Woman made to wait 20 hours for RAC rescue had to shelter with strangers

theguardian.com:

A 62-year-old woman had to spend the night in a strangers’ house when the RAC took 20 hours to recover her stranded car after it broke down in a remote country lane.

Harriet O’Brien said she was repeatedly promised help within the hour after her engine failed on a remote Gloucestershire lane an hour’s drive from her home.

Six hours later, she says she was told that a recovery vehicle was on its way and she would be charged for another call-out if she took a taxi home for the night before it arrived.

The patrol finally arrived at 11am the following morning, 20 hours after she had called the RAC – which promises customers “complete peace of mind” – for help.

“I received various texts telling me the RAC was working with a ‘trusted partner’ who would contact me, but no one did,” she said.

“I emphasised that I was a lone woman on a narrow country lane and each time I called, I was told I was next on the list. At 10.45pm when I’d been waiting eight hours, I was called by a driver sent from a recovery firm in Newport to say he couldn’t get his truck down the lane and that they’d send a smaller vehicle.

“An hour later, I was told the contractor needed permission from the RAC to send a smaller truck but no one was answering the phone. I tried calling the RAC myself for an hour but couldn’t get through.

“The recovery firm then told me they had no more trucks available that night. It was nearly 1am, there was no chance of a taxi and I had to wake a couple living on the lane who had been making me tea during my wait and they let me stay the night.”

O’Brien had to wait a further five hours the following morning after her case was erroneously de-escalated from priority status by the RAC.

Reports of long waits for breakdown recovery services