cobnut
New member
On Saturday me and the missus were enjoying a drive around the Cotswolds in our 987.1. We'd had a few busy weeks and I'd been in the States all the previous week so we'd been looking forward to some time to ourselves and to enjoy the early autumn scenery. We'd just decided to head back home (we were about 50 miles away) when the front nearside tyre blew out - properly - it sounded like a shotgun blast. Pulled over where I could - it was a narrow lane, but thankfully very little traffic - and a quick inspection revealed that it was down to the wires on far inside. Whoops, looks like I'd missed a fairly serious tracking problem (the rest of the tyre surfaces were legal tread) as the offside one wasn't much better. Lesson learned about properly inspecting tyres, but that's not the point of this story.
With such a blow, it seemed unlikely that the "gloop" would do much good (later confirmed by the tyre replacement guy) so we called the RAC, with whom we have their top-level cover, onward travel, hotels, replacement cars, the lot. On the first call at 14:50 we were asked if we had a spare. This seemed like an odd question, I'd have thought in today's world their systems would know whether a particular make/model carried a spare, but anyway, no, we haven't. "OK, we don't do wheel replacement, but we'll send a truck out, should be there before 18:00". Six 'o'clock? Well, that was longer than I'd hoped, but it was a nice day, I had a good signal to listen to the cricket and we had some water and snacks, so not much more to do.
16:00 we call again just to make sure everything's on track. "Yes, it's all good, he'll be there before 6pm."
17:00 call again, just to check progress. "Yes, he'll be there between 5:17 and 6pm, and the good news is they're usually closer to the early time, so it shouldn't be long now."
18:00 comes and goes, and when the cricket finishes at 18:30 we call to ask where our guy is. "The system is showing 150 minutes from now." WHAT? Two and a half hours from now, that's nine 'o' clock!! What happened to the guy that had a precise arrival time. "Sorry, I can't see what's been said before, all I can see is that it'll be 150 minutes from now. Couldn't you call a mobile tyre service?" By this time I'm ranting. We'd already been there over 3.5 hours, it was getting dark and it was no longer fun and that made me snap slightly... "Well, yes, possibly we could have done if that had been proposed to us at ten to three, but it's now half-past six and the chances of finding a tyre for my car are less than zero. But why the hell should we when we're paying you for recovery?" etc. etc. I demanded to speak to a supervisor to which the guy replied by hanging up. Great.
Seconds later my missus gets a call on her phone (the one we'd originally placed the call on) and it's a breakdown firm in Lechlade, about 20 miles away, saying they'll be there in 45 minutes. Er... great, but why are the RAC telling us it'll be 9pm? "Dunno, he says, I've just got the call". 45 minutes comes and goes, and it's now around 19:30, pretty much properly dark. We ring the breakdown service direct and they say he's on his way, he'll be there in 20 minutes, and he was. So, 10 minutes later (he was very efficient), the car's on the back, we're in the cab and we're on the move. Story over, right? No.
As we're driving away the guy (Jake) says "I've got to tell you this, the RAC marked this as a roadside assistance, don't know why, we don't do roadside tyre replacement, but that's how the job is marked so I can only drive you a maximum of 10 miles to the nearest place of safety." What??? "If you need onwards to home, we need to get permission from the RAC, but that usually takes them an hour or more and I can only leave the car on the back for 20 minutes once we've arrived at Shipston."
By this time my missus is in tears and I'm not far behind. We'd had a lovely day up till the blowout, I was relaxing from too many days travelling, she'd bought a new top to wear to a friend's party that night (the likelihood of getting to increasingly small) and now it'd all gone to shit. "So you're saying that now we've finally been picked up, in a truck that's carrying the car, you're going to have to offload it and we start the same process all over again?" "Yeah, sorry, the RAC do this all the time, they're the worst." We sit there in stunned silence for a minute or two before he says "What cover have you got?" "The lot, the total package, the best they do." "Tell you what, I'll get the office to put the call in now to get approval for onwards to home and I'll just take you there now. With a bit of luck the approval will come through before we arrive and they'll be none the wiser, if it doesn't, we can fudge the times." Thank you, finally someone with some common sense.
So in the end we get home at around 21:45, slot the car into a parking space and see Jake off with a handshake, a huge hug from my missus and a generous tip he tried damned hard to refuse.
