Discussion
Any idea what level of cover this provides? Is it just a jumpstart on occasion, or towing of broken cars to garages?
I have an immobile car on my drive that needs to go to a garage, just wondering if I can get RAC to do it for free rather than paying for it.
I think I know the answer already
I have an immobile car on my drive that needs to go to a garage, just wondering if I can get RAC to do it for free rather than paying for it.
I think I know the answer already
Anybody else? Don't really want to ring them just yet...
Just found the policy booklet.
It's a bit of a grey area...
At home = breakdown assistance at home or within 1/4 mile of home
If paid for, entitled to use the Roadside serivce within 1/4 mile of home
Under Roadside it says: Recovery must be arranged at the time of breakdown and cannot be requested later.
So, reading between the lines, they will do it but only when I ring up to say it's happened - which I suppose is fair.
So I can hold off and do it when I have a couple of hours spare and the garage is open, but I do risk them wriggling out on a technicality and then being too late to use one of my shiply quotes...
Just found the policy booklet.
It's a bit of a grey area...
At home = breakdown assistance at home or within 1/4 mile of home
If paid for, entitled to use the Roadside serivce within 1/4 mile of home
Under Roadside it says: Recovery must be arranged at the time of breakdown and cannot be requested later.
So, reading between the lines, they will do it but only when I ring up to say it's happened - which I suppose is fair.
So I can hold off and do it when I have a couple of hours spare and the garage is open, but I do risk them wriggling out on a technicality and then being too late to use one of my shiply quotes...
Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Tuesday 13th September 11:09
SGirl said:
Yes, they'll tow it from home if it's broken and can't be fixed at the roadside. The water pump half dropped out of my BMW a couple of years ago, and the RAC towed me to the garage for it to be repaired.
This. I used the RAC to recover my Audi S2 to a garage of my choice 50 miles away after I had just made it home the previous day with a broken clutch master cylinder.The RAC have been excellent every single time I have used them in the past ten years...
(No affiliation BTW, just a loyal customer).
HTH
I need a vent about this.
I was with Britannia for approximately ten years, in this time I never called them for anything other than to pay my premium. I had an issue with a vehicle at home, spent about two hours trying to sort it and got nowhere so I contacted Britannia and asked if they could come out and assist me - the request was flatly refused, because I hadn't thought to check the cover I received entitled me to 'home start' or whatever they call it. Now they could have explained my mistake but offer to come out to assist as a 'one-off' for a longstanding customer, I mentioned at the time I would have happily upped my cover and given them the extra money if requested but the answer was 'NO' because I was aware of the fault before ringing and upping the cover, I was even told if I got the car going again and it broke down around the 1/4 of a mile radius (where my cover started from) they would not come out either. I explained I wouldn't be expecting this gesture ever again (both coming out and being allowed to extend the cover after the event) but this too was ignored. In the end I got the car going myself by process of elimination but I was stuck for around three to four hours in total and it was lucky I was not in a rush to be somewhere.
Now I am self employed and often have longstanding customers needing a job doing to help them out of a tight spot, it often means I miss a weekend to help and this is inconvenient sometimes, also, I don't see the money for up to a month after invoicing but I do it as a bit of mutual back scratching and imo mutualism and loyalty between customers and clients is the way business 'should' work in an ideal world.
So that is why a ten year loyal customer walked from Britannia and joined the RAC, but this year I made a point of upping my cover to home assist as an additional precaution. RAC were doing a deal recently which was cheaper than most other competitors on a level of cover basis anyway.
As an added grievance in the process of finding quotes (which seems to be more long winded than it ever was ten years ago) I couldn't understand why my paper renewal for Britannia was more than competitors, even though in some cases I received less cover, so I got a quote for Britannia through their website and unusually it was a different quote to the one generated on paper, so I phoned up and got a quote which was in turn different to the one I had printed out - wtf was going on there? RAC on the other hand have a logical system in that they didn't ask a superabundance of irrelevant questions about the vehicles/s, I say irrelevant because if you are choosing personal cover the vehicle you are driving at the time of breakdown is irrelevant when it is the individual with cover who is eligible for assistance rather than the specific vehicle.
As far as I know places like RAC, AA etc will treat the call to your home the same as a roadside assist, presumably so long as access is OK you could get lifted to a garage, obviously what they don't like is coming out constantly to assist someone who cba to replace their buggered battery or a fault which has been diagnosed and you haven't bothered to get it repaired.
