Car Breakdown complaint

norcross91

littleboo said:

I think it is relevant. It's £50 back on an £80 product. 

What happens the next time? I’m genuinely worried now that this may happen again and I won’t be 30 minutes from my home( Parents drop some things off to me) near shops to get food. Planning two long road trips and hate to think where I could have been if this happened at different time. 

Aylesbury_Duck

norcross91 said:

littleboo said:

I think it is relevant. It's £50 back on an £80 product. 

What happens the next time? I’m genuinely worried now that this may happen again and I won’t be 30 minutes from my home( Parents drop some things off to me) near shops to get food. Planning two long road trips and hate to think where I could have been if this happened at different time. 

Not excusing a poor response time in the situation you're complaining about, but the best way to avoid a next time is to ensure your car is regularly serviced according to schedule and that you carry out weekly checks on oil level, tyre pressures, battery health, water level, etc.  Even more important with two long road trips coming up.  No car is immune to breakdowns, but you can lower the odds.  Many don't bother, and use breakdown cover as a safety net for their negligence.

If it's an older car, or hasn't been checked/serviced recently, get that done before you undertake the longer trips.

norcross91

Aylesbury_Duck said:

norcross91 said:

littleboo said:

I think it is relevant. It's £50 back on an £80 product. 

What happens the next time? I’m genuinely worried now that this may happen again and I won’t be 30 minutes from my home( Parents drop some things off to me) near shops to get food. Planning two long road trips and hate to think where I could have been if this happened at different time. 

Not excusing a poor response time in the situation you're complaining about, but the best way to avoid a next time is to ensure your car is regularly serviced according to schedule and that you carry out weekly checks on oil level, tyre pressures, battery health, water level, etc.  Even more important with two long road trips coming up.  No car is immune to breakdowns, but you can lower the odds.  Many don't bother, and use breakdown cover as a safety net for their negligence.

If it's an older car, or hasn't been checked/serviced recently, get that done before you undertake the longer trips.

Serviced and Mot’d every year like clock work in the 11 years I’ve owned and only undertaken in the last month or two. 

Tyres, oil etc all done a fairly regular basis. I know these things can happen and whether missed or not deemed serious enough when the work was carried out is beside the point of wha service I received from RAC. I see breakdown cover as something I hope to never use, like any insurance it’s there in the background incase it’s ever needed 

Undervalued

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

powerful_Rogue said:

norcross91 said:

I’m not sure where I stand with this one. Last night on my way home my clutch snapped and was stuck at the side of the road, I contacted RAC which I have through my car insurance (This was at 18:45) I wasn’t recovered until 3AM and by this point I was tired, frustrated and angry. 

I sent a complaint to RAC and received an email back this morning to say they are sending me £50 to say sorry and they go on to say this is their final decision. 

I’m not particular happy with Is but also not sure what I was expecting or if anyone has been in the same situation 

How much would make you happy?

You could take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service where you might receive more, you might receive less.

Can you? I may be out of date but at one time (i'm fairly sure) the AA and RAC (and similar) breakdown services were not treated as insurance. The same applied to most boiler breakdown cover and Denplan etc!

Breakdown cover arranged and administered by RAC Financial Services Limited (Registered No 05171817) and provided by RAC Motoring Services (Registered No 01424399) and/or RAC Insurance Ltd (Registered No 2355834). Registered in England and Wales at RAC House, Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall WS5 4AW. RAC Motoring Services and RAC Financial Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. RAC Insurance Ltd is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Not as simple as that.

If you look at the FOS website you will see that some (at least) of complaints about roadside assistance are not covered.

Cut and pasted from FOS

Complaints we can’t help with

We can’t look into every complaint we get because of the way breakdown cover is regulated. Some businesses may carry out unregulated services and we can only look complaints about services that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This mainly affects complaints about:

• policy pricing
• call-outs
• roadside repairs
• vehicle recovery

We can’t look into complaints about these issues if you’re with AA, RAC or some other smaller providers.

Also, Here is one of their examples.....

What happened

Chris’ car broke down on his way to work. He called his vehicle breakdown provider who sent a patrol mechanic.

Chris complained to his provider because he had to wait a long time for the mechanic to arrive. His provider said in their final response that due to the time of day and the bad weather, they were experiencing more call outs than usual and didn’t have as many patrols on the road. Although they felt sympathetic to Chris, they got a mechanic to him as quickly as they could.

