Roadside Assistance, breakdown cover, and the like.... biggest fails you know of?
- Thread starter stuff_it
- Start date
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
My personal experiences with Green Flag range from 'dope' to 'wtf'. They're not the people I currently have an issue with, though.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I am a long time AA member. Usually I just get roadside cover because so far they have always managed to fix my vehicles by the side of the road.
1) However I broke down at home and called them. They said because I have been such a long time member they would come out and fix it at home and they did.
2) when I was more poor than usual I called them to cancel my membership and they gave me a year of free membership.
3) another time I was feeling poor I asked to cancel my "relay" because I couldn't afford it and they gave me that for free for a year.
I don't think the AA is always the cheapest, but partly because of the above, I am more than happy with them.
1) However I broke down at home and called them. They said because I have been such a long time member they would come out and fix it at home and they did.
2) when I was more poor than usual I called them to cancel my membership and they gave me a year of free membership.
3) another time I was feeling poor I asked to cancel my "relay" because I couldn't afford it and they gave me that for free for a year.
I don't think the AA is always the cheapest, but partly because of the above, I am more than happy with them.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Another thing that happened with GF, that to be fair was entirely out of their control, is a hire car company gave a mate a replacement vehicle when they were flown back from Europe after their gearbox exploded. He kept contacting the hire firm, but they wouldn't take the car back or tell him how long the hire was meant to be for.
Since the van that had broken down was his home, he kept the car a fair while....over a month in fact. Lucky for him, and his many friends, it was a brand new, out that year, red Golf GTI with leather seats, etc. due to lack of cheaper cars at the hire depot.
The next time he went to leave the country (by ferry, from Folkestone/Dover), he got nicked for stealing the hire car, and shipped back to Stanstead by the cops. It turned out that the hire car company should have only given him 24h without checking up with Green Flag, but hadn't. They'd also forged his signature (badly) on numerous documents, trying to cover up their mistake.
Needless to say, this was by no means in any way Green Flag's fault, and he wasn't prosecuted.
We also got to razz round London in a brand new Golf GTI for ages, which was a sort of good result. If he'd had it for much less than a month the hassle of getting arrested and missing his ferry would have eclipsed this. Luckily that wasn't the case.
Since the van that had broken down was his home, he kept the car a fair while....over a month in fact. Lucky for him, and his many friends, it was a brand new, out that year, red Golf GTI with leather seats, etc. due to lack of cheaper cars at the hire depot.
The next time he went to leave the country (by ferry, from Folkestone/Dover), he got nicked for stealing the hire car, and shipped back to Stanstead by the cops. It turned out that the hire car company should have only given him 24h without checking up with Green Flag, but hadn't. They'd also forged his signature (badly) on numerous documents, trying to cover up their mistake.
Needless to say, this was by no means in any way Green Flag's fault, and he wasn't prosecuted.
We also got to razz round London in a brand new Golf GTI for ages, which was a sort of good result. If he'd had it for much less than a month the hassle of getting arrested and missing his ferry would have eclipsed this. Luckily that wasn't the case.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
30 hours? Do tell more... were you at home when this happened?
I dumped my last Shitroen when I found out that 67% failed their first 3 year MOT for the model I had.
nogojones
spelling is overrated
I waited 6 hrs for the AA once in Mid Wales and they took 4 hrs to sort me out on the works car a couple of years back. 1st fella couldn't be arsed - end of shift and the second wagon broke down. The most expensive and useless
I've been using First Choice for a few years now. Cheapest I found (a couple of years back) and when I have had to call them their response times and service delivery was the best I've experienced. Stuck with them for a few years now
I've been using First Choice for a few years now. Cheapest I found (a couple of years back) and when I have had to call them their response times and service delivery was the best I've experienced. Stuck with them for a few years now
BandWagon
Life's a bitch and then you die...
Fortunately, yes. They kept promising to come but it took that long. Shit service.
The MOT thing here doesn't start until after 4 years so I'm safe for a while..... I never had a problem with the 406, that lasted 13 years with hardly a problem.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Car broke down one time after a long day of work. I called roadside assistance: they said they'd be a while.
As part of the call, I gave my location, car make and model, color, and plate number.
I decided to have a nap in the car while waiting - so I put the seat back, and had a snooze.
After awhile, I wake up, and there's a roadside assistance truck behind my car. I get out - the driver is in the truck, and he's looking all surprised. He says - you were sleeping in the car - I've been waiting here a half hour.
So: you had the car make, model, color and plate number - and you sat behind the car you were looking for, for a half hour - without getting out of your truck?
As part of the call, I gave my location, car make and model, color, and plate number.
