Help please! AA refuses compensation by ignoring fact

co2021

Hi,

AA patrol gave me wrong instructions, had caused engine damage to my car. Dealer states it is beyond economic repair as the bill will be more than 10K pounds. AA refuses providing any compensation by simply ignoring the fact of what happened but concluding all that is pre-exiting fault!

It is a long story, I put it as short as possible.

I booked full service for my car to be collected, serviced and then delivered back by my local car dealer. The booking was made on day1 for service to be done on day 14.
on day 11, my car showed `low engine oil` pressure on dash board when I was driving, I filled some engine oil but didn't help. The car was having difficulty to accelerate and could only travel at 30 MPH at most. It also showed "stop immediately" . I drove home and called the AA telling them what happened.

AA patrol turned up and checked, got three error codes, then asked me to drive the car to the local dealer. I told the patrol what happened to the car, why I called AA. The patrol still asked me to drive. I asked the patrol many times "if it is safe to drive, if extra damage will be made to the car". AA patrol replied "fine to drive, no worries, AA wont attend again if I don't drive now". 

Half way on the way to the dealer (around 10 minutes after moving off), I started to hear loud noise like two metal parts hitting each other, and smelled very strong rubber / wire burning, and the car is almost stalling (on a uphill road). Apparently, the car cannot be drove by that time. I pulled over and told AA patrol what happened. AA patrol checked again and got 4 error codes this time. AA patrol arranged car recover to tow the car. That day is Saturday (day 11), the car arrived local dealer on the next Monday afternoon (day 13).  The dealer checked the car on day 15, and told me replacement of turbo charge was required and needed wait for parts. A week later (day 22),  parts arrived but dealer said further investigating showing more oil leak found and whole engine replacement was required, not worth repairing.

I complained to AA. AA investigated, they managed figured out an issue in the invoice copy from the dealer, which has `car date in` is day 8. As the breakdown was on day 11, AA claims my car was already with dealer and the car was already diagnosed to have oil pressure issue! They ignored all the rest facts such as the diagnosis report is date as day 15.

I contact the local dealer for the date-in date issue, showed both AA and the dealer the e-mail and text confirmation of my service booking. The dealer confirmed that `car date in `date was just for they made the job card on that date, not the date the car was with them. The dealer provided details of timeline from service booking, job card creation, car from AA, the checks in e-mail and paper in post. The e-mails are forwarded to AA as well!

AA still says "the vehicle was suffering from a pre-existing fault for which the AA were contacted to attend", ignore what happened. They conclude that patrol’s actions have NOT increased these repair costs. They suggested to go with an independent arbitrator, Retail Motor Industry Federation.

So AA means my car already had low oil pressure issues on day 8, then I called AA on day 11, the car was towed by AA to local dealer on day 13,  and I am trying to get money from AA! I am shocked and furious by their logic!

I have all the evidence to what happened, however AA just ignore all the facts. Dear reader, what are my options for my next step to fight against the AA?  Should I got with  Retail Motor Industry Federation?  Thanks!

Sandtree

co2021 said:
It also showed "stop immediately" . I drove home and called the AA telling them what happened.

A fault has occurred, you've been instructed to stop immediately but have decided to carry on driving. It will be exceptionally difficult to prove that the damage was actually caused by the second drive (as recommended by the AA) and not the first drive that you had done before the AA had seen the vehicle.

It may be helpful to say what the codes are for some more mechanically orientated people to comment on. 

caprikid1

As above, I think you will have a challenge. Get a quote from the garage to fix, probably worthwhile sending a letter before action to the AA in the attempt to get a contribution but you will need a report from the garage indicating the AA if you have any chance what so ever.

I think you are wasting your time but you may get a nuisance payment.

angrycrow

Getting a sense of de ja vu about this. Op have you posted this tale before under a different user name. 

Whilst it is clear AA should not have told you to drive to the dealer it is likely terminal damage was already done by this point. The time to stop driving was as soon as the low oil pressure light came on. The light is low pressure not low oil level. The car was telling you to stop immediately but what you actually did was add oil and keep driving. 

Grumpy_chap

co2021 said:

Hi,

AA patrol gave me wrong instructions, had caused engine damage to my car. Dealer states it is beyond economic repair as the bill will be more than 10K pounds. AA refuses providing any compensation by simply ignoring the fact of what happened but concluding all that is pre-exiting fault!

It is a long story, I put it as short as possible.

I booked full service for my car to be collected, serviced and then delivered back by my local car dealer. The booking was made on day1 for service to be done on day 14.
on day 11, my car showed `low engine oil` pressure on dash board when I was driving, I filled some engine oil but didn't help. The car was having difficulty to accelerate and could only travel at 30 MPH at most. It also showed "stop immediately" . I drove home and called the AA telling them what happened.

AA patrol turned up and checked, got three error codes, then asked me to drive the car to the local dealer. I told the patrol what happened to the car, why I called AA. The patrol still asked me to drive. I asked the patrol many times "if it is safe to drive, if extra damage will be made to the car". AA patrol replied "fine to drive, no worries, AA wont attend again if I don't drive now". 

Half way on the way to the dealer (around 10 minutes after moving off), I started to hear loud noise like two metal parts hitting each other, and smelled very strong rubber / wire burning, and the car is almost stalling (on a uphill road). Apparently, the car cannot be drove by that time. I pulled over and told AA patrol what happened. AA patrol checked again and got 4 error codes this time. AA patrol arranged car recover to tow the car. That day is Saturday (day 11), the car arrived local dealer on the next Monday afternoon (day 13).  The dealer checked the car on day 15, and told me replacement of turbo charge was required and needed wait for parts. A week later (day 22),  parts arrived but dealer said further investigating showing more oil leak found and whole engine replacement was required, not worth repairing.

