Complaint about car breakdown/recovery company?

AdrianC

Let's look at that timeline a bit more clearly, shall we?

At 6pm, you collided with a stationary object - and called your breakdown recovery (part of your insurance policy) to extricate you. The recovery company use an external contractor. The terms of your policy require you to pay in that situation.
At 7pm, you paid the fee.
You then choose to spend 30 minutes on the phone.
At 7.35pm, you were told the external contractor needed more information to decide how to best proceed.
At 7.45pm, you provided the recovery company with that information.
You then chose to spend over 20 minutes on the phone.
At 8.15pm, you called to get an update.
At 8.35pm, you were told that the recovery company were busy, and there would be a delay.
At 9.30pm, you finally asked if you needed to remain with the car, and were quickly told you didn't.
At 9.40pm, you extricated the car with other help.
At 10pm, you drove home.

Given those circumstances, why would the recovery company and the external contractor NOT be due a (reduced) payment for the cancelled call-out?

Retrogamer

bigadaj wrote: »

The lady in question was so terrified that she had near continuous chats on the phone which meant that the recovery service couldn't get hold of her, and of itself no doubt led to some of the delay.

Bored i think is the correct word.
Busy train station, broad daylight for 85% of the affair. Hardly scary.

bigadaj

Retrogamer wrote: »

Bored i think is the correct word.
Busy train station, broad daylight for 85% of the affair. Hardly scary.

Aah, you must be one of our American cousins, it was an ironic statement.

Looking at it more generally I wonder how many other car park users were inconvenienced but those several hours of blocking at at least one exit from the car park?

DecemberJ

I'm only replying to this at all because some people were actually understanding and trying to be helpful. So thank you to those people, it is appreciated! My car was fine and I am now registered with the RAC.

To try and cover everyone elses unhelpful and in some cases rude responses.

-I wasn't asking for help on how to get my money back (as I said above) - but thanks to any who offered.
-No-one else was actually inconveniened by me blocking the narrower of two entrances to this car park as they were beside each other anyway.
-Apparently some didn't read it properly (and frankly I don't blame you) or don't understand how mobile phones work as if someone had tried to call me or text me while I was using it, I would still have been notified. If that had been the case then I wouldn't be here at all as I wouldn't have called a friend to calm myself down or distract myself from the baking sun, embarrassment, or boredom of my situation. And yes I was scared, because I am a 25 year old female with anxiety who had never been in this situation before, nor in that car park before, and am not rolling in cash to pay for the possible results of my own bad luck (this has happened to several other people and unfortunately my car is lower than most of the cars in this car park). Congratulations to those of you who aren't faced with such problems.
- I waited over 30 minutes for them to forward photos they already had, to a contractor and somehow that's my fault? It simply involves pressing a button on their end. On both occasions in which I called my friend I waiting for a text message which would have come through had they sent one. I only gave them as long as I did because despite my complaint, I do understand that sometimes it's busy. I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were actually doing anything to help me, which as it turned out, they weren't.
-The only two calls I missed were when I was talking to a man who had come to help me and were 2 minutes apart, I answered the third.
-I asked if I needed to be with the car when they came to collect it the next day. Why would I have asked that question before then? If they were recovering the car that evening (as I had been told in multiple calls) I obviously would have had to be with the car as I had been told they'll move it, assess if it's safe to drive and if it was then I would drive it home, if not then they would recover it, and myself, to my home address.
-Even the lady I spoke to on the phone from the 101 number (and everyone else since then) has said they were surprised and confused as to why they wouldn't use the crane in the dark, as if I'd had an accident at night and it was in a dangerous location etc then they would have had to move it anyway surely? But that's only our opinion on the matter, I guess maybe someone else deals with those incidences and not recovery companies.

I think that sums it up. A word of advice to the people who decided to be nasty. If you can't say anything helpful, then maybe try just saying nothing?

AdrianC

DecemberJ wrote: »

I'm only replying to this at all because some people were actually understanding and trying to be helpful.
...
To try and cover everyone elses unhelpful and in some cases rude responses.
...
-Apparently some didn't read it properly (and frankly I don't blame you)
...
I think that sums it up. A word of advice to the people who decided to be nasty. If you can't say anything helpful, then maybe try just saying nothing?

If you're including my timeline summary in that, perhaps you'd be so kind as to point out any inaccuracies? Your original wall of text was not terribly easy to extract the salient points from.

mrmot

bigadaj wrote: »

Why do you continuously need to refer to motability in your threads, it just makes it appear that you are so keen in emphasising that you're not actually paying for your own motoring? In this case it means that your own lack of attention has simply been paid by others with no repercussions on yourself, and doesn't reflect well on you at all.

People who qualify for the higher rate of mobility get a weekly payment which allows them to pay for their transport, whether it's taxis, the bus, their own car or a car leased through the Motability scheme.

It's this benefit payment that pays for the car, so it's not free.

parking_question_chap

phill99 wrote: »

Reality is that you spent half of the evening on the phone to a friend while the recovery people were trying to contact you. If you do not make yourself available, then a lot of the blame falls at your door.

This.

Suggest you learn to keep your posts and telephone calls a bit shorter in future.

Not exactly agood time to be rabbiting away to your mates was it?

bigadaj

mrmot wrote: »

People who qualify for the higher rate of mobility get a weekly payment which allows them to pay for their transport, whether it's taxis, the bus, their own car or a car leased through the Motability scheme.

It's this benefit payment that pays for the car, so it's not free.

We don't want to start another motability debate do we?

Read my quote, I never said it was free and only referred to it because the previous poster made an issue about bringing it up when it had no relevance to the issue being debated.

My comment related to the fact that the individual made an error which resulted in a cost to remedy but it didn't cost him anything. Others would either have paid, as the OP did on this thread, or would have impacted on their insurance etc

Robisere

Well I do most humbly apologise for being over 70, still driving disabled and driving a Motability car. I also apologise for pointing out that the lady must have been scared by the experience, even though she confirms herself that she was. I think it might be a long time before she asks for help and advice here, when what she received was no help at all.

Yes I have been driving since 1968 and I have driven everything from tracked vehicles to aircraft transporters. I will know myself when I am no longer fit to drive, thank you, but the mental picture of me behind the wheel as an oldphart, is way out. I would put my driving against anyone else, including the two much younger people who drove into me because they "did not see me".

I'm out of this one, can't stand the sneering attitudes of some here.

trinidadone

bigadaj wrote: »

It's a rather expensive lesson in concentrating a bit more whilst you're driving in future, take that lesson and it may have been money well spent.

what a stupid response to give!!