AA Ying Yang

[madcampbell]

Broke down on M4 in rush hour 6.30pm Last night with my young son in the truck.Got out of the truck wrapped us both up warm (always carry spare clothes and jacket for this ) the wind was howling and very cold.

I called the AA gave them the details and location.."be with you within the hour"

AA cal back in order to be there within the hour they are dispatching another company to help out they will still be there by 7.30

7.20 the other company call "where are you sir" explain location and find out that they are on the other side of motorway then he asks the type of car I am driving, I explain that it a 4x4 Hilux surf "err sorry sir the van on the way to you cannot pick you up we need to send a flat bed it will be another hour"

7.25 I called Tony N (thanks mate) for some advice on being towed

8.30 Hiways agencey stop, they call aa, aa say 20 minutes....

9.30 Flat bed turns up loads us and drops s home

Now I was happy to be home having been out in the cold for 3 hours with my son. But at no point had anyone looked at the problem

This morning I called the aa complaints line...They sent out a AA driver within 20 minutes of my call and he has spent 1.5hours trying to help. I called the aa Thank you line because I felt the AA man that turned up went the extra mile, very nice chap

Now the problem was a loud bang smoke or steam coming through the air vent and coolant water all over the screen, turns out to be a blown hose but may be head gasket small leak, aa man did a test for exhust fumes on the cooling system but no conclusive....so I am back up and running, for the moment

The AA man is suspicious the head gasket has gone but could not prove it.

1 Any thoughts

2 Any one else had problems with aa out sourcing to other companies as I have always found the AA to be good.

Again thanks Tony for the advice

Cheers
Mark

[Snorkel]

I'm no expert on a diesel engine (or any for that matter), but I reply as my head gasket went on my vectra last Sept., and I was trailing a ton of smoke out the back till I realised and pulled over. Surely you should check your oil level? mine was almost bone dry, I think I burnt about 2-3L in a mile.

[Scorpion]

My wife works for the AA (and no she isn't a breakdown truck driver, which would be handy at times). She works as a call handler for the breakdown section. Sometimes when the AA are really busy, like at the moment due to the bad weather, they have to outsource to various garages. There are only so many garages per area that they use and consequencely if they are busy the backlog of work soon piles up.

Of course there is no excuse for saying we will be there in the next hour if they know it will take longer. The thing is when my wife tells people the truth, ie 'sorry but due to high demand it may take up to 3 hours', she normally gets a mouthfull of abuse or the old, 'I'm travelling alone so I should be top priority', line.

Unfortunately those backlogs are sometimes unavoidable, but that isn't any comfort to someone sitting in a broken down car with their family for hours on end.

To put it in a nutshell, "Sh1t happens"!

[madcampbell]

Yep "sh1t Happens"

I gave them no grief over this. Should I have been told that it was going to be 3hrs sat out in the cold with my son. Not sat in the car as the safety advice is to leave the vehicle on the motorway(your wife will tell you that). There was not Extreeme weather conditions just a very cold blustery wind, I would have had a friend come over and pick my son up but I was constantley strung along that they would be there within an hour.

As pointed out the AA did atend this morning and got me back on the road but I believe that somthing went wrong between the AA and the other company which is my grief with the AA and they are investigating.

Mark

[Scorpion]

Wasn't meant as any critisism of you Mark, not sure if you took it that way? Just a general piece of info, that was all.

You're right of course, I've heard my wife read out the safety recommendations to drivers when they've broken down on the motorway, but you'd be surprised how many try to interrupt her when she's doing this. It's part of her job to read this out and as her calls are monitored she'd get a right b0llocking if she didn't do it.

[madcampbell]

Wasn't meant as any critisism of you Mark, not sure if you took it that way? Just a general piece of info, that was all.

You're right of course, I've heard my wife read out the safety recommendations to drivers when they've broken down on the motorway, but you'd be surprised how many try to interrupt her when she's doing this. It's part of her job to read this out and as her calls are monitored she'd get a right b0llocking if she didn't do it.

No offence taken at all, when your on the side of the motorway and see how close some of the lorries pass you can see why that's the advice is given( even if it was fecking freezing in the wind). I don't actually think it was the AA's fault but the other company..however my membership is with the AA so they should look into it and try to ensure that other AA members don't suffer the same problem as I did, as said sh1t does happen but still no reason not to ask for a reason for the extended wait.

Cheers
Mark

[Maverick]

I'm no expert on a diesel engine (or any for that matter), but I reply as my head gasket went on my vectra last Sept., and I was trailing a ton of smoke out the back till I realised and pulled over. Surely you should check your oil level? mine was almost bone dry, I think I burnt about 2-3L in a mile.

When our heads go it tends to be between the exhaust and the water way, pressurising the coolant but not touching the oil. I know what you mean tho as when my old BMW went it ruined the oil completely.

[Maverick]

On the subject of the AA, I've no real complaints as they've saved my bacon a couple of times. They did however leave me on the hardshoulder of the M1 for five hours but this was due to a subby again.Due to the financial restructuring of the company (and the fact that they out priced themselves) I left them last year.

