Defender rescues AA

Makes a refreshing change

landowner said:

Makes a refreshing change

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Ah hope ye charged them for the recovery

and then dropped em off somewhere completely un-helpful (with the jobsworth comment of "it's more than me job's worth" or "already done me driving quota for the day love, i would if i could")

Hey,chill yer beans,we don't make the rules we just work to em.
If you offer a little drink we'll normaly do anything.

or they might even attempt to start an engine which you have already told them "sounds like an internal problem "
that way they can listen helpfully to the valve wot broke, bouncing around inside the cylinder completely destroying the injun. so instead of just sitting there waiting for you to take it out and replace wiff a new valve yer now have to replace the whole fooking injun.
or perhaps they might decide that your clutch needs adjusting,(which it dint) so they adjust it, then it burns out half way up a very steep hill.

or maybe they will fail to find the faulty connection on the fuel pump or even the dicky relay

all of the above and more have happened to either meself or a friend who ask me to fix it when they got back home.

Sounds like you've been quite lucky!

SWEET, love to have seen the look on his face

skidmarks said:

Hey,chill yer beans,we don't make the rules we just work to em.
If you offer a little drink we'll normaly do anything.

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Weren't you was it that left me and the heavily pregnant doris stranded on the side of the A30 at 2 in the morning, then refused to drive 2 miles out of your way to drop us home en route to the only Alfa garage in Cornwall, coz we only had a package that allowed only one drop-off ("either the garage or home mate, i'm sorry"), and it was "more than his job's worth", then he went off shift halfway home so left us again for half an hour, then the next chap couldn't do it either, neither could the faceless spineless numpty in the call centre, they couldn't be bothered to order us a hire car even though it was in our contract...i'm geting over it though, the AA is firmly off my christmas card list though

Don't get me started, after my recent brush with the RAC.......
Had to come out to confirm it's fecked......confirmed it was fecked so had to phone back to arrange recovery (Fairy nuff)......Bad attitude, stroppy little turd on phone tells me garage I want recovery too doesn't exist!!!!!
Tells him yes it feckin does I've been there, tis a new industrial estate that's why it's not listed....gets propper stroppy with me and then tells me I don't have recovery cover, and even if I did they would only take me ten miles .........so I'll have to pay £150 C**t.........
Put down phone and steam for a while, reads t&c's form Barclays account thas supposed to include 'Comprehensive Breakdown Cover' tells me I have recovery to anywhere in the UK....so phones back, Woman I spoke to looks at notes and asks what type of account have I got, so I tells her and she says me details are logged wrong and I Do have recovery.....Phew......but they should only take me 10 miles!!!!!! But she'll try and get her manager to let them take me the 30 that I want.
She phones back and confirms they will do it
But, what a crock of ****,.....I never realised that recovery policies where limited like this, what happens if it's got to be fixed under warranty and you dealer is more than 10 miles away, and why should you have to settle for the robbing bastard garage that happens to be within 10 miles.
I will be confirming the cover I have, reading the conditions carefully and trying to get a decent policy in future.

Watch out if you break down while towing. The RAC told me they'd only recover the trailer if the total length of vehicle and trailer was UNDER 15 FEET So phoned me mate to come and get the boat for me. He arived at the same time as the breakdown wagon then the driver said he would have taken the trailer no problem and not to listen to the RAC call centre cos they're idiots. I'd worked that out for meself.

odenne said:

Weren't you was it that left me and the heavily pregnant doris stranded on the side of the A30 at 2 in the morning, then refused to drive 2 miles out of your way to drop us home en route to the only Alfa garage in Cornwall, coz we only had a package that allowed only one drop-off ("either the garage or home mate, i'm sorry"), and it was "more than his job's worth", then he went off shift halfway home so left us again for half an hour, then the next chap couldn't do it either, neither could the faceless spineless numpty in the call centre, they couldn't be bothered to order us a hire car even though it was in our contract...i'm geting over it though, the AA is firmly off my christmas card list though

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It's not that I don't agree with you odenne but in their defence it is a tachograph offence with a £6000 penalty to do a passenger run with a vehicle taxed as recovery which is not using a tachograph. I turn around to customers and say that I will do it but it never happened.

recovery vehicles are exempt from tacho regs, so yer defence is flawed. as long as the vehicle is still on the back, it isnt a passenger run

yella said:

recovery vehicles are exempt from tacho regs, so yer defence is flawed. as long as the vehicle is still on the back, it isnt a passenger run

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Recovery vehicles WERE exempt from tacho regs until june last year. Now they have to stay within a 62 mile (100km) radius of their depot to remain exempt. If they are going to exceed the 62 miles a tacho must be used but it cannot be fitted if the working hours for that day and/or week have been met. Yes you are right about the car being on the back and it's all ok but I thought Odenne said it was dropped at the garage and he wanted a lift after it was dropped off.

