[RussellD]

My daughters car suffered an issue as she was leaving hospital yesterday afternoon, she is 21 years old and the hospital is 45 minutes from home and not open 24 hours. She contacted the RAC at approx 5.30pm and was told the earliest responder (via the app) would be between 1am - 2am the following morning. She called the 'emergency' phone number multiple times throughout the evening to stress she had a heart condition, didn't have her medication, and the hospital she was at wasn't her usual one and had closed. Also, she was in a very quiet car park with little or no footfall from passersby. Long story short, I got to her, collected her and we abandoned her car overnight at about 10pm. She was told she was a medical priority on the calls but there was no mechanic to assign or en route for the foreseeable future, she called multiple times to check as was getting conflicting timings from the operators. The car eventually arrived home over 20 hours after the original call...
I'm outraged this can happen to a young girl with a medical issue, there were no welfare calls to check in on her wellbeing and no mechanics in the area to help. I pay nearly £600 annually for a multi-car policy which is farcical, I won't be renewing or advising family or friends to use these providers. Very, very poor.

[Mark07]

Hi @RussellD

Welcome to the Community.

Most importantly, I'm glad to hear that your daughter is ok and that the car has been returned home.

If you'd like to get in touch with our dedicated support team, we'd be glad to hear how we can improve.

They have a range of contact options available here.

[NMNeil]

Glad your daughter is OK, but look at the big picture, your daughter, having left the hospital with a heart condition and no medication is she medically fit to drive a car? Also do you expect the RAC to have a magic wand which they will wave and make a mechanic appear in special circumstances?
Your daughter has a phone, she called you, she could have called the police for assistance or a taxi to take her home or to the police station where she would be safe until you arrived.
Plenty of options to keep her safe rather than just sit in her car.
Sorry, but this is real life.

[RussellD]

@NMNeil Yup, she's medically fit to drive and DVLA have given her the green light, and yes, I managed to get to her - the location is a major issue for public transport. And no I don't believe in fairies, santa and magic, however, businesses that provide fee paying 'on demand' services should have an SLA regarding response times, scaling in times of need and a business continuity plan if they cannot operate within reason. This level of service may be acceptable to many, but that doesn't make it right, far from it.

[Drivingforfun]

I don’t know if I agree with prioritising someone based on gender or the fact that she was alone (her choice) or self-assessed vulnerability (how would you police this, we’d all just say we were vulnerable)

I’m with you on the 20 hours though, I’d say that’s not really acceptable in any situation unless perhaps you broke down on a Scottish island…

RAC do offer a priority service for disabled drivers but you have to pay extra for it, not sure who qualifies for this mind you, whether it’s based on having a blue badge or some other criteria

[Santa]

I imagine the OP is not getting the comments he may have expected.

I can only wonder what I would have done in similar circumstances and I would not have left my daughter or any other person I cared about, sitting in a car park waiting for help like that. I would have either jumped into my car to rescue her or sent a taxi if that wasn't feasible.

[Kash]

Just to comment on a similar situation, we had similar service unfortunately. Our car broke down fortunately in a very small village whilst on route to a beach with 2 dogs, 6 in the family, one being 80 yrs. We called RAC at 11am and were told that they were busy, sounds like every companies call centers now days!

So they said theyd be there at 3pm, nothing was open in the area, no pubs serving food, but at least we could get a drink. 3pm came and went after calling again as updates stopped they said itll be 9-11pm. Family were hungry so we walked 5 miles to a hotel and at least found a bit of food, fotunately a friend picked up most of the family and took them home, as the Rac updates wasnt updating.

Two of us went back to the car and waited, we then got a call at 11.30 saying it'll be tomorrow morning 😨. So we left the car and got a lift home. The day after a Rac mechanic did turn up, he was very apologetic and said this should have never happened!

At least he was there and was great at his job, but said we are seriously understaffed on the roads. I pay a similar amount for the insurance as the OP, RAC never had these issues 10/15 years ago its a real problem. As RAC profess to be one of the best services, I don think this is the case currently, the App is diabolical just a web based interface, no live messaging, no easy reporting for help.

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of others that have similar issues, but it is what it is. I guess its cheaper than calling out a pickup truck if broken down on the motorway!

ATB