Recommend a breakdown service

[obi_waynne]

I'm with the AA and pretty much every time they get to me within 30 minutes. Can't fault them.

There are lots out there so which do you go for and how do you find the service.

 

[Lunchmoney]

I used to be with the AA. Was with them for 10 years and used their service a few times and could rarely fault it (though one guy did try to destroy my first Scooby engine.... story*).

On the last renewal they upped their price to over £200! I called them and asked why.
AA - You've been upgraded to our Platinum Membership because you have been with us for 10 years.
Me - But I don't want this level of service, there is nothing in it I want or need.
AA - It's a free upgrade.
ME - It's not free, is it? You've more than doubled your price.
AA - That's because we've upgraded you to Platinum Membership.
.......


This went on for about 15 minutes and the really couldn't grasp that it wasn't a free upgrade and I didn't want it.

So I told them to sod off, called my insurer and added breakdown recovery (which is the level of service I was previously paying the AA for) to my insurance. For less than half of what I was paying the AA.

So now I am with Britannia and have had to use them twice. I have found them to just as professional, quick and reliable as the AA ever was.

 

[Lunchmoney]

*story....


A day out at Thorpe Park ends with my Scooby not starting.
Call the AA who promptly walk over (they had a man and van on site) and do their thing.
The guy didn't really know what he was looking at. It was clear he has never seen a flat 4 engine when he popped the bonnet and asked me where the spark plugs were as he couldn't see them... Alarm bells should have be ringing by this point, but I was tired and frustrated and just wanted to get home (which was 80-90 miles and 2 hours away).

He proceeds to do all sorts of things and basically floods the engine and messes things up. However eventually the engine starts running and I limp home.

The following day the car wont start.
I call them out to get me to my garage. This AA man is alarmed at what I tell him about the previous days actions and immediately just gets my car on a flat bed and takes me to my garage.

My garage strip out the engine and find one of the piston heads is FUBAR (I keep it on my desk at work now). All the rings on one side were cracked and split and there was scoring all around one side of the head. Oil and petrol had been sharing space and that is bad.
It is suspected by my mechanics that if I had been lifted home from Thorpe on that first day of troubles they would have been able to save the engine. As it was they had to rebuild most of it (not cheap).

So, yeah, that AA man contributed to a destroyed engine. Though I don't say that is the AA's fault, but that particular roadside mechanic whose inexperience was the problem; he could have been working for anyone.


edited for some spelling.

 

[obi_waynne]

Not good!

I haggled at renewal time by calling the cancellation dept, reduce from £380 to £140!!

 

[T9 man]

I use the free breakdown recovery service supplied by my insurance broker Adrian Flux. Breakdown, recovery and home start all included. Only had to call them out once so far, it was about two years ago for a flat battery. Battery was 5 years old and with all the electric gizmos on the car had done very well up until then. Response time was about 40 minutes if memory serves me correctly, and a nice cheerful chap he was too.