RAC Recovery shocking treatment

Falcon50

I have to put this out there to share my experience with RAC breakdown cover so that others are aware of their false promises on their website that say they will take you home.

I’ve been with the RAC for 15 years and not needed them until now. I have the Recovery option with my membership and my wife and daughter are covered too.

Yesterday my daughters car carrying her, my wife and their elderly friend broke down 90 miles from home.

My daughter called the RAC at 3pm (Tuesday) The RAC mechanic arrived at 5.15pm and said the car couldn’t be fixed there, and they would arrange recovery to bring them home.

At 6:15pm they were told Recovery only operates in normal working hours and they could take them half-way home and they could sleep in the car until the next morning when another recovery truck would take them the second half of the journey. They were gobsmacked by this response from the RAC, as was I. What exactly is it I pay for then?

Subsequently they refused the offer to sleep in the car, so the RAC said they would bring them a hire car to the point of breakdown that they could use for 2 days, and my daughter’s car would be recovered to storage and brought back home with 5 days, therefore possibly leaving my daughter without her car for 3 days!! (FYI it was simple fix but the RAC don’t carry parts).

Then at 7pm the RAC called and told them that they couldn’t get a hire car to them in the evening and could they get a taxi to a big city nearby or the nearest airport that can provide 24h hire car service. The nearest city was a 45 minute taxi drive in the wrong direction to home. Also the RAC told them there was no guarantee a hire car would be available and if so they would have to find overnight accommodation.

Subsequently at this point my wife called me to ask if I would make the 4 hour round trip to collect them as there was no guarantee the RAC could get them home, and also their car was full of luggage, far too much to fit in a smaller taxi and definitely way too much to carry anywhere except from the car to the front door.

As of now the following morning the RAC has provided a hire car to home for my daughter to use for 2 days, but we have had no emails, texts or calls to say were her car is or when it will be returned as it was removed by the recovery firm, who it turns out said when they collected the car at 8pm last night when they were still stranded, that they could of recovered her car and brought it all the way home if the RAC had called them sooner as they were not busy yesterday.

Just to add also that through pure luck the car broke down outside the B&B where my wife, daughter and friend had been staying, and the owner through his kindness allowed them to go back inside into a spare room that was not occupied to keep warm and to sit out the 7 hour ordeal until I rescued them. Also, the immense amount of luggage and shopping they had, the B&B owner allowed them to put in inside the accommodation when her car got taken away by the recovery firm to storage. Can you imagine what would have become of them and their belongings if they were on the roadside in any other location.

What possible business model does the RAC operate were they think it is more efficient to provide hire cars, vehicle storage, taxis etc instead of paying for a recovery truck to take them the 90 mile trip home at 6pm, it wasn’t exactly middle of the night or the other end of the country.

I shall be writing a full complaint and claiming compensation from the RAC for this shocking treatment; the pure suggestion from the RAC that 3 women should sleep in their car overnight is astounding.

Mildly_Miffed

Some of this definitely sounds like Chinese Whispers. RAC recovery is 24/7.

The rest sounds a bit like managing reasonable expectations.

The half-way-home would have been because of driver hours legislation for the recovery operator - it's not unusual to have to swap trucks part-way on a long journey.

Providing a hirecar outside hours? Yes, that's obviously going to be trickier. Car hire companies are the ones with defined operating hours, outside of airports etc…

And if the car is just being recovered without people, it's less time-critical, so no surprise that might take a couple of days - or that parts aren't carried… They're roadside rescue, not a mobile garage.

Full Ts & Cs doc:
https://docs.rac.co.uk/v3/assets/blt2fa9b13d298c768c/bltc7ac2b3d891c7d13/Combined_IM_UK_EU_LEI_Terms.pdf

MayDogsandCoffee

They left my friend stranded for over 8 hours, she is diabetic despite the 5* gold plated option she was paying for due to medical conditions. I would never use them.

Falcon50

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82138440#Comment_82138440

No Chinese Whispers here, just quoting what they said. Yes it should be 24/7, that's what we pay for. Every time my daughter spoke to them they started by saying "so are you at home?"….idiots.