RAC are beyond terrible now

RogerBareford

hallmark said:

jon81uk said:

I didn't think RAC offered "tow on demand" I thought if the car doesn't work, they tow it now and thats it?

The cover I have does provide it, they'll tow to a garage within 10 miles. Presumably because lots of callouts occur when garages are shut.

Is there any reason the car can't be dropped at the garage when it's shut and then call the garage when it opens to let them know the issue?

I would say the majority of garages have somewhere cars can be left even if it's the road outside in my experience.

sammyjammy said:

hallmark said:

  The RAC might hide behind "getting to those most vulnerable" to try to justify delays but this is way beyond anything reasonable.

I'm not covered with them myself but my niece and her family are, they live in Wales and we were all attending a funeral in Hampshire, they left to go home straight afterwards with a two and four year old. An hour and a half down the road and their car broke down on a hard shoulder.  They were their for over five hours waiting for help, eventually someone came and toed them to the services, said they couldn't fix it and someone else would come out and left.

They couldn't get towed home due to COVID and said he couldn't get a hire care as he didn't have his licence.

Eventually my Dad went and collected the kids and my niece and brought them back, husband was worried about leaving his car at the services (not 24) so stayed with the car.  They get home late the following day on the train and their car was towed home another day later, appalling "service"

I had a similar experience but a good few years ago where they first towed to the services then sent a guy out to look at it when it obviously couldn't be fixed (but i suppose they have to do this as most people don't know about cars to make that judgement). Then they said they would get someone to come pick us all up and recover the car but it would be a long time.

Instead i just left the keys hidden on the car (it's not like anyone could realistically steal it!) then got a lift home with someone. I didn't let the breakdown service know this and 10 hours later i got a call saying he was on the way and then told him about the keys and where to drop the car too. So it would have been a 10 hour wait with my family in the services overnight if we didn't get a lift home!.

Murphybear

A few years ago we were test driving a car when it ran out of petrol

We managed to get it to a lay-by.  There was an RAC van who had just sorted his customer out and he towed us back to the dealer free of charge.  The poor red faced salesman gave us a good deal on the car as my husband liked it.

About 4 years ago on a very cold and frosty night our car battery went dead.  The RAC said it would be 2 hours as they were swamped.  Fortunately we were near a supermarket with a cafe.  The RAC phoned back a few minutes later and said one of their team would be passing the road we were on and could help us, 5 minutes later he was there.

Your one bad service doesn’t make them terrible, there will be thousands who’ve had brilliant service and would highly recommend them. 

hallmark

It's not my one bad service.  Read their Twitter thread or reviews. Endless stories along the same lines.

Four years ago and prior to that they were not like this. I've been a member for maybe 25 years. They've gone massively downhill recently.  Don't take my word for it, read the reviews and their Twitter feed.