 | Home > Finance & Insurance > RAC’s breakdown in trust as charity is hit with £6,000 bill |
 
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| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018   
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 Click image to enlarge When James Hewson’s Land Rover Defender broke down in north Wales, he was thankful that he had cover with the RAC, knowing that it would most likely do a professional job. But Hewson says the breakdown service managed to lose the keys, temporarily lose the car, and cause more than £6,000-worth of damage. The first blow to Hewson was finding out he did not have full RAC recovery cover as part of a policy he bought from insurer NFU Mutual. Instead, it only allowed for the car to be towed a few miles. If he wanted the vehicle, which is 20 years old but still robust, taken to his trusted north London specialist garage it would cost £513 – a hefty amount for Hewson, who uses the 12-seater to take groups of disadvantaged inner-city kids on adventure trips with his charity, Mountainwise. Hewson, a trained climbing instructor, says: “In the end it was easier to pay the RAC to take it back to our garage where I knew it would be sorted out properly.” But the nightmare was only just beginning. The RAC’s recovery contractor managed to lose the keys. And then, as it was being transferred across the country, it was winched on to a recovery truck which ripped the chassis. The alarm bells started ringing when he got a call from the RAC asking if he had a spare set of keys – which he did not. Next he got a call from his garage asking why there was a Jeep in its yard. In an almost comedic element to the saga, the RAC had towed in a Jeep Cherokee for repair, instead of Hewson’s Land Rover. When his vehicle finally arrived, he says it was immediately clear to staff that it had sustained major damage to the chassis, and he was quoted £6,600 to fix it, not including the cost of replacing the locks. “It might be old, but these go on for ever if you look after them. They are perfect for us as they go anywhere and carry lots of people. We take the kids all over the place. This is one of our best and we need it back.” When Hewson complained to the RAC he was astounded when it offered just 20% of the repair bill. This was later upped to 30% and a “final” 50%, that would leave the charity more than £3,000 out of pocket. It offered to replace the locks and refund the £513 recovery fee, but no more. During the three-month dispute the vehicle has remained undrivable. “As far as I am concerned it has wrecked our car and it should fix it. To only offer half is ridiculous,” Hewson told us. In correspondence to Hewson the RAC said: “The damage to the chassis was caused by the last driver who recovered your vehicle from our base to the garage. As the keys had been lost, he attached the winch to a hook on your vehicle which was the wrong procedure. I’ve highlighted this incident to the recovery driver’s manager and this will be addressed as a training issue.” Hewson said it appeared to be limiting its payout by claiming there was already damage to the chassis. “Their loss adjuster only inspected the vehicle after the damage, so they have no grounds to suggest that the chassis was already damaged. None of this was noted on the pre-recovery condition report and if there was a pre-existing problem it would have failed its MOT, which it hadn’t.” However, when we put Hewson’s case to the RAC this week it suddenly decided to pay up. It told us: “We accept there were mistakes made in terms of losing keys to the vehicle and in the damage caused to the rear section of the chassis while our colleagues attempted a recovery, which was felt to be the right course of action at the time. “Following further review of Mr Hewson’s case, and in recognition of the length of time it has taken to resolve this issue, the RAC has decided to settle the claim, in full, and will be contacting the customer to confirm this.” And another charge… Last month the RAC was featured on the BBC Watchdog programme after viewers complained of being wrongly told they needed a new battery by recovery staff. It called the RAC out to 10 staged breakdowns in which their experts had declared that the battery simply needed to be recharged, and the car run for a while. In eight cases the RAC insisted that a new battery was required, at prices of £90 or more. Experts checked the batteries again and claimed they saw no reason why the RAC had said they needed to be replaced. The RAC told Watchdog that it used the latest testing technology and it stood by its staff’s actions. In 2014 Guardian Money first highlighted the high cost of RAC batteries, running several letters from readers who claimed they had been over-charged – on top of the membership fees they were already paying. The RAC was bought by private equity firm Carlyle for £1bn in 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/dec...towed-away |
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11th Dec 2016 7:50am |
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| JOW240725 Member Since: 04 May 2015 Location: Suffolk Posts: 7907 
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What a calamity of errors! Lets hope the RAC do the honourable thing and cough up in full!! James
MY2012 110 2.2TDCi XS SW Orkney Grey - http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic43410.html MY1990 110 200TDi SW beautifully faded Portofino Red - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post743641.html#743641 MY1984 90 V8 Slate Grey - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post744557.html#744557 Instagram @suffolk_rovers |
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11th Dec 2016 8:41am |
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| Laurie Member Since: 22 Feb 2008 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 2897  
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I've been with the AA for over forty years and never had a problem, in fact it's always been 'service with a smile'.
I joined them after the RAC abandoned me while on holiday in North Wales. |
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11th Dec 2016 10:30am |
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| Rickydodah Member Since: 14 Jul 2014 Location: East Sussex Posts: 1091 |
I also have been with the AA for decades and always find that they're happy to negotiate come renewal time
 I started with nothing and still have most of it left! |
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11th Dec 2016 10:55am |
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347 
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Not cool
From the sounds of things the RAC are going to pay for the repairs though which sounds like a new rear Crossmember so not all bad. Silver Linings  Running Restoration Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/post323197.html#323197
Self confessed mileage hunter |
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11th Dec 2016 4:31pm |
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| ARC99 Member Since: 19 Feb 2013 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 1831 
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I changed to the Green Flag some years ago and have had excellent service. I was with the RAC until one of there number tried to tow start my auto Disco. Oh no he was recovering it to a garage according to his report and didn't know about towing auto gearbox vehicles. Don't make old people mad.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to  us off.
Richard |
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11th Dec 2016 5:16pm |
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| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3514 
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Has anyone noticed the absolute lack of AA / RAC vehicles on the road these days?
I am not sure about the AA but I think the RAC sub most of their work out around here. Now that is exactly how Green Flag work ( a network of independents who they call on) so you then have to ask why you would spend more on RAC membership? It would be interesting to know how many Patrols each of those companies actually have? I left the RAC many years ago when they screwed my renewal up. That was the day of having a local office (Chapelfield Road Norwich if there is anyone old enough and local to me who can remember). After getting no joy at the office, I sent a letter to them to cancel mentioning the fact that the local office were of little use and that how bizarre it was that a motoring organisation had an office with no parking. It closed shortly after...... I'm glad to see that this catalogue of disasters seems to have been rectified by the RAC. |
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11th Dec 2016 7:12pm |
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| BuckBlu110 Member Since: 19 Apr 2014 Location: in the pub Posts: 714 
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Been with the aa for a number of years now and can't really fault them. I had a breakdown not too long ago, when it came up in conversation it turns out that the aa drivers cover a fairly large area from where they're based, can't remember how far exactly but do remember being quite surprised to how much distance is covered by each driver, might be why fewer are seen when they are covering larger areas.
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11th Dec 2016 8:49pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2656 
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Chassis must have been pretty rotten for a recovery truck winch to 'rip' it.
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11th Dec 2016 9:03pm |
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| miker Member Since: 13 Sep 2015 Location: Surrey Posts: 1763 
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That was my first thought as well! |
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11th Dec 2016 9:18pm |
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