Roadside Recovery: AutoAid Feedback

dacouch

Tan159753 its often quicker to use this type of recovery policy as you use a local company, at busy times you may have a long wait for an AA or RAC van to come out and then if you need to be recovered you sometimes have another wait for the recovery vehicle to come out. As you are ringing a local company they can often send someone out straight away and its often a recovery vehicle that comes out. (You will often find the AA and RAC contract out some of their work to local companies anyway)

I have used all the breakdown services including independents and have found them all good, the independents if anything I have found give that little bit extra

If you are ever stuck for the number of a decent recovery company you could always contact the local police as they will have a contract with a local company to remove uninsured vehicles etc and they will have vetted the company.

One thing to bear in mind if you need to recovered a long distance then some companies (The AA do) can only tow you a certain distance / time at which point they hand over to another tow vehicle (There is sometimes a wait). Its due to Health and Safety laws and driving time restrictions for truck drivers. So bear in mind if you are being towed a long distance under Autoaid you may need to pay two recovery companies although generally the independent companies tend to be more flexible on this.

tan159753

dacouch - Good tip about asking the police for a recovery service.

Don't get me wrong, Im as much a MSE as everyone else here. AutoAid's deal is a great one if everything goes through as planned. I don't mind the slightest who takes me home and how many warts they have visible on their face, as long as they do it in a reasonable timescale. What I was worried about was the recovery company not giving me a proper receipt or promising to send one but it never turns up. After all, they would already have my cash so why bother to send me a proper invoice unless I continually harass them for one?

Without this receipt, I cannot re-claim from AutoAid. Another scenario - to make things worse is that you only have 14 days to send back the claim form. Say the recovery company agree 7 days later to send me a proper invoice then send it by second class post, I can easily see myself missing that 14 day deadline to send my claim back.

Has anyone else been caught in these types of scenarios or is it something only remotely possible but highly unlikely? I just don't want to look like a fool in front of friends and family when I fail to claim back my £400 recovery fee despite having a breakdown policy. I understand that not all recovery services coming to my rescue would behave like this but reading posts in this topic has shown that a number of people have had to deal with recovery from the bottom end of the scale.

After all, we buy a breakdown service as assurance that we are not left stranded and insurance that we are lumbered with a big bill.

dacouch

Most recovery companies are reputable now days, here is a link to one of the trade organisations that allows you to find a member. It might be worth looking one up for your area and putting their number into your phone.

http://www.rrra-recovery.co.uk/

Which county are you in and I'll find the recovery companies the police use? I have had business dealings with some of the recovery companies they use and the vetting they go through is incredibly high.

planetbrain

I needed AutoAid today after my wheel fused on after a puncture.
Was promised rescuing within the hour. After an hour phoned up and was told would have to wait another 20 minutes as they were busy. Luckily some guys from a tyre shop stopped booted the wheel a few times until it snapped free and replaced it for me. Cancelled my call out, which was easy to do, but not overly impressed with AutoAid at the moment.

alexan

Can anybody tell me if the number to call to join AutoAid is manned evenings and weekends ?

derrick

alexan wrote: »

Can anybody tell me if the number to call to join AutoAid is manned evenings and weekends ?

AUTOAID; -

"One call to us puts you in touch with our Rescue Control Centre at any time of day or night"

lisyloo

The number to join is not the same as the rescue control center.

I'm afraid I don't know the answer about the membership number, so I'd jsut try giving them a call. If they are shut there should be a recorded message with opening times, or you can sign up on-line.

molerat

Broke down Sat 4th April at 5.00pm (my fault, flat battery). Phoned Autoaid. Truck arrived at 5.50pm. Started car in seconds. Garage sent receipt in post as I had to pay over phone, arrived 8th April. Posted same day and cheque arrived today. Thumbs up here. :beer:

lisyloo

Was promised rescuing within the hour. After an hour phoned up and was told would have to wait another 20 minutes as they were busy.

There are not an infinite amount of rescue vehicles out there.
It should be obvious to anyone that at busy times you might have to wait.
This can happen with ANY company.
Autoaid use local garages rather than dedicated patrol vehicles so on the whole, I'd say it's less likely to happen, but no guarantees can be given with ANY company.
I could come up with genuine bad anecdotes about both RAC & AA, but it's pointless, they are all going to busy from time to time.
As the previous poster said, the response times are not directly attributable to AutoAid who are an insurance type organisation rather than a rescue servce.

bluejosiah

Got my cheque today, took 6 days from posting it, so technically 4 working days. VERY VERY VERY PLEASED WITH AUTO AID! THANK GUYS!