UKC

My parents, both retired, went away for a few days.  They had car problems and called the RAC who said up to 90 minutes.  2 hours later they hadn’t been in touch, so parents called again, to be told it was a 5 hour wait and this had been known to be the case all day.

Eventually after 4 hours someone from a local garage turned up and made a temporary repair.  

I was under the impression that paying a vast sum of money to the RAC was to avoid this sort of situation.  They could have called a local garage themselves if the first call handler had told the truth.  

What I’d like to know is if this is a one off, or is RAC service often this bad?  I’ve never had this from the AA, always a uniformed patrol, always on time, and phone calls to let me know what’s happening.  

Have I just been lucky?  Should I suggest my parents take their business elsewhere?  

If they do change, I would avoid Green Flag. They denied I was insured when in a real mess and then phoned my wife at home about 3 hours later to say they got it wrong! I called the AA and they were really good and most concerned first about my safety where I stuck (bad spot) and then sorted me out in a horrible snow storm.

The above sounds unreasonable service to me.

I've used the AA quite a few times over the years and I've never had that sort of wait, and have always had a uniformed patrol arrive even up in the North of Scotland. 

I've never used the RAC but have never had a problem with the AA. As others people have said, they call to keep you informed on timings and the longest I've had to wait is about 2 hours. 5 hours sounds excessively bad no matter the circumstances. 

Thanks everyone.  

I've waited around 4 hours for the AA on two occasions. Both were when my motorbike broke down, and I was sat in the dark on the pavement, getting cold. They constantly told me someone would be there in 20-30mins for the whole 4 hour period.

We use the one that comes with nationwide bank account and both times they've come out in under 90 minutes, neither times was I in a high priority dangerous situation either. Both times during rush hour. Both times local garages but fine service. I'd go ape if your thing happened to me and ask for a refund of part of the year then leave them.

That sounds too long a wait.

I understand that the "Big 3" (AA, RAC, Green Flag) have a reciprocal arrangement to help each other out and have experienced this when ringing Green Flag and half an hour later an AA man arrived! He explained this to me and also said that they prioritise calls depending on the person needing help. Women on their own, the disabled and the elderly should get priority at busy times.

I would complain to the RAC and see what they have to say, bearing in mind that your parents are elderly.

Regarding Green Flag, I've been with them for 10 years and been very satisfied with them, 2 hours being the longest wait when I got a puncture on a very steep hill and didn't want to risk using the car jack for fear of the car rolling down the hill. 

I've only had to call out any breakdown service once in the last ten years, it was the RAC, it was about two in the afternoon on a mid week day ,good weather and right in the middle of the central belt of Scotland.

They initially told me it could be up to 4 hours or possibly more and I said that simply wasn't good enough, I could travel hundred's of miles in that time (if my car was working) so why in an area that wasn't rural in good weather and not the rush hour would I have to wait so long.

I argued they must be understaffed if it was going to take that long under those conditions.

they eventually turned up after about 3 hours.

I've since moved to the AA but haven't had to use them yet.

Thanks for the other side of the story.  Did they give you any excuse or apology?  

Running 7 vans plus a motorbike I have had lots of experience with breakdown cover. I have had contracts with the RAC and Green Flag (and national breakdown before they became green flag). Me and mine have been attended to in various time lines from 1 to 3 hours normally with the odd 4 hour plus and one 5 hour wait followed by none of their drivers having enough tacho hours to get me home. What does annoy me is their insistence on sending a van out first. I understand they have a protocol to follow but when you have told them that the bottom of the engine has dropped out and is laying on the road under the van it just wastes lots of time.

Never been with the AA due to shocking service. They might have changed now but 25 years ago I used to moonlight as a recovery driver for a local garage who had a contract with the AA. More often than not the stranded person was very angry due to being left waiting for hours when I had only got the phone call 30 minutes before hand. 

No. Both times it seemed to be a similar situation to the one Dax H has been aware of, where a recovery van from a private garage had been called by the AA to attend. They'd been called 30 minutes prior to their arrival. I've since got my moneys worth though, having been relayed for 22 hours, 540 miles, from Glencoe to Devon.

I once broke down in Suith Uist, on New Year's day, on a road that runs from the West to the east coast. I broke down half way across. It was pissing down and the car's electrics had just become waterlogged.

The map had a telephone box marked on it at the East end of the road beside the only two houses on that side of the island. As I was marginally closer to the East side than the West I decided to walk there. Guess what? There was no phone box and no one in the houses.

I walked back to the car which still refused to go and then on to the other side of the Island where I fund a phone and called the AA. When I called the AA and told them where I had broken down I was told "oh you'll not get anyone to come out and see you there today, you'll need to wait until the third."

We started hitching back down the road to the Gatliffe Trust hostel we were staying in and a crofter stopped to pick us up. We explained why we were walking and at once he turned his van round and drove the ten or so miles back to our car and then towed it back to the hostel, thus avoiding a two day wait.