[KERRSURF]

If you ask the employees of the AA how they feel about the organisation you will no doubt begin to understand they do a very good job given the asset stripping and underhand dealings that have been dished out by the private equity companies who are destroying the organisation from the inside out.

[dee]

I had a bit of a nightmare with the AA a few years ago, wheel bearing collapsed on my Alfa of the way back from National show, still 250 miles from home 11:30 at night.

flatbed showed up in a little over 30 minutes, loads car up, head off up the motorway, turns out he's only taking us to Gretna (we started at carnforth), 1:30am by the time we get there and dropped off, told someone will be along soon to take us on the next leg. Called them at 2:30 to be told because of our remote location (50m from the M6, where they brought us!!) they can't get anyone to us until at least 6am!! apparently they had been very busy, wrong type of sunshine I expect.

was collected by a contractor who took us the rest of the way home...

and about 6 months ago, same car, split fuel line inside the tank, told I had a trailer and 3 young kids, van turns up over 2 hours later, 1st thing he says, oh, can't tow that, no-one told me you had a trailer, had to wait a further hour for a contractor with a flatbed to get us home.

apparently Brittania are the best overall...

[darkdezigns]

Yep "sh1t Happens"

I gave them no grief over this. Should I have been told that it was going to be 3hrs sat out in the cold with my son. Not sat in the car as the safety advice is to leave the vehicle on the motorway(your wife will tell you that). There was not Extreeme weather conditions just a very cold blustery wind, I would have had a friend come over and pick my son up but I was constantley strung along that they would be there within an hour.

As pointed out the AA did atend this morning and got me back on the road but I believe that somthing went wrong between the AA and the other company which is my grief with the AA and they are investigating.

Mark

well i work for one of the sub contractors,without trying to sound sarcastic(lol)i'll try and put our point accross.......
we work for all,most of our work for police,then rac,aa,brittania,greenflag etc etc
and from our(company hat on)point of view,we are given very basic details(particularly from aa/rac),and so we turn up,and sumtimes we arent told 4x4 etc,and as for wrong side of motorway etc,we get this day in and day out,we are never told,and many many times ive had this where ive had to frive 5/10 miles because we wernt told direction,but to give u an idea we work for police,it always has been/will be our main work,and we get the contract year in and year out because A,we attend within 30 mins-period and B.we pick up anything,and i mean anything,ive picked up mini moto's/a helicopter??!!,cars bikes,trucks,artics,in fields,on roofs,in houses etc,but all in all if we arent given correct details by the company we cant get there quickly!
rant over lol,
ps we would never ever look at a vechile on the side of motorway,way way to dangerous,lift and shift

[madcampbell]

This thread was not started to slate the AA, but to advise others on the possible problems ..I would recommend you have plenty of warm clothes and kit to in case you brake down..Tell the breakdown service that you are in a 4x4 ... if you find your company is contracting out then expect a delay in service...If you get bad a service then call them up and say it as it worked for me ...no shouting or ranting I just stuck to the facts and they helped me out second time round.

Mark

[madcampbell]

well i work for one of the sub contractors,without trying to sound sarcastic(lol)i'll try and put our point accross.......
we work for all,most of our work for police,then rac,aa,brittania,greenflag etc etc
and from our(company hat on)point of view,we are given very basic details(particularly from aa/rac),and so we turn up,and sumtimes we arent told 4x4 etc,and as for wrong side of motorway etc,we get this day in and day out,we are never told,and many many times ive had this where ive had to frive 5/10 miles because we wernt told direction,but to give u an idea we work for police,it always has been/will be our main work,and we get the contract year in and year out because A,we attend within 30 mins-period and B.we pick up anything,and i mean anything,ive picked up mini moto's/a helicopter??!!,cars bikes,trucks,artics,in fields,on roofs,in houses etc,but all in all if we arent given correct details by the company we cant get there quickly!
rant over lol,
ps we would never ever look at a vechile on the side of motorway,way way to dangerous,lift and shift

Would never have exspected anyone to check it out on the motorway...but in the past the aa have moved us to a safe palace then helped us out. ....understand that the informaion was wrong but we were not in scotland but only 5 mins away by getting off on the next junction... again I did not have a problem with the company that came to pick me up but there was a mistake between aa and other company as I sat there for 3 hours

[Diezel Weazel]

With Britania last 14 years n never waited any longer than 30 mins

There's always a Payback .... Ya just never see it Comin !!!!

[Apache]

Not having a go at you personally, but this is the attitude so common in EVERY walk of life these days. The old 'not my fault' or 'not my responsibility' mate.

[QUOTE=breakdowntruck2;423297]we arent told 4x4 etc,

Try asking?

and as for wrong side of motorway etc,we get this day in and day out,we are never told,

Try asking?

ive had to frive 5/10 miles because we wernt told direction

Try asking?
QUOTE]