RAC - left my brother shafted in the middle of no where in Europe
 

We have full europeon cover int he family with RAC.....and over the weekend they failed to recover!

My brother and 5 of his friends where out in the South of France on a Bike Trip.....

My brother had an accident in the South of France on his motorbike (he is ok), called up RAC in the UK and in France a number of times to get the bike recoverd, and he was not having much luck and they finialy turned up the following morning. My brother had many conversation with them and has many names... ;) (including the guy who said from the UK call a local france company and arrange your collection and RAC will pay for it) :mad:


He is currently on the phone to them, and is looking to get compensation back including the Hotel stay at a cost of 350Euro's...Also the 2 hours of CAlls made to RAC costing near £100....

On one of my roadtrips round the continent my cavalier's alternator packed in, phoned the AA and within the hour the local, German, recovery truck was there and they towed me to the closest Opel dealer. The dealership was spot on, squeezed my car in and had a new alternator on it within 3 hours and I was on my way. The European cover also covered the labour cost which got refunded once I got back home. Spot on.

Sounds like either RAC buggered you about or accidents weren't really covered and it was an insurance issue instead, that would be my guess.

I have used Euro breakdown with different companies a few times.

1. generally it takes a couple of hours for the local guy to come and collect you from the roadside.
2. generally it takes a while for the fault to be diagnosed at the dealer
3. They will not recover you if the cost of the re-patriation is more than the current vehicle value.
4. They will pay to put you up in a hotel of their choice if you have to wait overnight for the car to be fixed.
5. They will pay for a taxi too and from the hotel.
6. They will NOT pay for your phone calls to sort everything out. Normally in Europe this costs from £50-£100


Thats my experience

Gary

Would it not be the Insurance people he should have been ringing for help rather than the RAC? Never been in this situation before but breakdown recovery isnt accident recovery is it?

Well...I had RAC European Assitance (Comprehensive) for Le Mans and had aboslutely faultless service from start to finish.

Car broke down (suspected big end failure) on teh auto-route just south of Rouen. I was passing the same spot in a hire car, having been recovered from the auto-route, just a few hours later.

On the way home We made the same ferry as the rest of our party -- and that inlcuded Rouen-Calais in a recovery truck.

Phonecalls were always when promsied - and usually follwed 20 mins later to ensure everything that should have happened did.

Excellent Service. Not sure why you ring the UK though ? Its all handled from a call centre in Lyons I think.

he rang the UK, as he was not having much luck with rining anyone there...but all has turned around quite nicely as they have admited they were in the wrong...

I thought the RAC and AA were just for breakdowns not accidents? A mate of mine had an accident on the motorway years back and was told by the AA he wasn't covered, whereas if he'd just broken down he would have been.

I'd have thought after an accident you'd have to go through your insurance company for recovery?

After I wrote off my car in Portugal Green Flag flew my passengers and I back to the UK, and brought the remians of the car back a few weeks later. I think AA, RAC etc will recover from accidents but they then bill your insurance company for the cost.

RAC recovered my mates written off Vectra (using my membership as he didn't have any :rolleyes: ) after a wheel fell off an old renault 5 causing the young girl driving it to lose control and wipe us off the road.