Has RAC 顧客 service gone into 逆転する? A night on the 道端, 25 hours to 牽引する an 年輩の couple's car, drivers tell us their stories
- Some RAC members have waited hours for 援助?
- Chris Overend waited 12 hours and was left 立ち往生させるd in sub-無 気温s?
- Had a 決裂／故障 nightmare? editor@thisismoney.co.uk?
When Chris Overend's seven-year-old Mercedes Benz B Class broke 負かす／撃墜する beside a 二重の carriageway on a 氷点の night last March, he assumed the RAC would 速く arrive to help.
Mr Overend, 66, 作品 as a professional driver and he says the 決裂／故障 group had been brilliant on past call-outs.?
He'd paid £138 for his 年次の 会員の地位 - up from £75 in 2021.
'Although I was in a 不安定な position - just at the 味方する of a slip road off the A1 - I wasn't worried. I was 確信して that the RAC would get me home 滑らかに. How 絶対 wrong I was,' Mr Overend says.
Break 負かす／撃墜する: Chris Overend called the RAC before 10pm - but the company had no patrols 利用できる (在庫／株 image)
Chris and his wife Liz, 64, had been 運動ing home to Grantham, south Lincolnshire, from Manchester and were left 立ち往生させるd 夜通し by the RAC in sub-無 気温s.?
It took over 12 hours for the company to get them home.
The Overends' first called the RAC just before 10pm - when it was -1°C - but the company had no patrols 利用できる.
'We waited 氷点の by the 道端 for eight hours, until a sub-請負業者 from a 地元の garage arrived at 5am,' says Overend, 'but he couldn't 回復する the car, and drove us to a service area.'
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The couple finally arrived home at 10am, when they received a call from the 主要道路s 機関, who had 供給するd them with 失敗させる／負かす 一面に覆う／毛布s during their 夜通し debacle.
'The 主要道路s 機関 told us that the RAC had not returned to 選ぶ up the 乗り物, so they had had to 除去する it from the 道端 to their 構内／化合物.'
The Overend's 決裂／故障 nightmare did not end there. 'I spent five hours on the phone to the RAC 存在 passed around from one department to another.
'But it took another 12 days for the RAC to 選ぶ up my car from the 構内／化合物 and take it to the garage.?
'In that time, I was not 接触するd by the RAC, or 申し込む／申し出d a 雇う car. I had to 支払う／賃金 for a car myself to keep working.'
行方不明になるd 収入s, 交替／補充 car 料金s and the 修理 costs left the Overends more than £1,900 out of pocket - but the RAC 申し込む／申し出d only £150 補償（金）.
'It is difficult to 伝える the level of betrayal, 失望／欲求不満 and abandonment,' Overend 追加するs.
The RAC said: 'We've also apologised to Mr Overend for not 回復するing his 乗り物 far more quickly and have 申し込む／申し出d him a gesture of 好意／親善 to 反映する this.'
He has now 溝へはまらせる／不時着するd the RAC - which refunded his 政策 but 許すd him to continue his 政策 for a year - and switched to another provider.
顧客s can take a （民事の）告訴 その上の, to the 財政上の Ombudsman, but it points out its 裁判権 is 制限するd to （民事の）告訴s about the 仲買人ing of a 決裂／故障 政策 - arranging or 治めるing the 契約, for example, over a 再開 or 取り消し, rather than the 決裂／故障 service itself.
Social マスコミ, and even the RAC's own online 顧客 会議, is awash with 批評 from disappointed members.
In just the past month, there is a litany of （民事の）告訴s on X 演説（する）／住所d to the RAC's 援助 account.
One wrote: 'My daughter has been waiting over five hours for somebody to get to her, on her own in a 氷点の car.'
Another said the RAC was an '絶対の shambles of a company. Broken 負かす／撃墜する, 約束d a 回復 within 60-90 minutes as classed as 'high 優先' on the 味方する of a motorway. No 調印する of anyone for 7 hours! RAC was told one of the 乗客s is diabetic without 医薬.'
A third complained: 'I had 原因（となる） to use my RAC cover on my new car last night. After nearly four hours stuck in a dark, inner city street no one showed! Thankfully the AA （機の）カム after 45 minutes. Disgusted by your appalling service! I will never use you again!'
And in December, TV personality Debbie McGee slammed RAC for leaving her 立ち往生させるd after her car broke 負かす／撃墜する.?
Not やめる 魔法: Debbie McGee recently slammed RAC for leavi ng her 立ち往生させるd when her car broke 負かす／撃墜する
Some critics 非難する the company's change of 所有権 structure for its 拒絶する／低下する in service levels.
The RAC enjoyed one hundred years of 安定 as a 相互の until 1999 - but in the 介入するing years, no より小数の than six different 法人組織の／企業のs have bought and sold the 商売／仕事.
It's 現在／一般に owned by three 投資 巨大（な）s: the Singaporean 君主 wealth 基金 GIC, Luxembourg-based 私的な 公正，普通株主権 会社／堅い CVC 資本／首都 Partners and Silver Lake, a US buy-out group which owns Dell computers.
All that 取引，協定-making has heaped 負債 on the 商売／仕事. Although its 13million members in the UK bought in 歳入s of £664million in 2022, the 最新の published data, its 財政／金融ing costs were over £250million.?
その結果 the 商売／仕事 地位，任命するd a £316million loss, and 削除するd its 税金 法案 during the year.
RAC Group Holdings Ltd, which owns the 決裂／故障 商売／仕事, paid £61 million in 税金 in 2021 - but just £4million in 2022.
The RAC 非難するd this on the higher 人物／姿／数字 存在 '衝撃d by a one-off 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of £49million 予定 to the 影響 of 未来 planned 税金 率 changes.'
The company did manage to give its highest-paid director, most likely 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある Dave Hobday, a 支払う／賃金 rise. His £1 million 支払う／賃金 一括 in 2021 rose to £1.24million in 2022.
立ち往生させるd: The RAC left Lucy Tobin's 年輩の father in the lurch after a 決裂／故障 on New Year's Eve
It took RAC 25 hours to arrive?
Hobday is a 指名する I've 本人自身で grown familiar with, having spent 最近の months emailing him over my family's own poor service at the 手渡すs of the RAC.
Our debacle began on New Year's Eve, when my father's two-year-old Nissan Leaf broke 負かす／撃墜する at my parents' home.?
As my father is sadly very ill, I drove 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to help, phoning the RAC - with whom my parents' had had 会員の地位 for two years, a 'perk' which （機の）カム with the 購入（する） of the car from Nissan - around 9am.
I was told the call was 分類するd '部類 one, 医療の 優先' 予定 to my father's 条件 - but a patrol 乗り物 didn't arrive for eight hours.
He then re-started the Leaf by resetting the 乗り物 - wiping all error messages, which meant the garage could not ascertain why the fault had occurred, and so it reoccured, two weeks later.
This time, my mum, who is in her 70s, was out 運動ing when the car broke 負かす／撃墜する.?
Luckily, she was only a mile away from home, 選ぶing up 医薬 for my father, so I 長，率いるd out to bring her home.?
She called the RAC just after midday. Again they 約束d swift 進歩 as it was a 医療の 優先 call-out.
But the RAC 現実に turned up to 牽引する the 乗り物 25 hours later.?
READ MORE:?My car broke 負かす／撃墜する and now the RAC has LOST it - CRANE ON THE CASE
?In July, I broke 負かす／撃墜する 近づく where I live in Essex and called the RAC.?
Unfortunately, my car couldn't be 直す／買収する，八百長をするd by the 味方する of the road and it was too late in the evening to take it to a garage.?
I was told my car would be taken to a 安全な・保証する 構内／化合物 while I waited for a 修理 - but when someone arrived to 選ぶ it up it turned out it was never taken there.
I had waited 近づく the car until 7pm, when a patroller had arrived after seven hours, at 7pm, but his 乗り物 couldn't 牽引する the Nissan Leaf - にもかかわらず the car 存在 logged on the call sheet.
Standing on the 氷点の street, I asked the patroller if I had to wait with the 乗り物 until the 牽引する トラックで運ぶ arrived, and was explicitly told that this was not necessary.
The 選ぶ-up トラックで運ぶ, which I was then told was 予定 to arrive at 1am, would 接触する me at my home, one mile away, to 選ぶ up the car 重要なs, so no one had to wait in the car in sub-無 気温s until the 早期に hours.
I went home to wait - however, when the 牽引する トラックで運ぶ company got in touch ahead of its 1am 選ぶ-up slot, the 監査役 said there was 'no way' they would 選ぶ up 重要なs from a separate 場所 and that I needed to wait with the 乗り物.
At 10pm, I then phoned the RAC to ask if I was then supposed to sit in the broken 負かす／撃墜する, 打ち明けるd car alone until 1am with my children, and was told yes - unless I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to rebook the 選ぶ up for a five-hour time slot the next day.
Reluctantly I did so rather than wait in the car until 1am. The next day, I was given a five-hour time slot to wait out, and had to 取り消す family 計画（する）s.?
The car to 結局 選ぶd up at 1pm Saturday, 25 hours after the first call to the RAC.
The 決裂／故障 service's social マスコミ account is called RAC Care.?
But our experience and those of 列s of other 顧客s 示唆するd that いつかs, the 私的な 公正，普通株主権-owned 商売／仕事 doesn't care much at all.
The RAC said it was '極端に sorry that Mr Tobin and Mr Overend didn't receive our normal high 基準 of service.
'The 広大な 大多数 of our members receive a 急速な／放蕩な, efficien t service, but when 取引，協定ing with thousands of 決裂／故障s in different 場所s every day, there will be times when things don't go as they should.'?
The RAC 申し込む／申し出d my parents £200 補償（金）, but their experience means they now ーするつもりである to switch providers.
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