Breakdown services.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to see such a lot of stories about poor service from the RAC.
DH bought me life membership of the RAC in 1968. They had a special offer, sadly not including their posh club in Pall Mall. We used it about three times, the last time about 20 years ago. I hope I don't need it any time soon.

I’m with the AA, and have always had great service - last time I was on holiday, the time before on the motorway, when my car had to be relayed home as the cam shaft had gone. The AA is expensive, but I prefer the peace of mind because I’m often driving alone, and they are quick and reliable.

No. Put in a formal complaint.and phone again and say it is unacceptable as you pay for homestart and do not expect to wait days. Threaten with bad review and not rejoining

Similarly waited 5 hrs for RAC last week.Admittedly i was at home but still missed appt as had to " stay with the car ".
At one point they texted to say they could come "tomorrow " but I didn't respond to that and 30 minutes later guy turned up. Very thorough when he did come ( though had to pay extra £40 call out charge- is that a new thing ?)
So I won't be renewing . 5 hrs is unreasonable when they advertise 60 minutes!

It is interesting to hear all these comments about the RAC. Interesting too that the man who came to take our car to the garage (called by the RAC) said they are terrible and that he uses Green Flag. The service manager at our local garage where the car was taken said the same thing and that he uses Green Flag. Guess what breakdown service we shall probably be using next time.

Gingerrice, do you have homestart in your RAC package? If not, that was probably the charge. If you do you shouldn’t have been charged.

We were with RAC years ago. Having had a blow-out on the motorway years ago on our way to pick up family from Heathrow, we waited so long that DH changed the tyre himself in the end. We could see the RAC control centre from where we were!

I pay breakdown cover with my car insurance and have only had to use it once. When I broke down ( a tyre exploded) I phoned the breakdown number and found it was the RAC. They said they would be with me in four hours. I gulped at that. However, they phoned me back within ten minutes or so and asked my age and was I alone? When I told them they said they would be with me in about twenty minutes, and they were.
So I was quite impressed.

We had a battery problem last year with our Toyota hybrid which was on our drive. We were concerned as it’s a specialist battery. The dealership didn’t want to know. Fortunately we had Homestart with the AA. The AA arrived in 15 minutes with a case of tools and specialist knowledge of petrol hybrids and had the car up and running almost immediately. Worth every penny of the membership fee, which they had reduced to offer Homestart for free. Otherwise we would have had to pay for a lowloader to get it to an appropriate garage.

I've been with Emergency Assist for several years now, their charge is reasonable and I've had excellent service on the few times I've had to call them out.