British RAC - A Rant!
07-15-2002, 07:09 AM
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British RAC - A Rant!
hi all
my car let me down at 11.30 pm saturday night (13th July). i gave it the quick once over...found no fuel pressure,(i have a gauge on the fuel rail) wiggled a few relays and wires, no go.
having joined the RAC earlier this year i thought i would use their recovery service........WRONG!i was also dressed up, so i didn't want to crawl around the car.
after 20 minutes of ringing i finally got thro' explained the problem, they took my details, location etc. i then sat back and waited. after about 30 minutes i was rung to to be told that they couldn't locate me on their mapping system. (i was on a slip road to the main A38 trunk road.) eventually a light came on in the guys head and all was well. (so i thought)
i sat back and waited, and waited, and waited, after a further 45 minutes i re-rang them, to be held in a call que for about 35 minutes (21 lots of 'we value your call' etc etc), eventually i got to speak to a guy (phone battery getting V low now) they confirmed my earlier call, but they had not allocated a break down truck to me. this is after about 2 hours from initial contact. now 1.30 am sunday morning.
after a few choice words where exchanged, i decided to give the fuse board an angry wiggle (poor old car) and she burst into life. stuck it in drive, and then drove the last 21 miles home.
i have never used a breakdown service before, and i never will again! what a bl@@dy awful service.
i cannot recommend the British RAC to anyone..what a bunch of clowns.
if anyone from the RAC reads this, my membership number is: 350 566 967, check the above out!
Johnb
my car let me down at 11.30 pm saturday night (13th July). i gave it the quick once over...found no fuel pressure,(i have a gauge on the fuel rail) wiggled a few relays and wires, no go.
having joined the RAC earlier this year i thought i would use their recovery service........WRONG!i was also dressed up, so i didn't want to crawl around the car.
after 20 minutes of ringing i finally got thro' explained the problem, they took my details, location etc. i then sat back and waited. after about 30 minutes i was rung to to be told that they couldn't locate me on their mapping system. (i was on a slip road to the main A38 trunk road.) eventually a light came on in the guys head and all was well. (so i thought)
i sat back and waited, and waited, and waited, after a further 45 minutes i re-rang them, to be held in a call que for about 35 minutes (21 lots of 'we value your call' etc etc), eventually i got to speak to a guy (phone battery getting V low now) they confirmed my earlier call, but they had not allocated a break down truck to me. this is after about 2 hours from initial contact. now 1.30 am sunday morning.
after a few choice words where exchanged, i decided to give the fuse board an angry wiggle (poor old car) and she burst into life. stuck it in drive, and then drove the last 21 miles home.
i have never used a breakdown service before, and i never will again! what a bl@@dy awful service.
i cannot recommend the British RAC to anyone..what a bunch of clowns.
if anyone from the RAC reads this, my membership number is: 350 566 967, check the above out!
Johnb
07-15-2002, 07:52 AM
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I'm right there with you on this one John. When my 5spd (now christened 'char grilled') decided to fry it's electrics and strand me in the middle of a motorway bridge in Glasgow. I called the police and the RAC.
The police were great and totally professional. They were there within mins and sorted out the traffic and towed me off the motorway and then gave my passenger a run to the airport (my origional mission) in time for his flight!
The first RAC van turned up in an acceptable time and the guy was as helpful as he could be but there was no way he was going to be able to get the car running so he put in a request for a flatbed truck to lift the car. This is where I entered that wonderful land of call queing which you describe. In the end it took them an additional 6 hours to get the car moved the 4miles to the garage! I could have pushed it faster.
The most worrying thing to me was that this was me getting helped while I was actually in a city where they have a base, I hate to think how they would have responded if I was actually is some remote area. I think this is the downside of their policy of prioritising calls from single females (which is right) - single males get the lowest priority rating.
Cheers
Dave
The police were great and totally professional. They were there within mins and sorted out the traffic and towed me off the motorway and then gave my passenger a run to the airport (my origional mission) in time for his flight!
The first RAC van turned up in an acceptable time and the guy was as helpful as he could be but there was no way he was going to be able to get the car running so he put in a request for a flatbed truck to lift the car. This is where I entered that wonderful land of call queing which you describe. In the end it took them an additional 6 hours to get the car moved the 4miles to the garage! I could have pushed it faster.
The most worrying thing to me was that this was me getting helped while I was actually in a city where they have a base, I hate to think how they would have responded if I was actually is some remote area. I think this is the downside of their policy of prioritising calls from single females (which is right) - single males get the lowest priority rating.
Cheers
Dave
07-15-2002, 11:01 AM
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Let's see, this is the same group which paid out over 400 million Pounds Sterling what, three years back?, to its 'special' members- now doesn't have enough service vehicles, flatbeds & operators.... Thanks for the info,
Donald
Donald
07-16-2002, 06:25 AM
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whats wrong with this world????
i tried to speak to someone at the rac, if i treated our customers the same way.......(gave up after 18 'please hold messages' - 23 minutes)
what a way to run a business, especially a so called customer/service related business.
i'm still wound up after 3 days, i just can't believe that a service organisation such as the rac really cannot give a stuff about their customers.
they have a customer contact section to their web site.....surprise, surprise it doesn't work! maybe they have had to disable it because of the level of complaints???
arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
oh hum <img src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" border="0" alt="[soapbox]" />
johnb
i tried to speak to someone at the rac, if i treated our customers the same way.......(gave up after 18 'please hold messages' - 23 minutes)
what a way to run a business, especially a so called customer/service related business.
i'm still wound up after 3 days, i just can't believe that a service organisation such as the rac really cannot give a stuff about their customers.
they have a customer contact section to their web site.....surprise, surprise it doesn't work! maybe they have had to disable it because of the level of complaints???
arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
oh hum <img src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" border="0" alt="[soapbox]" />
johnb