I’ve always thought having breakdown cover for my NC is well worth it just for this alone…
“Although the AutoAid Breakdown policy states you are required to have a legal spare tyre, we are aware that some cars do not have this and have a tyre inflation kit instead. In this instance, AutoAid Breakdown will recover your car to the nearest tyre centre for you to get a replacement.”
AutoAid for me too
Hi,
Please feel free to take a look at our breakdown offering if you wish.
https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/breakdown/
Regards,
Dan.
Thanks for the input, but I’m afraid I will never return to Adrian Flux; your company was not so good when I had a claim a few years back (skidded on icey manhole cover, light frontal damage, car sat for 3 weeks at the coachworks, with no contact from you or the insurers). In the end, I had to contact the Insurance Company themselves, who were surprised to learn that I was awaiting their engineer. Apparently, I had broken the rules by preferring a specific coachworks to the one that you lot wanted to use (this coachworks was a MX5 specialist, and I know they would handle the repair in the manner I would expect for a classic car). That goes on top of the experience of my brother, when someone inside Adrian Flux decided to dispose of his damaged FTO before a settlement had been agreed (as far as he was concerned, the car still belonged to him, until he had received that cheque, it was written off because both headlights were cracked). Threats to bring in the ombudsman lead to an equitable settlement.
Given that experience of unreliable service, I would have no faith in your choice of providers.
I think I am going to have to work on playing off AA against others, because it seems few have had recent experience of accessing breakdown services. If I get the existing cover I have to under £100, I’ll be satisfied with that.
Don’t know if your married or living with a partner but swap the policy to the other for new members discount if it works out cheaper especially with Topcash Back/Quidco
I am neither of those. Sounds like a discriminatory policy to me.
There have to be some small compensations for what most of the rest of us have to put up with:-)
Yeah but when they can get us something cheaper, we love them to bits…
Hi Saz. I’ve been with the AA for too many years to count now. Every year they send me a bill for around £150ish. Every year a 5 minute phone call gets the cost down below £60, except this year. They insisted £61 was the magic number. They are by far the easiet organisation to get a reduced price from. The 20% off at certain resaurants probably gets me more than that back over the year as I seem to be surrounded by them. Use the member benefits and tha AA pays for itself.
You don’t ask you don’t get.
It’s the name of the game these days with most renewal stuff like insurance, mobile phone even utilities.
Happy-ish with my car insurance renewal last week I thought I’d give them a call anyway to see what I could get off, £42 off no quibble.
At the end of the day we shouldn’t have to do it, but that’s the game they want to play, you join in.
I have used Tesco Rescue for several years, last time I needed them around 4 years ago it was a RAC van that turned up and sorted me out quickly.
Got Mazda recovery at the moment, came with the car…
The AA do not have any age limits - one reason I stick with them as my Alfa 145 is 20 next year and the Freelander is 13.
Interesting, they must have changed for the better. Or is yours an existing cover continued? My try was new business.
Seven years ago when I was looking online for cover for my then fifteen year old Vextra, they wanted my details before saying no on age, they didn’t even quote a silly high price. So I left them a ‘strongly negative response’ on their ‘How did we do?’ feedback page. I don’t remember all the details, not worth the effort. At the time the one I wanted, Green Flag, was ten years, but at least they were up front about it.
Can anyone recommend the RAC?
I can’t. I discontinued my membership three years ago after they didn’t actually ever get to me when I rang them after my car had stopped in traffic. Two hours after calling them I eventually got my car going and self recovered (a part inside a brand new ECU had overheated and temporarily failed). Annoyingly, an RAC patrolman was working on another car 100 yards away so I had asked him for assistance in turn (my car was blocking traffic on a main road and in a dangerous situation so I had been told I was being given priority). He said he was not allowed to do so because he was already allocated to another job. As soon as my car started again I cancelled the job. Two and a half hours after I had got home I received a phone call from a contractor who was about to set off from Derby to recover my car (I was near Doncaster). He thanked me for cancelling the job because the RAC hadn’t bothered to tell him. The “customer satisfaction call” I got shortly afterwards was just what I needed!
I decided to give them another chance this year, only because they would include my student daughter on the policy. However - a similar thing happened in July. I returned to my car (not the same one!) at 1130 pm to find the battery had run down due to an electrical fault. I found out later and almost £800 poorer that the central computer was failing and so kept its cooling fans continuously running even after I’d locked the car and left it parked. The RAC took over one and a half hours to even answer the phone (I got in but was put on hold). Ater a lot of messing about they told me it was going to be a total of five hours before the contractor was going to get to me - getting on for 6 am the following day! The contractor gave me the good news - a second delay of another “two to three hours” but the RAC were also trying to send him to the wrong town despite me having had to spell out the location letter by letter! Eventually my wife, God bless her, got out of bed after 01:30, got dressed, retrieved my jump leads from the garage and drove 36 miles to get them to me. As soon as the jump leads were on, the car started immediately and we got home at almost 4 am.
EVEN WORSE! This Sunday my wife’s car (an automatic) suffered a major gearbox failure. The RAC took SIX hours to get her on a recovery truck. I’m about to compile the letter of complaint - the car is still immobile on our driveway.
Your negotiating skills are better than mine. 20 minutes on the phone whinging about how much of a ripoff AA were, and isn’t 21 years loyalty worth anything, only got the renewal reduced from £170 to 120, at which point I surrendered, as I am at the airport, about to leave the country for 2 weeks, with a Jag sitting in the carpark for the new few weeks, with a battery of uncertain age… Not really willing to experiment with a cutprice alternative that no one seems to have actually used.
Kept banging on about the free legal advice and key protection, both pretty worthless to me (if I need legal advice, I rather select my own solicitor).
Ah well, roll on another 12 months.
Their has been a lot of criticism on the VSCC website about the long waits from the RAC recovery service. I am with the AA as mentioned in an earlier post.
We do not always need a recovery service and last night my alternator failed and I ended up stranded with a flat battery. The AA app for a breakdown is very good and I used this for informing them of my problem. I immediately received a reply on their app, showing my location and giving an estimated time of arrival for their patrolman. I could monitor his progress on the map as he came out to me and he arrived slightly earlier than predicted. He fitted a spare battery and followed me home.
It is this convenience and their IT systems keeping one informed that I feel is well worth paying for. I have homestart and recovery as well as breakdown for my wife and I.
Try Brittania Rescue, I have been with them for a number of years. They have varying levels of cover.
I know you had a bad experience with greenflag but ive been impressed with them. These outfits are only as good as the local firm they relay your call to; i guess you were unlucky
Personally. I wouldnt go near AA or RAC due to their widespread appalling customer service and multiple scams to relieve you off additional £s