Stranded on the hard shoulder dying for a pee (RAC)

Member Name: sandrabarber

Product:	RAC
Date:	03/11/01 (1175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They claim to be no.1 for customer satisfaction

Disadvantages: didn't satisfy me

A woman driver and her female passenger are on the M74, heading for their holidays. Suddenly a strange noise is heard, and both become aware that something is ‘not quite right’, especially as the car begins to veer from the fast into the middle lane. Driver slows down – fortunately the roads are very clear – and makes her way to the hard shoulder and stops. Whereupon the realization dawns that the car has blown a tyre.

‘I knew I’d forgotten something,’ says driver (moi).

‘What’s that?’ asks passenger.

‘To learn to change a tyre,’ driver replies.

Passenger nods knowingly. Driver can instantly tell that passenger is similarly ill-equipped for such an emergency.

But all is not lost. I’m in the RAC. They’re ‘no.1 for customer satisfaction’ as it says on their website. They’ll soon nip over and set us on our way.

I ring them and get put in a queue for several minutes. Eventually someone answers. I give him the lowdown on the situation.

‘Where are you exactly?’ he asks.

I briefly explain that we’re on the M74 heading North and make a guessstimate as to exactly where we are. We haven’t passed a junction for ages and I can’t remember what number it was, I just know the number of the one I’m supposed to get off at.

I’m put on hold for what seems like ages. Man comes on line again and says he’s no idea where I am. There is a marker post right in front of me, so I give him the number.

I’m put on hold for ages. Man comes on line again and says he’s no idea where I am.

We’ve now been ‘talking’ for 12 and a half minutes. My money on my prepaid mobile runs out. Man calls me back. He thinks he has a vague idea where I am (it seemed quite simple to me – on the M74, heading north, and by calcu
lating the difference between the distance I’ve done and the distance I’ve yet to do, I know we’re about 30 miles south of Glasgow.)

Not to worry, says man. Someone will come and find us shortly.

We wait.

And wait. And wait.

Over an hour goes by. It’s a Friday afternoon and the roads are not busy at all. We’re half an hour’s drive from the major city of Glasgow, and several small towns are closer than that (I know this because to stop ourselves from going mad, and to take our minds off our desperate need to pee, my mate and I have been map-reading for ‘fun’.)

It’s an hour and a quarter now. My legs are aching and my back hurts. I get out of the car to have a stretch and take in some fresh air. Within 30 seconds a van pulls up and 3 men get out and offer to change my tyre. It takes them 2 minutes and then they’re away.

Why didn’t I get out of my car earlier? Why did I think I could rely on the RAC? (Well, probably because of the adverts, the literature and the claim that they use ‘the world’s most advanced computer systems to deal with calls for roadside assistance’).

Now I know that I should be able to change my own tyre, and I will indeed learn before I take another lengthy journey. I was genuinely embarrassed about having to call out the RAC to do this for me.

However, they are a service which I have paid for and I do think that I could expect:

My telephone call to be answered pretty quickly

An operator to call me back if s/he knows that the call will take a good quarter of an hour

An operator who is able to vaguely pinpoint my location by me telling him that I’m on the M74, approximately 30 miles south of Glasgow, heading North, and PARKED RIGHT NEXT to marker number xxxx.

A reasonable response time when I’m near several towns and one major city on a
non-busy day.

Is that too much to ask?

p.s. Yes we did the courteous thing and rang the RAC to say we didn’t need them any more. They didn’t say anything along the lines of ‘oh, but our engineer is almost with you’, so god knows how long we might have had to wait.

I just hope I never have the misfortune to need them on a bank holiday.

Summary: