RAC Europe... cautionary tale

[soulstyledevon]

what's wrong with Ryanair

It would be quicker and shorter if he said what’s right with them.
Let me start,

.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Update: RAC have just caved in and agreed to return my car. Wouldn't have happened without my insurer's efforts on my behalf. Well done Hagerty Insurance, they really are a breath of fresh air (they only insure classics, unfortunately).

 

[Corradobrit]

Update: RAC have just caved in and agreed to return my car. Wouldn't have happened without my insurer's efforts on my behalf. Well done Hagerty Insurance, they really are a breath of fresh air (they only insure classics, unfortunately).

Bravo Hagerty. These classic car insurers really show up the deficiencies of your common or garden vehicle insurance companies. I had Leland West for my air cooled Porsche in the USA and they were excellent too.

 

[westfalia]

I've just cancelled my RAC for nothing then
Ah well, looks like the beers are on velmas dad this evening.

 

[GrannyJen]

Well I've just cancelled my breakdown recovery with RAC and gone back to Mayday ....

Does this mean my massive intervention was for nothing?

 

[Corradobrit]

Well I've just cancelled my breakdown recovery with RAC and gone back to Mayday ....

Does this mean my massive intervention was for nothing?

Its probably why they caved and shifted their position.......

 

[Velma's Dad]

Its probably why they caved and shifted their position.......

You don't wanna mess with the VWCOC.

 

[Alistair Hardy]

I know posts about how badly someone has been treated by some business or other can be tedious. But you might have a similar shock to me if, as a lot of us do, you're relying on RAC Europe Assistance. And anyway I have to off-load to someone. So here goes.

Basically, I currently have a car with a broken gearbox stuck in the Spanish Pyrenees because RAC have declined (a week after the breakdown, now that I'm now home in UK) to repatriate it. Their grounds are that my planned trip involved shipping the car home unaccompanied at the end of the trip, from Lisbon. That doesn't meet their definition of a valid trip as (apparently) being one in which you and the vehicle leave home and arrive back home together.

Fortunately my RAC cover is provided through my insurer rather than bought by me directly and my insurer is now making moves to recover the car for me without RAC's help (cost about £3,500).

Needless to say I will never, ever rely on RAC again (will be cancelling my UK cover with them at next renewal). They are evidently desperate to find excuses however tenuous to refuse to assist on potentially expensive continental Europe incidents. So be very wary about any assumption you might be making about relying their services for your trips tis summer (sorry!).

How did they know the vehicle was destined to be ferried back on a lorry, all they needed to know was that the car was going to Portugal and back, as it happens you were only relying on them for half the trip.

 

[Velma's Dad]

How did they know the vehicle was destined to be ferried back on a lorry, all they needed to know was that the car was going to Portugal and back, as it happens you were only relying on them for half the trip.

They knew because I had told them on the day of the breakdown that if it suited them they could recover the car down to Lisbon for my booked return transport rather than recovering it directly back to UK. They then tried to use that knowledge of my trip plan against me by a perverse interpretation of some obscure policy wording (that I'd never actually seen). Anyway they've now rowed back, but only after five days of "negotiations" by my insurers.

 

[PeteS]

I have been a member of the RAC for at least 30 years. During that time I have paid more in premiums that it would ever cost to pay at the side of the road but it is the service I want at the end of the day. It is disappointing that at the end of the day when you need help the answer is no.
Makes me think that I should just get the cheapest breakdown service.
At least your insurance company are helping and they maybe able to put some pressure on the RAC.

 

[Nick CB]

Aren’t Green Flag available abroad ?