RAC Waiting Time.
Discussion
wow 3 hours is a very long time, buts its not the first time i have heard of such storys, but not for that long
longest i've had to wait is about 45 mins, altho this could be because i get my breakdown cover through my insurance company, and they have a few breakdown comapanys to choose from
longest i've had to wait is about 45 mins, altho this could be because i get my breakdown cover through my insurance company, and they have a few breakdown comapanys to choose from
About 2 1/2 hours last time I called them. They sub'd it out in the end and I did notice on his paper work that he only got the call 25mins before. I suspect they were hoping one of their own guys got freed up and could deal before finally giving in and getting someone else to come out.
Did swap to the AA until we found out that should I prang the car and just want it taken home they wouldn't, they are breakdown not recovery. RAC will do both.
Did swap to the AA until we found out that should I prang the car and just want it taken home they wouldn't, they are breakdown not recovery. RAC will do both.
Silver940 said:
About 2 1/2 hours last time I called them. They sub'd it out in the end and I did notice on his paper work that he only got the call 25mins before. I suspect they were hoping one of their own guys got freed up and could deal before finally giving in and getting someone else to come out.
Did swap to the AA until we found out that should I prang the car and just want it taken home they wouldn't, they are breakdown not recovery. RAC will do both.
I found out the AA do not do recovery the hard way i had to pay them to get me home the money robbing gits.Did swap to the AA until we found out that should I prang the car and just want it taken home they wouldn't, they are breakdown not recovery. RAC will do both.
My understanding with accident recovery was that whilst the breakdown services did used to take you home/to a garage etc, it was actually a responsibility of the insurance company. Therefore they used to charge it back (where possible) to the insurance company.
So if you have been recovered after an accident, and are making a claim, part of the cost of that claim is recovery of the vehicle, and indeed the cost of getting it back to you once fixed.
Callout time for breakdown services is always going to vary according to what other unfortunate persons require services that day. In the ideal world we'd all our own personal recovery man waiting for us to breakdown. The reality is we don't so the breakdown services need to decide in advance how many people to roster and where. Then if the weather is substantially different or something, or an event takes ages to sort etc, they find they have none available. They of course prefer sending their own staff as it is cheaper.
Oh and of course the RAC is no longer a members club but a commercially owned business which has to make profits!
None of this makes a 3 hour wait acceptable. Last time I required them was 3.45am when my wife burst a tyre on the way to deliver a baby! She got a colleague to collect her and go ion to the birth, I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel. The guy was there within 50 minutes but he said it was luck as he had just finished a call and he was the only one covering a huge area at that time of night!
Turned out he lives a few doors away from me!
So if you have been recovered after an accident, and are making a claim, part of the cost of that claim is recovery of the vehicle, and indeed the cost of getting it back to you once fixed.
Callout time for breakdown services is always going to vary according to what other unfortunate persons require services that day. In the ideal world we'd all our own personal recovery man waiting for us to breakdown. The reality is we don't so the breakdown services need to decide in advance how many people to roster and where. Then if the weather is substantially different or something, or an event takes ages to sort etc, they find they have none available. They of course prefer sending their own staff as it is cheaper.
Oh and of course the RAC is no longer a members club but a commercially owned business which has to make profits!
None of this makes a 3 hour wait acceptable. Last time I required them was 3.45am when my wife burst a tyre on the way to deliver a baby! She got a colleague to collect her and go ion to the birth, I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel. The guy was there within 50 minutes but he said it was luck as he had just finished a call and he was the only one covering a huge area at that time of night!
Turned out he lives a few doors away from me!
What does your agreement with them say?
I seem to think our recovery thing pays us £10 for every X period of time over 1 hour you have to wait. OR maybe it's a flat fee of £10 if they are over an hour.. I must confess I've only needed them a couple of times and they arrive within half an hour IIRC, that included when a car dropped an exhaust in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk..
I seem to think our recovery thing pays us £10 for every X period of time over 1 hour you have to wait. OR maybe it's a flat fee of £10 if they are over an hour.. I must confess I've only needed them a couple of times and they arrive within half an hour IIRC, that included when a car dropped an exhaust in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk..
cobra kid said:
Would it be fair to say that 3 hours is an inconsiderate amount of time to wait for a patrolman to come out? Considering it was exactly 2 hours from my wife phoning themn until the patrolman took the job in his van?
