RAC battery warranty issues

greencar

hi
I broke down in January and the RAC sold me a new battery with 5 year guarantee on the spot for £129.99

Two weeks ago the car lost power. The RAC sent a sub-contracted breakdown truck to tow the car home. The driver told me to get them to recover it to a garage on the Monday morning, but they quoted me £90 to tow it a mile. The garage recovered it themselves and confirmed that the battery would no longer take a charge, and replaced it for £49.99. Now the RAC are saying that the warranty is invalid since it would have had to have been tested on the vehicle by a patrol vehicle - but they didn’t send a patrol vehicle! I have shown them the recovery driver and garage reports re the battery being dead, to no avail. I realise now that the warranty has so many exclusions it’s more or less worthless, but do I have a claim under the Sale Of Goods Act because you’d expect a car battery to last longer than a few months?
Thanks .

foxy-stoat

RAC sold you a battery for £129.00 then you bought another one for £49.99 - I think you got ripped originally. I would be returning the old battery for a free replacement and keep it as a spare as you cannot return the £49.99 one you just bought.

What car is it?

greencar

the dead battery was kept by the repairing garage - I'm trying to get it back if they still have it


the RAC have a long record of selling batteries by the roadside at great expense - Watchdog have looked into it - but surely a failure after less than a year is a consumer rights issue?

foxy-stoat

greencar wrote: »

the dead battery was kept by the repairing garage - I'm trying to get it back if they still have it


the RAC have a long record of selling batteries by the roadside at great expense - Watchdog have looked into it - but surely a failure after less than a year is a consumer rights issue?

Yes and the remedy would be to replace it for free, I doubt they would refund you the money that you paid on the roadside although the price different nearly 3 times the price of a reasonable replacement.

I would get the battery back from the garage and push for a replacement.

AdrianC

greencar wrote: »

Two weeks ago the car lost power.

Well, that won't have been caused BY the battery.

The RAC sent a sub-contracted breakdown truck to tow the car home. The driver told me to get them to recover it to a garage on the Monday morning, but they quoted me £90 to tow it a mile.

That's the contractor taking the Michael. The correct solution would have been to get the RAC to arrange to collect it the next day (themselves or contractor) as part of the original recovery, under your policy.

But their responsibility ends at recovering you, anyway - they aren't responsible for fixing whatever caused you to break down, unless it's fixable by the roadside in an hour with minimal parts.

The garage recovered it themselves and confirmed that the battery would no longer take a charge, and replaced it for £49.99. Now the RAC are saying that the warranty is invalid since it would have had to have been tested on the vehicle by a patrol vehicle - but they didn’t send a patrol vehicle!

Find me a single warranty for anything anywhere that'll take some random's word for it with no verification.

I have shown them the recovery driver and garage reports re the battery being dead, to no avail.

If you were stuck roadside with no electrics in the first place, then the problem's your charging system, not the battery. And that alone will invalidate the battery warranty and any consumer rights claim, simply because the fastest way to kill a car battery is to flatten it.

The battery is part of the symptoms, not your problem.

greencar

As explained the RAC wanted another £90 to recover it a mile from my house to the garage. That's on top of the annual membership, the £129 for a £49 battery, the three hours on the hard shoulder (same as last time) and obvious the dead battery. The alternator belt had snapped or flown off the wheel, not sure why, but that's why the power went. The battery would take a charge after the driver recovered the car - basically enough power to get it onto the drive, without any power coming from the alternator - but by the following morning was completely dead. I'm still not sure what was the root cause as nothing has been replaced apart from the battery and the alternator belt.

AdrianC

greencar wrote: »

As explained the RAC wanted another £90 to recover it a mile from my house to the garage.

No, you said the contractor's driver...

If the recovery was going to a garage, but they can't take it there because it's closed, they'll do it within the policy the next working day. Read your Ts & Cs.

The alternator belt had snapped or flown off the wheel, not sure why, but that's why the power went.

That's why the charge light came on, telling you to stop.
But the car didn't actually stop running until the battery was flattened by continuing to drive it. And that's what killed your battery.

greencar

No, you said the contractor's driver...

If the recovery was going to a garage, but they can't take it there because it's closed, they'll do it within the policy the next working day. Read your Ts & Cs.


That's exactly what they refused to do. They said I'd been wrongly advised. I couldn't stop because I was on the motorway with a neighbour who needed to get home - obviously at that point I didn't realise what would happen and she'd be three hours on the hard shoulder!

greencar

To be clear, the RAC sent a sub contractor, not a patrol vehicle.

The sub contractor towed me home (after hours, so garages closed) and told me to ring the RAC on the Monday and that they would then take it to the nearest garage.
The RAC wanted £90 to do this.

AdrianC

greencar wrote: »

To be clear, the RAC sent a sub contractor, not a patrol vehicle.

Yes, I got that bit.

The sub contractor towed me home (after hours, so garages closed) and told me to ring the RAC on the Monday and that they would then take it to the nearest garage.
The RAC wanted £90 to do this.

Ah, sorry - I misunderstood. That sounds very odd indeed.

It's academic, though, because the garage collected for free. Good garage.

And it doesn't affect the battery warranty. If the battery is dead, it's been killed by being flattened after your car stopped charging because the belt stopped driving the alternator.

greencar

well, not quite free - £30 included in the total repairs, when it does sound as if the RAC should have done it? I do understand about the battery, and obviously with hindsight would have stopped and phoned for the patrol, but I was taking a mother of two I hardly know home across the M62, so my priority was to get her home asap. I've driven with warning lights on before and just got it sorted at the other end, but I'll know what to do if the same light comes on again in future.