RAC Roadside Recovery - a heads up

[Highwayman]

Hey Guy's
Just something that you may find of interest if you have Breakdown assistance for your vehicle(s) and you've a renewal due soon.
I can't speak for every area of the country, but in my own Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, North home counties area, vehicle recovery and onward transportation with this brand is, how can I say - Going through a bad phase!
Allegedly many of the subcontractors that the RAC farmed-out much of this type of recovery have had those contracts rescinded (I don't know why) with not much being done shore up their operational capability in light of this.
Resultant fall-out... RAC members being left with their broken down vehicles for hours at a time after calling for assistance.
A bit of a shame really as out of the two most well-know brands they stole-a-march on their rival with their innovative Get you home adaptive spare wheel - A technician patrol carries a patented special type of car wheel that by a comprehensive range of adaptors will fit a substantial range of different vehicles.
Wondering if there's any-one out there who might know more than me about from an insider perspective of what they were thinking and what the planned means of address might be. (Apart from a long wait )

[Rogerborg]

Cheers, chap.

I'll take the opportunity to say that I got a surprisingly good service from Auto Aid:

https://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/

One call, they organised a recovery contractor (but you can arrange your own, which I like), he turned up on time, bish, bosh, money was claimed back no problem.

Just be aware that they don't cover bikes under 150cc and you'll need to pay the recovery fellow yourself. The one point of contention was that I was told that he'd take a card payment, but he said he couldn't. I'm not convinced by that, but it wasn't an issue under the circumstances.
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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

[G]

From what I've seen, that's standard service from the RAC for a fair while.

[Skudd]

I've had nothing but brilliant service from the RAC over the years. Usually come within 40 minutes and keep you informed all the way.

All I want when I break down is either be fixed or taken home. None of his pay someone and claim it back later. I don't mind having to wait for a transporter if needed, but I can't remember the last time they haven't been able to help get me going. (even put a free throttle cable on my Mondeo at home on the drive when it snapped)

RAC all the way for me chaps.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Pigeon]

Had RAC cover on a motorcycle insurance policy.

Got a puncture on a tubed tyre. They sent a van that took over an hour to arrive (just outside Guildford, not exactly the outback) and the van could not take bikes!

Dude was nice, but spent 3 hours trying to fix the puncture before giving up and putting 10psi of grease into the tyre using grease gun and telling me to ride it home. Having been stuck for 4 hours I did ride it home, about 8 miles. It was a bit squirely.

I should have handled it completely differently, wasted my time and risked an accident because I didn't want to be a dick.

RAC will not see another penny from me.

[GrumpyGuts]

[andyscooter]

I had piaggio assist that did the same

three hours I had to wait in the rain

and van that turned up had no way of moving a bike

so had to send for one from a different depot with a trailor this took another hour then had to swap over to finish the journey as driver couldn't go all the way to my house

took half hour to load the bike onto another vehicle and from breaking down at four o clock it got in at ten to 11
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[Rogerborg]

[Oldie]

[DrDonnyBrago]

When I binned my bike, I phoned autoaid and asked for a motorcycle recovery company to take me home.

A motorcycle recovery truck arrived, I got home.


Not as interesting as an RAC/AA recovery attempt, given that I wasn't left stranded after an accident, recovered to a nearby garage or forced to ride home with grease in my tyres but I am ok with that. Claim was simple enough, send receipt to them and wait about a week to get paid back.

[Polarbear]

I've never had a problem with AA although a fucking great car transporter to ferry my wifes ER6 back from the Lake district seemed somewhat overkill
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Rogerborg]

[Tritey]

Not happy with RAC.

Bought a VFR 750 on eBay, went down south to collect it, started riding it home. Pulled up on some services for a piss and a hazelnut latte and came back to the bike which wouldn't start. Rec/Reg shot so called RAC.

Called them at 3pm, they showed up at 4.20, bloke put volt meter on and said battery not charging. He stated I needed recovery to Wolves from M40 (by Oxford). 4 hours came and went and all the excuses under the sun as to why the third party recovery company couldn't transport the VFR and myself back up to Wolves.

Eventually at 9pm I was offered a hire car which showed up at 11.30pm on the back of a trailer and my VFR was loaded on and I was promised I would have it back within 3 working days as they would transport it up when convenient and collect the hire car. A bastard week went by and when I got the VFR back one of the rear foot pegs had been snapped off (I assume it was used as a strapping point).

Not happy, yes I got compensated financially but the service was poor.

[barrkel]

I've had to use RAC 5 times, 4 of them on the continent.

The one time in the UK, it was fairly average service. Random dude turns up in a van, not able to do anything with my bike, then have to wait 4 hours for a car recovery truck to move my bike 3 miles to a garage.

Every time in France, Austria and Germany, it's been good service with a bike-specific recovery vehicle first time, typically less than an hour wait. One time, we got to a bike shop that was able to fix my bike and get me on my way before close of business; two other times, bikes got recovered back to UK with car rental (albeit Fiat 500) and train travel home covered.

The service you get depends entirely on the subcontractors used, IMO. In the UK, I'd be more inclined to ring around, try and find a local recovery guy to take me to a local garage, and figure out my way home and retrieving the bike myself. Europe-wide coverage is much handier, and the subcontractors seem to be much better too.

One thing I'd say is that some garages on the continent get very sniffy with bikes that see 5-digit mileages and are ridden on non-dry days. And with the prices the sniffy garages want to charge, you're better off getting the bike recovered and repaired locally.
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Bikes: S1000R, SH350; Exes: Vity 125, PS125, YBR125, ER6f, VFR800, Brutale 920, CB600F, SH300x4
Best road ever ridden: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2MhNxUEYtQ

[TheSmiler]

[b422063]

[DrSnoosnoo]

Seeing as people are also stating who they have appreciated using, I thought I'd add.

I'm with Carole Nash and breakdown recovery is included, my ZZR clutch cable snapped, phone call (at 8.30am- rush hour) and 40 minutes later, a man in his motorcycle transporter got to me saying he'd just used his last clutch cable but swiftly had my bike in his van and asked, "garage or your house?"

Thumbs up to what Carole Nash did.
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I'm Sam; Northern, Ginger, Lover
Did have: '95 ZZR600 '83 CG125 '97 ZZR1100 '15 Hypermotard 821 SP Do Have: '10 ZX10R

[binge]

I have a van.

If I am out on bike, and it breaks down, I call a friend to go to my house, get my van keys, and come get me.

If I am out in van and it breaks down, I have a friend with a vehicle which has a towbar. I carry a recovery dolly in the back of my van permanently.

Said friend is happy to come out at any time to tow me home should I break down.
And I offer the same deal back to him.


Job done, don't need to waste my money on recovery.

[andyscooter]

Bloke who used to mend my bike was like that
Just rang him if I was stuck and he would come get me and take bike to his garage mend it and drop it back

Never charged me for picking up dropping off or mots

He went bump for some reason
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[Pol Anorl]

I broke down the other day when my fuel pump packed up, called rac, hour later guy turned up in a van "whats up with it" me "fuel pump i think" him "i wont bother looking at it then" and went off to call for a truck to come pick me up...

i did mention bypassing the pump and running direct to the carbs, limited power but power none the less but needing a bit of hose but no reply he carried on booking the truck...

told me it would be up to 45 mins, 2 hours later guy rocked up with a flat bed... talk about overkill!!

nice bloke though took me home put the heater on, only grief i had was ratchet strap through the pillion pegs...

[Tritey]

[blueglue]

[Clutchy]

The 1 time I've needed to get use the RAC in 2 years I was on hold for well over 45 minutes, tried again and again however I could not get through.

Pushed the bike all the way home and will never use them again.

The AA on the other hand every time seemed to have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help me out...

The only annoying thing about the AA was they increased my premium from £80 in the first year to £167 for the second year due to 2/3 claims. I ended up getting them back down to a (IMO) reasonable £100 but it's still annoying.
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Malaguti F12 Phantom-Dead, Suzuki AY50- Dead, NRG power DD LQ, CBR125.
*33 BHP restriction up on 10/12/14* Current bikes/car: SV 650 S/ MKIV GOLF
Guide to pass your test with no lessons!

[arry]

Bit of a BUMP (well quite a lot of a bump actually) but whereas I've always been a bit of an advocate of RAC they've well and truly done me over and I'm seriously unhappy with their tactics.

The irony of it is, and anyone that knows what industry I'm in would no doubt laugh, is that it's over auto-renewal of my policy.

Out of the blue I've had a sales call asking if I was satisfied with my existing level of cover, having just renewed. Strange, I thought, since I've not received any paperwork; best give them a call.

Whilst waiting on hold I realised that I'd not received anything from them for as far back as I can remember. So then I get a bit suspicious.

Get patched through to someone who tells me I've just renewed at £200+ for the year, not even at their top level cover . Turns out last year I paid £35 less than that, and the year before a bit less again. Surprise surprise, it seems they've switched me to a lovely tacit renewal function in the background and pillaged me for a nice little earner.

Same level of cover on their website is just over half the price - everyone loves a bit of differential pricing.

Blood sucking bastards.

Anyway - now looking for alternative breakdown cover as they can go screw.

[MCN]

I know MAG are stopping the Breakdown cover soon or it has been stopped.
And no alternative has been sorted for those who use MAG's cover.

It works but can be a bit thin in the less well populated bits of the country.

What about your insurer's cover? Although they normally have silly exclusions such as you have to plan your breakdown to be ten miles from home.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.