Car Breakdown Discussion

TruthandFairness

Just wish to alert people to a very BAD experience myself and seemingly, many other people have endured with what amounts to be the behaviour of a rogue vehicle recovery company, namely 'First Call'GB ltd.
Their modus operandi seems to be ;
A) Offer very cheap membership to attract custom (I fell for it:mad:).
B)If you have the misfortune to breakdown and require assistance, to be as obstructive and resistant in attending, citing all manner of questions regarding service history and possible causes of your problem, which 'is not covered'.
C) Demanding large upfront payments over the phone before sending roadside assistance, only to subsequently refuse any reimbursment, again, citing 'terms and conditions'.
I urge customers to read vehice recovery forums to get a feel for the feedback regarding this company. Its not good.

apness

Hiya, first post, long time lurker.

Just cancelled my renewal with the AA. Every year it goes up and every year I knock them down (£189.95 this year, last year I paid £140 after knocking them down). This year, after reading the recommendations on here about other providers of cover decided to try someone else. I had knocked them down (by removing the wife from the cover as she is getting a company car in June) to £104 (Roadside and Relay plus 'Gold' benefits which I've never used and don't know what they are) but trying someone else anyway.

From what I can tell from the (brief) skim through of posts, Autoaid is well liked but there is a £40 excess to pay for every call out. So you are hoping for the no call out otherwise it might end up close to or more than the others. Also issues with getting through to the call centre raises an eyebrow. They get more popular , building up a customer base, but don't get more people in to take calls, maybe?

How do the other companies - RAC and Green Flag, plus whoever else out there - compare? I think with my car insurance they offer breakdown for £40 or so. Is that any good in peoples opinion?

I have until May 2nd to sort something out, but will do as much homework as I can before then. I only used the AA 3 times in 12 years (twice for the wife's car, once for my motorbike when I had a blowout) but my car is getting on a bit (10 years) and getting to the age when stuff wears out faster...

den169

apness wrote: »

Hiya, first post, long time lurker.

Just cancelled my renewal with the AA. Every year it goes up and every year I knock them down (£189.95 this year, last year I paid £140 after knocking them down). This year, after reading the recommendations on here about other providers of cover decided to try someone else. I had knocked them down (by removing the wife from the cover as she is getting a company car in June) to £104 (Roadside and Relay plus 'Gold' benefits which I've never used and don't know what they are) but trying someone else anyway.

From what I can tell from the (brief) skim through of posts, Autoaid is well liked but there is a £40 excess to pay for every call out. So you are hoping for the no call out otherwise it might end up close to or more than the others. Also issues with getting through to the call centre raises an eyebrow. They get more popular , building up a customer base, but don't get more people in to take calls, maybe?

How do the other companies - RAC and Green Flag, plus whoever else out there - compare? I think with my car insurance they offer breakdown for £40 or so. Is that any good in peoples opinion?

I have until May 2nd to sort something out, but will do as much homework as I can before then. I only used the AA 3 times in 12 years (twice for the wife's car, once for my motorbike when I had a blowout) but my car is getting on a bit (10 years) and getting to the age when stuff wears out faster...

Its not £40 each time you call them out,Its £41 a year and thats it for everything, The only downside is you have to pay the recovery vehicle when they come out to you,Then claim it back off Autoaid they usually pay within a couple of weeks.

SwipernoSwiping

If you take Breakdown Cover with your car insurance, do check that the cover they are giving you is of any use.
I was left with the option of a very hefty bill or being stranded with my kids yesterday. I had the impression I had recovery to home covered. I didn't. I only had the option of cover within a 10 mile radius of home. (?!?) As a lot of people have already pointed out on here, there is only so much they can fix on the roadside.
Some companies have more than one level of cover. (I was not aware of this either!)
The recovery driver said I wasn't the first to have made this mistake. He gets plenty of this. So it is clearly something of a loophole.
If your add-on breakdown cover is only £40ish you are likely to have the same kind of cover.

(The good news of my nightmare experience is I've found cheaper insurance by the sum of £170! :T)

joe134

Hi Guys, I have Auto aid, due for renewal. I 'm surprised at kwikfit offering full cover at £28, yet no positive feedback.?or, negative.?
If anyone has any. I would appreciate it.:beer:

Stoke

TruthandFairness wrote: »

Just wish to alert people to a very BAD experience myself and seemingly, many other people have endured with what amounts to be the behaviour of a rogue vehicle recovery company, namely 'First Call'GB ltd.
Their modus operandi seems to be ;
A) Offer very cheap membership to attract custom (I fell for it:mad:).
B)If you have the misfortune to breakdown and require assistance, to be as obstructive and resistant in attending, citing all manner of questions regarding service history and possible causes of your problem, which 'is not covered'.
C) Demanding large upfront payments over the phone before sending roadside assistance, only to subsequently refuse any reimbursment, again, citing 'terms and conditions'.
I urge customers to read vehice recovery forums to get a feel for the feedback regarding this company. Its not good.