I also managed to reverse my car into a culvert outside Gualin lodge which is half way between Kinlochbervie and Durness. Luckily there was still a phone box there and the AA sent someone up from Lochinver in a reasonable time.

On the whole I'm reasonably happy with the AA.

I get RAC cover through the bank, it's fairly ok cover and should get me home from anywhere in the UK, I upgraded after a Renault Scenic let me down and I had to pay for recovery.

I've only really had to wait a long time on a bank holiday weekend and they admitted at the time it would be a long wait because of the demand.

The best time (apart from the car breaking) was while on the way to lundy, they arranged to take the car home separately and sent a taxi to drive us from wellington to ilfracombe in order to meet the ferry. All covered in the membership fee. We had to sort our own transport home though.

D.

they wouldn't come out to us at all 70 miles from home on a winter (December 22nd) evening because I admitted the road had been wet.  That was after I'd walked some distance to a shop to borrow a phone, so my relief was short lived.  It took us 24 hours to get home - managed to bodge/get jumpstarts and limp the car to my brother's without any windscreen wipers and on sidelights only.  The alternator had failed and so we could only run the engine till the battery went flat.   We got home the next day nervous wrecks as we had to ensure we had a safe landing zone every time the battery went flat and and we had to beg more help from strangers.

All this despite paying for their service for years and years without a callout.

RAC are total thieves and even though this happened in 2012 I still get really worked up just remembering it.  My wife and 2 kids were in the car, supposedly a return trip to 9 Lessons and Carols in Durham Cathedral, but the RAC left us abandoned in the dark and without the medication 2 of us take!

SOD THEM

I've had to call the RAC twice in the last 4/5 weeks. Ive had a combined waiting time of nearly 10 hours. Complained both times and have received a total of £90 compensation.

Definately wont be renewing my membership

A whimsical story rather than practical advice.  The only time I ever had to call up the RAC was in Tasmania and it was the Tasmanian RAC.  Van shuddered in a weird way when started.  Phoned them up and they were profusely apologetic as they wouldn't be able to get to us for....forty-five minutes!  The bloke turned up after half an hour, lifted the bonnet and plugged the loose spark plug back in.  "She'll be right now mate!".  Happy days, wonderful country, and yes I really should have been able to sort that one out myself!

My experiences with the AA:

1 - 2008 - a car wouldn’t start at a trailhead, lift pump not running.  AA there in 60 minutes, quick fault find of their own, tow home on a rigid bar - I was given the choice of hoiking the front up or going on the bar (quicker).  A moron tried to pull in between me and the tow truck.  How can anyone be that f——-g stupid?  Big flashing lights, half meter gap between the tow truck and my car etc.  It was really weird driving a car on  a rigid bar - quiet, diesel rattle free, heavy strering and heavy brakes.  

2 & 3 - 2015 and 2018 - To my total and eternal shame I have twice called the AA out to charge a flat battery.  Total inexcusible mupetry.  (Although I have the means to jump start from a kind passer by, it’s a last resort as I don’t want to fry an ECU on either car doing a live start, and I’d feel a right dick asking them to spend 10 minutes charging my battery over jump cables from them when I was safely parked up in a car park in daylight).  Both times less than a 60 minute wait, with the recent one having SMS updates and live tracking via their mobile app.  I didn’t get nearly enough stick from them for being a moron, and they monitored the charging with a clamp ammeter and a voltmeter to check nothing was going wrong.  

The AA have been fantastic every time I've had to call them for some form of stupidity, including replacing my battery after I came back from a last-minute three moths in Dubai for work, breaking into my car when I locked the key inside, and breaking into my car so I could get my house key when I plain lost my key. They were equally fantastic when my ex girlfriend called them having had a...tyre malfunction...whilst on the M40, and again after a badger did a number on her car driving to Cornwall. Can't fault them in the slightest.

Avoid Green Flag. 

Couldn't get through one Sunday afternoon after being kept on hold for an hour and a half, car in peak District with destroyed clutch....gave up and called then next day. Another time they totally screwed up delivering a replacement hire car despite me baby sitting them through the process - I  knew they would mess is up so gave them help every step of the way - every facet if their operation is outsourced.  Total jackassery if you fall between the cracks of their various SLA's with their contractors. 

????D.

I've always found the AA really excellent. Can't really fault them.

I've never used the RAC, but was with the AA for years and they were appalling. Never again. 

I now use AutoAid. Cheap and reliable. They just send out a local garage straight away, rather than waiting 3 hours for the AA to do the same 

I’ve been waiting about 11 years for a particular AA callout!

when there was major flooding around southeast England and the Welsh borders, many cars got stranded when water from very deep puddles got into the engines. Yes it happened to me too, around Evesham. After struggling for an hour to get through by phone I was told it could be a 7 hour wait. Somehow I got my car started again , got to higher land and had a short sleep in it. Drove home in the morning. Never got a message from AA saying they were on their way

the RAC decided we had driven through a flood (it was actually heavy spray from a thin layer of water standing on the A66 in December (not unusual) and once the operator had decided this she refused to listen to me any more and simply decided we were not covered.  There was fllooding around that day in some areas of N England but they just abandoned us.  I was so traumatised by the experience of them not delivernig on a contract for "peace of mind" I couldn't even contact them to complain and as i said I still get worked up just remembering their shitty robbing theiving behaviour to someone who had been a member for a long time but never called them out till then.

