 1 and a half after calling, quite impressed, but to be fair i was going to change the belt the week after so i knew i had to pay for my mistake in some way  :lol:

cheers kieran

[diggerdog36]

One trick the AA manager told me was, when you phone up tell them a little white lie, in your case Eugene you'd say

"Hi there, my rear diff has broke, and my brakes have failed when I tried to stop".

As soon as you mention brakes they cant repair at the road side, so they HAVE to send recovery, worked everytime for me!!!

[Lumbering Jack]

We're with the AA, fortunately only needed them once so far - they took quite a while to get to us - over an hour but don't think it was two (was a good while back now).  We were in SWMBOs  rover 200 and it snapped a halfshaft - I explained to them what had happened, they questioned it, I told them I could see it had snapped and that we needed flatbed and to be fair they did send one.  All in all fairly happy so far.

[crazymac]

We have joint AA cover through our Lloyds account and its been excellent!

Called them twice to the car (not my Disco) once with the gearbox failed and once with the head gasket failed. with the gearbox they sent a flat bed straight off, with the head gasket we were on the Mway, so they sent a flat bed to get us off the Mway as they had one passing on its way to another job, he dropped us at the services and said it could be an hour before another arrives, so go get lunch. We had barely sat down and it was there! Took us straight home.

Great service!

[laser_jock99]

No, I drive a Toyota.

doesnt go anywhere in the first place then  :lol: ( just kidding )

I have to admit I've called out Green Flag once so far in 110,000 miles when the starter motor packed in. Stripped it down and fixed at home afterwards- back on the road again in under 3 hours (me have never touched a starter motor before!!). The starter motor was packed with mud after a day at Avon Dasset.

So I've been paying 50 quid a year for 6 years to be recovered once. My Rover 216 on the other hand got value for money........

[Boggert]

Not with me, when the turbo blew, there was someone with me in 15 mins to confirm the problem and it less than 1 hour I was on my way home.

[Range Rover Red]

On my first laning trip, nerves kicked in and I managed to drive about 7 miles in low box. :oops: :oops:.  Tarquin overheated and dumped his coolant somewhere on the A1, but I managed to get him to the meeting point where he spent the day in the car park. (some pretty impressive photos of an impromptu water feature in my gallery).

We got the RAC out to bring him home, explained what had happened and that it was a 4x4 with a MAJOR problem with the coolant and that there was no way he was going to get himself home.  Sure enough, we got the guy in the Tranny van who knew full well that he was wasting his time.  Again, it was down to the politics of who gets the black mark for calling out the flatbed, which duly turned up.

[dazzawhipple]

I will say i have had good and bad in the UK....AA  the worst Green flag the best but here in wa absolute waste of time .......My pajero decided to manifest a petrol leak....RAC (Australian version) turn up and disconnects the fuel pump, starts it up with a massive backfire blows the MAF apart

My wife drivers the car home and smells petrol, we have a torrent of pertol running out off the tank straight onto the exhaust......RAC still accept no liability even they did say it was safe to drive

I wish there was a choice of breakdown companies..............

There is a moral of the story when I change the fuel filter remember to double check the fuel line connection even after doing 300km on a unsealed road............ :roll:

[thermidorthelobster]

I've banged on about this before, but I had an "arrival" policy for the 101, which basically means you pay extra to get them to cover a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes.

So when it broke down, I told them I needed a big flatbed (the wiring had caught fire, so it was clearly not repairable at the roadside).  Then spent the next 5 minutes arguing with them that I was covered even though I was over 3.5 tonnes;  they said I wasn't covered, and despite it being their own policy didn't seem to know what the "arrival" thing was at all.

So then they sent a repair truck;  he lasted about 2 minutes (long enough to take photos) and called base to tell them to send a big flat bed.  Yes, that's what I said.  Over 5 tonnes.  Then I rang them back myself to make sure they got the bit about over 5 tonnes.  They then told me I wasn't covered over 3.5 tonnes...  it was like Groundhog Day.

Then of course a small flatbed turns up;  it was smaller than the 101!  He hangs around for 2 minutes (long enough to take photos) and calls base to tell them to send a BIG flat bed.  Does this sound familiar yet? Guess what happens next...  I ring them and they tell me I'm not covered over 3.5 tonnes!  By this time I was getting a little tetchy on the phone.

Finally they send a BIG flat bed.  The 101 overhangs a lot at the back but at least we manage to load the 101 on without his front wheels coming off the ground (just).  The guy comments that it was only coincidence that he was in the big flat-bed - the RAC had told him to bring a normal size one.

Given their job is to recover broken-down vehicles, the one thing they seemed totally incapable of was recovering a broken-down vehicle.  Go figure.

