Bloody car insurance. I'm currently with the AA but they've added £32 onto my renewal price this year for some reason. They then send me an offer for £50 off car insurance if I get a quote through them. This would be fine if you could just reply to the email to say "That's great. Apply my £50 and renew" but no, you have to go through the process of entering all the details they already have via an online form and then at the end of all that it tells you to ring them for a quote. I swear the only way some people are kept in employment in this country is by wasting everyone else's time.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
AA? Ooh don't use them after I got my car insured with them one year with added breakdown cover. Worked well until next year when they whacked a huge increase and added a load of unnecessary and unwanted extras. Called and got them to go back to exact same cover as last year but the new premium read still about £100 more. Cancelled and went elsewhere.
Meanwhile i got a separate renewal for breakdown cover entirely independent of car insurance. I checked small print. It was decent price so took it on. That lasted about 3 years until we needed them 1 day before the cover ended. They refused to come to us. Apparently despite not putting it in the small print n the cover wasn't valid without car insurance. I seriously checked the was no term stating that when I first renewed. I can only think in the second or third Renewal time it got added somehow despite not being insured through them.
That time the campsite owner where we parked called the local garage owner because he knew him, garage was closed, the owner came and got us into our car and off for a little payout.
After that time the AA is one company I am very happy to tell anyone who will listen that they are a bunch of conmen and women. Do not go with them for anything. They will try to con you sooner or later.
I've used them several times for recovery from breakdowns.
First time my wife's clutch pedal snapped and I rang to ask for a tow truck to get the car home. I told them it wasn't repairable but they sent a van out anyway to have a look at it. I asked the guy if he'd brought a welder. He hadn't and it added a couple of extra hours to us being stranded. No tow truck was available so they got a local recovery firm to pick us up. The guy must have been an ex taxi driver with the long and tortuous route he took to get us home.
Second time the clutch plate failed on my car and I rang for a tow truck. Told them again it wasn't repairable but they sent a van. Van driver told me I'd run out of clutch fluid even though it was full. He drove me to a shop to get more fluid as he didn't have any, came back and then found out it was full...
Third time the water pump failed on the camper van. I rang to be towed home and told them no van this time. The van came and told me I needed a tow truck. It took hours to get the truck to us but we were in a nice town and were fully kitted out for a weekend away. The truck driver was a really nice lady but had to stop on the way home for her dinner and then again to get fuel which took a while as she couldn't find a fuel station (even though we'd stopped at one earlier for her dinner).
Fourth time the head gasket blew on my camper van (I hate that bloody van). I told them 100% absolutely no chance of a roadside repair so don't send a van. The van came and spent half an hour confirming what I already knew. No tow trucks were available so they asked a local garage to tow it. The local garage's truck really struggled to tow the van as they hadn't told him what he was picking up.
I have come to the conclusion that the van is just there so they can promote their fast response times. The cover is still better than nothing though. Just make sure you're prepared to spend a few hours sat in your car and you'll be fine.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
We just took the kids and dog for a walk around the estate. We were walking down the hill on a bit of road that doesn't have a pavement yet and just as we got near a car it suddenly started reversing. We gathered kids and dogs to keep them out of the way then turned back when we heard a load crunch. The car had backed right into a skip further down the hill on the other side of the road and was sat there with the alarm going off. We were stood there waiting for the driver to get out and start swearing but nothing happened. It was only when we got closer that we realised no one was in it. Amazingly the skip was the only thing down the hill that couldn't be damaged and if the skip hadn't been there it would have gone through a fence, down a bank and hit the corner of someone's house. And luckily for us if we'd been slightly further ahead on our walk we would have been right in its path too.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I've been a member of the AA since 1983 and have never had a problem. I say i get my money's worth every year. I've been with them so long I get " home start" free for the rest of my life at no extra cost.
It makes you wonder about parallel universes, doesn't it? A couple of times, murderously heavy objects have fallen from above within inches of me and I've lived to tell the tale.
It makes you wonder about parallel universes, doesn't it? A couple of times, murderously heavy objects have fallen from above within inches of me and I've lived to tell the tale.
My experience of AA service has also been good. I haven't had to use them often but when I have, they have been pretty quick getting there. I haven't been in the situation Wild Edge has experienced of knowing it's not fixable and them still coming to confirm that before getting the recovery wagon.
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Meanwhile i got a separate renewal for breakdown cover entirely independent of car insurance. I checked small print. It was decent price so took it on. That lasted about 3 years until we needed them 1 day before the cover ended. They refused to come to us. Apparently despite not putting it in the small print n the cover wasn't valid without car insurance. I seriously checked the was no term stating that when I first renewed. I can only think in the second or third Renewal time it got added somehow despite not being insured through them.
That time the campsite owner where we parked called the local garage owner because he knew him, garage was closed, the owner came and got us into our car and off for a little payout.
After that time the AA is one company I am very happy to tell anyone who will listen that they are a bunch of conmen and women. Do not go with them for anything. They will try to con you sooner or later.
Talking of cars, OH is over an hour late getting back from Surrey, hope he's not stuck in a queue on the M4 somewhere.
I've been with them so long I get " home start" free for the rest of my life at no extra cost.