To be absolutely hacked off with Green Flag? [Edited by MNHQ]

[QuestionableMouse]

Car broke down on me today while driving to uni. I managed to limp it into the car park and called green flag after my lecture. It took them almost two hours to reach me (no big deal but not what they advertise)

Mechanic came and plugged it into his machine. It came up with an error code. I asked for it to be taken to the garage I use. He told me he thought it would be okay to drive (35 miles) and kept repeating this when I was asking for it to be recovered.

Drove it to the garage... It conked out on me five or six miles away. Managed to get it off the road and rang green flag again. They initially agreed to come out then after leaving me sitting there for fifteen minutes, rang back to say they weren't coming because it had taken me too long to reach the point where I was. I was basically stranded on the side of the road with a car that wouldn't run.

Luckily my sister and brother in law came for me and we managed (with some very scary moments) to get the car to the garage.

Auburn t

Argh sorry the black bars got me.

Aibu to think they should have come out again? I did everything they advised me to do

I don't understand this bit, that they "rang back to say they weren't coming because it had taken me too long to reach the point where I was". Did they think you had not driven straight to the garage?

I've used Green Flag in the past, and have been v happy with them

That's literally what the man said. Traffic had been quite bad and I hadn't been pushing the car so it took longer than driving it normally would have but I'm not sure what I could have done differently.

Me too. I haven't used them for a while but renewed when I went back to uni because we'd always had great service from them.

DB was with Green Flag when he broke down a few years back. He got through to someone who was extremely surly and got even ruder when he couldn't pinpoint the exact (and I mean exact with co ordinates) name/ location of the place on the motorway he had broken down. They then similarly refused to come.

He later discovered Green Flag franchise out their service to local mechanics in the area, so it's luck who you get. He went back to AA. It was more expensive but service much better.

They sometimes contract out to other recovery companies if they don’t have enough of their own vans, is this what happened? I would certainly complain. However I have had 3 amazing experiences with Greenflag in the past, I’m sickeningly loyal to them!!!

When I broke down Green Flag said they'd be with me in 20 minutes, were there under 15 minutes and transported me (and car) to garage and then home.

Ds cried when they went as we'd got to ride in their pick up truck and for a 2yo that was the best thing ever!
I said he was a nice man. A very very very nice man....

Yep, thinking about cancelling my policy too. They left my stranded at the side of a busy road even though I'd been clear about wanting

The car recovered.

These black bars are making the site horrible to use 😤

When I was with AA it was always a challenge to fix the car before they could (the faulty battery, and the broken distributor cap defeated me).
Now with RAC and they've been very good.

Green flag have been great when we have used them.
Make a formal complaint and have a manager look at the service and advice you received. This makes no sense. Jobsworth decision with no application of common sense.

The mechanic didn't even open the bonnet.

Been in touch with them this morning and they're looking into it. I'm still angry they left me stranded with a car that wouldn't start.

That's awful. I can't believe they left you stranded. I work for a service provider for some breakdown companies and we always try and offer some help.
If we can't find a policy out of hours, we will assist with a disclaimer or offer a number for an operator on our network. Similarly if the fault isn't covered, we'll offer a number for a operator.
Helped someone in their cooling off period before and the breakdown firm refused to pay our costs, as they decided it was fraud...failed to understand how someone delibrately planned to breakdown in a live lane but hey ho.
Definitely complain, emphasise you were a lone female left on a dangerous road. They should have offered something even if they later decided you weren't covered and had to pay for the assistance provided. They also should have listened when you said you did not want to drive it. What was the error?
While warning lights for some of our customers technically aren't covered, if they are pointing to a fault that would cause you to potentially breakdown in a more dangerous position, we can usually justify to the company why we attended.

Not sure of the error but it came up as a crankshaft sensor fault when the mechanic ran the codes. Basically though the car goes from running fine to completely dead and won't restart which is quite scary. Also it's a big heavy car so not like I can push it.

I was very lucky yesterday in that it went while it was on a hill and I could coast it off the side.

Green flag once came out to me in a blizzard when my windscreen wipers stopped working. The mechanic got them working again and I asked how he had done it. His response was 'Magic'.... they stopped working again 10 minutes down the road and they wouldn't come back out because it was a recurring fault! My step dad had to come and tow me home in almost 0% visibility. Never again.

I've just had rather a snotty phone call from them telling me that they're not taking my complaint further because it took over two hours for me to get to the point where I broke down. What I can't seem to get them to understand is that's just how long it took to get there through a combination of me driving slowly and how bad the traffic was. I wasn't driving round on a jolly. They also don't seem to give a shit that without their mechanic saying I was okay to drive I wouldn't have been driving the car in the first place.