Club Arnage

As some of you may know, my mate Paul lost the keys to his Moggie at the Classic.  P has AA 5* insurance so was confident that things would get sorted.  Not so.  There is a clause in the small print of these contracts which says they will not rescue you for lost keys if you have not had the spare set with you.  Luckily he's a Club24 member so got a tow to my local garage and things got sorted.
Thought you should all know in case you go abroad with one of these policies - don't forget to take your spare keys with you!!

AA 5* was useless for our 24 hour trip in June, Depspite us decalaring that the vehicle is 7.5tonne and over 12 meters long they were not prepared to recover us after a massive electrical faliure. Initially a small flat bed lorry arrived with no even a fuse!! He took me to the local SuperU where I bought the stock and myself and Dad eventually managed to fix the fault. (Glow Plug Wiring shorting to the Chassic and blowing fuses on the ECU!).

The recovery that we required was going to cost us £2000! AA 5*doesn't cover us for more then £600 recovery! We have paid them as a household about £700 a year for atleast the last 6 years, and that was the thanks and service we got!

Good advice, but don't do as a friend of mine did, and attach them to the same keyring  :P

I kid you not, he lost both sets at the same time  ;D Luckily they were found when we sobered up.

I also had the pleasure of camping next to someone who had locked their spare keys in the glove box  ;) Once they had managed to break in without doing too much damage, they had to have the alarm reset in order to drive the car.

And finally, once whilst on a Ski trip, a friend of mine lost his keys whilst packing the car for the return trip. It was snowing REALLY heavily (about 6 inches in 30 minutes) and he was desperate to leave for home and work the following day, so he had one of his employees fly out with the spare keys. The poor kid was still required at work the following day, even though he had been up all night helping out his boss  :-[

The keys were finally found in the gutter about 6 weeks later when the snow melted.

Don't use the AA is the answer here, I've been with the RAC for 27 years for the same reason that the AA were f**k*ng useless ( even then ).
Rick, membership for the household costs under £300 which includes full european cover plus a whole host of other stuff. I've even been rescued 3 times after locking my keys in the car, not embarrassing at all, and after 2 motorcycle accidents without a problem. Lost keys they will charge you for but will try and sort it.
Most impressive though was the guy who managed to get my inlet manifold skimmed on my 1600E at 3am on a sunday evening/ monday morning after breaking down in Uckfield returning from fishing with a couple of pals .

Rusty

Any other recomendations for overseas cover, I used the RAC when I visited Holland 3 years ago, seemed to be fair value, fortunately I had no need to find out about the service.

To be fair, the above mentioned Paul has been satisfactorily rescued by the AA twice in the past with his Mondie.  Roadside assistance as we know it in the UK is non-existent here in France.  All you get is a tow to the nearest "garage toute marques" - but on both the occasions when P had his red car towed to a garage they fixed the problem and he was able to reclaim all his money once he got home.  Most garages here will not get the payment direct from the AA.

A worthwhile subject for the CA guide to LM I'd say?

Debs, noted, here comes the monkey back!!  could you outline what happens if "we" need to call out the road side assistance, whether it is the AA RAC Britannia, ACO.  I guess the response is all the same?

Sure, will do.  Some experiences of different companies would be good too though?  I think the major problem for everybody is the language one so perhaps I could include a little glossary of basic french motoring terms?

I'll put out a general enquiry via werner as well.

Actually, i can offer good reports for the AA and the opposite for the RAC.

Several times i've had to call the AA out both in the UK and Europe.  Mainly on the bike and mainly due to accidents/mechanical failure.  On all occasions, and especially in Belgium where i ended up in hospital the AA were brilliant, flying me home and recovering my bike (on one occasion rather than wait for my bike to come back 2 weeks later, they paid for my mate and i to go to France and recover it ourselves the following week after the snapped chain/clutch had been fixed)

As for the RAC.. well  recently they left a pregnant women i know at the roadside for over an hour.  and recovering me on a (different) bike was a farce last year after the immoboliser cut in at an intersting speed.  took them a freezing 6 hours beside the M25 to recover me and only after the fourth lorry turned up with the correct equipment.  never will i use the RAC again or recommend them.


The AA 5star cover does have exclusions, notably the key thing as mentioned above and also, not recovering from The N'Ring...   (tip, get recovered to a nearby town before calling the AA).  :)

one last point..

Tis worth knowing that in France, when you break down on a motorway, the local recovery company are the ones that will recover you to their garage, and then the AA will recover you from there onwards. 

at least, that was what it was about 4 years ago..