I recently purchased a 2004 Citroen C8 along with an RAC Gold warranty, i wrongly assumed that it covered breakdown as per the text on the front page of the booklet ( RAC GOLD WARRANTY AND BREAKDOWN) so did not bother changing over my existing Breakdown cover from my old car.
Unfortunately my car broke down whilst on the M5 recently but luckily i was close to junction 6 and managed to coast off the motorway and stop on the motorway island. I had the warranty booklet with me and eventually managed to find the phone number on the back cover in small type. When i got through i was informed that the RAC GOLD WARRANTY & BREAKDOWN COVER does not cover recovery , i explained that i had existing cover on my old vehicle but didnt bother changing it over because i assumed RAC GOLD BREAKDOWN COVER would actually cover recovery costs, i then had to pay £25 to do a change of ownership of my old cover.
I had to then wait for 2 and a half hours for recovery whilst my car was on the very busy junction 6 roundabout with cars swerving to avoid my car and blowing horns and gesticulating constantly. When the RAC did arrive the fault could not be diagnosed so i asked to be taken to a local garage and asked for a recommendation from the RAC patrol man.
My car was taken to a garage in Worcester and after 5 days it had been diagnosed as a snapped cam belt and the engine was stripped down showing extensive damage. the RAC warranty people were informed and an engineer was due to go and look at my car and make a report on the following thursday , this was put off till the friday with no explanation or apology , on enquiring on the friday i was told for the second time by an operator at RAC Warranty services that it was not up to them to chase the engineers report up and their only input was to book the visit online then leave it up to the repairing garage to chase the report and outcome ! I was told the earliest the report would be done was by the following monday, monday came and went with no news, so i again phoned on tuesday and was told again it was nothing to do with them and it was up to the garage to sort out, i pointed out that i paid the RAC for the warranty and expected them to take some interest in my problem, she then looked on the system and informed me that they were turning down my claim.... The warranty booklet clearly states the timing belt is covered and i quote ….
Timing belts
Provided there is proof that the
manufacturer’s replacement recommendations
have been complied with, and they are free from
oil contamination.
So no problem there you would think as it has been changed in line with service schedule and they agreed there was no oil contamination but no they turned the claim down for the following reason :
We would conclude that the timing belt has suffered an over load failure. There was no
evidence of excessive wear, lack of lubrication or seizure to account for the condition
apparent. As such we can only consider 2 possible causes for the defect and 1 unlikely
cause fatigue:
1 The engine has been exposed to accidental over speed
2 The belt has jumped causing a loss of timing and on reengagement valve contact has
developed. Clearly for this to have developed the belt would need to be running undertensioned.
I was obviously not happy with this decision and asked to speak to a manager but was told they dont do things in that way and all i can do is request a call back and this will happen within 48 hours, when the manager did call back he explained that because they could not explain the failure it was up to the garage to prove why it snapped ! I pointed out that using that reasoning they could get out of paying any claims for timing belts ever !
He explained the over speed comment infers i changed down from 5th to 1st gear by accident ! i pointed out i was driving down the motorway at the time and not changing gear at all, he noted my comments and said he would investigate further.
Meanwhile the repairing garage had received the same report and the owner called me to let me know he was furious with the report and that if i didnt sue the RAC he would as he had never read so much bull s*** and that it was totally unfair and that although he had no personal interest he was going to demand another engineer was sent out and also that he would in the mean time charge the RAC storage costs for my car.
This seemed to wake the RAC up and within half an hour i had received a call to say suddenly my claim was now being honoured.
I never thought that such a large and what i previously thought was a well respected organisation such as the RAC would act in such a manner and will be widely publicising my experience to encourage people to think twice before taking out a GOLD WARRANTY and also not to accept blindly what their report on the vehicles failure reports.
A Google search indicates that a lot of people have suffered similarly and so i have created a Facebook group and will be inviting people to share their experiences.