Chris felt his concerns weren’t properly considered by his provider and asked us to investigate his complaint. 

What we said

We first had to check if we were able to investigate Chris’ complaint. We’re not able to look into every complaint we get about vehicle breakdown cover because some providers carry out services that are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

We couldn’t look into this complaint because the service Chris was complaining about wasn’t regulated by the FCA. To find out more about when we can help with complaints about this, see our guidance on vehicle breakdown cover.

DeathByFluffy

I would look to move provider - take the £50 (which from memory is more than most insurers charge for the year's cover) and use reviews to pick a better service. 
I've never been left that long with Green Flag. 

born_again

Undervalued said:

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

powerful_Rogue said:

norcross91 said:

I’m not sure where I stand with this one. Last night on my way home my clutch snapped and was stuck at the side of the road, I contacted RAC which I have through my car insurance (This was at 18:45) I wasn’t recovered until 3AM and by this point I was tired, frustrated and angry. 

I sent a complaint to RAC and received an email back this morning to say they are sending me £50 to say sorry and they go on to say this is their final decision. 

I’m not particular happy with Is but also not sure what I was expecting or if anyone has been in the same situation 

How much would make you happy?

You could take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service where you might receive more, you might receive less.

Can you? I may be out of date but at one time (i'm fairly sure) the AA and RAC (and similar) breakdown services were not treated as insurance. The same applied to most boiler breakdown cover and Denplan etc!

Breakdown cover arranged and administered by RAC Financial Services Limited (Registered No 05171817) and provided by RAC Motoring Services (Registered No 01424399) and/or RAC Insurance Ltd (Registered No 2355834). Registered in England and Wales at RAC House, Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall WS5 4AW. RAC Motoring Services and RAC Financial Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. RAC Insurance Ltd is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Not as simple as that.

If you look at the FOS website you will see that some (at least) of complaints about roadside assistance are not covered.

Cut and pasted from FOS

Complaints we can’t help with

We can’t look into every complaint we get because of the way breakdown cover is regulated. Some businesses may carry out unregulated services and we can only look complaints about services that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This mainly affects complaints about:

• policy pricing
• call-outs
• roadside repairs
• vehicle recovery

We can’t look into complaints about these issues if you’re with AA, RAC or some other smaller providers.

Also, Here is one of their examples.....

What happened

Chris’ car broke down on his way to work. He called his vehicle breakdown provider who sent a patrol mechanic.

Chris complained to his provider because he had to wait a long time for the mechanic to arrive. His provider said in their final response that due to the time of day and the bad weather, they were experiencing more call outs than usual and didn’t have as many patrols on the road. Although they felt sympathetic to Chris, they got a mechanic to him as quickly as they could.

Chris felt his concerns weren’t properly considered by his provider and asked us to investigate his complaint. 

What we said

We first had to check if we were able to investigate Chris’ complaint. We’re not able to look into every complaint we get about vehicle breakdown cover because some providers carry out services that are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

We couldn’t look into this complaint because the service Chris was complaining about wasn’t regulated by the FCA. To find out more about when we can help with complaints about this, see our guidance on vehicle breakdown cover.

That was a direct quote from RAC site.
Clear as MUD....
In terms of if there is any FOS cover....🤷‍♀️

TBH, this is one of the things with breakdown cover. Sometimes they are quick other times not. Clearly OP probably needed either a tow truck or one with a dolly, given a broken clutch.
Which there are only limited numbers & they will have hoped one of the RAC ones will have been able to make it. Which will be why it was subcontracted out much later on to a 3rd party.

Good news for OP was that they were not on a M/Way were they advice to stay out of car & sit over any barriers on the grass verges. 

norcross91

DeathByFluffy said:

I would look to move provider - take the £50 (which from memory is more than most insurers charge for the year's cover) and use reviews to pick a better service. 
I've never been left that long with Green Flag. 

That’s something I will be looking into this week. As one of my long road trip is on Sunday (all be it that my car is fixed) I will not using my RAC ever again 

Undervalued

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

powerful_Rogue said:

norcross91 said:

I’m not sure where I stand with this one. Last night on my way home my clutch snapped and was stuck at the side of the road, I contacted RAC which I have through my car insurance (This was at 18:45) I wasn’t recovered until 3AM and by this point I was tired, frustrated and angry. 

