RAC Approved Garages 12 Month Warranty Saga- Help Needed

smelllikewee

 

Hi

I have an ongoing complaint with the RAC which will soon be reaching the one year of backward/forward of emails. I will try to summarise it below and need some advice of where to go from here.

Towards the end of December 2024 we were away on holiday for NYE when our vehicle broke down. It turned out the clutch slave cylinder had failed as we could not engage drive. As we were on holiday and didn't know any garages in the area we asked for the vehicle to be towed to an approved garage.

The vehicle needed a new slave cylinder, clutch and flywheel which cost over £1k to fix. The RAC provided us with a hire car so we could get home and then the vehicle was transported back to us when completed which took about two weeks. 

After approx 500 miles the vehicle broke down again with us losing drive again. The RAC patroller said that the NS driveshaft had become detached from the gearbox and this was due to the previous garage not using new driveshaft bolts or using loctite on the threads. They assured me that the repair work would be covered under the 12 month warranty. 

We had the vehicle repaired at another recommended garage which cost over £200, this garage also noticed damage to to steering rack from the clutch fitting which we had to have rebuilt and a gearbox oil leak from the other driveshaft where the driveshaft had been poorly refitted.

I contacted the garage directly (as advised by the RAC) and they would not accept responsibility and blamed me for messing around with their work!

Shortly after I raised this complaint with the RAC this garage are no longer an approved garage but the RAC tell me that this has nothing to do with their workmanship! 

I am now stuck in an impossible situation trying to claim on the warranty. The garage that completed the work ignore letters or any other contact from me, they never even provided me with an invoice for the work. 

The RAC will not process a claim without a report from the garage who repaired my driveshaft/steering rack but this garage do not want to get involved with this dispute. 

The service from the RAC has been terrible at best with emails taking 2-3 weeks for a reply, phone calls not allowed and the same email sent to me asking for documents I cannot obtain. 

Has anyone got any advice on how to deal with this? 

I am doing all the work on this claim and still not getting anywhere, I have spent nearly £500 repairing the poor work with more still to go. 

Thanks

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m0bov

Who and how did you pay for the original repairs? Do you have the report from the garage in writing?

Car_54

Who provided the “12 month warranty”? Do you have anything in writing?

Mildly_Miffed

https://www.rac.co.uk/approvedgarages/files/pdf/RACApprovedGarageCharter.pdf

The process for dispute resolution is outlined in the "charter" doc on the RAC's website. If you want them to assist with the resolution, you need to work within that.

"If you disagree with our decision, you can still take the repairer to court"

chrisw

If the second garage who completed the repair don't want to get involved then I think you will struggle. Without their professional opinion, what you're claiming is only hearsay - you might be mistaken or even making it all up.

smelllikewee

Mildly_Miffed said:

The process for dispute resolution is outlined in the "charter" doc on the RAC's website. If you want them to assist with the resolution, you need to work within that.

"If you disagree with our decision, you can still take the repairer to court"

Thanks for this, we are currently in the ADR process at the moment but with the garage who changed the clutch refusing to provide a final decision letter or any contact at all, the process has fallen apart. 

I would consider a court case but I am unsure if I have enough evidence to do this?

smelllikewee

chrisw said:

If the second garage who completed the repair don't want to get involved then I think you will struggle. Without their professional opinion, what you're claiming is only hearsay - you might be mistaken or even making it all up.

Good point, I will try the repairer garage again, I do have the breakdown report from the second breakdown where it states the driveshaft had become detached. 

smelllikewee

m0bov said:

Who and how did you pay for the original repairs? Do you have the report from the garage in writing?

I paid by card on the phone, the garage never supplied a receipt despite me asking for one, the payment online does have the company name on though. I also have text messages from the owner of the garage with updates on the work.,

m0bov

smelllikewee said:

m0bov said:

Who and how did you pay for the original repairs? Do you have the report from the garage in writing?

I paid by card on the phone, the garage never supplied a receipt despite me asking for one, the payment online does have the company name on though. I also have text messages from the owner of the garage with updates on the work.,

Your card provider may well be jointly liable so the claim should be directed to them 

sheramber

smelllikewee said:

m0bov said:

Who and how did you pay for the original repairs? Do you have the report from the garage in writing?

I paid by card on the phone, the garage never supplied a receipt despite me asking for one, the payment online does have the company name on though. I also have text messages from the owner of the garage with updates on the work.,

Credit or debit card?

smelllikewee

Hi all

Thanks for all the replies and advice, sorry for the late reply. I paid by debit card over the phone so I can't fall back on the credit card benefits.

I have recieved the below email from the RAC essentially giving up on the situation now. The garage in question have been (or removed themselves) from the RAC assured garage scheme and are not engaging at all.

Any advice on where to do from here? I'm happy to look into legal action but I have to consider that I am approx £800 out of pocket for repairs so can't justify paying too much in legal fees.