The AA

Jam43

Brie said:

"We weren't able to get the car in the gargae any sooner as busy. "

You were busy or the garage was busy?  Was leaving the car at home and not using it an option?  

Gargae was booked up and we needed car for work.

Undervalued

Jam43 said:

Alderbank said:

It would be useful to tell us what was wrong with the car. That is relevant.

From what you have said so far your complaint could equally be about the garage - that they sensed that you do not know much about cars and massively overcharged you for a minor repair, blaming it on bad advice from the AA technician.

Who are CS and FO?

Apparently a hole in an oil pipe. Caused smoke. As not at garage for a week, oil got in the turbo. I trust my garage 1000%.  CS is the conciliation services and FO is financial ombudsman 

If I remember correctly (and no doubt somebody will know) breakdown services such as the AA and RAC are not considered to be insurance so don't come under the remit of the FOS (although you say they are "hopefully still helping")?

If I am correct (??) then your only recourse would be the small claims court.

pinkshoes

Jam43 said:

Apparently a hole in an oil pipe. Caused smoke. As not at garage for a week, oil got in the turbo. I trust my garage 1000%.  CS is the conciliation services and FO is financial ombudsman 

Jam43 said:
We both specifically asked if ok to drive and if need to go in straight away. He said it was fine. 

So the AA person told you had a hole in an oil pipe, and therefore the leaking oil was smoking, but it was OK to continue to drive it?

You will need a report from the garage saying that the hole in the oil pipe as diagnosed by the AA meant that the car was NOT OK to drive, and should have been towed to the nearest garage. 

You will also need the garage report to state that the damage was ONLY caused due to driving away after you'd stopped and called them, and was not present at the point of the AA arriving.

The problem you have is your interpretation of "fine" to drive. I would have taken this to mean "fine" to drive it to the nearest garage, not drive another 50 miles!! So the question is... would driving to the nearest garage still have caused this damage?

Alderbank

Undervalued said:

Jam43 said:

Alderbank said:

It would be useful to tell us what was wrong with the car. That is relevant.

From what you have said so far your complaint could equally be about the garage - that they sensed that you do not know much about cars and massively overcharged you for a minor repair, blaming it on bad advice from the AA technician.

Who are CS and FO?

Apparently a hole in an oil pipe. Caused smoke. As not at garage for a week, oil got in the turbo. I trust my garage 1000%.  CS is the conciliation services and FO is financial ombudsman 

If I remember correctly (and no doubt somebody will know) breakdown services such as the AA and RAC are not considered to be insurance so don't come under the remit of the FOS (although you say they are "hopefully still helping")?

The AA does lots of things.

They say:
AA Financial Services Limited acts as a credit intermediary and introduces customers to Bank of Ireland (UK) plc as its exclusive loans provider. AA Financial Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

However the guys in financial services aren't the ones who come out to fix your car and I don't think the financial ombudsman is much use with spanners either.

Well done though for getting him out to help so early in the process. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Jam43 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Jam43 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Jam43 said:

Looking for some advice - after a breakdown and following the engineers advice to - book in when can - our car broke down the next week and cost us £800 to repair.  (We were booked to take car to the garage the following week) This bill was lot more than expected when told just a hole in a pipe - not fixed on site. I have contacted the AA regarding this issue. The engineers report stated he told us to book the car in asap. 
We both specifically asked if ok to drive and if need to go in straight away. He said it was fine. 
Our garage said the leak from the pipe caused the damage. 
I have also contacted the CS and FO. The FO are hopefully still helping. I feel very fogged off by the AA and that they think I will eventually go away. They won't say if they have any recording to confirm what was said on site. 
Any one have any advise please. Do I have a case? Is there any more I can do? I know its not thousand of pounds, but it was lot to us. 

No, I don't think you have a case.  Your car broke down, it was patched up at the roadside to get you home but you elected to drive it for up to two weeks on what you knew was a temporary repair, and it lasted a week.  That's negligence on your part, I'm afraid.

Unfortunately he didn't do any repair on the road side and said we could continue to drive it, we just followed his advice. We weren't able to get the car in the gargae any sooner as busy. 

What caused you to call them out?  A warning light?  What is the actual fault?

Unfortunately, whether it was you or the garage (or both) that was too busy to get it seen to sooner, the fact remains that you chose to drive a car with a known fault.  The pragmatic thing to do was to leave it at home until you could drive it (slowly) directly to the garage as soon as they were able to take it in.

When we stopped, we saw steam/smoke coming out of the engine. He said there was a hole in an oil pipe, but couldn't fix it on site. As soon as we saw the smoke we phoned them and di t move until he'd been. If not OK to drive, why weren't we recovered home if not able to fix? 

A hole in an oil pipe would lead to the car losing oil, and once the oil level drops beyond a certain point, damage will be caused.  How far from home were you when you called them out?  I guess not far, so the AA probably reasoned that you wouldn't lose enough oil for it to be a problem, but driving it for another two weeks was never likely to be sensible.

Aylesbury_Duck

Jam43 said:

Brie said:

"We weren't able to get the car in the gargae any sooner as busy. "

You were busy or the garage was busy?  Was leaving the car at home and not using it an option?  

Gargae was booked up and we needed car for work.

That's all very well, but what are you doing now that the car is undriveable?

Aylesbury_Duck

pinkshoes said:

Jam43 said:

Apparently a hole in an oil pipe. Caused smoke. As not at garage for a week, oil got in the turbo. I trust my garage 1000%.  CS is the conciliation services and FO is financial ombudsman 

Jam43 said:
We both specifically asked if ok to drive and if need to go in straight away. He said it was fine. 

So the AA person told you had a hole in an oil pipe, and therefore the leaking oil was smoking, but it was OK to continue to drive it?

You will need a report from the garage saying that the hole in the oil pipe as diagnosed by the AA meant that the car was NOT OK to drive, and should have been towed to the nearest garage. 

You will also need the garage report to state that the damage was ONLY caused due to driving away after you'd stopped and called them, and was not present at the point of the AA arriving.

The problem you have is your interpretation of "fine" to drive. I would have taken this to mean "fine" to drive it to the nearest garage, not drive another 50 miles!! So the question is... would driving to the nearest garage still have caused this damage?

I agree, I think this is the only angle the OP may have as a complaint to the AA.  If more damage was inevitable on the drive home and/or on the journey to the nearest garage, OP was poorly advised.  

born_again

So hole in oil pipe, drove up to 50 miles. Can we take it that it was still smoking while you drove it for a week? 

Was oil level checked at any point?

sheramber

If the AA had told you it was not okay to drive it  how would you have got to work for the two weeks before the garage could deal with it?

Jam43

sheramber said:

If the AA had told you it was not okay to drive it  how would you have got to work for the two weeks before the garage could deal with it?

He had to use my car and I organised lifts to work as closer.