Alternatives to the AA

prowla

I've been a member of the AA for may years.

However, they've let me down on two occasions: this year and last

• My son (he's named on the policy) had one of my cars and it wouldn't start; I'd renewed the Road Tax online the day before, but it didn't show up in the AA's system so they refused to come out; they wouldn't accept that I had the renewal confirmation.
• My other son followed a Honda Jazz through a puddle in his diesel van and the engine died; they refused to come out to water damage. The water wasn't that deep (ie. it didn't get into the drivers cab) so I feel that they've simply grabbed an excuse to be unhelpful.
  

So now my confidence in the "3rd emergency service" is dented; I'm wondering what other exclusions have they snuck in and when they'll next let me down.

Can anybody recommend an alternative (nationwide) recovery service?

Their renewal quote, covering 3 drivers, is £448, but I called and they dropped it to £378.

DullGreyGuy

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance/breakdown-cover/

noitsnotme

prowla said:

• My other son followed a Honda Jazz through a puddle in his diesel van and the engine died; they refused to come out to water damage. The water wasn't that deep (ie. it didn't get into the drivers cab) so I feel that they've simply grabbed an excuse to be unhelpful.

It doesn’t have to get in to the cab to damage the engine, it just has to get in to the air intake.  If it died immediately after driving through the water he possibly hydro locked the engine.  To be fair it sounds like he was responsible for that.

To answer your question on alternative breakdown services, I’ve used Autoaid for years.  They do send out a local recovery service who you pay and then claim it back from Autoaid but it keeps the costs down. 

Neil49

The latest edition of Which magazine has a report on car breakdown services. 

Ranking of the top services is 

Gen Motoring Assist - provided by Call Assist

Asda Breakdown - provided by LV Britannia Rescue 

Breakdown Assist - who use independent mechanics

Aviva - who use RAC (but RAC generally perform poorly) 

Start Rescue - provided by Call Assist

The AA

Green Flag

The above cover all the services. 

Hope this helps. 

DullGreyGuy

Neil49 said:

The latest edition of Which magazine has a report on car breakdown services. 

I've personally never found Which? to be worth the paper its written on... after an acquisition we had 3 main own brands - mass-exclusive, mass market and budget. After the initial integration all three brands were serviced by the same staff, using the same systems with the same processes; the only difference was the name you answered the phone with and the marketing. Initially the upper two had identical products and actually the budget one had the better product but that was corrected after a few years so all three were identical. 

Despite that for years Which? would report the mass exclusive near the top of the table, the mass market as upper middle and the budget one as lower middle. Even though they were identical other than 1) marketing and 2) the lowest rated one had the better product. Seems they just bought the marketing. 

35har1old

prowla said:

I've been a member of the AA for may years.

However, they've let me down on two occasions: this year and last

• My son (he's named on the policy) had one of my cars and it wouldn't start; I'd renewed the Road Tax online the day before, but it didn't show up in the AA's system so they refused to come out; they wouldn't accept that I had the renewal confirmation.
• My other son followed a Honda Jazz through a puddle in his diesel van and the engine died; they refused to come out to water damage. The water wasn't that deep (ie. it didn't get into the drivers cab) so I feel that they've simply grabbed an excuse to be unhelpful.
  

So now my confidence in the "3rd emergency service" is dented; I'm wondering what other exclusions have they snuck in and when they'll next let me down.

Can anybody recommend an alternative (nationwide) recovery service?

Their renewal quote, covering 3 drivers, is £448, but I called and they dropped it to £378.

AA response time are guided by where you have broken down so if  you have broken down in a quite spot except a long wait.They are not answered in order of time reported

prowla

noitsnotme said:

prowla said:

• My other son followed a Honda Jazz through a puddle in his diesel van and the engine died; they refused to come out to water damage. The water wasn't that deep (ie. it didn't get into the drivers cab) so I feel that they've simply grabbed an excuse to be unhelpful.

It doesn’t have to get in to the cab to damage the engine, it just has to get in to the air intake.  If it died immediately after driving through the water he possibly hydro locked the engine.  To be fair it sounds like he was responsible for that.

To answer your question on alternative breakdown services, I’ve used Autoaid for years.  They do send out a local recovery service who you pay and then claim it back from Autoaid but it keeps the costs down. 

I mentioned the cab merely to illustrate that the water wasn't deep.

But yes, water got into the engine and trashed it; apparently the air intake is sited low down on these vans.

35har1old said:

prowla said:

I've been a member of the AA for may years.

However, they've let me down on two occasions: this year and last

• My son (he's named on the policy) had one of my cars and it wouldn't start; I'd renewed the Road Tax online the day before, but it didn't show up in the AA's system so they refused to come out; they wouldn't accept that I had the renewal confirmation.
• My other son followed a Honda Jazz through a puddle in his diesel van and the engine died; they refused to come out to water damage. The water wasn't that deep (ie. it didn't get into the drivers cab) so I feel that they've simply grabbed an excuse to be unhelpful.
  

So now my confidence in the "3rd emergency service" is dented; I'm wondering what other exclusions have they snuck in and when they'll next let me down.

Can anybody recommend an alternative (nationwide) recovery service?

Their renewal quote, covering 3 drivers, is £448, but I called and they dropped it to £378.

AA response time are guided by where you have broken down so if  you have broken down in a quite spot except a long wait.They are not answered in order of time reported

Sure - my issue is that they twice refused to attend, not that they took a while to get there.

baser999

We were with Driver Guardian for several years, less than £100 for full UK and Europe cover. Called them twice and local contractors attended.
Only stopped cover when we changed cars and they came with AA and presently JLR Assistance (aka AA) The AA certainly wouldn’t be my breakdown agent of choice

Barkin

DullGreyGuy said:

Neil49 said:

The latest edition of Which magazine has a report on car breakdown services. 

I've personally never found Which? to be worth the paper its written on... 

Glad it's not just me. 

CarolK

Because of similar issues with the traditional providers I use 1st4u.com - no restriction on age of car, how many callouts you have, no upfront payments when you're stuck by the side of the road with your kids in the car!!

It's free to join and you get a free phone app 

prowla

Right - The AA wouldn't budge under £377.69 (me & two sons), up from £323.50 last year, so I guess I'll move on.

I think I'll go for the site-recommended AutoAid.