Carl Y's community profile page - Smart Money People

Write a review

Viewing profile for,

Carl Y

Total reviews written

Helpful marks given to their reviews

Times reviews seen

All reviews (1)

Review of the RAC, Breakdown cover:

View on product page

RAC badly damaged my caravan

The RAC patrol man attended my breakdown at about 11am on the 15th july and could not fix the problem so they had to recover us and our caravan we were towing to our home address. I was informed this would be a relay recovery using 3 different companies doing a leg of the journey each. It was the last company that caused all the damage. The first company turned up about 4pm put our car on the bed of the lorry and towed the caravan. He took us about 30 miles. They were very professional. The next company arrived about 7pm and did the same, car on lorry bed and towed the caravan, also very professional, he took us about an hour to the last pick up of our recovery home. This was at birchhanger service station. The next company arrived about 9.30pm but his tow bar was unsuitable to tow my caravan. So he wanted to take us and the car home and leave my caravan in the services and he would come back and put it on the bed of the lorry and recover it home. I would not allow this, has im pretty sure my caravan would not have been there when he got back. At this point I spoke to the rac and they got back onto the recovery company they were using and it was decided they would send another vehicle to tow the caravan and our car would go on the bed of the other recovery lorry. The second recovery lorry turned up about 12.30am. He then informed me he did not even have a tow bar fitted. He said he will put the caravan on the bed of the lorry. I did say at this point are you sure you won't damage my caravan putting it onto the bed of the lorry. He said it would be fine. They started to winch the caravan onto the lorry when I heard a scraping from the back of the caravan has it was scraping along the floor. Theybstopped winching and let it back off the lorry and put skids under the back of the caravan and started winching again. It was half way up the lorry when i walked to the front of the caravan and they had bent the jockey wheel to such an extent the caravan was now stuck they had also cracked the cover over the A frame. They now had to jack up the caravan on the tow hitch to get the jockey wheel straight. First recovery driver got his jack out but that did not work so the other driver got his jack from his vehicle that was also broken. They now had to call another recovery vehicle out to bring a jack that worked. They then jacked up the caravan on the tow hitch which they bent. I said that the lorry bed was not long enough for the caravan there was too much overhang. They said it was fine. The third recovery driver then came up to them and said it was illegal towing with that much overhang and he would not do it, the drivers response was it will be ok. The drivers were laughing and joking, not caring that they had caused so much damage. I was very surprised that the RAC uses a company that does not have the correct equipment for the job, does not even have a working jack between 2 recovery vehicles and seems to think it is funny that they have damaged my caravan. We eventually got home at 5.30am on the 16th. After phoning the RAC and putting in a complaint and explaing the situation and that i was going on holiday in 2 weeks so they needed to get the caravan fixed or hire me one. They have not responded I asked them to transport the caravan to the caravan service center to get fixed they never responded so I had to pay to get it recovered to the caravan service center. The damage will be in the region of £1500 plus the expense of getting it taken the the service center and all the sress of it and missing out on our holiday. I am totally disgusted with the way they have handled this situation. I got the rac package through my banks travel pack the bank have also complained to the rac about this, they have also not had a responce. Next step will be the Ombudsman. I thought a national company of the RAC standing would have acted differently and sorted the problem out and apologised for all the trouble and stress the company they used have caused. Reviewed on: 11th August 2025

We are helping 1000s to make smarter financial decisions

We use the power of consumer reviews to help increase trust and transparency in financial services and to deliver industry leading insight and events.