The AA left us cowering on the hard shoulder of the M1 for six hours
'I feel utterly misled'
A failure on a car while driving at speed on the motorway is always a worry, but being a member of a breakdown service provides the reassurance that in such an event you’ll be rescued and back on your way in a timely manner. That’s what I thought, anyway.
On Monday, July 3 I was driving from my son’s wedding near York back to London down the M1 when the offside rear tyre failed. We were in the outside lane but I managed to pull over to the hard shoulder safely and my wife, Janet, and I got out of the car and took refuge behind the barrier. The tyre was shredded, and soon so was my confidence in what used to refer to itself as the “fourth emergency service”.
I rang the AA at 11.31am. The lady who answered asked if I was in a safe place. I said no. They said I would be a priority and gave me a list of things to do when stuck on the hard shoulder (get out of the car, get behind barrier, etc.). Then they sent a text message with a link to pinpoint my position. “I’ve got you,” the lady said. “Somebody will be with you at five past twelve.”
At 11.46am the AA patrolman rang from his mobile to ask where we were as he couldn’t see us. While having a very difficult conversation because the M1 is extremely noisy, I walked up the hard shoulder for a quarter of a mile or so until I could see the road sign to ascertain that we were just passed Junction 22 heading south. The patrolman was looking for us just after Junction 17 where the AA’s link had “pinpointed” us to be. He said he couldn’t reach us, and he would have to re-log the job.
After hearing nothing back from the AA, I rang again. They were aware of the siutation and were trying to find help to reach us. We sat around. It was drizzling. We were cold. It would have been nicer to be inside the car but that was unnerving because it shook and swayed as the huge lorries thundered by.
I rang the AA again to see what was happening and spoke to a man who said assistance would be with us at “thirty-five minutes past one”. To check this odd way of expressing the time, I said, “Do you mean twenty-five to two?” He said, “Yes.”
I then pointed out that it was already two o’clock. He replied that in that case it would be twenty-five to three.
We sat down in the brambles to wait it out and watched the AA app which confirmed assistance would be with us at 14.35. At 14.35, this changed to 14.40, then 14.45, then 14.50, then 14.55…. So I rang them again and they said (after reading to me what to do when trapped on the hard shoulder and telling me I was a priority), “The system says someone will be there at 15.35.”
“Really? Funny that the system keeps on saying twenty-five to the hour all the time.”
At 15.35, the same sequence was repeated of revised times until at 16.00 it magically decided it was going to be 16.35. I started ringing the AA demanding to know what was actually happening, if anything, what we should do for food and water, if we started getting dehydrated and developing symptoms of hypothermia would should we do? Should I call the police? Is dialling 999 a good idea? (The AA lady said yes to that).
‘I was strung along by the AA all day with promises of the imminent arrival of help’
One AA person did say she would contact National Highways (formerly Highways England) to tell them we were there and get them to check on our welfare” — nothing came of that, however.
Eventually, on the app it said that Anderson Commercials Ltd would be sending a pick-up truck. So I looked them up on the internet and rang them directly to check they were dealing with it. The truck turned up around 5.20pm, nearly six hours after my initial call to the AA.
Then it was all quite efficient — a truck to the service station a couple of miles further on, where an AA patrolman assessed the damage and arranged for mobile tyre company to come out for a fix. About two hours later we were on our way.
A journey that should have taken just under four hours took us 12. Meanwhile, our newly married son and his wife went off on honeymoon travelling from Islington to Nairobi in less time than it had taken us to go from York to London.
Six hours cowering at the side of the M1 with no shelter, no water, no food, inadequate clothes (although eventually we did get so cold I did risk returning to the car and rummaging in our luggage for more jumpers).
What should we have done? I feel utterly misled by the AA and taken for a fool. If I had known in the first place that it was going to take so long I could have made alternative arrangements but I was strung along all day with promises of the imminent arrival of help, only for those expectations to be dashed.
All the people I spoke to were perfectly pleasant and apologised profusely — but I didn’t want apologies; they don’t help you feel safe or cared for.
It was also galling to be repeatedly told that we were a “priority”. After an hour that was a meaningless, empty word. I was speaking to people but I might as well have been dealing with AI, as they kept referring to “the system”: “The system says assistance will be there at 16.35,” “The system says they will be there in a few minutes.” It seemed as if those people were just looking at an automated logging system which was configured to pump out these irrelevant times, giving the illusion of action and a timetable, but it didn’t have any basis in reality. In fact, it felt like an utter con.
Without question Janet and I were actually in danger and the AA didn’t provide the service they had advertised. I don’t want yet another apology from them; I want compensation for the upset and distress (aka frustration and rage) they caused my wife and me, as well as the additional costs of eating at a service station (rather than at home), and having to pay extra for dog care, as we were meant to pick the dog up at lunchtime on Monday. We were also charged extra for an out-of-hours tyre service, which wouldn’t have been the case had the AA got there even after three hours.
Driving.co.uk contacted the AA, which, after an investigation, got in touch with Mr Mills to offer £250 compensation.
An AA spokesperson said: “We have investigated the incident and are deeply sorry to find that the customer experienced an unacceptable delay in service.
“We attend around 10,000 breakdowns every day and the vast majority of our members receive excellent service; however, we have found, on this occasion, there were unacceptable communication failings and our attempts to locate our customer fell below our usual high standards.
“We have been in contact with the customer to apologise and have worked with them to come to a resolution which they are happy with.
“We would like to extend our apologies once more to the customer and we will be reviewing our internal processes to ensure it does not happen again.”
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