The RAC and the motorcyclist

[boboneleg]

Last Friday after lending my compressor to a mate earlier in the day after he had a sow puncture I had a blow out in the rear tyre on my little Yamaha while riding home through the Cotswolds. As it was only a couple of hours until nightfall and I was in a pretty remote location I wobbled along for seven miles until I got to Cirencester.

From there I phoned and then (as instructed) messaged the RAC for recovery back to Bristol. They acknowleged my contact at 4.27pm and then sent an ETA of 6.30 - 8.30pm. To cut a long story short that ETA and several others passed with no sign of them. By 9.30pm there was ice begining to form on the bike and I was a bit cold . Another call to them resulted in this new ETA

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I phoned them back and asked if they were seriously expecting me to stand around in the cold on the side of the road until 4.10am the next morning. After a heated conversation , but no abuse (as they tell you repeatedly that they will not except abuse and they will cancel your recovery) they agreed to get me a taxi.

The taxi came at 11.10pm and I got home just after midnight. The next day I phoned them again to ask when my bike would be recoverd to my house , eventually it arrived 6.30pm. That's 26 hours after they logged my call

This is not the first time RAC have failed me , about 20 years ago I had a similar experience with them but at least the bike came home just before midnight on that occasion.

They have since apologised and offered me £35 as way of compensation for their piss poor service . I shall not be renewing my membership when it comes up for renewal .

[Toe]

I had a similar experience with the RAC. I only had it because it was thrown in with my insurance at the time.
About 10:00 I pulled off a dual carriageway and the bike just died and wouldn't start. Tried the usual fiddling, wiggling, unplugging but nothing worked.
Called about 10:30 and was told it was likely a couple of hours. Fine it's a busy service and a "couple" is "2 or 3" hours so understandable.
Roll round to 18:00 and a RAC van only setup for cars arrives. The guy says he only turned up because he had been in the area and was told to. He did his best by basically doing everything I'd already done and plugged in for diagnostics but couldn't recover me because no bike setup.
19:30 a huge flatbed from a local company turns up. Nice guy and a biker as well. Got loaded up and home for about 20:30.
9 damn hours from call to someone that can actually help turning up. Calls in between made zero difference.

Infuriatingly they were sending a text every 30 minutes saying something like "do not move we're on the way, not there then tough you go to the back of the queue". Awful fear mongering that you can't do anything (eat, drink, toilet) because someone could turn up any moment and if you're not there then you start all over again.

In hindsight I should've pushed it back up onto the dual carriageway and said it was an obstruction and I was next to NSL traffic.


I have read multiple times that AutoAid are good but never used them myself. I have their personal cover to cover both bikes and the car.
At some point it does become the point of is it worth the annual cost or do I just suck up a one off lump payment if I need to get a vehicle home.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Frankly, I don't think any of them are any good.
Probably the best one is the one that uses a network of local garages with recovery trucks: Greenflag; although they are
a) Only as good as the local garage to wherever you have broken down
b) Probably not as good for motorbikes as they are for cars

But the AA/RAC 'patrols' are overworked and underpaid.

Some years ago my friend had his brand new Land Rover Discovery eat its cambelt on the M25. Being an engineer, he quickly realised what the problem was and refrained from trying to restart it.
He phoned Land Rover's breakdown service for a recovery...which turned out to the the AA. Some hours later a chap in a little AA van turned up and said "I'm here to diagnose your problem."
"My cambelt's broken...you can't fix it here, I need to be recovered."
"Oh, I've got to diagnose the problem before I can authorise a recovery."
AA man jumps into driving seat and, I kid you not, TRIES TO STRT THE F*CKING ENGINE!
There's a sound like an explosion in a spanner factory as the top end of the engine is destroyed.
AA Man (Looking very pleased with himself) "I think your cambelt is broken, Sir."
My mate: "Yes, I think it is, and now the engine is wrecked as well. You are going to have to tow me in."
AA Man: "Oh I can't do that, sir, your vehicle is too heavy to tow."
My Mate: "I'd have thought Land Rover's breakdown service would be able to tow a Land Rover."
AAMan: "I'm afraid it doesn't work that way, sir."
My mate: "No, clearly not."

Eventually, he got recovered to the nearest Land Rover dealer, who lent him a car (not a Land Rover) to continue his journey in. And that was on the M25...not in the wilds of Snowdonia.

I'm not making any of this up.

[Treadtrader]

As some of you may know I operate a mobile tyre service.
Just one of my recent jobs of many similar.
Most newer cars are no longer supplied with a spare wheel.
I had a call from a distressed lady that had a flat tyre on her VW id3.
The car was on her drive, called her breakdown company who told her as she was in a place of safety, her home, she wasn’t covered. They said they could call a tyre service to attend for a cost of £240.00.
She phoned her Dad who gave her my number.
As I was nearby got there within the hour to fix a simple puncture, my charge £25.00.
I get many similar calls from people with a flat that the breakdown organisation’s can’t seem to cope with. Many of these calls are from people that have been stranded for hours.
I spotted a biker with a flat tyre last summer, tyre was scrap as he’d run it to get off a main road, couldn’t fix it but we manhandled it into my van and dropped him off at a local bike dealer who had a tyre.
Seems there’s too many vehicles on our roads and not enough recovery vans to help?

