If you break down the last thing you should do is call AA

[ian505050]

Bought a bike off ebay last night and hired a van first thing this morning to go and collect.

Picked the bike up and the van broke down 20 minutes away from home on the motorway. Bollocks. Power steering belt and water pump had both failed and snapped a few other things off in the process.

10:30 I call Van hire company who call the AA on my behalf.

11:30 1st AA Lorry loads the van on the back and pulls into the service station unloads the van and drives off? WTF!

I call AA at this point and they advise me they are sending a mechanic out in a car to fix the van. I tell them its not possible and advise that its fooked. The lady says that the mechanic needs to come out and see if he can fix it. I suggest that this would be wasting my valuable time, there valuable time, the diesel in the van and the wage they are paying the mechanic to visit me.

So......

12:30 2nd AA guy turns up looks under the bonnet and says "its fooked" but another guy may have parts to fix it. He then drives off and advises me that another guy will come with parts.

13:45 3rd AA guy turns up and says "its fooked"

At this point i am a little miffed as i knew this at 10:30 much earlier in the day and am simply 5 miles or 20 minutes from home, yet so far i have waited 3hours 15 minutes and we have not got any closer to coming to a resolution.

14:45 4th AA guy turns up in a lorry to load the van onto the back and take me back to the van hire depot. Guess what! It was the guy i met this morning at 10:30 4 hours earlier and he was simply going to do what i suggested at 10:30.

That's 4 hours of my time wasted for no reason at all. As well as all the associated costs such as several long phone calls to the AA £7.00 for sandwich drink and crisps at service station.

15:00 we load up the AA lorry with the van and i am on my way again to the van hire depot.

15:15 i get back to the van hire depot and have to unload everything from my van into a new one which was a major ball ache.

I then suggest to the Van hire company that as i only had the van for half a day and it was broken down 50% of the time i paid for that i will need another van at the same time next week to finish what i did not get completed.

I was expecting a refund or voucher for van hire on another Saturday morning so i can take a load of furniture to the skip which is what i had planned but this was not offered. I was waiting for the offer.

At this point i was not offered a refund or van for next weekend so feel pissed off as i have wasted nearly a full day of my weekend.

How do i go about recouping my losses:-

1.) 4 hours of my time
2.) £7.00 in extortionate lunch from service station
3.) The cost to cover another 1/2 day van hire as i did not get everything done due to the breakdown.
4.)I missed the Leeds-Millwall game that my friend had some tickets for 1 ticked wasted (assumed ticket cost £40.00)
5.) At least 1 hour on the phone to the AA at 25p per minute from my mobile. Its an 0800 number but not free from my mobile. That's £15.00 in calls.


I would normally just let this go, but

The AA service was atrociousness

The van hire company will do everything to fook you over if you were to get a ticket ie. they charge a huge admin fee if you get a parking or speeding ticket.

The van hire company are a huge admin fee in there terms and conditions if you bring it back late plus the cost of an additional day.

The Van hire company charges £2.50 a liter for diesel if you bring it back and its not full, even though they have a diesel pump on site to refill with no hassle.

The Van hire did not offer a refund or replacement van so i could do the stuff next weekend.

I just feel gutted/exhausted/pissed off now. An my weekend has been ruined.

What of the above can i claim back from the Van hire company in writing legally?

Your advise is much appreciated.

Ian

[Pete.]

The hire company can't charge you for bringing the van back late if it's late because it broke down, and you shouldn't even pay the hire for the van because you didn't get the use of it. The incidental stuff like the meal and the footie you can forget about - no way you're going to cover that.

If you paid by credit card get in touch with them and they will help you claim any charges they think you should not have paid.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[ian505050]

[Derivative]

Legally you should get either a refund or an acceptable resolution such as another days' hire.

Anything else would be entirely at their own goodwill.

You can ask, but I'd suggest if you took them to court that asking them for lunch that you purchased of your own volition you'd not make a good impression.

[Polarbear]

[MattEMulsion]

That's the way the AA work, they get you off the side of the road (the motorway in this case) into a place of safety - Obviously if you are already in a place of safety they won't do that first. Then you wait for a patrol to turn up and see if they can fix it. If they can't fix it then you wait again for another tow truck...
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Yamaha YZF-R6

[Rogerborg]

You don't ask, you don't get.

Send them an invoice for whatever you like, but the food and footie ticket will be non starters, much like the van.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Lord Percy]

I remember being told the exact same thing on the phone by the AA - oh you're in a dangerous place so we need to send a truck out to move your vehicle to a safer place so the engineer can work on it safely.



Right, so your'e gonna send a guy here with a big towing lorry truck thing, who's gonna get out, be walking all over the place doing various things to get the vehicle towed, all greatly exposed to the motorway, just so the vehicle can be moved to a place where the next guy won't be exposed to the motorway?



Ferkin idiots.

Lucky for me I broke down right next to a slip road and they seemed to be quite cool about me saying the engine was guaranteed unfixable, so they sent a recovery vehicle and I was away in under an hour I think

Still, the safety jargon they cited to me was ridiculous.

There will be a lot of avenues you can take regarding the van hire. Although it'll depend on when it broke down. If it was midday - i.e. you had a good few hours left - then surely you should be credited with a half day or something.

