RAC Reviews

Name: RAC
Rating: 1.43

1.4 Rating 2,842 Reviews

10 %

of reviewers recommend RAC

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.4

Based on 2,842 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver, Courier
Average Delivery Time	Next Day
On-time Delivery	Greater than 21%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 76%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.3 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

Phone:

801 82 82 82

Write Your review

Tell us how RAC made you happy

Minimum 10 characters

Would you like to add a photos or videos?

Strengthen your review by uploading photos & videos.

Drag files here or browse

(Supported files: jpg, png, mpeg, ogg, mp4 & webm)

What's your name?

Leave this blank if you'd like to publish your review anonymously.

(Optional)

What's your email?

We need your email address to verify that your review is genuine

Please note that we may share your email with the company to verify your order.

102

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Stranded for almost 11 hours. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! I broke down at 5.25 pm, car undrivable due to clutch issue - took RAC over 5 hours to send through to a third party because they had no one available. Then instructed for the wrong vehicle. I was 15 minutes from home, and didn't get home until 4.30 IN THE MORNING. "sorry, this isn't the service we provide" Well, it is, because that's what happened to me. And they don't offer any compensation - all they are prepared to do is offer me a discount on a further renewal? Why on earth would I stay with a company that would leave me stranded for that long? I'm not risking my disabled partner being stranded for that long, luckily she wasn't with me. over 11 hours I'm not getting back, the knock on effect from a sleepless night stuck in the cold was horrendous. Appalling. Avoid at all costs.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Broke down over 2 and a half hours ago and still waiting. Disgusting service!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Auto-renew fraudsters, they will switch on auto-reniew flag in their system without telling you and charge you £139.99 for next year even you pay by single payment. To cancel policy they will charge you £25. Better to avoid them, I will never use them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“My policy auto-renewed, and by the time the payment came through onto my card it was too late to get a refund. I didn't opt in, I just didn't realise it had happened. I feel it should be the other way round. It's also slightly worrying that the RAC holds my credit card details, I'm not sure anyone should be doing this without my permission.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Five and a half hours and still waiting.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“price for cover goes up each year regardless. no reward for customer loyalty.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Just dreadful. Ditto what everybody else says. Two breakdowns in the last year. Last time they took six hours to turn up and said it was a one-off. This time the breakdown was reported two hours ago. ETA is 3.5 - 4 hours from reporting - what a joke. AVOID THE RAC.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Switch to the AA and don't waste your time reading the below 5 Hours of waiting and still no recovery!!! Where do i start with this! Called RAC at 4pm to report one of our vans on a fleet policy had broken down. Was told 2-3 hours which seemed on the fringe of an unreasonable response time but accepted when you don't have much choice. Several automated text messages which basically only communicated that the breakdown was still live and they were trying to figure out what to do about it. computer says no situation i reckon 3 Hours later i called RAC for an update and was told it had been passed on to a 3rd party to recover and would be another 45minutes. An hour later i was called by the third party who informed me it would be another hour at least and they had details of a completely differnent vehicle that is on another policy unrelated to the business fleet policy. In the end i gave up, abadoned the vehicle and shelved my pain for another day. The frustrating part about it is that when calling RAC i was passed via several departments all which could not read each others notes. Very Very frustrating experience. My advice would be to Use the AA. Never had any long wait times. Always good comm's too. Only reason i switched to the RAC was because of a discount offered via a 3rd party but boy do i regret this now! RAC should be paying customers to join not the other way around.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“As other reviewers experienced, RAC is not an emergency service. After 5 hours of waiting for them and false promises and wanting me to wait another 3 hours for a recovery vehicle I cancelled and abandoned my car and sorted the issue the following day through my own sources. I complained and all I received was a polite lip service but no compensation nor any further action. Basically, the only way to hold them accountable is through this review site. I certainly will not be using RAC as I consider them a waste of time and will call a local garage in the future for help. I think they only have a handful of vehicles and mechanics for the UK but plenty of customer service personnel!! So their strategy is to bank all the premium, maybe rescue a few people as and when they feel like it and if any one complains they have plenty of trained office staff to make insincere apologies and hope the matter will go away! To expect anyone to wait more than 2 hours is unacceptable and inhumane!