Any help please on where to go???

Just4me2

Posted this in motoring but had no replies and still ongoing.
Had a car breakdown back on 26th June. RAC called out who diagnosed no compression on one cylinder.
Asked for the car to be recovered to my local garage as I have full RAC cover. 
RAC said because the car was "driveable" they would only follow me to their nearest "RAC Approved" garage which was 26 mile away from home.
Driveable status being questionable as they had already diagnosed no compression and the engine management light on.
Called the garage who said it needed valves replaced along with timing chain and quoted just over £2k, not great news but agreed to have it done.
After travelling to pick the car up the following week, was told the ECU was burnt out. Logic would suggest that as the car was driven into them, the ECU was working OK beforehand. 
The saga then went on from week to week with the garage to have put 3 other ECU's in the car making 4 with the original, all of which they claimed to have burnt out. 
After six weeks of hearing the garage say "We will call you back" I got in touch with the RAC for help as it is their "Approved garage" that the car was taken to and not where I had asked it to be taken to.
RAC response, you need to allow them 8 weeks to respond.
Pointed out that the garage never respond. On face value it would appear that something has gone seriously wrong but both RAC and the garage don't seem in any particular rush to do anything. Updated RAC customer service every week since stating the same thing, zero response from the garage.
Fiasco is now approaching 9 weeks. As I work out of hours, public transport is non existent so has been costing a small fortune in hire vehicles. 
The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind. However my experience has been a complete nightmare with customer service at best being diabolical.  

Aylesbury_Duck

Just4me2 said:

Posted this in motoring but had no replies and still ongoing.
Had a car breakdown back on 26th June. RAC called out who diagnosed no compression on one cylinder.
Asked for the car to be recovered to my local garage as I have full RAC cover. 
RAC said because the car was "driveable" they would only follow me to their nearest "RAC Approved" garage which was 26 mile away from home.
Driveable status being questionable as they had already diagnosed no compression and the engine management light on.
Called the garage who said it needed valves replaced along with timing chain and quoted just over £2k, not great news but agreed to have it done.
After travelling to pick the car up the following week, was told the ECU was burnt out. Logic would suggest that as the car was driven into them, the ECU was working OK beforehand. 
The saga then went on from week to week with the garage to have put 3 other ECU's in the car making 4 with the original, all of which they claimed to have burnt out. 
After six weeks of hearing the garage say "We will call you back" I got in touch with the RAC for help as it is their "Approved garage" that the car was taken to and not where I had asked it to be taken to.
RAC response, you need to allow them 8 weeks to respond.
Pointed out that the garage never respond. On face value it would appear that something has gone seriously wrong but both RAC and the garage don't seem in any particular rush to do anything. Updated RAC customer service every week since stating the same thing, zero response from the garage.
Fiasco is now approaching 9 weeks. As I work out of hours, public transport is non existent so has been costing a small fortune in hire vehicles. 
The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind. However my experience has been a complete nightmare with customer service at best being diabolical.  

On the first part, it does sound reasonable that it was driveable, after all, it got you to the garage.  You'll have to check your policy to see if they were correct to insist it went to an approved garage.  From my recollection, their policies are to recover you to an approved garage or to your home.  If that's correct, they've done nothing wrong there, either.

On the saga with the garage, I suspect you're now in the garage's hands and RAC's obligation to you is complete.  Again, what does the contract say?  Does the RAC have an obligation to see the mechanical repairs through on your behalf?

As for the last sentence, I think your anger is misplaced.  From what I can see from your account (and my recollection of the RAC contract, which may be wrong), the RAC have provided peace of mind - they escorted you safely to an approved garage as per their obligation to you under the policy.

eskbanker

Just4me2 said:

The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind.

But that's too general, even if it is listed in their marketing blurb - you're paying for specific services, each of which will have its own terms, and you need to measure them against those, rather than a woollier concept....

PHK

eskbanker said:

Just4me2 said:

The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind.

But that's too general, even if it is listed in their marketing blurb - you're paying for specific services, each of which will have its own terms, and you need to measure them against those, rather than a woollier concept....

