Cold, wet and angry

[Wyldfyre]

Stuck on the side of a busy motorway for three hours last night due to the RAC's definition of priority and their grasp of geography - I was originally told 40 minutes and the contractor they eventually sent came from a town over an hour and a half away. And they didn't send him until if been there a while and they sent him to a job before me as it was closer to the town he was coming from.
Having a rear wheel blow out at 70mph is scary enough, let alone when you have lorries thundering by.
To make things worse, it was raining and I didn't have a waterproof - having taken it out of the car (where I always keep it) on my day off so I could walk to the shops and forgetting to put it back. I also wasn't within walking distance of anywhere safe (about a mile from the nearest slip road but not in my opinion a safe route to walk).
Two police cars drove by, neither of which stopped to see in the lone and shivering woman was ok - so much for the motto "Keeping People Safe".
In the end, a guy who had been going NB when I first broke down stops to ask if I was ok when he passed SB two hours later and despite living miles away have me his phone number and said he'd come back and pick me up if the RAC failed to arrive. (So a little faith in humanity restored)

I broke down just after 6 and got off the motorway after 9pm.

WIBU to formally complain to the RAC?

UPDATE:

Police complaint- police say they can't do anything about officers driving past as I can't identify the individuals but that they will learn from this. Letter afterwards laughingly said it had been "resolved to your satisfaction" - ummm no, I just recognise nothing can be done.

RAC complaint - they've offered me £60.

I suppose the thing is, though, we all read it to pass our tests but most of us probably never look at it again

Sadly, a lot of youngsters seem to be preparing for the theory test by using apps, and not actually reading the Highway Code.

So it doesn't surprise me that people don't know.

It sounds like a horrible situation however when the weather is bad, this could mean a lot of additional work for them I suspect. Whilst it's annoying, there were obviously higher priorities

1. You were not a lone female - you said there were a couple of others in the car
2. It's not their fault that you didn't have a coat / umbrella in your vehicle and therefore got wet
3. The police could have been on their way to an incident, what would you expect them to do?

We broke down at Easter on the M6. Rear tyre blow out like you. The AA took about an hour and changed to the spare tyre so we could drive to the nearest garage. A pain and a wait but not as bad as your experience.

They also reached DH within 30 mins of the clutch going on a busy roundabout. The police towed him to a safe layby within 10 mins.

They've been pretty good on the whole.

Ice,
1 - I was alone
2 - I appreciate that but it's still unpleasant
3 - police have then new fangled invention called a radio, which allows them to convey information to a central control room. I know several coppers, all of whom said it's appalling that I was left and control we're not notified (particularly as the stretch I was on is particularly bad for accidents, including a marked car on blues being rear ended on the hard shoulder as it sat behind a stopped vehicle a couple of years back)

A second tyre blow out within a month - same wheel, same road (different section), same speed (70mph) and another £65 to replace it!

Dicing with death twice in the space of a few weeks. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

At least this time I managed to get to a service station, whereas last time I way left at the side of the Motorway for 3 hours by the RAC.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Autoaid. www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/

It's a damn sight cheaper than AA/RAC (for equivalent cover) and their setup means they contact the nearest recovery truck to your location, rather than relying on their own fleet.

All that for £40ish a year for the driver not the car (including spouse cover too). Having had had it pay its worth many many times over when I had a car with an intermittent fault before, I can't rate them highly enough.

Sounds like a bad experience op.

I must say however, they've always been great with us, when we were younger and had older less reliable cars we had them out a few times and they were always fairly quick and got us sorted.

The thing I object to is them trying to charge ridiculous amounts to renew every year, then when you ring they can suddenly manage to charge you less....

They were great today. With me in less than an hour, and changed to the space saver.

We use Green Flag, who seem to be very good. They send out local mechanics, and we've never waited more than 30 minutes, even when the car wouldn't start at home (def not a priority).