I'm planning to write to the RAC, but to be honest I know nothing will happen. I will cancel the sub, and try to get a refund of what's been paid so far, but I'm not hopeful. According to Jake and the nice guy who's just been and replaced both fronts, Green Flag are the best for customer service, not least because you'll deal directly with a local service after the call is placed.
With the RAC? Think again.
Jon
With such a blow, it seemed unlikely that the "gloop" would do much good (later confirmed by the tyre replacement guy) so we called the RAC, with whom we have their top-level cover, onward travel, hotels, replacement cars, the lot. On the first call at 14:50 we were asked if we had a spare. This seemed like an odd question, I'd have thought in today's world their systems would know whether a particular make/model carried a spare, but anyway, no, we haven't. "OK, we don't do wheel replacement, but we'll send a truck out, should be there before 18:00". Six 'o'clock? Well, that was longer than I'd hoped, but it was a nice day, I had a good signal to listen to the cricket and we had some water and snacks, so not much more to do.
16:00 we call again just to make sure everything's on track. "Yes, it's all good, he'll be there before 6pm."
17:00 call again, just to check progress. "Yes, he'll be there between 5:17 and 6pm, and the good news is they're usually closer to the early time, so it shouldn't be long now."
18:00 comes and goes, and when the cricket finishes at 18:30 we call to ask where our guy is. "The system is showing 150 minutes from now." WHAT? Two and a half hours from now, that's nine 'o' clock!! What happened to the guy that had a precise arrival time. "Sorry, I can't see what's been said before, all I can see is that it'll be 150 minutes from now. Couldn't you call a mobile tyre service?" By this time I'm ranting. We'd already been there over 3.5 hours, it was getting dark and it was no longer fun and that made me snap slightly... "Well, yes, possibly we could have done if that had been proposed to us at ten to three, but it's now half-past six and the chances of finding a tyre for my car are less than zero. But why the hell should we when we're paying you for recovery?" etc. etc. I demanded to speak to a supervisor to which the guy replied by hanging up. Great.
Seconds later my missus gets a call on her phone (the one we'd originally placed the call on) and it's a breakdown firm in Lechlade, about 20 miles away, saying they'll be there in 45 minutes. Er... great, but why are the RAC telling us it'll be 9pm? "Dunno, he says, I've just got the call". 45 minutes comes and goes, and it's now around 19:30, pretty much properly dark. We ring the breakdown service direct and they say he's on his way, he'll be there in 20 minutes, and he was. So, 10 minutes later (he was very efficient), the car's on the back, we're in the cab and we're on the move. Story over, right? No.
As we're driving away the guy (Jake) says "I've got to tell you this, the RAC marked this as a roadside assistance, don't know why, we don't do roadside tyre replacement, but that's how the job is marked so I can only drive you a maximum of 10 miles to the nearest place of safety." What??? "If you need onwards to home, we need to get permission from the RAC, but that usually takes them an hour or more and I can only leave the car on the back for 20 minutes once we've arrived at Shipston."
By this time my missus is in tears and I'm not far behind. We'd had a lovely day up till the blowout, I was relaxing from too many days travelling, she'd bought a new top to wear to a friend's party that night (the likelihood of getting to increasingly small) and now it'd all gone to shit. "So you're saying that now we've finally been picked up, in a truck that's carrying the car, you're going to have to offload it and we start the same process all over again?" "Yeah, sorry, the RAC do this all the time, they're the worst." We sit there in stunned silence for a minute or two before he says "What cover have you got?" "The lot, the total package, the best they do." "Tell you what, I'll get the office to put the call in now to get approval for onwards to home and I'll just take you there now. With a bit of luck the approval will come through before we arrive and they'll be none the wiser, if it doesn't, we can fudge the times." Thank you, finally someone with some common sense.
So in the end we get home at around 21:45, slot the car into a parking space and see Jake off with a handshake, a huge hug from my missus and a generous tip he tried damned hard to refuse.
I'm planning to write to the RAC, but to be honest I know nothing will happen. I will cancel the sub, and try to get a refund of what's been paid so far, but I'm not hopeful. According to Jake and the nice guy who's just been and replaced both fronts, Green Flag are the best for customer service, not least because you'll deal directly with a local service after the call is placed.
With the RAC? Think again.
Jon
][8D]