I decided to have a nap in the car while waiting - so I put the seat back, and had a snooze.
After awhile, I wake up, and there's a roadside assistance truck behind my car. I get out - the driver is in the truck, and he's looking all surprised. He says - you were sleeping in the car - I've been waiting here a half hour.
So: you had the car make, model, color and plate number - and you sat behind the car you were looking for, for a half hour - without getting out of your truck?
dessiato
🇪🇸 my spirit is crying for leaving
I had a timing belt snap (after only 40k miles too) I was at the side of the road miles from anywhere, with no food or, water, in the heat of an Andalucian summer for eight hours. Finally a friend arranged it all for me, and within an hour I was back home. Can't remember the company but I'm with Mapfre now.
Years ago I had a big accident, almost lost my life. While I was cartered away in the ambulance the police called the RAC to recover my car. I had spent a fortune on them every year for fI've years. I'd always got the full package. Eventually the police got fed up waiting and organised it themselves. It had taken two hours from notification to the police doing the removal.
Years ago I had a big accident, almost lost my life. While I was cartered away in the ambulance the police called the RAC to recover my car. I had spent a fortune on them every year for fI've years. I'd always got the full package. Eventually the police got fed up waiting and organised it themselves. It had taken two hours from notification to the police doing the removal.
BandWagon
Life's a bitch and then you die...
They were taking a nap.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
That's what I suspect. The difference was: I wasn't being paid for my nap - but he was.They were taking a nap.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
I thought it was nice of them not to disturb you (and you'd be grateful) 
oneflewover
Following "The Tigers"
Greenflag, wife broke down on the way to pick up the daughter from nursery. Rang them, they said they would be 1/2hr. She goes to the nursery, picks up daughter and back to the car. Total time taken 15mins. 1hr later rings Greenflag to see where they are. Just passing they said, had been there within 5mins. No customer so left. Came back, putter on trailer, charged us £140 to take it off.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
One of the things I loved most about my old 306 estate was that I could get a whole separate car for spares for under £600.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Every time I have called them they have taken over an hour to arrive. Then my engine exploded but I managed to coast in to a large BP on the A40, it was 430 in the morning, called them up and went in to the shop. Knowing the car was fucked I bought some nice beers and a paper and settled down to what would be quite a nice wait, fucker arrived in under 10 minutes 
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Many years ago I was tootling up the M6 (and overtaking a flatbed wagon) when my 650 AJS managed to put a leg out of bed. I yanked the clutch in and coasted over to and then along the hard shoulder until I found a 'phone. Called up and requested the AA relay, as the bike was immobile and staying that way ... the AA still sent a patrol van "to check if a roadside repair could be made" and I was still waiting for the relay trailer three hours later. Eventually (after the police chased the AA to find out what they were playing at) an ordinary car collection outfit arrived, with a rather bent car on it already. This had to be unloaded (on the hard shoulder !) before we could get my bike on and reload the car. Much, much later that night and I eventually got home just before midnight. Then a couple of days later I had the AA ring up to ask me how well they had "performed" ...
The following weekend I had some help to strip the engine. I found that the one big end was well opened out. the crankshaft was fine (got it NDT checked at work) but I also needed to have the cylinders re-bored, so new pistons and con-rods. The cause was contaminated oil leading to a partially blocked oilway; which was strange as I had done an oil flush and change only a couple of weeks previously. I had my suspicions aroused when someone I knew who, about three weeks later, had parked near where I had parked whilst I was staying away, told me that they had had engine trouble on the way home (contaminated fuel, in their case). Some months later, a disaffected local trouble-maker was caught tampering with vehicles at the same spot ...
The following weekend I had some help to strip the engine. I found that the one big end was well opened out. the crankshaft was fine (got it NDT checked at work) but I also needed to have the cylinders re-bored, so new pistons and con-rods. The cause was contaminated oil leading to a partially blocked oilway; which was strange as I had done an oil flush and change only a couple of weeks previously. I had my suspicions aroused when someone I knew who, about three weeks later, had parked near where I had parked whilst I was staying away, told me that they had had engine trouble on the way home (contaminated fuel, in their case). Some months later, a disaffected local trouble-maker was caught tampering with vehicles at the same spot ...
sim667
All aboard the 303 bus.
Always been 2-3 hours for me with RAC, I'm covered on my folks policy, so I've never looked around.
Its insurance companies sending out recovery when I've had accidents who are always the nightmare..... when my car got written off, they literally kept lying to me, despite the recovery company telling me what had been said as part of the discussion between them.
And they lost my car for 6 weeks..... but thats another story.