It's really quite annoying when you are deliberately paying extra for a particular service to have repeated, identical conversations with the people who you are paying this money to where they tell you that they can't give you this service.

[Bishops Finger]

RAC are useless...IMHO....from experience...

[clbarclay]

I do have RAC recovery (christmas present) though I haven't used it yet and to be honest I generally find that firends/family are far more effective.

[V8MoneyPit]

I've never had any recovery cover.

The only time I have ever had a breakdown that I couldn't fix was an old Volvo in central London when the clutch slave went. It was a Sunday afternoon, so no chance of finding another one. Cost over £200 to get recovered to Norfolk, but I would have spent that in 2 years of RAC/AA cover. And if I'd had cover for the 27 years I've been driving it would have cost me over £3000  :shock:

I'd rather take my chances than pay for something I never use.

[freelanderpx54]

Green Flag for me and they have been pretty good. Including the time they brought me home from Driffield :clap:

[Frankie-Boy]

Hmmm well,

As I work for a Breakdown & Recovery company as a night controller I'm rather biased but I can only see it as a good thing, I know I get membership cheap as part of my salary but I'm also covered free by the RAC through my bank account benefits.

Recently I had need to call upon the RAC for help when the earth strap broke and welded the handbrake cable to itself, the guy made me a new earth strap and disconnected the handbrake so I could get home and he did it in less time that his control office said it would take him to get to me, no problem there then.

I'm happy with what I pay too,  ;) :D

[Yoshi]

I've never had any recovery cover.

The only time I have ever had a breakdown that I couldn't fix was an old Volvo in central London when the clutch slave went. It was a Sunday afternoon, so no chance of finding another one. Cost over £200 to get recovered to Norfolk, but I would have spent that in 2 years of RAC/AA cover. And if I'd had cover for the 27 years I've been driving it would have cost me over £3000  :shock:

I'd rather take my chances than pay for something I never use.

But then on the other side of the scale there has been times i have been recovered home from basic stuff, cos i know nothing about mechanicals!

Also in reply to the bit about AA not doing brakes at side of the road - thats actually untrue, as when my mondeo brakes had a paddy he rebuilt the rear drums at the side of the road, and we didnt even have to pay for parts cos they didnt invoice us like they said they would!

[Gordo]

I've never had any recovery cover.

The only time I have ever had a breakdown that I couldn't fix was an old Volvo in central London when the clutch slave went. It was a Sunday afternoon, so no chance of finding another one. Cost over £200 to get recovered to Norfolk, but I would have spent that in 2 years of RAC/AA cover. And if I'd had cover for the 27 years I've been driving it would have cost me over £3000  :shock:

I'd rather take my chances than pay for something I never use.

That's pretty much my approach now too. As with all optional insurance, it's a gamble as to whether you'll need to claim or not - sometimes you win, most of the time you lose.

And on the subject of the AA, I've just recovered a crashed motorbike (and its rider) from Peterborough to Wisbech - the AA wanted £200 to do that for him! I just happened to have dropped off one of my bikes at the dealer, so had the trailer and straps with me. :D

[TDi90]

rear diff broke so had to be recovered

why?

propshaft off and halfshafts out, push the little lever to the left and you get home  ;) :twisted:

Rob

[old joe]

I stopped today to help a couple there head gasket had gone on there Corsa had been there an hour and nobody had stopped. they had called the RAC and told them they were on a busy road should be there in an hour. i towed them layby just over the hill made sure they was ok. Saw a RAC van further down the road stopped and asked if he had the job for this corsa told him the fault. drove past the corsa an 90 minutes later and apparently the this guy turned up rolled a smoke did a few checks and said it was the head gasket and he would arrange recovery. His actual comment was i finish in 15 minutes so i can't do much. All i can say thanks for brittania rescue and i advised this couple to go with green flag. I realy felt sorry for this couple nearly 3 hours to get recovered home 10 miles i'm just glad there was no kids in the car. RAC your #ra#

[Rich_P]

Greenflag gets my vote.  Recovered several times, and my father's Mercedes recovered twice.  Both in the past two years and costs about £25 per vehicle on a home recovery only policy.  I just report the problem (usually quite bad, hence why I need recovering  :lol: ) and they have a local recovery firm pick me up within the hour and take me straight back home.  It's top!

[Chris Putt]

Flux recovery (he one you get with their insurance- Called equity redstar I think) is awesome. Called them out once for a small electrical fire that immobilised the disco they said 'is it repairable at the roadside or do you want recovering', to which I said recovery, 25 mins later It was on a flatbed on its way to my house......