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Quote: Originally posted by billie on 30/08/2004

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we are with international breakdown, and had to call them out 2 weeks ago when our fuel pump broke on the way to our first site in france!

they were brilliant, called me back cos i had no credit left on me mobile, arranged for us to be collected and then stayed on the phone while we were at the garage to translate for us - the mechanic spoke no english and our french doesnt stretch to car parts and stuff!  we were passing the phone back and forth like yo-yo's but at least we all knew what was happening.

when the car was fixed we had the option of going on our way or because we had no site booked and it was 10 o clock at night going to a hotel for the night - at their expense!

all in all i was impressed and will use them again.

 

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we were with them & wasnt impressed.The accelerator cable snapped in Avignon at 3.30 pm , still waiting for recovery at 6.30pm , rang I.B on 4 occasions , ran out of credit on one phone , they never rang us back other than the agent at the French end. Finally got taken to a garage in the middle of nowhere about 7pm , they were supposed to ring us to tell us what was happening according to the mechanic , "angletere , telefone" was all we understood , they never rang.The guy fixed our car , fortunately we have a French car so he had the part off the shelf , and on the road by 8pm.

Kicked up a stink when i got home and got my policy cost refunded which was the only saving grace , dont think i will use them again.Probably go CC next year and red pennant , people seem to give it good reviews on here.

Seems to me by reading Billie and bev+jon posts,that a lot depends on the person who is dealing with you!

Some go the extra mile to help and others don't.

Quote: Originally posted by wardleyweb on 26/08/2004

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yes jim , this is the same company,when we called green flag in andorra we were told we had to quote a policy number from wwi, we did not have this number , ...

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we were with green flag until recently.we had a breakdown and they came out worked on the car for 20 minutes-couldnt fix it so had to tow it to the local garage.it was in a tesco car park at the time so not easy to push onto his trailer but between US me ,hubby and 14 year old son (+ mechanic) managed to get it on and off he went. a week later we get a bill for 'extra equipment required to get car onto transporter and extra time incurred '

i did not pay this bill and when i queried it they dropped it.smacks of rip-off to me. i will not fall for this again -always write down the time the mechanic arrives so they cant charge you extra.

cheb

We are with the AA, and got Gold Star cover for our holiday to Croatia.

The electrics in our BMW failed in Bavaria, locking us out of and all of the insurance documents in the car. We tried the local garage only to be told that the nearest BMW garage that was open was 70 miles away! ( it was a Saturday).

Rang the AA in the UK, gave them our membership details, and they gave us our policy number and the contact details for the international rescue (in Nice).

A local mechanic arrived within the hour and eventually got into the car and fixed the problem (believe me it is not easy to get into a locked BMW). Top marks to them.

Sandra

We are with Green Flag.  Last year whilst travelling to S of France we suffered a blow out on our caravan .  When we came to replace it with the spare (which came with the van !!) we found it to be insufficient for its use, and knew it would not withstand a jourrney of 1200 miles or more.  Once we had eventually found the correct telephone number for Green Flag, from there paperwork, we called to ask if they could help/source another tyre for us, before the replacement also blew.  They were unable to help and were not interested in the fact that we were trying to be proactive.  Basically they told us to call when the replacment tyre had blown, and then they could fly over , from the UK (as caravans tyres are unavailable in France) a replacment tyre, which would take 2/3 days.  They then proceeded to ask were we would need it delivering to.!!!   and also stated that if we were unable to arrive at the destination of were the tyre was to be delivered then they would not be able to recover us. 

After about 12 calls to them and £95 worth of mobile calls, we gave up and searched ourselves.  We were lucky to find a very helpful french man who gave us the name and address of a caravan dealer in Metz, we then found a Commercial tyre dealer and were on our merry way again.  We also had a lovely overnight stop on a fantastic Municipal site in Metz, right in the heart of the city.

Oops just added a second vehicle to my Green Flag breakdown cover.  Now have Ford Galaxy and a Honda Fireblade (That's a motorcycle ) covered.   Hope i never have to use either,  But isn't that how they sell breakdown cover in the first place "just in case".

We used to be with Green Flag /Direct line and had to call them out twice, they were awful, both times the operator sent the rescue truck to the wrong place !! We now use RAC  who have been great so we're sticking with them.

I think you will probably find good and bad stories with all of them.  We used to be with the RAC a few years ago, had to call them out twice.  The first time they were truly excellent less than 30 mins to get to us.  The second time was a completely different experience.

Then we added breakdown cover onto our car insurance with Direct Line ( which I gather is Green Flag ).  Only ever had to use them once but they attended fine.  The biggest problem was logging the call with direct line.  We have 2 cars and had personal membership ( i.e. we could drive any car ), but they insisted on taking the registration number for verification and then saying that the registration number wasn't listed.  It took me ages to convince them that we had personal membership and the registration number shouldn't matter.

This year we have just signed up with the AA because they ahd a special deal that was vastly cheaper than our direct line insurance one.  Hopefully I wont have to use them.