[Motman]

...£203! And the RAC are pleased to tell me that these no increase to it. I'll pass.

We've not had need to use it this year but reading some of the horror stories, thank God for that! Besides, the Evoque came with full European breakdown and recovery direct from LandRover, including courtesy car, accommodation if needed etc etc, my multi-bike policy has European breakdown and recovery included, my son has now moved out and his car is now covered by his bank account and that only leaves our daughters car that she can't park where she lives in London so she just keeps it at our house for us to use as a spare and only picks it up when she needs it for holidays, moving stuff and Christmas when the trains aren't running. Of course, muggins here ends up taxing, insuring, mot'ing and maintaining it. Kids. Pah!

[Santa]

To be fair Motman, most people must be fairly happy with the service they get. We see the worst, because, with few exceptions, they only come here when it goes wrong.

That said - there are better deals to be had, and the bank's do seem to be a good deal, with all the other benefits, like travel insurance, thrown in.

[smudger]

We have bad a few positive posts as well about the quality of breakdown service. As already mentioned most folk are quite happy, but folk tend to post more about their complaints?

[ficklejade]

I believe it's true that we're all more likely to sound off about poor service/expensive costs rather than good service. Certainly that's been my experience in the tourism industry and whilst I will have a go about rip-offs, I will also praise good service and value for money.

I'm actually quite shocked at how much breakdown services cost. I don't pay for my RAC membership (hubby worked for them) and over the years have had mixed service. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying, with one notable exception which was not RAC breakdown but their insurance backroom team's mistake, it's been generally good. What does annoy me though is the huge cost of getting a vehicle on/off island when one has a mishap - if Green Flag can do it....!

Motman, I hope you have a better deal than I with Landrover cover, which I also have, except they can't get my car right! And I'd say to anyone who has breakdown service through their bank to read the terms and conditions very carefully. I had cover via Clydesdale and it was useless when I broke down, as was the travel insurance. The same happened to a friend with Barclays deal some years back. Thankfully I had RAC cover.

[Motman]

Lol about the Landrover not getting your car right - if you went on the LR/RR forums you'd certainly think twice before buying one! We've had them out twice for our Evoque keyless locking problem (second time it went back for a new module). Currently in Shropshire and when we arrived at the cottage we are renting on Friday, I did a U turn in the car and got a 'transmission fault' message on the dash and it wouldn't select any gears. I switched it off and restarted it and all was ok. I mentioned to the wife last night that I might get Landrover Assist out today to check it out in case it does it again and we get stuck and she went mad at me! Apparently, it's not fair to get 'the man' out on Easter Sunday!!!!!!!! I tried to explain they are on call at all times but I think that she thinks there's one man on call for the whole of the U.K. and she wants to let him have a lie in today! Anyway, I heard her mutter something about if it goes wrong one more time, it's going back so I'll lie low for a while. :-(

[Motman]

Well, I finally managed to get through to them after a 20 minute wait and told them not to auto renew. To be fair to them, when they asked why and I told them, they wished me well, thanked me for my time with them and there was no attempt at any hard sell. Refreshing.

[Santa]

Talking about being on call reminded me of something that happened when I worked for the NHS. I had four drivers who took it in turns to be on call overnight. They got a small allowance for it, plus a minimum two hours pay if they got called out, which didn't happen all that often.

One morning one of the drivers was hopping mad: Apparently, he had been called at silly O'clock. He drove to the main hospital where he was asked to take a bottle of milk to another hospital. It seemed that the nurses needed it for their morning cuppa.

When I investigated, it turned out that they had assumed that being on call, meant that they were sitting somewhere waiting for a job. They had no idea that they had got the poor guy out of bed at 4 am on a cold and frosty morning.

[smudger]

Aye! when we were on call, we were sat at home getting £1.70 an hour, while the paramedic sat up at the station getting around £9.80 and hour....................................When a job came in, he had to drive round to my house, pick me up, then we went to the job.................................We, had a 2hour minimum deal, which meant if you only had one job, in an 8 hour period, and it lasted less than hour, then we got an 8 hour minimum of £1.70 an hour?.................................I hated doing on call, as you couldn't leave your house at all when doing it, which made weekends intolerable?

[Motman]

Back in the late seventies, to earn a little extra I had an evening job with an independent garage that had a contract with the AA. We would get called out when the AA was busy or just lazy. I used to get £2 for being on call from 6pm to 11pm and that included my first call out. After that it was a flat £1 per job. We were based in the East End but our patch went as far as the City. If we attended an accident (which was chargeable - £10.80 inc vat) and we brought the car back to base OR made it driveable and brought the £10.80 back, we'd get a £1.50 bonus. I once got a Rolls Royce driveable on the Embankment by pulling the wing off of the wheel using the breakdown truck's hook but the bloke wouldn't pay me and wanted us to bill him. I still remember his address - 26 Buckingham Palace Road. Anyway, seeing my £1.50 bonus slipping away, I took his keys from him and brought the car back. He was fuming but he had to walk home and sent his chauffeur down the next day in a taxi with the £10.80 to get his car back. Now that's what you call customer service!

[Santa]

Memories....

In the 60s I had a Sunday job as a controller with Moons Motors, who had the AA franchise for central London breakdowns. AA patrols did not come into the GLC area so we had three small wreckers out all day covering the AA work. There was a good fiddle going on with Ford Cortinas whose clutch cable had broken (always one or two - sometimes more). The driver would tell the motorist that under the AA, a cable was not a roadside repair and he should just tow it to the garage for repair on the Monday.

After explaining this, he would suggest that, for a fiver, he would do it there and then. I got a ten bob cut so that I would do the paperwork correctly.

Another very common problem was the front trunnion on Morris Minors. The front wheel would just collapse on a bend.

The drivers were usually dead on their feet by the end of the day. They were paid a small hourly rate for the first 40 hours, then time and a half for the next ten; double for the next and treble for the next. You can imagine that with the week starting on Monday, they would drag themselves in on Sunday even if they were at death's door with the flue.

[Motman]

When I look back and remember how we used to lift cars in those days with a Harvey Frost crane, two chains through the anti-roll bars and just an old back seat protecting the lower front panel from being destroyed by the chains I shudder and wonder how many cars you would get away with doing that to nowadays. None. That's how many. Lol.

[Santa]

But these days you can drive past what looks like an horrific accident; with mangled cars and bits of plastic and glass all around, and the drivers are standing by the wreckage exchanging details.

[smudger]

Aye! We got called out to quite a few road accidents where when we arrived and saw the wrecks, we were sure that it was going be a fatal one?....................................But it wasn't, and both drivers were sitting on the crash barrier, with no serious injuries,apart from small cuts and bruises?.........................................T hen, you would go to others where the damage was a lot less, only to find that it was a fatal one?........................It's weird really, but modern cars are designed to crumple upon impact, which has saved a lot of lives.

[Brandon]

£203 really does sound steep, I’d probably think twice about renewing at that price as well. Most people don’t think much about breakdown cover until the day they actually need it and then suddenly it feels worth it. I had a situation not long ago where a car wouldn’t start and I was stuck for a bit, which reminded me how quickly a normal day can turn stressful. Funny enough while reading this thread I even thought about random things like Recovery Birmingham and how many different local services exist that people only notice when something goes wrong.