Damn AA are feckin useless

[DamnAAStuckWithFlatTyre]

Lone parent here with no one to come and help. I am alone with my 7 year old who has ADHD.

Called Skoda breakdown at around 6:10pm as I have a puncture. I know I can't change the wheel myself, I've tried before and I'm not strong enough.

The breakdown service is provided by the AA.

Initially the tracking page said 7:05pm, then 7:25pm, then 8:25pm, now 8:55pm - nearly 3 hours after my initial call and 2 hours after they were supposed to arrive.

I understand that we're not a priority because we're not stuck at the side of the motorway but honesly, this is such shitty service.

I hope you’re home now, but in future make sure you have the details of your local mobile mechanic - ours have all sorts of standard tyres in stock and you can ring them anytime of day or night and they’ll come out and help you.

First of all why do you need to tell us your child has ADHD. Not relevant. Cancel your AA membership?

Yes what had adhd got to do with a tyre?

RAC are also absolutely useless. I would avoid. My policy is through my insurance company and unfortunately I had only selected roadside. We broke down in the way home from holiday and hour into the journey. I did get the car off the road onto a carpark. We waited about 7 hours, they couldn't fix the car on the roadside, it was Friday and no garages nearby (10miles) for a tow. The only solution was a mobile mechanic on Monday or pay for private 300mile tow home.

Car was repaired on Monday, drove home and then broke again Wednesday pretty much the same problem. I managed to get the car back home as was only a short journey. Trying to get them to come back out too look at the car was an absolute shit show. Waiting for a week for an appointment, for them to then send a mechanic to the car park I had called then from 10 days previously - not my home like I had explained on the phone.

The actual mechanics I have spoken to have all been all pleasant and helpful and informative. The people over the phone and in the contact centre have not been.

Will they charge you for the tyre? If so is there a mobile tyre fitting service near you that you could use instead? It may cost a little extra but worth it not to be waiting for 3 hours.

Obviously the safety issue of keeping a bored, hyperactive child at the side of the road for 2.5 hours. It is impossible to keep her still. She was actually pretty good (had been at school all day then 1.5 hours of dance class) but can be very impulsive and I'd worry about her running into the road etc.

Just to update, after calling them back multiple times the AA van arrived just after 8:30pm. I can't fault the AA mechanic - he was great.

The most frustrating thing was they said it would be 1/2 an hour but they didn't stick to that and then seeing the time go up and up was so frustrating. If I'd known it was going to take that long, we could have gone and waited elsewhere.

Reading everyone else's stories, it looks like we actually got quite lucky though.

I am definitely not renewing with AA. I think National Breakdown are the best for using local garages?

We didn't get home till 9:30 and my daughter did not end up getting to sleep until after 10:30, at that point she was really disregulated and missed the normal wind-down routine.

Because OP was hoping for prefertial treatment. Dropping ADHD opens doors. You should try it!

A completely knobhead from the RAC made me drive 30 miles home without a clutch, because he couldn't be bothered to load my car onto his recovery truck, despite me having the bells and whistles subscription. At the end of it, my engine was completely fucked, and I had to scrap the car. Changing to the AA was the next thing I did that week.

You don’t have to wait for AA simply because it ‘comes with the car’ you can take out your own policy or just pay as and when to local garages/recovery. Maybe helpful for next time or anyone else in the same predicament.

When we broke down the initial call out was pretty quick (probably helped we were on a motorway), he couldn't fix it at the roadside so towed us to the nearest services on one of those bar things, then managed to set up a proper tow but could only take us half way (tbf we were over 100 miles from home). Took 4 hours waiting for the next truck (at least it was at the services) and then when he finally turned up he had to stop half an hour from home to take his break (I know it's important but was frustrating when so close!)

RAC scammed me. I asked to be taken to my garage, and paid extra for national recovery to make sure I would always be taken there. One day when I heard a loud bang and my car started rattling from underneath, I called the RAC. He 'strongly encouraged' to go to a closer garage, and refused to take me to my garage as it was too far to drive my car, so I'd need to call a pickup the next day. The next day was my mother's funeral. So I reluctantly agreed. He said he'd look for the closest garage, and called one. He said how lucky it was - not only could they do it immediately, they'd also quoted a crazy low price, at least £100 lower than it would usually be! So off we went.

In fairness, they did do it immediately. They did not however give me an amazing price, plus they did it wrong and destroyed my suspension. A £350 job turned into a £950 job. RAC compensated me £50. They were also very definitely not the closest garage, and I can't help but wonder whether there was some sort 'arrangement' I was not party to...

So very obviously I will not be using them ever again, and I moved to AA. They've always arrived really quickly, and you can see where they are and how long they'll be on their app. For me, they've always beaten the ETA. Though really, I imagine it's luck of the draw.

EDIT: Meant to quote

@Blondeshavemorefun "Green flag have always come in the hour"

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I stopped to help a lady who had Green Flag. She was on a country road by herself, on a normal Tuesday evening, warm weather, about as "off peak" as breakdowns get.

I arrived just after 6. I was with her till at least 7 in which time I had spoken to the astonishingly rude and obstructive GF call centre rep several times as the lady was quite distressed - for example demanding an exact postcode for the lane we were on, and only accepting <more precise> what3words after I got quite forceful with her.

A local resident driving home then also stopped and I left. She messaged me the next day and said she'd not been rescued till gone 10pm.

(For me, I always use the providers who call whatever nearest garage to me, rather than rely on their own fleet)

I’ve been with the AA for years…can’t fault them (so far!) so I think you’ve been unlucky. Ship has sailed now but I’ve always made them aware that I was a lone female travelling with a child if I ever had to call them out.

I taught my son how to change a wheel before he was let loose on the road. I also tried teaching my daughter, but she just didn't have the strength to remove the wheel nuts, so I bought her one of those plug in compressor pumps, so she could inflate it enough to get to a safe place. Also, a can of tyre foam.
Seeing as most cars don't come with a spare wheel now, you should always carry a compressor pump and can of foam with you. Try to avoid using the foam if possible as sometimes the whole tyre has to be replaced if you use the foam, no chance of a puncture being repaired.
Try to inflate with the compressor pump enough to get you somewhere that can help.

But the OPs car does have a spare as it's clearly implied in her post
and saying changing a tyre is difficult DIY, is life limiting nonsense.

it's a simple life skill, well worth acquiring. A simple bar extension section, like a bicycle seat post or handle bar will give anyone the extra leverage they need

Ah the good old AA. Been absolutely crap a couple of times. Third time took the biscuit, broke down at 8 in a slightly dodgy area. After our estimated recovery time was pushed back for a third time to 1.45am, we made a run for it. 50 mile journey with a battery light (the truck that did come out confirmed an alternator issue, then said they wouldnt take us that far back home ffs). They told me if we break down on route our best bet was to try and get ourselves home as they had an over 4 hour wait list. I asked the guy exactly what we were paying for. He couldn't answer. Going to check out green flag.

No changing a tyre is extremely difficult without a tyre machine. You can't balance it either.