I was with Britannia for approximately ten years, in this time I never called them for anything other than to pay my premium. I had an issue with a vehicle at home, spent about two hours trying to sort it and got nowhere so I contacted Britannia and asked if they could come out and assist me - the request was flatly refused, because I hadn't thought to check the cover I received entitled me to 'home start' or whatever they call it. Now they could have explained my mistake but offer to come out to assist as a 'one-off' for a longstanding customer, I mentioned at the time I would have happily upped my cover and given them the extra money if requested but the answer was 'NO' because I was aware of the fault before ringing and upping the cover, I was even told if I got the car going again and it broke down around the 1/4 of a mile radius (where my cover started from) they would not come out either. I explained I wouldn't be expecting this gesture ever again (both coming out and being allowed to extend the cover after the event) but this too was ignored. In the end I got the car going myself by process of elimination but I was stuck for around three to four hours in total and it was lucky I was not in a rush to be somewhere.
Now I am self employed and often have longstanding customers needing a job doing to help them out of a tight spot, it often means I miss a weekend to help and this is inconvenient sometimes, also, I don't see the money for up to a month after invoicing but I do it as a bit of mutual back scratching and imo mutualism and loyalty between customers and clients is the way business 'should' work in an ideal world.
So that is why a ten year loyal customer walked from Britannia and joined the RAC, but this year I made a point of upping my cover to home assist as an additional precaution. RAC were doing a deal recently which was cheaper than most other competitors on a level of cover basis anyway.
As an added grievance in the process of finding quotes (which seems to be more long winded than it ever was ten years ago) I couldn't understand why my paper renewal for Britannia was more than competitors, even though in some cases I received less cover, so I got a quote for Britannia through their website and unusually it was a different quote to the one generated on paper, so I phoned up and got a quote which was in turn different to the one I had printed out - wtf was going on there? RAC on the other hand have a logical system in that they didn't ask a superabundance of irrelevant questions about the vehicles/s, I say irrelevant because if you are choosing personal cover the vehicle you are driving at the time of breakdown is irrelevant when it is the individual with cover who is eligible for assistance rather than the specific vehicle.
As far as I know places like RAC, AA etc will treat the call to your home the same as a roadside assist, presumably so long as access is OK you could get lifted to a garage, obviously what they don't like is coming out constantly to assist someone who cba to replace their buggered battery or a fault which has been diagnosed and you haven't bothered to get it repaired.
Only been with them a few months and get a certain number of callouts a year I think.
Am I better off telling them they won't be able to fix it and send a low loader, or will I have to wait for a van to confirm it's broken and then a low loader!?
10 mile limit or more? Can't see a limit in the paperwork...
When the Saab let me down 5 or 6 years ago the AA towed me from Enfield to Hitchin or Stevenage or somewhere, but they weren't happy! Don't know why, it's what I paid for.
Had a similar thing 10 years ago when my Rover ate an exhaust valve. They wouldn't tow me home because it was over 10 miles. Weird because I'm sure I had relay/homestart and all that malarkey so I'm not sure why now... That was a fun journey - nursing a very sick car home that wouldn't idle and kept stalling, and had a slipping clutch as well so you couldn't just boot it! Rush hour as well IIRC...
Am I better off telling them they won't be able to fix it and send a low loader, or will I have to wait for a van to confirm it's broken and then a low loader!?
10 mile limit or more? Can't see a limit in the paperwork...
When the Saab let me down 5 or 6 years ago the AA towed me from Enfield to Hitchin or Stevenage or somewhere, but they weren't happy! Don't know why, it's what I paid for.
Had a similar thing 10 years ago when my Rover ate an exhaust valve. They wouldn't tow me home because it was over 10 miles. Weird because I'm sure I had relay/homestart and all that malarkey so I'm not sure why now... That was a fun journey - nursing a very sick car home that wouldn't idle and kept stalling, and had a slipping clutch as well so you couldn't just boot it! Rush hour as well IIRC...
What is the fault exactly mate? I would be tempted to tell them you have gone out to use it and it 'won't start' or 'won't move' or whatever the best symptom is.
It's not wise to show them they need a low loader, they might get the arse and say its a pre existing fault and not a genuine breakdown...
It's not wise to show them they need a low loader, they might get the arse and say its a pre existing fault and not a genuine breakdown...
NiceCupOfTea said:
Am I better off telling them they won't be able to fix it and send a low loader, or will I have to wait for a van to confirm it's broken and then a low loader!?
You have to wait for a van to try to fix it then he'll call a recovery or will tow it himself.The RAC cover that comes with my Lex lease car meant that they had to send a van to check that my rear window really was broken before they'd approve a replacement rental over the weekend when a window was not available.
NiceCupOfTea said:
No clutch, pretty sure either the clutch flexi hose or slave cylinder. Just don't have time to deal with it and I've run out of spare cars!
It's not that hard to drive without disengaging the clutch. Done it plenty of times due to snapped cables or knackered hydraulics.wolf1 said:
NiceCupOfTea said:
No clutch, pretty sure either the clutch flexi hose or slave cylinder. Just don't have time to deal with it and I've run out of spare cars!
It's not that hard to drive without disengaging the clutch. Done it plenty of times due to snapped cables or knackered hydraulics.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff