RAC only sold me their "recommended" battery and didn't disclose there were cheaper alternatives

Aylesbury_Duck

CardinalWolsey said:

The mistake the OP has made is in buying the product from the RAC. Like any service / good that you need immediately, the provider will sell at a premium, whether that be a car battery, door lock etc. In this case though, they may find that the RAC's battery may be better value over the life of the battery, as it will last longer than one half its price (perhaps).

They're also pretty good with their warranty service for batteries.

davidmcn

Aylesbury_Duck said:

bogstandard2 said:

 my only means of shopping around was to get towed to a garage at great personal risk in a pandemic

OP, in your situation you could have asked the RAC to tow you home, from where you could have bought a battery online and either fitted it yourself or had a mobile mechanic come and fit it.  

Or at least carried out some further research before agreeing to pay the price for the battery offered. I can't see any breach of consumer rights.

ssparks2003

Mickey666 said:

ssparks2003 said:

bogstandard2 said:

 my only means of shopping around was to get towed to a garage at great personal risk in a pandemic

It is a shame that you did not consider the great personal risk during the pandemic before you started your journey. Or did this great personal risk only come on while you were out?

Come on, be fair. 
There are many perfectly valid reasons why the OP might have needed to make that journey and there is nothing to suggest that they DIDN'T consider the personal risk of the journey.  Indeed the OP clearly DID consider the risk of shopping around for a battery and it could easily be argued that they've paid more than necessary precisely BECAUSE they avoided the additional risk of shopping around.
Surprised you can't see any of that from up there on your high horse

Yes, they could have been going to the supermarket with perhaps a hundred people in the building at the same time, rather than being towed to a garage where 2 or 3 guys were working with the doors open. My point was for someone so obviously at risk, being towed to the garage was not going to be the biggest gamble they could have been making that day. Obviously they were attempting to mitigate the  risk of additional social interaction, and often risk mitigation will come with an additional cost yet this seems to be the basis of the post. 

prowla

Last year I called the AA out to my car as the battery was flat and the doors were locked, so I couldn't open the bonnet.

The manual key lock was seized too.

The chap spent a long time getting at things, including removing the under-tray, until he eventually was able to get to a +ve/-ve contact point and connect up enough to unlock the door.

Understandably, the battery was kaput and I let him sell me the one he had in his van; I knew I could get it cheaper elsewhere, but he was there with it and I didn't mind boosting his sales.

The fact is that you will always be able to get a cheaper one than the AA/RAC will sell you; the AA do (or did) do a retrospective price-match on the particular branded one you've bought off them, though.

Ectophile

Let's face it - you are paying extra for the convenience of having someone fitting a battery for you at the side of the road.

I had a battery suddenly fail on me a year ago.  The RAC man tested everything and decided that the alternator was fine, but the battery wouldn't take a charge.

I could have sent him on his way, walked back home to the other car, driven to a motor factor, bought a battery, driven back to the stranded car, fitted the battery myself, driven back home, walked back to the first car, then carried on to work.

Or I could pay over the odds for a bettery and get it fitted on the spot.

mattyprice4004

Did you actually voice your concerns and ask for a cheaper alternative or not? 

Tokmon

bogstandard2 said:

I had a flat battery, and the only battery they offered me was £215. I thought this was steep, but I needed to get back on the road, what could I do? 
I've now looked on the website to find they carry a range of batteries that fit my car, as cheap as £140. 
I believe they took advantage of my situation (that I was broken down, and my only means of shopping around was to get towed to a garage at great personal risk in a pandemic) to trap me into buying the most expensive battery, without disclosing the availability of cheaper alternatives. 
I intend to complain to this effect, but can anybody advise me of any consumer rights it may be good for me to be aware of as part of my complaint? Thank you in advance

bogstandard2 said:

williamgriffin said:

Maybe they only had one for you car on the van. You can't expect them to carry every battery for every car. 

They had to go away to get one, and come back, so could have gone to get any battery.

So when you said "what are the different options?" or "are there any cheaper one's?" what did they say?
If they lied to you then fair enough I think a complaint is in order.

But if you just accepted the £215 one without question then you need to give yourself a good telling off for not asking and move on.