Or even worse, what one assumes to be the case.

The terms and conditions that form the co tract should have a complaints or disputes procedure and I think that is the first place to go.

eskbanker

PHK said:

The terms and conditions that form the co tract should have a complaints or disputes procedure and I think that is the first place to go.

The first place to go if those terms aren't being complied with, but there seems little evidence of that here!

sheramber

What 'full RAC cover' do you have?

Richard1212

I don't know what a woolier concept might be but I can speak up for the RAC of which I have been a member for decades, and so have many of my friends and colleagues. They have been a great company to deal with and I recommend them highly. Of course, there will always be rogue cases but I can only speak as I find and take into account what other folk report, including a 4 star rating from over 100,000 customers on TrustPilot. I also have RAC European Breakdown Service and feel much safer for that as we travel around quite a bit when we are living in our French home.

It seems to me that the RAC fulfilled their obligation to you when they came out to diagnose your car problem/s. As for the garage, of course, I cannot comment, except to say that any problems costing several thousand pounds are obviously very serious indeed-----enough for me to consider writing it off !

It is not unusual for a garage to identify what is most evidently wrong , and then find more faults as they proceed. And I have no idea how old your car is or how many miles it has on the clock. The matter is now between you and the garage----and garages, as we all know, can be very tough to pin down----to be fair, often for good reasons such as availability of parts or finding more and more problems as they proceed.  I am no fan of garages in general, so the one your car is housed may be awful ( though RAC rating usually helps ). But don't forget that the RAC do not own the garage or have any financial dealings with it or how it operates----all they do, to put it on their approved list, is to inspect and make sure the garage is capable of carrying out all repairs and is staffed by qualified mechanics. Your own local garage may be RAC approved but you wouldn't necessarily know.

I do sympathise with your aggravating and costly car problems but I mainly wanted to make the point that the RAC's obligation to you was completed when they turned up and either fixed the problem ( not likely with a massive problem ) or made sure you were able to reach the nearest RAC approved garage. And , if the car was "undriveable" the RAC would have taken you and your family anywhere in the UK if you had complete cover including "National Breakdown". You may wish to see what cover you had with the RAC----if you had the cheapest available, you can't expect luxury treatment but if you had complete cover you would have been given a far better service by the RAC after your car broke down. You may wish to bear this in mind when joining any breakdown service, or indeed any service that you wish to use in any area of life.

I recommend that you book an appointment to go and see the owner of the garage and get a full answer to all your questions and get his side of the story to make sure it's not wooly.  As you say that 8 weeks have passed since the garage got the car, you may now refer the case to The Motor Ombudsman, and I recommend that if you are not happy after a face to face meeting with the proprietor.

I do wish you every best wish for a speedy conclusion to your problem.

TELLIT01

I certainly sympathise with the OP about the problems with the garage.  The OP wanted the car recovered to their local garage, but the RAC insisted it was taken to their approved garage.  If they chose the garage I would suggest they do have a responsibility to ensure the repairs are done properly and in a timely manner.  I accept that timescales can be long due to the apparent general shortage of electronic spares.

eskbanker

eskbanker said:

Just4me2 said:

The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind.

But that's too general, even if it is listed in their marketing blurb - you're paying for specific services, each of which will have its own terms, and you need to measure them against those, rather than a woollier concept....

Richard1212 said:

I don't know what a woolier concept might be...

Really?  You don't understand how it's viable to complain about demonstrable deficiencies with service provision (by reference to its published terms) but less so to complain that you don't have "peace of mind"?

Richard1212

eskbanker said:

eskbanker said:

Just4me2 said:

The general idea of paying for RAC membership is to provide peace of mind.

But that's too general, even if it is listed in their marketing blurb - you're paying for specific services, each of which will have its own terms, and you need to measure them against those, rather than a woollier concept....

Richard1212 said:

I don't know what a woolier concept might be...

Really?  You don't understand how it's viable to complain about demonstrable deficiencies with service provision (by reference to its published terms) but less so to complain that you don't have "peace of mind"?

Correct. I don't understand woollier concepts