Check the small print of any documents you signed when you hired it. There has to be some small print somewhere - every sale is a contract whereby you pay an amount of money and are provided with something. It's all legally binding stuff. Check what you 'officially' paid for. If you didn't get it, then it's a breach of contract.

[MattEMulsion]

[P.]

I do hate the fact that they say "We need to see if we can fix it"

My Bandit broke, it was dead. I said there is no way to fix it.

They sent repair guy.

Repair guy said "How do I lift your seat to get to the battery?"

You can't, it doesn't come off.

"Why not?"

It is broken. Like I said, it needs recovery rather than roadside repair.

5 hours later I was in a van, after being left in the torrential rain by the side of a 3 lane A road with no hard shoulder/barriers.

Not impressed.

[BTTD]

On certain roads the AA won't even recover you - they'll get the police to recover you to a different road, because it's too dangerous for them.
The AA isn't about the members any more, and hasn't been for a long time.
Shareholders and profit.

[fatpies]

[Al]

[Chalky.]

The AA have always been brilliant to me on bikes and in cars.

Most recently I was picked up by a third party (to get me quickly) from a dangerous place on the M6 and left me at a service station for the AA themselves to take me further. Was a delay as they were busy and it was a sunday night, but they actually covered my food bill etc while I waited even though they didn't have to and I hadn't asked.

Big hand to them.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

To be fair to the AA how many morons do you reckon tell them that their car can't be fixed when it reality it's something very simple??
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[ian505050]

My main issue was that the van was buggered at 10:30 which was obvious due to the amount of damage yet i had to go through the 4 hour process just so they would tow me home.

I complained on the phone and they stated its company policy ect....

But its seems that not at one point does the company policy consider the main concern of the customer is to continue there journey asap.

It was a utter farce in my opinion.

[kramdra]

recovery/repair companys are just another form of insurance. Every opertunity, they will fuck you. You dont get much choice

Id say hire another van for half? a day to finish your job. Ofcourse it will cost you more money, however while you have it you could cause some pretty significant but hidden damage that they could never attribute to you.

Dont worry they make enough from fines to buy a new one. A less considerate driver may have managed to drive it back with failed water pump and killed it anyway.

[biker7]

Last time I called the AA was when my car just cut out in the outside lane of a dual carriageway. AA told me to stand in a safe place and dial 999. When the police came the patrol officer got in my car and started it first time! Doh! never know to this date why it would not start for me. Never needed the AA anyway.

As for the bike - probably less hassle to ride it back!
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Swansea area
Fat Bob (2019)

[ian505050]

Just believe i may also have RSI caused through signing forms

I signed the following:-

Form to declare no damage to vehicle

Form to declare i accept T&C's

Form to confirm my card details

Form with regards to i drive on their insurance

I broke down and signed:-

Form when 1st AA man arrived

Form when 1st AA man left

Form when 2st AA man arrived

Form when 2nd AA man left

Form when 3rd AA man arrived

Form when 3rd AA man left

Form when 4th AA man arrived

Form when 4th AA man left

Final form when final AA man left

I then had to sign the first broken van back to the van hire.

I then had to sign:-

Form to declare no damage to the new van i was to borrow to get the bike home as well as the following forms yet again

Form to declare i accept T&C's

Form with regards to i drive on their insurance

I then returned the 2nd van i borrowed

And signed it back to them to declare it was not damaged.

Each form was at least 2 pages long and would take 15 minutes to read all the small print. Surly you cant be held by your signature to the wording on these forms as i would have taken nearly a full day just to read all the crap i signed.

Some of the crap we have to deal with these days is ridicules.

[Old Git Racing]

Just interested like, what's the first thing you should do?

OGR
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2022 Tiger Sport 660 2019 Street Twin 2003 K3 gixxer 1000 1998 Srad 600 track hack

[Derivative]

As far as I'm concerned all of the recovery groups bar AutoAid (because you decide yourself) are going to go through needless steps because their aim is minimizing the _cost_ of recovery, not minimizing the time.

I'd rather just cover my own costs of breakdown. Obviously not an option in the hire scenario.

I reckon a man with van could be procured in most situations if you offered them a reasonable amount over the phone. Say a hundred quid to get you where you want to go. They might be willing to be your taxi service to the destination if you pay enough.

[Furrybiker]

[mentalboy]

I'm glad my last experience with the AA wasn't that grim.
When I stuffed the 307 into a road sign it pushed the centre of the bonnet back about 18", making a bit of a mess of all behind it!
Mounting the kerb shunted both wheels back so they were touching the wheel arches.
whne I spoke to the AA controller they asked if it was drivable to which they were told if they fancied it they could because it would run however I wouldn't recommend it as the wheels were jammed agvainst the wheel arches.
He said OK we'll get someone out to you in about 20 minutes.
They got that bit spot on, but sending out a transit was probably not the cleverest of ideas! The driver was a little surprised that they'd asked him to tow me back.
40 minutes later a lorry arrived, after a short discussion he agreed to drop me off at the accident repair centre. If I hadn't put my foot down he'd have left me stranded in the middle of nowhere on the main A38 dual carriageway.
Whatever happened to paying for a service and getting what you've been promised? They want to keep their overheads low but the controllers don't seem to have a clue, it's not as though I had a flat battery.
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Make mine a Corona.

[Ingah]

[Rogerborg]