Car Breakdown Discussion

joe134

faddy wrote: »

I didn't have to pay. Local garage (actually auto electrician) was my choice. I was told it had to be within 20 miles of home.

thanks faddy, I've just had my confirmation e-mail,still awaiting docs via letter, nothing in there about suspending pay and claim?
would be good if it were abolished and they settled the bill like others.
I just hope I don't have to use it, it's mostly for the wife, she drives more than me.
Perhaps when one phones to say you are broken down, they decide then if you have to pay or not, depending on where you are, and if they have contracts with certain Garages to invoice them direct.?
I didn't know about the night call,I wonder if it applies to weekend, when Garages are closed as well ? Have to read T&c's back to front:beer:
Edit.
Just read T,cs and it only covers you for the nearest garage, no mention of your choice?
Only one call out, so, you seem to have different T,cs then I,m reading on their website faddy.?
No mention of nighttime.?
Where did you get T,cs from.?
I have never been given them, just key facts, I,ve had to go to their website to view full t,cs?
Seems they have been changed!

faddy

joe134 wrote: »

thanks faddy, I've just had my confirmation e-mail,still awaiting docs via letter, nothing in there about suspending pay and claim?
would be good if it were abolished and they settled the bill like others.
I just hope I don't have to use it, it's mostly for the wife, she drives more than me.
Perhaps when one phones to say you are broken down, they decide then if you have to pay or not, depending on where you are, and if they have contracts with certain Garages to invoice them direct.?
I didn't know about the night call,I wonder if it applies to weekend, when Garages are closed as well ? Have to read T&c's back to front:beer:
Edit.
Just read T,cs and it only covers you for the nearest garage, no mention of your choice?
Only one call out, so, you seem to have different T,cs then I,m reading on their website faddy.?
No mention of nighttime.?
Where did you get T,cs from.?
I have never been given them, just key facts, I,ve had to go to their website to view full t,cs?
Seems they have been changed!

I think the only thing that's changed in writing is that they used to say (whether on website or in policy document I can't remember) that you could call out a garage or breakdown service yourself and pay/reclaim. Now it seems you have to go through their control centre.

They told me on the phone that pay and reclaim has been suspended for a trial period. I got this both from the control centre (operated for Autoaid by another company I believe) and from Autoaid admin. I think all the breakdown companies I've been with (AA, RAC, National Breakdown, Britannia Rescue, Autoaid) have allowed a recovery to home when garages are shut and a further recovery to a local garage, but I don't know if any of them put that in writing. Autoaid's T&Cs talk about nearest garage for the purpose of "homestart", for a "next day" recovery to a local garage I was told it just had to be within 20 miles. Probably not an issue if you live in an urban area.

When I collected my car from the auto electrician (around 5pm so when garages would have been closing) it turned out that there was a further mechanical problem that was beyond his competence to fix. I rang to request a recovery home and the control centre refused, saying I'd already had two recoveries for the incident. I argued that the reason my car was at an auto electrician rather than a garage was because of their agent's diagnosis that it was an alternator fault, but they didn't accept this. I then rang Autoaid admin who agreed with me and rang the control centre to "overrule" them. So that's twice in one week that Autoaid have overruled their control centre in my favour....

faddy

I believe Autoaid used to have a "sister company" linked from their website offering a conventional non pay/reclaim service for a higher sub. This seems to have disappeared.

joe134

faddy wrote: »

I believe Autoaid used to have a "sister company" linked from their website offering a conventional non pay/reclaim service for a higher sub. This seems to have disappeared.

"Autonational",is the sister company, it's in the keynotes.
I will still carry my plastic with me, (when I remember), just in case.

RCIB, have a thread here ,( they taking over auto aid, from MAY).?
lot of negatives,about them in that thread,wish I had seen it before I renewed.

I hope I don't have to use them,but that's what insurance is for.

Daytona

Is there any regulatory protection for customers of such a takeover ?

SarahTG

If you don't want to be stranded with a flat tyre - don't use Green Flag. 80 miles from home at 10pm and our option was to sleep in the car if they couldn't fix the tyre, despite having onward travel, hotel cover etc etc. Completely unhelpful staff and useless policy.