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Car not turning over, which I suspect to be the battery or alternator so I call out the RAC. I pay them almost £120 a year so I expect it won't be too much of a problem. Four hours later still nothing except 'sorry you're waiting' texts and I decide to give up (it was a bank holiday so I assumed they would be busier than usual). I call again about 5 days later (bank holiday has now well and truly finished). SIX hours later the technician arrived. Still, not his fault so no hard feelings at all. He tests the alternator and battery and the battery is outputting 5v when it should be outputting 30v. He then proceeds to try very hard to sell me a £130 battery. I managed to resist his hard sell as I had checked online in the 6 hours I had to wait and found one a bit cheaper locally. The technician persists for ten minutes, but I resist and he's on his merry way. Today I go to get a battery fitted at a local garage, the mechanic tests it and it's working perfectly. Holding charge and outputting fine. I am absolutely disgusted that a big company like RAC would employ these tactics. Taking advantage of a vulnerable situation to try and pressure sell unneeded items. What if I were an elderly person, or a woman alone at the side of the road? Every word that came out of that technicians mouth was a lie to try and scam me into buying an overpriced battery that I did not need. This is incredibly predatory. How many other people have RAC scammed like this? I have never been so unhappy with a company and their conduct before. If this review stops even one person from signing up and experiencing what I have then the money I spent was worth it. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! I will be telling every person I know and anyone who will listen of my experience.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Wasn't a member, paid one off fee of £180 for recovery, then informed needed another £180 as over the recovery distance by 14 miles! Was told at 8pm they'd be there within the hour, didn't get picked up until 1am,then had to transfer to another vehicle after the first one, got home at 4am this morning!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Been waiting for over 4 hours and no one has come out to help me very very poor service. Considering how many people probably pay this company a month in comparison to the rate of breakdowns. They are very bad they need more staff and to be more efficient. 90 minutes waiting time given has turned into 4+ hours.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“avoid this company at all cost breakdown wait time always 3 to 4 hours in Somerset such poor service cannot wait to try another breakdown company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Awful customer service, no empathy showed when broken down. Avoid this company, they take your money but then make it really hard for you to use their service. I’ve seen the AA is WHICH approved and RAC are not....I now know why!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Do not go with RAC called at 8.30 this morning it's now 1 o'clock still haven't turned up !! Text after text and customer service awfull .”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I have been a member of RAC recovery service since 2001,my cover of service has always been on breakdown of my vehicle I would be recovered to a place of my choice, or home address, its a service that you pay a little more for. On my breakdown on the 4/04/21 the recovery driver informed me that I did not have this cover and would cost me £250 to get my vehicle home. I payed the agreed amount and took it up with RAC customer services a few days later to ask them what had happened to my onward journey cover protection, Lyn Baker from Membership Customer Care Team told me that I had downgraded my cover in 2016 and it has been this way ever since. My argument is that I do not believe I would have done this, and my recollections of the phone call in 2016, was me phoning them to get a better price because of a high increase in price that year in recovery cost, and they were no longer competitive with other vehicle recovery organizations. I told them I was thinking of leaving them to go to one of there competitor's. On hearing this the guy from RAC said he would see what he could do as they didn't want to lose me as a customer, after a few minutes he came back with a better price which I accepted and signed up for another year. On no Occasion was my level of cover being downgraded ever a part of the conversation. And I only found out when I broke down. RAC,.s argument seems to be that I had new documentation sent to me each year, and it would have shown the downgrade here. My argument is....My level of cover has been the same for 16 years ,why would I even look at my level of cover on my policy as its always been the same and I never changed it. It is my belief they changed it ,to get me a better price to trick me into staying with them, and not go to the competition. The only thing that I look at on my renewal each year is the price of cover, I have no need to read the rest of it because its the same every year. If they had changed something in my policy that would have resulted in large payments being made by me in the event of a breakdown of my vehicle, then they should of put it in writing to me stating that, and I have no recollection of this letter from them. Had they sent me a letter informing me of the downgrade ,I would of cancelled the policy and walked away. It makes me very angry that one of the great British organization that I have been loyal to for 20 years has such a disregard for there customers, and Lyn baker from customer care services, would rather direct me on both occasions of contacting her, to the financial ombudsman website, then come to a agreement ourselves. The good news is I've now joined rescuemycar.com and for £49.99 a year they given me the same cover that would cost more than £150 with RAC, and they have twice as many recovery vehicle's, so less waiting times on the side of the road. Thankyou RAC for ripping me off and making me leave you and finding a better service elsewhere.