You make it sound like the guy was sunbathing for a couple of hours before he decided to take the job. The patrol has exactly three minutes to accept the job from the second it arrives on his screen. Furthermore, his movements are constantly monitored and logged. /if he isn't moving when he should be then flags are raised on the screens in the response centre. If he didn't get the job for two hours it was because he was working his arse off on his 12 hour shift like every other patrol in the area and he was the one available when it was your wife's turn to hit the top of the queue.
Whilst the volume of calls for any given day can be guessed due to previous years' data, by it's very nature the job is unpredicatble and delays can and do occur when multiple jobs over and above expectations arrive in the call centre at once.
A three hour wait is unfortunate & unusual, but it is by no means common (RAC has a very quick response time compared to the others) and will be in no way due to any other factors than abnormal work volumes at that time.
You could also argue that if members didn't call patrols out for stupid things like blown bulbs, or an opinion on something they could've driven to the garage to ask for then they would be able to respond quicker to those that actually need help, but that's another area altogether.
Longest one was Suzuki Assistance, the boss ditched his vitara, literally, took out a telegraph pole too! 4 1/2 hours later, the boss had stolen my demo and pissed off home, left me sat in a f
ked Grand Vitara awaing a bloke to pull the BRAND SPANKING NEW demo out of the ditch and take it back to work. I finally saw home at 2315 that night! after finishing work at 6!
ked Grand Vitara awaing a bloke to pull the BRAND SPANKING NEW demo out of the ditch and take it back to work. I finally saw home at 2315 that night! after finishing work at 6!Chrisgr31 said:
I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel.
It's people like this that are the reason your recovery van takes so long. Changing a spare wheel is the most basic bit of car maintenance you can get, and anyone driving on the road should be able to do it themselves. While you're calling out the RAC to do something any self respecting male should be able to do with his eyes shut, there is somebody else with a genuine problem they can't fix waiting by the roadside.Do yourself and everyone else a favour and make sure you know how to change a wheel. Practice on your driveway and make sure you're aware of the jack operation and the whole safe procedure. Not only will you save yourself the hour of waiting around, you'll free up a recovery van that can assist someone with a genuine problem.
Phoning the RAC to change your wheel is akin to phoning an ambulance because you've got a splinter IMO.
The trick is not to break down near a motorway. I have had to call the RAC 3 times in 6 years. Twice they turned up in around half an hour. Third time was 2hours 45mins. That long wait was when I broke down on an A road right by a motorway junvtion.
I didnt bother getting stressed , just went and had a coffee at a nearby petrol station. Call centre rang me every 30 mins or so to keep me updated. Van arrived and chappie was very good. Stuck a temp fix on then followed me while I drove the the garage (about 10 miles). Then waited at the garage to see if it could be fixed, then drove me home (25 miles) when it couldnt
A previous post mentioned about them being monitored when not moving it gets flagged. That explains why the patrol with me was getting called every 10 mins while my car was being looked at to ask him why he was not doing anything.
I didnt bother getting stressed , just went and had a coffee at a nearby petrol station. Call centre rang me every 30 mins or so to keep me updated. Van arrived and chappie was very good. Stuck a temp fix on then followed me while I drove the the garage (about 10 miles). Then waited at the garage to see if it could be fixed, then drove me home (25 miles) when it couldnt
A previous post mentioned about them being monitored when not moving it gets flagged. That explains why the patrol with me was getting called every 10 mins while my car was being looked at to ask him why he was not doing anything.
Edited by bigdods on Saturday 27th June 10:07
I ditched them after they said it was going to be 4 hours till they could get anyone to me. Motorbike gear is warm.. but not warm enough to be sat by the side of the road for 4 hours in the middle of a december evening.
They also managed to lose my membership details and refused to cover me - turned out they had decided to associate my membership with another member of my family - who lives on the other side of the country, and has a different name????
Of course I only managed to get that one sorted after numerous calls to their indian call centre, who naturally couldnt give a st, and didnt understand the situation anyway. I finally found a uk number and rang up, made a complaint and it got sorted inside an hour.
They also managed to lose my membership details and refused to cover me - turned out they had decided to associate my membership with another member of my family - who lives on the other side of the country, and has a different name????
Of course I only managed to get that one sorted after numerous calls to their indian call centre, who naturally couldnt give a s
t, and didnt understand the situation anyway. I finally found a uk number and rang up, made a complaint and it got sorted inside an hour. Darkslider said:
Chrisgr31 said:
I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel.