I sent a complaint to RAC and received an email back this morning to say they are sending me £50 to say sorry and they go on to say this is their final decision. 

I’m not particular happy with Is but also not sure what I was expecting or if anyone has been in the same situation 

How much would make you happy?

You could take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service where you might receive more, you might receive less.

Can you? I may be out of date but at one time (i'm fairly sure) the AA and RAC (and similar) breakdown services were not treated as insurance. The same applied to most boiler breakdown cover and Denplan etc!

Breakdown cover arranged and administered by RAC Financial Services Limited (Registered No 05171817) and provided by RAC Motoring Services (Registered No 01424399) and/or RAC Insurance Ltd (Registered No 2355834). Registered in England and Wales at RAC House, Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall WS5 4AW. RAC Motoring Services and RAC Financial Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. RAC Insurance Ltd is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Not as simple as that.

If you look at the FOS website you will see that some (at least) of complaints about roadside assistance are not covered.

Cut and pasted from FOS

Complaints we can’t help with

We can’t look into every complaint we get because of the way breakdown cover is regulated. Some businesses may carry out unregulated services and we can only look complaints about services that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This mainly affects complaints about:

• policy pricing
• call-outs
• roadside repairs
• vehicle recovery

We can’t look into complaints about these issues if you’re with AA, RAC or some other smaller providers.

Also, Here is one of their examples.....

What happened

Chris’ car broke down on his way to work. He called his vehicle breakdown provider who sent a patrol mechanic.

Chris complained to his provider because he had to wait a long time for the mechanic to arrive. His provider said in their final response that due to the time of day and the bad weather, they were experiencing more call outs than usual and didn’t have as many patrols on the road. Although they felt sympathetic to Chris, they got a mechanic to him as quickly as they could.

Chris felt his concerns weren’t properly considered by his provider and asked us to investigate his complaint. 

What we said

We first had to check if we were able to investigate Chris’ complaint. We’re not able to look into every complaint we get about vehicle breakdown cover because some providers carry out services that are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

We couldn’t look into this complaint because the service Chris was complaining about wasn’t regulated by the FCA. To find out more about when we can help with complaints about this, see our guidance on vehicle breakdown cover.

That was a direct quote from RAC site.
Clear as MUD....
In terms of if there is any FOS cover....🤷‍♀️

TBH, this is one of the things with breakdown cover. Sometimes they are quick other times not. Clearly OP probably needed either a tow truck or one with a dolly, given a broken clutch.
Which there are only limited numbers & they will have hoped one of the RAC ones will have been able to make it. Which will be why it was subcontracted out much later on to a 3rd party.

Good news for OP was that they were not on a M/Way were they advice to stay out of car & sit over any barriers on the grass verges. 

Exactly.

A friend of mine ran into a similar problem with their boiler breakdown cover and the FOS refused to look at it.

I am fairly sure there was an article about the AA / RAC position in the national press within the last year or two. It is all very misleading!

I also seem to remember one of the dentists who posts regularly in the Health section of the forum has pointed out that Denplan (and similar) dental "insurance"is not technically insurance so in a similar position.

C

caprikid1

"I will not using my RAC ever again "

I think the unfortunate reality is the AA / RAC are long gone in terms of the reliable trusted service we knew, the trusted patrol man is now likely to be a contractor. My partner waited nearly 12 hours for the AA to come out, nearly 10 hours after their promised time. The contractor eventually came from over 40 miles away to do a 5 mile journey.

I use CSMA (Green flag) and have done for 20 years cannot fault them and the contractors always say they are the easiest to deal with , I have a policy on me not the car (Costs a bit more) but for that I have had 100% confidence over the 20+ years I have been with them.

Murphybear

many people have a positive/helpful experience with the breakdown services.  

The last time we had to call the RAC was 6 years ago.  The weather was cold and it was icy.  Fortunately we were in a car park in a small town, not at the back of beyond.  The RAC advised it would take between 1.5/2 hours as they were very busy.   Could have been worse we thought.  I was just about to wander off to buy a hot drink when we had another call from the RAC.  One of their agents would be driving past the car park when he finished his current call and he would see us next.  10 minutes later he appeared.