I waited for RAC as a lone female for 4 hrs! Is this acceptable?

MinuteNoodles

If they're busy they're busy, nothing you can do about it and during summer holidays especially with the amount of people doing staycations they're very busy. And being a lone female is irrelevant, in fact it would be discrimination to give you preferential service over a male just because of your gender.

My wife wouldn't be waiting 4hrs because her vehicle has a spare wheel and she knows how to change it.

Grumpy_chap

Many new cars do not actually have a spare wheel as standard any more.

Catplan

I think we’d all be hacked off at a 4 hour wait, especially when paying for a service. I’d be looking to purchase a spare / space saver / jack etc keep a set of gloves in the car and be changing it myself in future. It’s not difficult and you be on you way in 20 mins; probably sooner: if you aren’t sure how the ask someone to show you, plenty instructional videos on youtube. Avoids the 4 hour wait for a tow.

sweetsand

Catplan said:

I think we’d all be hacked off at a 4 hour wait, especially when paying for a service. I’d be looking to purchase a spare / space saver / jack etc keep a set of gloves in the car and be changing it myself in future. It’s not difficult and you be on you way in 20 mins; probably sooner: if you aren’t sure how the ask someone to show you, plenty instructional videos on youtube. Avoids the 4 hour wait for a tow.

Not in all scenarios. I recall years ago we had a tyre blow on us, dads Merc 280E, rear drivers side and dark and raining. It was life and death situation, thanfully we were luck as dad pulled up a few feet away from the emergency phone and i think intially a police Range Rover came, made us feel safer and then an AA van I think - so its not always safe to change the tyre ones self best to wait for the breakdown and some of these tyres have been over tightened with those air guns at fitters and very hard to undo especially when dark, wet and cold.
Many cars today do not come with a sapre tyre of any type to save weight, personally not right IMO

ElephantBoy57

waiyeelaw said:

It took over 4 hours for anyone to reach me which I believe to be totally unacceptable. By which stage by anxiety levels were high and I was very worried being on my own.

It was a long wait, but we live in a safe country with equality laws. If you are the sort of person to worry, then you should have been organised and had a good spare wheel.

Is a puncture covered under RAC breakdown cover? You would have been better calling Kwickfit or such like.

sweetsand

ElephantBoy57 said:

waiyeelaw said:

It took over 4 hours for anyone to reach me which I believe to be totally unacceptable. By which stage by anxiety levels were high and I was very worried being on my own.

It was a long wait, but we live in a safe country with equality laws. If you are the sort of person to worry, then you should have been organised and had a good spare wheel.

Is a puncture covered under RAC breakdown cover? You would have been better calling Kwickfit or such like.

Good post. We are with someone else asides MB for the S Class as MB don't do punctures - even trying to use the tyre repair kit on a motorawy in the dark is dangerous
The other option is run flat tyres but I'm not too sure which cars they can be fitted to other than BMW's a marque we have never owned.

sheramber

A spare tyre is not much good when you burst two tyres on a  large pothole  just round a corner on a narrow single track road.
Fortunately. Green Flag were very efficient in arranging for a recovery truck from the nearest breakdown service , 60 miles away.  

AdrianC

ElephantBoy57 said:
Is a puncture covered under RAC breakdown cover?

Yes, providing all the standard-fit puncture equipment is present - be that a spare and tools (even if you don't want to/can't change it yourself), a can of goop (even if the damage is too big), or RFs.

sweetsand

sheramber said:

A spare tyre is not much good when you burst two tyres on a  large pothole  just round a corner on a narrow single track road.
Fortunately. Green Flag were very efficient in arranging for a recovery truck from the nearest breakdown service , 60 miles away.  

A very valid point and your scenario follows on from the motoway blowout we had many, many years ago.
Thank you.

mr_stripey

MinuteNoodles said:

If they're busy they're busy, nothing you can do about it and during summer holidays especially with the amount of people doing staycations they're very busy. And being a lone female is irrelevant, in fact it would be discrimination to give you preferential service over a male just because of your gender.

My wife wouldn't be waiting 4hrs because her vehicle has a spare wheel and she knows how to change it.

The AA/RAC did use to advertise the fact they would prioritise a lone female driver - not sure if they still do

Regarding changing it yourself, that's all well and good and I've changed plenty in my time, but when I had a tire go on the M1 in January in the dark there was no way I would be crouching down in the hard shoudler to change the drivers side wheel. In any case when the AA arrived the wheel nuts wouldn't budge until he got his air tool out and even then the wheel only came away with a couple of firm blows from his trusty lump hammer!