It's people like this that are the reason your recovery van takes so long. Changing a spare wheel is the most basic bit of car maintenance you can get, and anyone driving on the road should be able to do it themselves. While you're calling out the RAC to do something any self respecting male should be able to do with his eyes shut, there is somebody else with a genuine problem they can't fix waiting by the roadside.Do yourself and everyone else a favour and make sure you know how to change a wheel. Practice on your driveway and make sure you're aware of the jack operation and the whole safe procedure. Not only will you save yourself the hour of waiting around, you'll free up a recovery van that can assist someone with a genuine problem.
Phoning the RAC to change your wheel is akin to phoning an ambulance because you've got a splinter IMO.
BB-Q said:
cobra kid said:
Would it be fair to say that 3 hours is an inconsiderate amount of time to wait for a patrolman to come out? Considering it was exactly 2 hours from my wife phoning themn until the patrolman took the job in his van?
You make it sound like the guy was sunbathing for a couple of hours before he decided to take the job. The patrol has exactly three minutes to accept the job from the second it arrives on his screen. Furthermore, his movements are constantly monitored and logged. /if he isn't moving when he should be then flags are raised on the screens in the response centre. If he didn't get the job for two hours it was because he was working his arse off on his 12 hour shift like every other patrol in the area and he was the one available when it was your wife's turn to hit the top of the queue.
cobra kid said:
And what about the guy using a mobility vehicle?
Obviously there's special circumstances, I wouldn't expect a mother with a car full of children to undertake changing a wheel either. But I would have hoped most users of this site were genuine car enthusiasts who might know one end of a wheel brace from the other, and thus have no excuse for not changing the wheel themselves.Sure, some people might say: 'Why should I do it, that's what I pay my membership for'. And they're well within their rights there. But for me I'd rather get my hands a bit dirty and be on my way within 15 minutes, than potentially stranded at the roadside for 3 hours and taking up a recovery van I didn't really need.
cobra kid said:
And what about the guy using a mobility vehicle?
Motabiity get priority anyways. The Rax is not allowed to ask the nature of a disability so everyone gets top cover. If RACMotability get a call it goes right to the top of the list, above the one thats been waiting the longest and above single white woman in trouble! Because some of Motability Operations customers CAN NOT be left at the side of the road.Darkslider said:
Chrisgr31 said:
I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel.
If you read the post correctly it says the lady went on to deliver a baby. Im guessing a midwife then. I personally feel that the miracle of life comming in to the world is more importaint than some bloke that hasnt looked after his car well enough and has blown his headgasket on the side of the M10!BB-Q said:
cobra kid said:
Would it be fair to say that 3 hours is an inconsiderate amount of time to wait for a patrolman to come out? Considering it was exactly 2 hours from my wife phoning themn until the patrolman took the job in his van?
You make it sound like the guy was sunbathing for a couple of hours before he decided to take the job. The patrol has exactly three minutes to accept the job from the second it arrives on his screen. Furthermore, his movements are constantly monitored and logged. /if he isn't moving when he should be then flags are raised on the screens in the response centre. If he didn't get the job for two hours it was because he was working his arse off on his 12 hour shift like every other patrol in the area and he was the one available when it was your wife's turn to hit the top of the queue.
Whilst the volume of calls for any given day can be guessed due to previous years' data, by it's very nature the job is unpredicatble and delays can and do occur when multiple jobs over and above expectations arrive in the call centre at once.
A three hour wait is unfortunate & unusual, but it is by no means common (RAC has a very quick response time compared to the others) and will be in no way due to any other factors than abnormal work volumes at that time.
You could also argue that if members didn't call patrols out for stupid things like blown bulbs, or an opinion on something they could've driven to the garage to ask for then they would be able to respond quicker to those that actually need help, but that's another area altogether.
nsmith1180 said:
cobra kid said:
And what about the guy using a mobility vehicle?
Motabiity get priority anyways. The Rax is not allowed to ask the nature of a disability so everyone gets top cover. If RACMotability get a call it goes right to the top of the list, above the one thats been waiting the longest and above single white woman in trouble! Because some of Motability Operations customers CAN NOT be left at the side of the road.Darkslider said:
Chrisgr31 said:
I had to take our daughter and go to the car to await the RAC to change the wheel.
If you read the post correctly it says the lady went on to deliver a baby. Im guessing a midwife then. I personally feel that the miracle of life comming in to the world is more importaint than some bloke that hasnt looked after his car well enough and has blown his headgasket on the side of the M10!Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff