RAC Failure to Respond or Attend Breakdown

SpringFly

Hi all,

Hoping for your opinions on an RAC member situation (complaint in progress). Thanks in advance.

My partner and I broke down in a live lane of a dual carriageway on an exceptionally busy traffic day - a Saturday. Hazards on, exited car to the safest location possible. A very dangerous scenario.

Contacted insurer through whom breakdown cover (full cover) was purchased. Their app transferred us to an RAC portal. Reported the breakdown via this method within minutes of breakdown occurring.

App sent a link via text to a form to complete (not a convenient place to fill out an online form!). Upshot was to call 999 to arrange police assistance due to being in a live lane.

Called 999. While awaiting the police's arrival continued attempting to contact the RAC (by phone this time - have call records to prove this) - each time received a new 'Report Breakdown' form by text which continued to reiterate to call 999. Groundhog Day-style loop of text links and forms ensued.

Police arrived (were amazing), closed lane, took over diverting trucks around stranded vehicle. I also went through the RAC form in front of one of the response officers who was incredulous. Never heard a peep from the RAC even after reporting our breakdown multiple times both via their online portal and calling by phone (prior to police arriving on scene).

Due to urgency the police took the decision to call for alternative assistance as the situation was dangerous albeit made safe enough for our vehicle to be recovered. Recovery arrived promptly, car was towed on flat-bed to safe location. Which ended up being a police compound.

Police re-opened lane and delivered us safely to a nearby train station for onward travel.

Contacted RAC again & spoke to a real human at last. Sadly very unhelpful. Said the RAC could not attend due to us no longer being with the vehicle (we couldn't be with the vehicle as it was now at a police compound). Stymied and abandoned. Tried but couldn't contact the compound until Monday as it operated in a 'recovery only' capacity at weekends. No option to speak to a member of staff.

Travelled by train from there onwards.

Further call to RAC who said they'd send a technician to the vehicle. Contacted compound first thing Monday who believed RAC (as we were members) would attend the vehicle by appointment and report on what had failed and attempt fix if possible. Awaited news. None came. (Have since requested report from RAC but nothing forthcoming).

Received a notification by text that recovery would be attempted on Monday. Hurray! No-one showed up. Same story on Tuesday. No show.

Find out that recovery company attended on Tuesday but stood down due to non-payment of police's recovery company's cost, which we learn at this point goes up by the day at 12pm. Compound believed this to be RAC's responsibility. Clearly, the RAC don't agree.

We agree to pay the compound/recovery bill to get vehicle back to a garage for repair close to home address. Told by compound that we can't pay until recovery company is actually on site. Stymied again. Wednesday - no RAC-organised recovery company shows up…again. Another day's charges added.

Wednesday afternoon. Complain to RAC. Finally receive a call from them (the one and only time they contacted us) to assure that recovery will be attempted on Thursday. Compound accepted our payment when recovery company arrived on site and vehicle was returned home. A full five days after the breakdown occurred.

Submit a detailed complaint through RAC complaints procedure outlining multiple let-downs and failures. Key facts being that a/ we reported our breakdown at the time of the incident (multiple times), b/ no-one contacted us let alone attended our call for help, c/ had the RAC attended after the police closed the lane a single recovery journey to our home address would've been required, d/ additional costs mounted up due to RAC no-shows accruing unnecessary additional charges totalling (including police-organised recovery cost) £297.00, plus onward travel.

For clarity we have submitted a claim for the full £297 + train fares.

To-date we have received a 'final response' upholding only one of our complaints (that being a single day's delay in recovery which is factually incorrect - it was 4 days). Replied to say that our complaint is not yet closed and suppled further evidence of phone records showing times contact with RAC were made (at the roadside) and texts from the RAC re recovery arrangements which never happened. No further contact has been received thus far from the 'customer service' department.

Will I receive further contact in your opinion? How long should I wait before I consider escalating the complaint? Do you feel the complaint is valid?

Any points you can make on the situation will be received with gratitude. Please be kind, it was a genuine emergency and breakdown situation!

Many thanks for getting to the end, it's a long story!

All the best.

Aylesbury_Duck

Shouldn't it be your insurer to whom the complaint should be initially directed? Worth reading the terms. Was this breakdown cover from "any provider" paid for through the policy, or was it specifically RAC membership for you provided by the policy?

There's a legitimate complaint about the RAC here, but as far as your consumer rights go, they may not sit with the RAC.

Boohoo

Have a look at this MSE thread about RAC.

They had an issue and it got resolved to their satisfaction.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069215#Comment_82069215?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=rac

SpringFly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116203#Comment_82116203

Thanks for your insight, Aylesbury_Duck. I'll look into this next. Your reply is very much appreciated.

SpringFly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116258#Comment_82116258

Many thanks Boohoo. I'll check out the thread asap. Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

born_again

Question on this as car was in Live lane, would RAC even attend or move it without police or Highway agency attendance to close lane off?

Jenni_D

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116462#Comment_82116462

A fair question, but .. the Police did attend and close the lane, yet the RAC still didn't attend. (The OP makes this clear - they even tried contacting the RAC whilst an officer was standing next to them).

Isthisforreal99

How long between your first report to RAC to police arriving and the transporter they arranged turning up?

Ultimately if all their patrols were busy they can't just magic someone uo to attend so I think an idea of the timeline is needed.

Keep_pedalling

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116475#Comment_82116475

The police will want any vehicle off a live lane in the shortest possible time they are not going to rely on the RAC (or any other breakdown service) to turn up at their leisure.

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116511#Comment_82116511

The OP said the RAC never turned up and the Police arranged transporter to take vehicle to compound.

The RAC responder did turn up but the car was off motorway and in a compound.

No time line given but still a poor show by RAC

Myci85

I feel your complaint is very valid, and would be equally as frustrated by the fact you've got breakdown cover but essentially had to find your own way of dealing with the situation.

I've had success using Resolver website to handle a complaint for me in the past and it made the process very straightforward (this was relating to airline compensation for cancelled flight) and we eventually received the maximum payout. You do have to exhaust the companies own complaints procedure first however, whether that would be RAC or your insurer I'm not sure.