Roadside Recovery: AutoAid Feedback

bulktrans

Quentin wrote: »

You don't say why they refused to acept the paperwork, but they have a complaints procedure which you can still go down. See your policy for details.

If you are still unhappy after using the complaints procedure you can then use the FOS who will decide if your complaint is correct and if so force them to pay you.

I think I have a similar battery problem - it occured this morning .. will call AutoAid on Sat and try to sort it out ..

olly300

bulktrans wrote: »

I think I have a similar battery problem - it occured this morning .. will call AutoAid on Sat and try to sort it out ..

If your battery is flat and you need a replacement then expect to pay for it regardless of what motoring breakdown organisation you join.

I had trouble with my old car's battery while with Autoaid and two of my mates with the RAC and AA also had battery problems.

I got my car towed to my local garage using Autoaid, while my mates paid their respective motoring organisations extra to replace their batteries.

sweetflowerwestlondon

My partner is policyholder and I am covered as spouse, though we have different names, this has been written clearly in the policy document.

However a woman in the customer service treated me as if I am lair, and seemed to think I am making her life difficult. In the end, I had to point it out her clearly that she should have looked at policy document, so she could find my name and having different names as spouse is nothing to do with her business.

When engineer came, he seemed to be rather grumpy (and I wonder why he is) and his behaviour suggested that he want to deal with me in minimum effort. He tested my car and said battery had problem, though later my local garage diagnosed differently.

I also asked if he could look at one of my tyres which looked suspiciously flat, but he said he could not deal with it, I had to make another call as different job – well, when I was using AA, engineer was more than happy to sort out this kind of minor admin problems.
Also AutoAid engineer didn’t even give me a receipt after I made a payment. I thought I need their receipt when claiming back later ?

Thus, my overall experience of AutoAid was unpleasant; customer service was insulting and unprofessional. Both customer service and engineer need training. Only credit I could give ,was response speed. Engineer came within 30 minutes. However please give a long , hardlook and don’t be blinded by bargain price, you get the quality service what you paid for.

davemidd

AutoAid don't actually have any engineers; they use a network of local garages.

avantra

davemidd wrote: »

AutoAid don't actually have any engineers; they use a network of local garages.

Which is exactly the problem.

I am with AutoAid for over 5 years and had to use them more than 3 times due to my iffy Rover (she is gone I am glad to say). I use to be with the AA before that.

The price is good and cover you and swambo which is the most attractive thing about this policy, you get the travel and all the other things which is good. But this is where them and the AA/RAC differ big time.

Some recovery operators used by Autoaid are exactly this - a tow track drivers.

So what's the problem here you ask?

Well, if you are unlucky to be sent one of them they will simply have no idea about recovery in modern cars (which is frankly what most of us in this green and pleasant land are driving).

In all cases that I had to use Autoaid the admin side is fine, but the recovery is a completely different story. In two of the cases that I broke down they sent people who clearly had no idea about road side diagnostics with little knowledge about what to check (or what to repair).

In both cases an AA/RAC person could and should have repair these (a blocked fuel injector leak-off pipe and a loose earthing point to the fuel pump) but the Auto-aid boys just wanted to load the car on the tow track and drive (which they did). I don't blame them they were obviously not trained mechanics and this is the risk you are getting into when using Auto-aid.

I have passed these technical query's to a neighbor who is an accredited RAC operator covering the Bristol area and he verified this notion but pointed out that he and his colleagues get training on a lot of the new electronic systems in modern cars which is not always available for smaller operators.

When I told Autoaid customer services of my experience they dully pointed out to their t&t stating that:

a)They can't guarantee road side diagnostics.

I could have call any local independent recovery service/garage I wanted and they will refund me when they get the invoice, I don't have to use their call centre choice (yeh, right I can really call anyone useful in my opinion at 20:30 Friday night on a dual carriageway with kids in the back, they must be joking).


So... you get what you pay for with Autoaid and they can sort out the simple items like a burst tyre or flat battery but not much else in my experience.


I am still with Autoaid as I already paid them this year's fee but that's it, I had enough and I will gladly pay £60 more to one of the big boys to look after me if I ever need recovery.

lurch003

I've just trawled through all 29 pages of Autoaid comments and have joined on the back of the board.

I've never been with a recovery firm but do a lot more miles these days and want peace of mind. I've never had to be recovered but knowing I have the option and the ability to claim back which would pay for the service if used only once a year !!!

I also have a 500cc, 1995 motorbike which is a temperamental little so and so which has given me peace of mind for that too knowing I am covered, not the vehicle.

If I ever do have to make a claim, I'll be sure to let y'all know how it went !!!

Many thanks to all have posted and helped me decide

Stevenj214

avantra wrote: »

I could have call any local independent recovery service/garage I wanted and they will refund me when they get the invoice, I don't have to use their call centre choice (yeh, right I can really call anyone useful in my opinion at 20:30 Friday night on a dual carriageway with kids in the back, they must be joking).

I don't really understand the attitude you have about this but it's a good point which others should take into account and pre-emptively find a local 24hour breakdown/recovery service who is recommended and save the number in their phone.

Trogglet

I've been with Autoaid about 20 years! And had five claims.
Use friendly local garage when kit-car breaks down locally, and get Autoaid to sort things out when far from home.
Never any problems. They even found a mechanic on a bike when Southampton was totally grid-locked. Unfortunately he couldn't fix it - broken head gasket - so we got a very long lift home when the grid-lock cleared.
But full marks for trying.
Self and wife, three cars, one policy. You can't beat it.
And yes, we have got a credit card.

hogshead

Stevenj214 wrote: »

I don't really understand the attitude you have about this but it's a good point which others should take into account and pre-emptively find a local 24hour breakdown/recovery service who is recommended and save the number in their phone.

This is a good point so any idea how one would know/find out which local services would be accepted by AutoAid?
Not asking you to do the donkey work just where I could start looking.

Thanks

molerat

hogshead wrote: »

This is a good point so any idea how one would know/find out which local services would be accepted by AutoAid?
Not asking you to do the donkey work just where I could start looking.

Thanks

Autoaid allow you to contact a breakdown service of your choice or they will contact one for you. The poster suggests you finding a local reputable provider that is acceptable to you.