Robbing ArseHole Conmen

(enduring a thunderstorm bivvy on the Eiger during a late descent after the Mittellegi ridge was a mild experience by comparison)

The Buggins family never have this poblem. Our showfer is a fully qualfied mechanic and our Rolls Canardly is fully eqipped with a comprensive tool kit

Rolls Royce don't break down they "fail to proceed"

As for the breakdown companies, used them all, goes with the territory of having older more temperamental and unusual cars and doing lots of miles. the look on the technicians face when confronted with 18 feet of 60's American muscle car that had blown a piston was priceless, his little towing dolly was not going to help.

They have all been both brilliant and rubbish in equal measures, depends on the day and the person who turns up. AA still do the relay which is a PITA, where RAC / Green flag drive you all the way.  The phone operators are in whole different world though, even basic knowledge of the difference between north and south bound carriage way seem to elude them.

I think with all of them YMMV. 

I haven't called a breakdown service in recent years. The AA always served me well back in the day, but when the recent snow hit Newcastle, I pulled over to help a guy stuck on a hill in his automatic rear wheel drive German speed machine. I had snow chains on, but nothing to pull him out with. He flagged down an AA patrol van, who said he couldn't help as he might get his own van stuck.

He did lend me a strap to pull the guy out, but pretty poor service when snow storms are forecast and the "fourth emergency service" hasn't got chains.

As others have said, AutoAid are significantly better than AA/RAC/Green Flag etc.  They don't bother with the badged vans - they just send the nearest breakdown vehicle straight to you, so they're generally much quicker to respond than the badged providers.  And they cost £40/year!

Used Autoaid for 15 years now. Fast, efficient and on two occasions (with children in the car) provided service beyond the contract. A third the price of the rest with no expensive advertising campaign to pay for. Highly recommended.

I can't believe a breakdown service won't cover you for driving through a flood! What else do they exclude?

As far as I'm aware AutoAid don't have any exclusions. I can't see why anyone would bother with AA or RAC given the ripoff price. Especially since the AA are notorious for silently auto-renewing people for years with a massive hike in premium.

Some friends are currently in dispute with RAC about a similar incident with a lone woman (supposedly priority) waiting for 4+ hrs.

I've only needed recovery twice, once with the AA and once with a local company (Millford recovery of Swansea) that are contractors of recovery cover on LV insurance. Admittedly the AA were good but other than being a bit scruffy Milford did a perfectly fine job and arrived within the hour and are significantly cheaper than the AA.

As a kid I remember breaking down in the campervan near York and the AA sending out three progressively bigger vehicles to recover us. The first bloke in an Escort van confirmed what my dad had told them, the second bloke in a low top Transit didn't even get out of his van and cursed "Why the bloody hell have they send me out to this, there's no way I can tow that!" and the third bloke turned up in an enormous truck that could have recovered two of our vans and then drove us all the way from York to Cardiff.

I was driving up to Scotland one time, by myself and my car broke down. I phoned the RAC, it was dark, explained I was by myself etc.  1hr later I called them again and they said some one would be with me soon. 1hr later I called again and got the same response and it was another hour before a guy came from a local garage. He didnt even look at my car, just hitched it up to a trailer and drove me home.

Try Britannia Rescue - good, flexible and polite service from them at home and abroad.  Seems quite a contrast to the experiences reported here.

thsnkd for the tip - I'll look at it when I come to renew

Thank you everyone, it''s helpful to have so much input and several options.  Dad is already onto complaining, I wouldn't dare do it for him, he may be older but he is still quite capable!  He still gets out kayaking quite regularly too.  He wouldn't like me to see him as old.  It's still unacceptable though to leave them so long without good reason and communication.  

I've had to wait several days (once, blown up gearbox, bad nationwide snow) and I've had them turn up promptly to resolve my problem (several times, various issues). Sometimes they're just busier than they're equipped to handle gracefully and affordably (bank holidays, harsh weather etc or bad luck in remote areas with little provision and multiple simultaneous demands through chance). They should communicate honestly. There's plenty of competition if your folks aren't satisfied but it's always going to be a bit of a lottery what they'll get on the day they actually need them.

jk

Out of interest, why can't you believe this?

Plus one for Aussie RAC - locked my keys in the car and he was with me within half an hour!

We have no idea whether they're 'elderly' or not. All we know is that they're retired.

that's for the defence to say, all T is doing is talking up the case for the plaintiff, mild tactics compared with what that band of crooks deserve

Objection sustained. Your witness.