[Hugh]

Greetings,

I worked for both the AA and the RAC during the 70s & 80s. I think it is fair to say that the 'members' services' side of them both provided and still try to provide excellent support but unfortunately the financial cost of such is simply eye watering and both organisations became more interested in financial services which are profitable but totally separate to the members' services side which remains under staffed and under funded.

They are both typical of many companies and service providers these days and not unlike the army of Kitchener, lions led by donkeys.

TTFN

Hugh.

[redbikejohn]

2 or 3 years ago I left work at Heathrow at 18h45. Onto M25 and in outside lane when bike just stopped moving. Took a few moments to realise my throttle cable had snapped! By now cars where flying past on my inside and I was going slower by the second so had no chance to make it across the 4 lanes. Luckily there was a fair gap on the outside before the armco so I parked up and jumped in between the two strips of armco. As you can imagine it was pretty scary! Got onto police first i think and then rac via my helmet headset. Took a while for the police to make a rolling roadblock so I could push bike onto hard shoulder...... then the wait and multiple phone calls to rac. Oh yes it was the middle of winter too so getting bloody cold. After about an hour the called to say it would be at least another two hours which I think by now would be 10pm or so. I was freezing cold by now and hungry as I'd not eaten since lunchtime
Engineer mode kicked in and I rigged up three long cable ties and used my arm to pull open throttle body and road clutchless and one handed home! Twats.

[catcitrus]

A few weeks ago now I was travelling from just north of Rouen to Calais on my R1100RS--it was wet--I was on the motorway when the bike suddenly cut out at 70. I stopped on the hard shoulder, tried a restart, waggled fuses, swapped relays etc but nothing--it would crank but not fire. I'm with McKenzie Hodgson who are part managed by CN--and their international breakdown is with AVIVA I think--all part of the policy. I phoned the number and got told that because I was on a motorway I had to phone the police first for recovery, which I did. In the meantine an orange maintenance truck turned up---they stopped behind me, elevated their warning signs and waited with me in the rain. No English and my French is poor but eventually I found out that a recovery truck was on the way. It had to come a fair way from Abbeville but the two guys waited with me(protecting me from the trucks flying by in the rain)--must have been a couple of hours but a flatbed turned up and took me and all my gear(wet) to their depot. I then contacted CN and they got their French wing to speak to the recovery guy--and paid for the recovery. It was suggested that I get the bike to the nearest BMW dealer--Amiens. I got a lift to a nice hotel and next morning the recovery guy drove me and the bike to Amiens--again paid for by CN. Eventually(the next day) after the mechanic confirming that it was the ignition sensor, my son volunteered to jump in my van and drive to Amiens. He arrived about 2 pm Saturday and we were home by 9 pm. The BMW dealer didn't charge for any of his time or storing my gear, and I soon got my claim paid in full for hotels, diesel, ferry crossing for the van and so on. I guess it was a cheap option for CN as recovery would have taken ages and getting me back to the UK on foot would have been complicated. Not a bad outcome --except that if recovery had been more than the value of the bike thats exactly what would have happened and I would have to have recovered it myself anyway.

[dodursley]

I had a long wait for the RAC about 4 years ago when I had a puncture on my Transalp 650 (that I brought from Bob many years earlier). I had been to a club meeting near Stroud when the type went flat quickly. Phoned RAC at 7:30 ish they will be round within the hour so sat and waited, and waited, each time I phoned they would be around within the hour, finally arrived at midnight in a large truck where it was difficult to tie the bike down. If I had known it was going to be so long I would have taken a lift home and got my trailer out. At least it was a warm evening and a couple walking that stopped for a natter about bikes offered me a drink with biscuits, gratefully accepted.
Two occasions that I needed rescue for my Harley, when it blew its carb off the inlet manifold, they get a backfire on starting on hot days!! I used the rescue service offered by my insurer (Peter James). They used the AA , the van arrived well within the hour each time, they were equipped with a trailer, in bits, that they built up and we were on our way.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Greetings,

I worked for both the AA and the RAC during the 70s & 80s. I think it is fair to say that the 'members' services' side of them both provided and still try to provide excellent support but unfortunately the financial cost of such is simply eye watering and both organisations became more interested in financial services which are profitable but totally separate to the members' services side which remains under staffed and under funded.

They are both typical of many companies and service providers these days and not unlike the army of Kitchener, lions led by donkeys.

TTFN

Hugh.

Back then Hugh I suspect they were owned by their members.
As I understand it now, the RAC is part of the Lex organisation and the AA is owned by 'private equity partners' which paid £219 million for it.
Of course, both these 'investors' want their money back, and that means charging more for less.
Oh the perils of demutualisation
See also pretty much all the building societies, etc.

[Tramp]

BOB...always thought you carried a extra spare inner tube?

Anyway I've been with Jem for years never let me down always recovered within 2hrs and that was the ccm crap...car is same 2hrs max...I'm insured for breakdown not vehicle..