AA / Egertons Unlawful Car Removal???

Rocky72

What! The reason it is my first post is because I searched the internet to find out if someone could legally charge us for moving our car to a storage facility without even telling us they... and found this site.
They are trying to charge us for the first night.

Sorry, the £350 was to pay Egertons or another recovery firm to bring the car 220 miles back to where we live. The AA charge a mileage rate, that equates to a similar cost. It happened just after Christmas we simply couldn't afford to get the car recovered back to where we lived straight away.
Had we released and in hindsight we would have tried to move the car or just called a scrap merchant as the car isn't even worth what we are going to have to pay.
Edit: Officer Dribble had removed his last post so the first paragraph looks out of context.

eschaton

This is a classic post :rotfl:

Anihilator

So basically you didnt have good if any AA coverage. Asked them to recover your car and they put you in touch with a seperate agency.

You then asked them to retain the car and didnt enquire about any charges, and then despite not knowing how much the car would cost to repair and the fact you had a car to recover it left it in a depot thinking they would keep it for circa 6 weeks out the goodness of their hearts.

I hate to break it to you but this is not believable, any court would class the fact these companies charge fees as a matter of course along with them saying they told you as reasonable proof and hold you liable for the charges. If you dont pay they can keep the car until a time you do.

Frankly you have been ridicolously naive and you best recover your car ASAP.

I dont think you have any complaint or claim against the AA at all. They asked eggertons to deal with the situation. You agreed to this. The storage etc is entirely seperate from any AA service/contract..

Crabman

Anihilator wrote: »

So basically you didnt have good if any AA coverage. Asked them to recover your car and they put you in touch with a seperate agency.

You then asked them to retain the car and didnt enquire about any charges, and then despite not knowing how much the car would cost to repair and the fact you had a car to recover it left it in a depot thinking they would keep it for circa 6 weeks out the goodness of their hearts.

I hate to break it to you but this is not believable, any court would class the fact these companies charge fees as a matter of course along with them saying they told you as reasonable proof and hold you liable for the charges. If you dont pay they can keep the car until a time you do.

Frankly you have been ridicolously naive and you best recover your car ASAP.

I dont think you have any complaint or claim against the AA at all. They asked eggertons to deal with the situation. You agreed to this. The storage etc is entirely seperate from any AA service/contract..

What is wrong with you?

anewman

Officer_Dibble wrote: »

How long would one reasonably expect the car to be stored free of charge?

Until someone took one minute of their time to phone/write to say they were going to start charging perhaps?!

Anihilator

Crabman wrote: »

What is wrong with you?

In what regards?

The OP can deny knowing the charges all he wants but I can guarentee you that Eggertons will claim they told him and it was made explicitly clear.

No doubt they will even have posters somewere or there premises

It is not reasonable to abandon a car for near to 6 weeks and expect zero costs.

Anihilator

anewman wrote: »

Until someone took one minute of their time to phone/write to say they were going to start charging perhaps?!

I am sure that eggertons will claim the OP was told and agreed.

Crabman

Anihilator wrote: »

In what regards?

To the nonsense in your posts - "So basically you didnt have good if any AA coverage." Where are you getting that?

"Asked them to recover your car..." - again, no idea where this came from.

Rocky72 asked the AA for assistance to repair the car. This is the point behind breakdown cover. The agent (Egertons) did not even attempt to repair the car.

Given that the AA themselves quote a roadside repair rate of 80%, there is a strong argument that the difficulties that Rocky27 is in would not have arisen had the AA either (1) attended themselves and attempted a repair, or (2) sent an agent company with the ability to attempt a competent repair.

Anihilator

Crabman wrote: »

To the nonsense in your posts - "So basically you didnt have good if any AA coverage." Where are you getting that?

"Asked them to recover your car..." - again, no idea where this came from.

Rocky72 asked the AA for assistance to repair the car. This is the point behind breakdown cover. The agent (Egertons) did not even attempt to repair the car.

Given that the AA themselves quote a roadside repair rate of 80%, there is a strong argument that the difficulties that Rocky27 is in would not have arisen had the AA either (1) attended themselves and attempted a repair, or (2) sent an agent company with the ability to attempt a competent repair.

Because if the OP had AA coverage of a remotely basic level then he would have been entitled to have the car recovered at least to a local garage if not home. Certainly not just dumped in a recovery depot - unless they agreed to this.

Recovery companies regularly sub contract in busy times as they did here. The same standards should be used or the OP could have said no and waited for the AA. I am sure his first post states the car was not repairable hence why it was recovered. It still doesnt change if he had an even basic recovery package it shouldnt have been dumped at a depot and there shouldnt have been a £350 charge to get it home. He also refers to the AA charging a rate per mile for recovery - again not to its members of a decent level.

I don't know where you are getting this. The AA offered a sub contractor. The OP accepted. the level of service should have been the same and if not he should have declined and waited for the AA to attend.

Maybe the OP could confirm.

1) What is wrong with the car
2) What AA package he has
3) Why the car was recovered to a depot and not home/local garage.

I would also add if no repair was attempted at the roadside then how does the OP know whats wrong with his car? I assume he does otherwise why on earth is it in a depot with him getting recovery when it could simply have no petrol or a flat battery....

Rocky72

Yep, hands up I feel a trusting fool. At the time we were on the hard shoulder of the M6 at night, in freezing conditions unable to get out of our car due to the adverse conditions and scared for the safety of our kids.
Us and the car was left in an un-secured area by the M6 not a place of repair.
We had Roadside cover through our insurance with AA, which means they should have taken us to a place of repair... Egertons didn't have the means to repair our car. We didn't realise that fact when we were took to their depot. I was trying to keep my kids warm not flicking through the T&C's, at the time.

At no point did the AA or Egertons explain what we would be charged for storage. I phoned Egertons to ask if the car was ok where it was, obviously in hind site it is our word against theirs. But why should my word be any less than theirs? At no point did Egertons contact us to say "your cars near our depot, we need to move it and it will cost you £25 a day for storage".
We didn't ask Egertons to pick the car up, or indeed store it for us.