I used a Price Comparison website and First Call were one of the cheapest there, along with Auto Aid. I really wasn't convinced by any of their spiel so ran a mile.

The up-front payment thing isn't too uncommon. It's merely a case of keeping all your receipts etc. I don't know what isn't covered in the T&C but having gone with GEM, they seem to pretty much cover everything barring a some seriously weird circumstances.

apness wrote: »

Hiya, first post, long time lurker.

Just cancelled my renewal with the AA. Every year it goes up and every year I knock them down (£189.95 this year, last year I paid £140 after knocking them down). This year, after reading the recommendations on here about other providers of cover decided to try someone else. I had knocked them down (by removing the wife from the cover as she is getting a company car in June) to £104 (Roadside and Relay plus 'Gold' benefits which I've never used and don't know what they are) but trying someone else anyway.

From what I can tell from the (brief) skim through of posts, Autoaid is well liked but there is a £40 excess to pay for every call out. So you are hoping for the no call out otherwise it might end up close to or more than the others. Also issues with getting through to the call centre raises an eyebrow. They get more popular , building up a customer base, but don't get more people in to take calls, maybe?

How do the other companies - RAC and Green Flag, plus whoever else out there - compare? I think with my car insurance they offer breakdown for £40 or so. Is that any good in peoples opinion?

I have until May 2nd to sort something out, but will do as much homework as I can before then. I only used the AA 3 times in 12 years (twice for the wife's car, once for my motorbike when I had a blowout) but my car is getting on a bit (10 years) and getting to the age when stuff wears out faster...

Hi,

I've gone with GEM Reclaim, it's voted the Number 1 in the UK every year by Auto Express. Essentially, you phone them up, they send out a wagon (well, a local garage does), you pay the bill via Credit Card (or Debit, however credit means you're not out of pocket) and then send in a reclaim form with photocopies of receipts etc. It sounds a bit of a hassle, but as I drive a VW, I don't call them very often (Sorry, had to make that joke), but in all seriousness, it seems very straightforward. It would take maybe 15 minutes to print off the form, fill it in and send it off. I used a PDF converter online to turn the PDF's into Word documents as well, so i can easily fill it in on the PC mistake-free and sign the printed out copy and pop it in the post. The standard turnaround seems to be 48 hours which is incredibly. They also do GEM EXTRA which is the same policy but no form filling in and no paying on the side of the road. You're basically paying for the admin work on this policy.

I've been with Green Flag for years and I've only called them out twice. Both occasions were well handled, although the first fella was quite rude and snotty with me (not Green Flags fault, just a point though) after taking a good 2 hours to get to me, the second was a very pleasant guy from Mansfield of Manchester and arrived within the hour. In both cases, my issue was resolved there and then so can't fault them on that regard.

The main reason I left was I realized that their auto-renewal had been screwing me. Ignorance is bliss, but I'd been paying around £68 a year for their basic cover, even though Green Flag claim to give you a non-call automatic discount. Online, I could get the same cover for about £35. I phoned them up to cancel and they immediately offered a discount down to the online price. The blithering idiot on the phone didn't understand why I was so annoyed though and kept saying "our introductory prices are competitive but if you phone up near your renewal, we'll always give a discount". Anyway, Green Flag officially cancelled and I will not be renewing any time soon.

No experience with GEM yet really. Although I did e-mail them about whether I receive a membership card and received a phone call back within a few hours to explain that I do. Nice to see a company reply to an e-mail with a phone call and actually take the time out to explain properly rather than an auto-generated response.

We'll see how I get on. GEM isn't a fleet like RAC or AA, so I'm relying on local garages again.

Quentin

Stoke wrote: »

The main reason I left was I realized that their auto-renewal had been screwing me. Ignorance is bliss, but I'd been paying around £68 a year for their basic cover, even though Green Flag claim to give you a non-call automatic discount. Online, I could get the same cover for about £35......

Not very MSE to tell us all this detail but not mention the price(s)!!


Wonder why?


GEM charge far more than you were offered by GF, and far more than Autoaid (who don't charge you £40 per callout - the post you quoted is wrong).


Autoaid is £41/year.


GEM Rescue is £71.45/year (new customers £59.54 first year) or £97.25 (first year £81.05) for the "Extra" membership.

joe134

Stoke wrote: »

I used a Price Comparison website and First Call were one of the cheapest there, along with Auto Aid. I really wasn't convinced by any of their spiel so ran a mile.