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Last night I broke down at 10 pm. The company left me stranded without any consideration for my safety. I could not lock the car I was sat in as it set the alarm off. Not one member of staff called me through my six hour ordeal to check on my safety or when someone would be out to pick me up. I was picked up was 4 am in the morning. I was alone woman and not the greatest area. The lack of empathy from staff was disgusting. I’ve asked for assistance from the company to rectify the problem with my car today. All they want is money!! They don’t want to write the wrongs .I’ve lost a days pay as I was unable to get up for work this morning as I went to bed at five at 5 am. The lack of safety for females their lack of empathy has a lot to be desired. I would have to ask at what cost is my safety to this company. I asked for managers to call me back through the night not one call be back!! I’ve only been with the company three weeks!! I’m disgusted and disappointed.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Nasty service from start to finish will change made me wait for more than 4hrs everything I rang more lies, was speaking to a operater as we were speaking she passed me though to the automated service to let me know what to do in a dangerous situation rubbish”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Absolutely disgusted by the service we received today! We broke down and our insurance company who advised us we only had cover for 15 miles. Unfortunately we was 34 miles from our destination. Was put through to RAC and they advised us it would be an additional £100 to recover us to the address! Yes... £100... For the extra 19 miles! Paid this and awaited recovery. Technician turned up and advised we would need a flat bed. So waited for a flat bed to turn up. During this we asked to change the address to another address that was 32 miles away (closer than the original address) had a phone call from RAC Advising us the new address was further away according to there systems as it was done by how the crow flys apparently (I'm sorry but I did not know RAC was trailing flying recovery trucks) and would be another £10 so had no choice to pay this, found out later on from the recovery driver he was waiting in the yard for an hour for RAC to change the address. Had a taxi back to the address and was waiting for the recovery truck to turn up, when we had another phone call from RAC advising that because the vehicle was lowered (by 35mm) which is nothing they would have to use specialist equipment to recover the vehicle and this would be another £50 which we did not have the money for as had to borrow some money from a family friend to cover the £110 in the first place. This brought the total to £160. Found out later on from first choice recovery (Who were absolutely brilliant during all of this, the recovery driver even stayed to help us get the vehicle on the driveway which he didn't have to do) that the vehicle was already on the back of the truck at this point and all the driver had to do to get it on was to use the winch. And RAC tried to get the recovery driver to take it back off the truck and leave it there because we couldn't pay the extra £50 for "specialist recovery" Amazingly First Choice recovery offered to pay the £50 to RAC for the "specialist recovery and we want tho thank them very much for this kind gesture! This is absolutely disctusting on the RAC's part, from start to end it took nearly 6 hours to get the car back to the address. I was looking to take out cover with RAC but after this experience I definitely will not be doing this but will be taking out a policy with Green Flag as it is alot cheeper and you receive 100% better customer service as I have been with them myself previously.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Had car breakdown on 27/3/21 RAC arrived and told us it was the battery. We told the RAC man car was under 2 years old so we thought VW would cover it. He told us no as it was a consumable and offered to sell us a battery which we agreed to buy as a Saturday afternoon and could not ring VW to check. We believed what he told us!! Charged £214 then on the 12/4/21 my car broke down at traffic lights. Had it booked into VW dealership who adviced wrong battery fitted and not compatable with my car and the had to pay £260 for a correct battery !! Also if original battery had been on the warranty would have covered it and it would have been free !!! So I contacted complaints and sent evidence from VW about incorrect battery and they refuse to refund. No explanation just they have looked into it and will not refund!! So now I’m £474 out of pocket due to wrong advice from RAC! They don’t seem to care what service they have give . Feel very let down and out of pocket !!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

RAC is rated 1.4 based on 2,842 reviews