Its insurance companies sending out recovery when I've had accidents who are always the nightmare..... when my car got written off, they literally kept lying to me, despite the recovery company telling me what had been said as part of the discussion between them.
And they lost my car for 6 weeks..... but thats another story.
kebabking
Not a Girly Swot, but I like them....
i was on the Green Flag website in the last week looking a quote - i gave them my postcode but they couldn't find my house.
i decided that if they couldn't find my house - everyone else manages - then the chances of them finding my car in some remote layby in the coldest, darkest, most where-the-holy-fuck-is-this region of wildest Scotland was about zero, and i decided to take my desire for reassurance elsewhere...
i decided that if they couldn't find my house - everyone else manages - then the chances of them finding my car in some remote layby in the coldest, darkest, most where-the-holy-fuck-is-this region of wildest Scotland was about zero, and i decided to take my desire for reassurance elsewhere...
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
My mate Kevin's dad had a big fail with the RAC. He did a classic car run in his lovingly hand-restored Morris Eight, but the clutch went heading back from the wilds of Sussex. He phoned the RAC and waited alongside his trusty steed.
After a few hours a tow truck turned up...skidded on some transmission fluid the Morris had laid down on the road, and ploughed ("slowly and majestically", apparently!) straight into it, turning it instantly into a mangled wreck.
Kev's dad got a decent pay-out from the insurers, and bought an old Alvis.
After a few hours a tow truck turned up...skidded on some transmission fluid the Morris had laid down on the road, and ploughed ("slowly and majestically", apparently!) straight into it, turning it instantly into a mangled wreck.
Kev's dad got a decent pay-out from the insurers, and bought an old Alvis.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I can remember 4 hours into a 9 hour motorbike ride, in the cold dark and wet, my bike developed a serious fault such that in the hope of a warm recovery vehicle to take me and it home I called the AA. I was so looking forward to a warm cab but of course they managed to fix it at the side of the road so my icey journey continued 
bubblesmcgrath
Well-Known Member
Got my AA renewal notice about 2 weeks ago..€277 for the year...giving me roadside rescue, home start and rescue plus.
I debated whether to stay with them as it seemed more expensive than before.
Anyway...today I decided I'd better be safe than sorry and tried to log in to my AA account online.
Nightmare....I ended up faffing aboit trying to change my forgotten password to be left with only one option...that of signing on as a new member. So that's what I did.
I got the same cover for €168.
I got a new account number but my address isnt different....and neither are my basic details.
I'm hoping I wont get a call telling me I cant do this sort of thing...
What do ye think?
Oh..and btw...it really pissed me off...
I debated whether to stay with them as it seemed more expensive than before.
Anyway...today I decided I'd better be safe than sorry and tried to log in to my AA account online.
Nightmare....I ended up faffing aboit trying to change my forgotten password to be left with only one option...that of signing on as a new member. So that's what I did.
I got the same cover for €168.
I got a new account number but my address isnt different....and neither are my basic details.
I'm hoping I wont get a call telling me I cant do this sort of thing...
What do ye think?
Oh..and btw...it really pissed me off...
Green flag are a joke took 2 hrs to say sorry mate you need a tow they will pick you up in 2 hrs and it will be £200 ahaha. Drive home with no power steering, not advisable. I picked a route with the fewest corners though and took some painkillers for my poor arms.
M&S picked up our fucked camper within the hour drove 100 miles for zilch
M&S picked up our fucked camper within the hour drove 100 miles for zilch
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I had to wait an hour and half for them to come out and confirm the clutch was gone. I'd already told them that. However as I wanted to be towed more the a few miles I had to then wait another hour for the vehicle that could actually do it.
Had a breakdown in my car and diagnosed it with my portable OBD reader, showing the car was not repairable by the side of the road (CAS failure) so needed a tow home. RAC man refused to believe science and farted around, bless him, for half an hour before believing in science.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Same with Green Flag. It's a network of local mechanics and recovery outfits. I get their basic cover (roadside assistance and 10 mile recovery) as part of my bank account but I take the option to top up to full cover for about £50 extra a year. Most recently I've used them for a shredded tyre (I don't change wheels on motorway hard shoulders myself), and when I locked my keys in the car boot. They've always been excellent.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I've always wondered if there is room for the mechanically minded to cut corners by having roadside assistance reduced to "a man turns up with a few bog standard parts and tools, has his tea break, and tows you away if you can't fix it in under half an hour yourself".
Here's one of my old roadside repairs (some idiot forgot to replace the circlip/jubiliee clip on the turbo, which fell off in the middle of nowhere and I started overheating).
Yes, that is a screw driver tourniquet around a wet sock held in place with zip ties. It got me home.
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