GEM Assist breakdown service - problems

Milky_Mocha

I've been GEM assist member since moving from RAC almost a year ago. I've never required their services until approx a week ago when I returned home after Christmas festivities to find that my car wouldn't start. I know from experience that sometimes when you leave your car idle for a few days it needs a bit of help to get it started.

So I called up GEM as I have full cover including Homsstart. Approx 1 hour later a gentleman pulled up with a tow truck. It had the Peugeot logo on it so I realised he was from the nearby Peugeot garage (my car is a Peugeot 306 Turbo Y reg). So anyway he made no attempt to get the car working but straight away proceeded to tow it away to the Peugeot garage. When hubby asked if it might be a fuse blown he said these types of cars don't have fuses and that its "all in the engine management system".

They had my car for 3 days and Peugeot called me this morning to say they'd sorted the problem and it would cost me £357.51. Bear in mind they didn't give me an estimate before doing the job so I had no choice but to pay. I was surprised I had to pay anything in the first place. What was the problem? The immobiliser. It had somehow engaged and prevented the car from being driven. So all they did was to reactivate. No new parts, nothing.

I am very displeased to say the least. When I was with RAC they always came with required tools and diagnostic equipment and they always attempted to fix the car first whether it was the Peugeot or our other car- in fact, in the many years I've been with RAC they always succeeded in solving the problem except when a new tyre was required.

Has anyone had dealings with GEM assist? I phoned them up to complain and they simply said "put it in writing" which I will certainly do anyway.

Is this acceptable? For this service I dont need to pay a breakdown company. I could simply call my nearest garage. They always say they are happy to come and pick up and they have done whenever we needed servicing, etc.

What am I entitled to?

Astaroth

Many of the more budget suppliers only have a list of recovery companies (which may well be repair garages) and when you call their call centre they simply find the one that covers where you are and gets them to come out to you. Some of these can do roadside repairs others only send drivers who can only tow or jump start.

Not having an estimate repairs really is your own fault - I will always tell a garage to contact me before commencing with any work and therefore having a chance to "discuss" what needs to be done before incurring any significant cost.

Normally if you called your local garage with an immovable vehicle they would charge you for sending their tow truck out to you.... the original idea of breakdown insurance is you avoid 1) this cost 2) having to abandon your vehicle at the side of the road until a garage was open or trying to find your own 24/7 recovery service 3) with higher levels of cover the cost of taking the vehicle to the place of your choice rather than just a local garage and then having to work out how to get yourselves back home and then how to get your car back (you should see how much per mile recovery trucks charge on top of the call out fee)

Personally I have always thought that home breakdown cover was a waste as I can call my mechanic if I have an issue but the onward journey aspect is the invaluable part.

To be perfectly honest I dont think they have done anything wrong and you have simply found out what happens when you buy budget cover.

sloth

GEM operate by sending out a garage recovery truck and either fixing the car or towing it to a destination of your choice. you then pay the driver and claim back the amount from gem. i have been with gem for about 6 years and claimed about 4 times and has always been ok.

if the peugeot garage are saying that what they have done was required to get the car moving again (you have a recipt detailing the work?) i would just claim for the full amnt from gem. if you still have a problem dispute the figure by getting your credit card company involved

Milky_Mocha

Astaroth wrote:

Not having an estimate repairs really is your own fault - I will always tell a garage to contact me before commencing with any work and therefore having a chance to "discuss" what needs to be done before incurring any significant cost.


To be perfectly honest I dont think they have done anything wrong and you have simply found out what happens when you buy budget cover.

I did request an estimate before work done and they said they could not provide one as they did not know what the issue was so I was surprised when they said they'd fixed it.

Milky_Mocha

sloth wrote:

GEM operate by sending out a garage recovery truck and either fixing the car or towing it to a destination of your choice. you then pay the driver and claim back the amount from gem. i have been with gem for about 6 years and claimed about 4 times and has always been ok.

if the peugeot garage are saying that what they have done was required to get the car moving again (you have a recipt detailing the work?) i would just claim for the full amnt from gem. if you still have a problem dispute the figure by getting your credit card company involved

Thanks, Sloth that's useful to know. I didn't realise they operate like that. I must have missed that when I applied. During my search for a breakdown company I deliberately tried to avoid the 'pay and claim' companies. I could have registered with a cheaper 'pay and claim' operator. I will send them my claim and post the outcome.

Astaroth

Milky_Mocha wrote:

I did request an estimate before work done and they said they could not provide one as they did not know what the issue was so I was surprised when they said they'd fixed it.

Then that really is a matter to take up with the garage rather than the breakdown company who would have towed you to any garage you wanted.

As to the bill... a few years ago call out was up to £75 and then up to £5 per mile of towing... service rates for main dealer garages can easily be up to £100 per hour (even back street garages round here now charge £50/hr and up) so the bill could well be recovery and 2.5 hours labour but really they should have given you an itemised bill.

Sloth - Have to admit that breakdown insurance doesnt interest me (hope the bosses arent reading given I had to write a paper on the thing when NU bought RAC). I assume that the breakdown company only pays the recovery aspect of the bill or do they also include part of the labour too?

movilogo

AFAIK, RAC & AA include labor as well when they can fix the car at roadside. Otherwise (eg. towing to a garage) it is not included.

Milky_Mocha

Astaroth wrote:

Then that really is a matter to take up with the garage rather than the breakdown company who would have towed you to any garage you wanted.

That's not the point. The point is I didn't know I was dealing with a 'pay and claim' company so I felt that if there was any cost involved then that would be between the breakdown company and the garage. I should have read the T&Cs before signing up but I was too trusting of Martin's article which listed GEM as one of the non-pay-and-claim breakdown services.