The up-front payment thing isn't too uncommon. It's merely a case of keeping all your receipts etc. I don't know what isn't covered in the T&C but having gone with GEM, they seem to pretty much cover everything barring a some seriously weird circumstances.


Hi,

I've gone with GEM Reclaim, it's voted the Number 1 in the UK every year by Auto Express. Essentially, you phone them up, they send out a wagon (well, a local garage does), you pay the bill via Credit Card (or Debit, however credit means you're not out of pocket) and then send in a reclaim form with photocopies of receipts etc. It sounds a bit of a hassle, but as I drive a VW, I don't call them very often (Sorry, had to make that joke), but in all seriousness, it seems very straightforward. It would take maybe 15 minutes to print off the form, fill it in and send it off. I used a PDF converter online to turn the PDF's into Word documents as well, so i can easily fill it in on the PC mistake-free and sign the printed out copy and pop it in the post. The standard turnaround seems to be 48 hours which is incredibly. They also do GEM EXTRA which is the same policy but no form filling in and no paying on the side of the road. You're basically paying for the admin work on this policy.

I've been with Green Flag for years and I've only called them out twice. Both occasions were well handled, although the first fella was quite rude and snotty with me (not Green Flags fault, just a point though) after taking a good 2 hours to get to me, the second was a very pleasant guy from Mansfield of Manchester and arrived within the hour. In both cases, my issue was resolved there and then so can't fault them on that regard.

The main reason I left was I realized that their auto-renewal had been screwing me. Ignorance is bliss, but I'd been paying around £68 a year for their basic cover, even though Green Flag claim to give you a non-call automatic discount. Online, I could get the same cover for about £35. I phoned them up to cancel and they immediately offered a discount down to the online price. The blithering idiot on the phone didn't understand why I was so annoyed though and kept saying "our introductory prices are competitive but if you phone up near your renewal, we'll always give a discount". Anyway, Green Flag officially cancelled and I will not be renewing any time soon.

No experience with GEM yet really. Although I did e-mail them about whether I receive a membership card and received a phone call back within a few hours to explain that I do. Nice to see a company reply to an e-mail with a phone call and actually take the time out to explain properly rather than an auto-generated response.

We'll see how I get on. GEM isn't a fleet like RAC or AA, so I'm relying on local garages again.

I was with First Call for 3 years, and used them for call out at home,twice, flat battery, each time, due to car not being used much.Bought a trickle charger. They responded quickly, and efficient, no problems.I didn't leave, just bought a new car, 3 years with AA chucked in, but, 4th was stupid price, hence Auto aid, which , I haven't had to use yet.( fingers crossed.).

joe134

den169 wrote: »

Its not £40 each time you call them out,Its £41 a year and thats it for everything, The only downside is you have to pay the recovery vehicle when they come out to you,Then claim it back off Autoaid they usually pay within a couple of weeks.

I cannot understand why Autoaid cannot provide insured with a form for breakdown to fill in with costs, to be re-claimed, instead of receipts, and worksheet, which they will not accept.Easy enough.In the event of breakdown, it's easy to forget the receipt.They just want to drop you off and away.

Gibson335

I've been with the AA for seventeen years personally, and some ten years or so before that with various company breakdown policies. This year, my renewal ('...you don't have to do anything, we'll just grin and take your money automatically') came through at an eye-watering £190 for Roadside, Relay and joint cover for my wife and myself.

I had a look around and found that Green Flag could offer the same level of cover for £104. I thought it advisable to inform the AA that I did NOT want them to cane my Barclaycard at normal renewal time, so I rang them; in the process, I had to press a keypad number to indicate that I was thinking of leaving them (this may have some bearing on the fact that I was then kept waiting on hold for over 20 minutes, listening to the same few bars of repetitive classical piano music, presumably designed to suggest I would be better employed in taking a warm bath and opening a vein. Tiring of this, I noticed on their website that there was a 'we'll call you back' link - sadly, this was down, owing to 'technical difficulties', which set the tone rather well).

Eventually the call was put through and I was able to make my point: 'Chloe' at the other end tried hard to convince me that Green Flag didn't offer as good a service and would pile-on additional charges. When that ploy didn't work, she wanted to negotiate a new deal which would have brought renewal down to around £140, but by then I'd had enough and rang off.

I can't be alone in finding this cynical approach to existing customers to be totally unpalatable? Relying on customer inertia to dramatically increase profitability is a dangerous game; brand loyalty will suffer - and the internet is a wonderful distribution system for broadcasting customers' reasons for dissatisfaction. A loyal customer base is a significant building block in company stock market valuations - and some of our biggest names are jeopardising their future by adopting these catchpenny, conning techniques.

So it looks like Green Flag will get my business - unless someone out there knows a solid operator who can meet my requirements for a smaller outlay?