No, we broke down in Liskeard, and the Alfa garage was in Penzance, they wouldn't drop us off home on the way from Liskeard to the Alfa garage (which was about a 60 mile trip, and would have needed a 2 and a half mile detour to drop me and fairly heavily pregnant wife off at 2 in the morning on the way!)

odenne said:

No, we broke down in Liskeard, and the Alfa garage was in Penzance, they wouldn't drop us off home on the way from Liskeard to the Alfa garage (which was about a 60 mile trip, and would have needed a 2 and a half mile detour to drop me and fairly heavily pregnant wife off at 2 in the morning on the way!)

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The AA is the only breakdown organisation that doesn't require a signature when dropping off a vehicle so there was no reason not to take you home enroute. I woulda dun it for yer if it were me.

ratty said:

The AA is the only breakdown organisation that doesn't require a signature when dropping off a vehicle so there was no reason not to take you home enroute. I woulda dun it for yer if it were me.

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There you go OddOne...proof positive that they woz bein' a bunch of cnuts!!

I guess it all worked out OK but blinkin' irritatin at the time!!

It did work out OK, was the cam belt on a 147 which cost 3K of alfa's money to fix, butit was MOST frustrating at the time (at least i'd already got her up the spout and "trapped" her!!)

It's a shame, it would have taken so little to get it right and leave with a warm good feeling rather than feeling decidedly shafted! The silly thing was that in the end, i had to decide that i wanted them to take me home coz of the doris' predicament, woke up the next morning after no sleep coz i'd been thinking all night about what i was going to say to them, and without a quibble, immediately when i got through to someone, they sent another patrol out, got me a hire car and picked mine up from home and taken to Alfa - why the fook couldn't they have just said that the night before, saving me and doris and OddTwo ( ) to be a load of hassle!

odenne said:

Weren't you was it that left me and the heavily pregnant doris stranded on the side of the A30 at 2 in the morning, then refused to drive 2 miles out of your way to drop us home en route to the only Alfa garage in Cornwall, coz we only had a package that allowed only one drop-off ("either the garage or home mate, i'm sorry"), and it was "more than his job's worth", then he went off shift halfway home so left us again for half an hour, then the next chap couldn't do it either, neither could the faceless spineless numpty in the call centre, they couldn't be bothered to order us a hire car even though it was in our contract...i'm geting over it though, the AA is firmly off my christmas card list though

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No it wasn't but it serves you right if you've got an "Alfa"!!

Dont worry, lesson learnt! Stunning car....when it was going! Luckily i got it new so it was under warranty.

odenne said:

It did work out OK, was the cam belt on a 147 which cost 3K of alfa's money to fix, butit was MOST frustrating at the time (at least i'd already got her up the spout and "trapped" her!!)

It's a shame, it would have taken so little to get it right and leave with a warm good feeling rather than feeling decidedly shafted! The silly thing was that in the end, i had to decide that i wanted them to take me home coz of the doris' predicament, woke up the next morning after no sleep coz i'd been thinking all night about what i was going to say to them, and without a quibble, immediately when i got through to someone, they sent another patrol out, got me a hire car and picked mine up from home and taken to Alfa - why the fook couldn't they have just said that the night before, saving me and doris and OddTwo ( ) to be a load of hassle!

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Joking aside now I personely would have gone 2 an arf miles out or what I normaly do is tell the office that there is nowhere safe to leave vehical so will take home and member will ring back in the morning for recovery to garage.there is normaly a way to sort most things without involving the office staff.
We on AA recovery are on tacho and have been since regs changed last April;we are also tracked to within 3 metres and can get the sack for doing things like diverting from most direct route and such like.
The thing to remember is there are arseholes in every proffession.
Hope you don't break down in the near future but if you do make sure its in or near sheffield wear not all bad round here.