Had to use breakdown cover for the first time ever yesterday and just wanted to know if our experience was the norm.
Travelling from London to Devon and we heard a loud snap from under the car. The steering was loose and the wheels were grinding and squeaking. A mechanic arrived after 4 hours, told us it was the brake pads 
and that they are designed to do that so you know when you change them. I pressed him many times asking if the car was safe as we had ds3 and dd5 in the car. He assured us it was, then took the keys and actually did a doughnut with the car in front of us and drove round the block like crazy to prove his point. All this with the dogs in the back.
Just before we got on the m25 the back wheel fell completely off. Called them back, waited another 3 hours then they towed us to junction 10 and told to wait for next tow truck. 4 hours later, 3am at this point, they said tow truck wasn't coming and they were getting us a hotel, jumped in a cab to hotel but no booking found. Took another hour and finally in the room by 4am.
They called us at 7:30am (today) and said a cab was coming to take us back to the car and a tow truck was on the way. No cab arrived, had to book our own. The tow truck finally arrived at the services at 11am, we were towed to Salisbury and dropped off at 2pm. The next tow truck picked us up at 3:30 and we are now finally on the road home with 2 exhausted kids, 2 dogs, a 3 wheeled car full of Christmas gifts and absolutely no money.
Is this normal? I'm seriously tempted to cancel the breakdown cover and just pay in to an emergency pot to cover any future breakdowns. I didn't know breakdown companies didn't have their own tow trucks and sub contract the work out to local companies, who only take you to the edge of their area then dump you off for the next guy!