SarahTG

elaine241 wrote: »

Hello just a quick question. I have an older 4x4 that I tow a horse box with. It has never given me any trouble (touch wood!) but I would like to get break down cover just in case. What would be the best option in my case? I have another car that I use for work but neither vehicle does a lot of mileage. If I take a personal policy would it cover Dobbin in the box? Lol

I use equine rescue for trailer, horse and now also my car. Also do horseboxes

hortyhodge

I am looking to obtain RAC business cover for my truck
Does anyone know of any cheap deals?

Dumpling81

I'm with one call car insurance and have their breakdown cover but the service is rubbish.
I travelled to Bristol with my 4 children for the bank holiday weekend 1/5/2016. I was using my sat navigation and we got 1 minute from our destination when my car broke down. I tried to restart but wasn't successful so I called the one call breakdown service. I explained my situation to the advisor and they sent someone supposedly to help. I notified the advisor that I had 4 children with me ages between 11 months and 14 yes (11 months,2,10,14).
I was told the wait would be about an hr. We were 1 minute from the venue we were going to where the children had booked activities and my sister had planned to meet us there with her children so instead of everyone missing out I sent my older children to do the activities while I waited with the babies. (Only a few minutes walk) anyway the recovery man turned up with traffic police and towed us to the nearby hotel we were booked into for the night as I was right in the middle of a roundabout. When we got to the hotel carpark the man 'looked' at the car and listened to it try to start. Didn't use any equipment, diagnostic equipment nothing. When I asked why all he could say was " I'm not paying £1000 for one as I don't get paid enough and the company won't pay"!?!
So I still had no clue what was wrong with the car. I said well we were at the hotel and it was a bank holiday. Could I not stay with my family overnight and get recovered home next day?
They said no as that would count as a second call out costing over £400. This was not fully explained so I was then left with the only option to cancel my family bank holiday.
Worse still was that trying to arrange recovery home was a nightmare. I had explained several times that I had 5 passengers with me but to recover home you would only tow myself and 2 other passengers. To this day I still don't understand how you would put me in this situation. The recovery man had 5 passengers on his job description but you would only allow recovery of 3. This basically meant I had to leave 2 if my children (both under 15!) In Bristol?!? In the end I had to ask my sister to go out of her way to carry my 10 yr old back to London and send my 14 year old home alone on a train from Bristol! When I complained you had the nerve to say you were doing me a favour by towing me with my 2 babies and that many of you have children so you 'understand'. I'm sorry but NO parent would see leaving 2 of their 4 children under 15 behind as any kind of favour. I found the service absolutely shocking and disgraceful that you would find this acceptable. To top it off I was towed by 2 different companies neither of which provided me ANY paperwork whatsoever. Even the initial recovery man who 'looked' at the vehicle didn't give me any paperwork to show my mechanic. All they said was "it's all done by phone and you should get a
text or email"
Guess what. I'm yet to get any emails about the service I received sinc1/5/16 to date!
Absolutely shocking service!

Furthermore after finally getting home and having a local mechanic make repairs to my car i broke down again the following Tuesday. Instead of sending someone out to help you told me to send you a receipt for the mechanics work!!! I was late to an appointment with my children but you expected me to find time to go and email you a receipt which I didn't even have with me!

I've never known a recovery service to:
Not carry diagnostic equipment.
Dare to leave child passengers behind when towing a family.
Ask for receipts from mechanics before arranging recovery in an emergency- especially when you,yourselves don't provide YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS with any paperwork following roadside recovery!!! BEWARE!
What's the best way to complain about this please?

asc1991

Currently 2gethers full UK cover is £19 on Groupon.

Obviously cashback is never guaranteed but I'll try for 8% cashback on groupon. Equally finding groupon discount codes online is usually quite easy.
Note - Groupon code "SENSATION" gives 15% off. It might invalidate the cashback, but 15%>8%!

I'll also try to claim TCB at 55% on 2gether - but this almost certainly won't work as it's combining deals. But worth a shot.

I did something similar last year and got AA national cover for just £11 after successful cashback.