To think it's not worth me being an RAC member

[StrandedonM6]

I've name changed for this to avoid links to my previous posts.

I'm an RAC member and have been for about 20 years. On Friday night I had car troubles on the M6 and pulled into the services. I stopped next to a car that was being tended to by the AA and was chatting to the couple while trying to work out what was wrong with the car. The AA guy said it was probably dangerous to drive and on learning I was an RAC member said to call them.

I called them at 9.30pm and told them I was a lone adult female with two children in the car - one of them a baby under 4 months old. They said I would be flagged as the highest priority in the area and someone would be with me in under two hours but I would receive a text update within 15 minutes.

I received no text update so at 10.30pm I called back and was told no marker had been put on the job to say I was high priority and they would do that now and phone me back immediately with a response time.

At 11pm having still not received a call back I rang them back to be told "you're not the only priority you know" and that the response time would be 4 hours (so 3am). I told them my phone battery was low and I was worried staying at the services until 3am with a small baby (who i was running out of bothles for) and another child. They said they would put me on hold and see what they could sort. When she put me on hold she cut me off.

I rang back and spoke to someone different who said they were going to get a private contractor to come out to me and would call me back in 15 minutes with an arrival time.

Just before midnight I rang back as hadn't heard anything. Was told they had been unable to identify a private contractor and at present they had no idea what the arrival time would be but 3am looked unlikely and it would more likely be the next morning. They offered to book me a taxi home which I accepted. They rang back 5 minutes later saying the taxi was on its way and would be with me in 10 minutes. I also got a notification text with the taxi details.

At 12.30ish I rang the taxi that hadn't arrived and he was at the services but southbound instead of northbound. I rang back RAC who confirmed I had told them northbound and cancelled that taxi saying they had booked another one and it would be with me in another 10 minutes. Again I got a confirmation text.

Just before 1am I rang RAC back as the second taxi hadn't arrived. Got told that taxi had cancelled the job immediately but RAC hadn't thought yo either book another one or contact me. They said they were struggling to book another one but would ring me back in 5 minutes.

In the meantime the original taxi (the one originally on the wrongside of the M6) arrived. The taxi driver said RAC had cancelled the job but after having spoken to me he was concerned I was stranded and as he had to pass the northbound services anyway he thought he'd check so he took us home. I rang and notified the RAC who said they would pay the driver.

At 5am (yes 5am) the RAC phoned to say there would be a delay getting someone to us. I told him we had got a taxi home and were not with the vehicle. He said oh good as it would be about 7am before anyone would be there.

At 10am a private contractor phoned to say he was on his way. He had been told by the RAC I had been with my vehicle all night and was expecting to pick up us and the car. I explain to get the keys and asked if he thought he could fix it. He said he wasn't there to fix it (though thought it was a simple enough job) but was there to put it on a low-loader and take it to a garage where I could then sort out repairs with the garage.

There really is no point to my RAC membership is there?

That sounds utterly dreadful service, YANBU at all

The RAC are awful. I’ve not had the best experience with the AA either. I’m currently with start rescue. Never had to use them so no idea if they are any good but at least they are much cheaper.
Do complain to the RAC about the service you received because that was exceptionally bad.

That is truly awful. The times I needed to use the RAC when I was with them were always good. When I blew a tyre and they didn't have a match, they towed me to a garage in my home time. They arrived in reasonable time. It was a few years ago though, so I hope they haven't gone downhill.

We left the RAC some years ago after experiencing a similar terrible (lack of) response after a blown tyre in a remote area - we were saved only by our friend who happened to live in the area. We called them in desperation and he knew how to change to an emergency wheel, and came out and fixed it for us sufficiently that we could drive home and then get the proper fix done at a garage the next day. Otherwise we'd probably still be there waiting. Two kids with us, absolutely no service or urgency from the RAC. They just had no incentive or motivation to send anyone out for many hours.

I think the RAC are coasting on their name and reputation - but the actual service vanished long ago. They really are shit.

Currently with Britannia Rescue who have been extremely good.

Wow that sounds insanely bad. They should have a policy after 10pm of if we can’t get to you within 2 hours they provide a taxi or overnight accommodation automatically. Funnily enough I am with RAC and my car broke down outside my house last week they had a flatbed to take it to a garage within 2 hours I was amazed it was so quick considering I was at home and in no rush as the car is broken (still broken and stuck in garage)
They can obviously get some of it right just not when it really matters

This is why we cancelled the RAC because they have gone from a good breakdown company to a totally unreliable breakdown company.

We are with the AA now but luckily have not had to call them out yet so we do not know what their service is like.

That’s appalling. I hope you’re going to complain and cancel the membership.

That's terrible, this simply isn't good enough.

