HELP!! RAC damaged my car refusing to pay out.

Silkychops

Hi All,
I will try to keep it short but my car broke down in January this year. As a member, I called the RAC who were finally able to 'recover' it to the garage some 9 hours ( and 3 recovery vehicles!) later. The problem causing the break-down turned out to be a faulty alternator which made sense allowing me to drive to the place I broke down. This has subsequently been fixed however during recovery it was found the RAC had failed to locate/release the emergency handbrake cord, in the process destroying the electronic handbrake mechansim and severely damaging the brake shoes.
Does anyone else have experience of the RAC with this or anyone else?
RAC are asking me for photo's taken during recovery. Is this normal?
My car broke down outside my daughters college where I had driven to pick her up which I do each day and which can be verified. The college is a facility for students with extreme conditions, she's unable to travel there alone. The problem was not the handbreak otherwise I would not have been able to drive there at all. The recovery document states immobilised with no ref to handbrake.
Am a barking down a completely blind alley? Or am I right to continue to fight for damage they caused by dragging my car on and off a truck & causing £1109.68 worth of damage!
RAC SHOCKING organisation! !
Any advice much appreciated.

DUTR

You are so sure they damaged the vehicle yet have little evidence.
Things don't go to plan sometimes and it's not always someone else's fault.

Silkychops

Evidence is circumstantial. I live opposite the garage and saw them drop (or attempt to) it at 1am. It's definitely theirs or should I say their Partners fault CMS. The car was making a whirring sound just before I parked up but the handbrake was fine. Yes, things happen, I know. Glad I cancelled RAC

Aylesbury_Duck

You can't expect the RAC to just pay out £1100 on your say-so, they're entitled to ask for evidence that their operative caused the damage. If you can provide enough evidence to suggest that they did, and that you have taken steps to mitigate the costs of repair, they will probably pay out.

Were you present when the vehicle was recovered? Did you not notice what presumably was the car being dragged - rear wheels locked - onto the truck? And off again, of course.

sevenhills

Silkychops wrote: »

This has subsequently been fixed however during recovery it was found the RAC had failed to locate/release the emergency handbrake cord, in the process destroying the electronic handbrake mechansim and severely damaging the brake shoes.

Surely the wheels would just lock and the tyres would drag along the road? Are brakes damaged in an emergency stop?

Silkychops

That's just it. The car was immobilised, the wheels had locked & they failed to unlock them using the handbrake mechanism. Yes, my husband was there. He saw them use 3, not 4 sliders to hoist the car. We're told this would be enough to cause the damage. In a car this size, landrover discovery, it's enough by dragging to cause the cord to give way or severe damage.

Silkychops

It's not on my say, the garage report (whose forecourt they dropped it on) clearly outlines the damage. Not sure how I can mitigate the costs? I'd have thought £1,100 fairly good going for handbrake/rear shoes for landrover? We aren't mechanics, not really sure whether they were doing it correctly i.e. 3 sliders not 4 or who knew to take photo's with the RAC ? - experts in recovery? Thanks for responses so far though, any input better than RAC's do far. Really appreciate the comment - not always someone else's fault - bet your wife's thrilled

Aylesbury_Duck

The mitigating costs point was about seeing how much it could be done for elsewhere but of course that would cost money to move the car, etc which would need factoring in. You say "I'd have thought £1,100 fairly good going for handbrake/rear shoes for landrover" but go on to say you're not mechanics, so why do you think it's good going?

It's just something to bear in mind that if this ends up "going legal", you need to show that you've minimised the costs incurred. The RAC might contend that another garage could do the same repair for say, £600 and therefore that's the contribution they would make.

Anyway, that's all speculative. At this stage you need to build evidence that the actions of the RAC caused the damage. From your OP they haven't dismissed your claim, but they are (reasonably) asking for justification.

facade

Your problem lies in proving that the RAC or their contractor did the damage.


You'd have thought that even the stupidest recovery driver would know that a Discovery would break spectacularly if you try to pull it with the handbrake on, so they will swear blind that they followed procedure and released it.



They will likely say that as the battery went flat Landrover's well known dodgy electrical system caused the brake to apply as you were going along and that is what broke it and is actually why the car ground to a halt.


Is your garage prepared to back your claims in writing?

Aylesbury_Duck

facade wrote: »

Your problem lies in proving that the RAC or their contractor did the damage.


You'd have thought that even the stupidest recovery driver would know that a Discovery would break spectacularly

You could have finished there.

Jackmydad

Interesting bit of info here.
https://www.apecbraking.co.uk/Apec/media/product-bulletins/TheElectronicParkingBrakeModule.pdf
Nothing that's proof positive either way that I can see, but it appears that the "bedding in" procedure for the handbrake requires the car to be driven with the handbrake on.
Electronic bells and whistles aside, surely this would at least indicate that the brakes are robust enough to survive the car being moved with the handbrake on.
Seems to me that with the lack of absolute evidence, and the fact already stated that recovery drivers would surely know about things like this, it's going to be difficult to prove any damage was down to the recovery.