My Car Broke Down and Police Recovery Took It To Compound

System

arcon5 wrote: »

The officers sound like complete jobworths

A lane blocked on that road by a broken down car would result in tailbacks delaying lots of drivers an hour or more quite quickly at that time of day. I've wasted countless hours in my job because of such delays. On a motorway in rush hour a lane blocked by a broken down vehicle can result in 5 miles of tailbacks in a very short time and that traffic congestion can take several hours to clear. It isn't uncommon on the M6 if a lane gets blocked for a breakdown or accident to result in it being crap in that location for the rest of the day until late evening.

There are a lot of people who have been killed or seriously injured at the sides of DCs and motorways broken down waiting to be recovered and that is on roads where there is somewhere safe to wait. At the point the OP posted, a bit of grass at the side of the DC with no crash barrier or space at all it isn't a safe place to wait until the RAC or whoever decide to turn up as and when they can. Those doing it for the Police have a response time to meet unlike the OPs breakdown recovery.

TH71

Tarambor wrote: »

Those doing it for the Police have a response time to meet unlike the OPs breakdown recovery.

Was not the case though as it was an hour before the polices recovery turned up and not 30 minutes, so they failed to meet the so called must be there in within 30 minutes rule

Our Insurance companies breakdown service which we added on to our policy, is the same one that has returned the car to our garage at an extra cost of £190

Stoke

Top coppering that. MSE approved.

Johno100

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

They would have been £190 quid down

Not £190 though, the OP's recovery policy firm would have paid them their call out fee, but which I bet wouldn't be £150.

paddycharlie

TH71 wrote: »

For a car that simply broke down, not abandoned or driven illegally and also not blocking the carriageway, and us not allowed to use our 'own' breakdown to start with due to this half hour rule is bull

I hope the police officer has a report of how this panned out on Thursday evening as we have not finished with this yet

For it to be the same recovery company that would have picked you up is rotten luck and just rubs it in.


But your car beside the road was a hazard no matter if its just broken down it is classed as a hazard. It doesn't matter if it was off the carriageway it is still a hazard.


The police officer didn't force the recovery onto you just for extra funding, she originally asked how long it would take and as it was too long decided to reduce the risk to yourself and other motorists by getting a breakdown company who should have been quicker. It isn't her fault they took an hour as they usually have agreements with local recovery companies to provide quicker response times.


The only complaint you can have against the police officer is being misinformed about the insurance covering the recovery fee and you could complain that the recovery vehicle took an hour but that wouldn't be against the officer as she wasn't to know that.

AdrianC

paddycharlie wrote: »

For it to be the same recovery company that would have picked you up is rotten luck and just rubs it in.

It's actually highly likely - unless the breakdown cover is with the AA or RAC, who simply outsource some of their roadside work (but don't do much insurer tie-in cover), it will almost certainly be outsourced to a local contractor. There's rarely a lot of competition in any given area, and the police will outsource to the same contractor.

The police will almost certainly have a higher service level agreement in place with the contractor, though. If the police put a call in, and a breakdown provider put a call in, then the police will be served first - which is as it should be.

So saying that they turned up in an hour to a police call does not mean they would have turned up in an hour to a breakdown provider call - the OP may simply have jumped a queue of other breakdown provider calls.

Warwick_Hunt

TH71 wrote: »

We saw that page on lovemoney on friday

Anyway just got in from sorting the car out down at Richford Motor Services in Alfreton and we are £190 lighter at present. £150 plus the 2 x £20 daily fees. What a job. They completely emptied our car of all our belongings and put them in a clear bag. It was like evidence from a crime scene...unbelievable

Now the good bit. Once I reluctantly handed the cash over and also said to those at Richford the car should not be there anyway, and they just blamed the police. We then sorted out getting our car picked up by our own Breakdown service to take the car back to our local garage

Guess which breakdown recovery service our Insurance set up on bringing the car back to our local garage..................yep RICHFORD MOTOR SERVICES

Why the bloody hell did they not do that in the first place. Was this the breakdown service that was recovering us in the first place?

For a car that simply broke down, not abandoned or driven illegally and also not blocking the carriageway, and us not allowed to use our 'own' breakdown to start with due to this half hour rule is bull

I hope the police officer has a report of how this panned out on Thursday evening as we have not finished with this yet

I very much doubt she has, but then she won't need one. You'll get a local resolution at best.

the_big_fact_hunt

had a similar problem with a relative, broken down car, not blocking any traffic, plod turns up and cancels her recovery service and instructs their own, yes its richfords again, still looking for a way to get her £300 back, its a scam

Tilt

Can't see how this is all legal TBH. I mean what if there are no parking restrictions then surely (providing it is parked safely with it's parking lights on) it could be considered as simply 'parked'? So why would the police insist on it being recovered under their arrangements?

Car_54

Tilt wrote: »

Can't see how this is all legal TBH. I mean what if there are no parking restrictions then surely (providing it is parked safely with it's parking lights on) it could be considered as simply 'parked'? So why would the police insist on it being recovered under their arrangements?

There is no general right to park, except in designated spaces and subject to any applicable regulations. As discussed above, the police obviously considered it to be causing an obstruction.