My daughter and her boyfriend had a similar experience about 4 years ago. Stranded by the side of the A34 for hours late one night when his car broke down. He was covered by RAC, but when they hadn’t arrived , after about 4 hours we called the AA - we have a family policy and our daughter was on it . ( we didn’t call AA immediately as we assumed the RAC would come ) The AA came and sorted it . The RAC contacted 7 hours later saying they were in their way .
Daughters boyfriend told them AA had helped them , put in a complaint to RAC and got his years membership payment back and Joined the AA . RAC are awful .

So I am with Green Flag. Their service has been excellent. Takes an hour or so for them to get there, but their independent garages are knowledgeable and my DS got transported back to us for several hundred miles.

Do not forget that breakdown and recovery is an insurance product subject to the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service so I would be complaining and asking for compensation (I would be looking for a minimum of £500 and an apology for what was terrible service).

I don't think the AA are much better. May have been my fault but they auto renewed me at a ridiculous price so I swore I would never use them again. That said they were always pretty good in terms of time and efficiency when they came out.

I am with RAC now, but I think the response time is very much down to availability and occasionally at peak times the response times can be long.

Even if you are a lone female, their priority is probably to get broken down cars out of dangerous positions on hard shoulders rather than deal with people who are reasonably safely parked up in service stations.

I think like most things these days, if you want priority service you actually have to pay for a higher level of membership.

That's dire! I use Auto Aid, only sixty odd quid and have been good so far.

I've been a member of the AA for approximately 40 years and have had to call them out at least 7 times, probably a lot more. I've called as a lone woman, a lone woman with tiny children, and a lone woman with older children. I've called at night in a dodgy area of London, at night on the motorway, on a bank holiday weekend in the middle of deepest darkest Wales, etc. I've never had anything less than superb service from them. I'd change to the AA if I were you.

Sorry to go off-topic, but please make sure you've paid for parking at the services or you'll be facing a penalty charge, too, if you were there for more than 2 hours.

I can't see any reason to be a member of the RAC or AA but I've had breakdown insurance with both as add-ons to regular car insurance. I found the RAC more responsive and more helpful than the AA. Having broken down a month or so into a year of AA cover, I read the small print and realised it only covers one call-out a year, so I've had to take out yet another insurance policy to cover breakdowns for the rest of the year. It's fortunate I did, as I recently hit a massive pothole and had to call out the breakdown service.

We broke down in Bristol in February and had to wait 5 hours for RAC to come out. We rang at 5.45, but you can't speak to anyone, you have to do it all by numbers, or the app. They kept updating the app and the time kept changing from 8pm to 11pm to 1am and so on and so on. We had no other options as we lived 1.5 hours away, so we had to wait for them.

I reported it was 3 women including 1 teen and 1 disabled in a strange city at night , hoping that we would be a priority, but we weren't as we were city centre and not stranded at the side of the motorway.

Once the van did get to us, the engineer was fantastic, and he followed us to the first junction in case we had any issues, which we did , so came off again, and he had another look at the vehicle and off we went again. We got home around 2am I think, after calling them at 5.45pm.

They sent an email asking for a review, which I did . RAC then contacted me and told me to file a complaint, so I did. They offered me £60 compensation and told me on 28 Feb that the cheque was in the post......

I have had to chase it twice and apparently another one is on the way. The whole company is a farce.

AA aren't much better. My parents recently had a bad experience with them and have been members for 40-50 years..

I've just left the RAC after many years of membership . Their quote for this year's renewal was over £100 more than last year's (hadn't called them out all year), totally over £460. Ridiculous price. Switched to AA, who were much cheaper - fingers crossed the service will be ok if I ever need them.

I've only ever had to call out Green Flag and I i wouldn't ever use them again. All the dispatched mechanic wanted to do was tow my car to his garage so that he could start billing me for work. There was absolutely no attempt made to diagnose and fix the car by the side of the road.

My experience is that like insurance they like to get you on auto renew. So cheap for the first year, then they thump you on the second if you are lax about cancelling.

10 hours wait is ridiculous alongside all the other elements.
I'd definitely be complaining, expecting renumeration and I'd probably cancel the service.

That is utterly disgusting. What is worse than this level of service is the fact that they will have zero level of complaints procedure to be able to highlight the issues or even recompense you for such a horrid experience.

Had similar with aa. Green flag the best I've found so far as use local garages

I use rescue my car now much much cheaper and tend to use local garages ( probably won't repair at the roadside but get the car where it needs to be and relatively quickly). Not had any trouble calling them so far...

I believe that you were not high priority, because you were safely parked at the services & not stranded on the side of a motorway

I have had a similar experience
Parked in services
RAC came & could not fix
I waited in the car & in the services
They paid for taxi After many hours
I left keys at the services
They delivered the vehicle on a low loader lorry the next day

I have contacted RAC & AA over the years
Mostly received great service from them

You were perfectly safe at the services. Even with two young babies. They have food, shelter, toilets and I'm sure you can even buy a phone charger! It's certainly annoying and inconvenient, but you weren't unsafe.

What was wrong with the car in the end?