I complained to AA. AA investigated, they managed figured out an issue in the invoice copy from the dealer, which has `car date in` is day 8. As the breakdown was on day 11, AA claims my car was already with dealer and the car was already diagnosed to have oil pressure issue! They ignored all the rest facts such as the diagnosis report is date as day 15.

I contact the local dealer for the date-in date issue, showed both AA and the dealer the e-mail and text confirmation of my service booking. The dealer confirmed that `car date in `date was just for they made the job card on that date, not the date the car was with them. The dealer provided details of timeline from service booking, job card creation, car from AA, the checks in e-mail and paper in post. The e-mails are forwarded to AA as well!

AA still says "the vehicle was suffering from a pre-existing fault for which the AA were contacted to attend", ignore what happened. They conclude that patrol’s actions have NOT increased these repair costs. They suggested to go with an independent arbitrator, Retail Motor Industry Federation.

So AA means my car already had low oil pressure issues on day 8, then I called AA on day 11, the car was towed by AA to local dealer on day 13,  and I am trying to get money from AA! I am shocked and furious by their logic!

I have all the evidence to what happened, however AA just ignore all the facts. Dear reader, what are my options for my next step to fight against the AA?  Should I got with  Retail Motor Industry Federation?  Thanks!

Which part of "stop immediately" involves "drive home"?

Having continued to drive on your own volition, it seems a bit unrealistic to then say any consequential damage only occurred after the AA said to drive to the garage.  Plus, with the car being at home, the AA mechanic may well have assessed the state of the car differently from a call out to the roadside.  Faults that develop while the car is stationary at home tend to have different causes to those that develop while the car is motive.

The OP may wish to read through this thread for information:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6245187/rac-complaint-serious-car-damage/p1

TadleyBaggie

angrycrow said:

Getting a sense of de ja vu about this. Op have you posted this tale before under a different user name. 

I'm 99% sure it has been posted before.

Thrugelmir

Seems as if the terminal damage was already done by you ignoring the dashboard warnings. 

Carrot007

angrycrow said:

The time to stop driving was as soon as the low oil pressure light came on. The light is low pressure not low oil level. The car was telling you to stop immediately but what you actually did was add oil and keep driving. 

Indeed. Though most modern cars have both.

I get a check oil message (not the dash one), then drive home. 300 mil usually does it (it's an old car it's going to lose oil and that is within spec for many new cars anyway!).

I get teh dash light in red I know to not movce again until it's fixed!

co2021

@Sandtree, 
Thank you. Those codes are with AA. They doesn't provide details to me.
@caprikid1,
Thank you. I am not  asking for "a nuisance payment."
@angrycrow,
Thank you. I am not telling a tale here. It is a horrible experience. I haven't posted anywhere else. I have little knowledge on cars. I trusted professional from AA.
@Grumpy_chap
Thank you. That post is a bit similar to my experience. The car dashboard shows "low oil pressure", then "stop immediately" flashing between icons and texts, texts are not that obvious.

My point is:
1. I am humiliated by AA stating I called AA for a pre-existing fault.
2. Extra damage to the car  is caused by following AA patrol's advice.
3. I am not saying AA is responsible for the whole damage. However the wrong instruction has caused extra damage!  

Details:
1.  "pre-existing fault", that is not the fact. 
    day 1, booked service for day 14 with local dealer.
    day 8, local dealer made there job card.
    day 11, car show low oil pressure, called AA.
    day 13, AA towed car to local dealer.
    day 15, local dealer checked car, saying replace turbo charger required.
    day 22, local dealer saying engine replacement required as well, not worth repairing.

     Invoice copy shows `date in` as day 8. This is corrected by local dealer stating that the date their job card was created later on. The car was with them on day 13 from AA.
     AA ignore facts but saying my car is already having oil pressure issue on day 8, before I called AA on day 13. so called them for `pre-existing` fault!  The service is a full service from my service plan and was booked for that because I was leaving the city!

2. Extra damage.
   The car has no strong burning smell, not stalling, no loud metal hitting noise at the time I called AA. I realized I should not drive the car any further so called AA to ask them to tow the car to local dealer. On the way to local dealer, the car gave those burning smell, stalling, loud metal hitting noise which forces to stop driving. How does this mean no extra damage is caused??

   The car give 3 error code when AA patrol turned up and showed 4 error code later on when I had to pull over. How does this mean no extra damage is caused.

3. AA's wrong instruction.
  I called AA to tell them low oil pressure, I cannot drive the car, I told AA patrol that, told him the car was having accelerating issue, could only travel at max 30 MPH. The normal route to my local dealer is a short motorway. AA patrol even let me drive on another road which is 40 MPH and told me that was fine to drive.

 If they had towed the car rather than letting me to drive, there would have been no those strong burning smells, stalling, loud noise. Clearly, AA's wrong instruction had cause extra damage, by physically. I am not saying AA is responsible for the engine damage, I would say it is very likely, I agree AA can argue that. However, AA's wrong instruction is clearly playing a role here.

Thrugelmir

What's extra damage?  

Why didn't you "stop immediately" ? 

co2021

The car was drivable with that flashing warning light. After AA attended, the car gives strong burning smell, loud noise sound like two metal parts hit each other, the car is stalling, not drivable. 

I was driving close to my home with a toddler, so decide went back home first.