A diabetic man said he was left waiting six hours for a recovery truck to tow his newly bought car after he broke down.
Christopher Summers, 63, was travelling to one of his businesses when his Vauxhall Mokka started losing power in Aberdare at 4pm on Monday, October 26. Mr Summers logged the breakdown with RAC via the website and said that as he's diabetic, he was "lucky" to have broken down near a pub to wait for help, as diabetics need to eat regularly to ensure their blood sugar remains stable.
He said: "I'm diabetic and it's so lucky there was a Wetherspoons nearby. With everything being so tight recently it's lucky I had enough money for food. But I was just waiting around - all in all, it took from 4pm until 12am before I got a lift back home. I got in about 12.45am." A spokesperson from RAC has since said that they checked Mr Summers had his medication with him and have paid for his evening meal as a gesture of goodwill.
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At 6pm, a RAC patrol vehicle arrived and advised that there was a "serious fault" with the car, as the head gasket needed to be replaced. Mr Summers says that he was then told he could not get towed home, back to Morriston, Swansea, as it was too far. Instead, he was told that a flatbed truck would be on the way. At 6.25pm, the patrol vehicle left and Mr Summers claims he was "left stranded" in Aberdare, while waiting for the requested flatbed truck.
At this point, Mr Summers' family were extremely concerned that he was "hanging around" for the flatbed truck to arrive. They claim they contacted the RAC's customer care team multiple times on Mr Summers' behalf during this time to see when the flatbed truck would arrive. They claim that no flatbed truck had been assigned to Mr Summers by 10pm.
RAC has since said that it contacted Mr Summers at 7.45pm - saying it was a very busy evening and had offered him to take him home to Swansea. However, Mr Summers didn't accept the taxi offer until 10.15pm after being led to as believed a flatbed truck was on its way.
Mr Summers said the RAC warranty he has will not cover the cost of fixing the car's head gasket - claiming that the warranty will only cover one hour of work - which will leave him hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
An RAC spokeswoman said: “Within two hours of Mr Summers logging his breakdown, a patrol was with him who quickly diagnosed what was unfortunately a serious fault with the car. We then looked to arrange a flatbed truck as quickly as possible but, as we were particularly busy, we offered Mr Summers a taxi home at 7.45pm to save him waiting with his car.
“Throughout the breakdown, we were aware of Mr Summers’ medical condition and confirmed that he was somewhere safe – at a pub in Aberdare – and had medication with him.
“We’ve apologised to Mr Summers for the delay and given him a gesture of goodwill, as well as paying for his evening meal at the pub. Our warranty team is currently assessing his claim and, in the meantime, have arranged a courtesy car to keep him mobile.”
Mr Summers bought his car in August from Trade Centre Wales. He claims this situation has been "a nightmare" as he did not expect his new car to break down, with such a serious fault, just months after purchasing.
Keston Griffiths, the Group Head of Customer Care at Trade Centre Wales said: “Mr Summers has covered over 9,000+ miles in the vehicle since the purchase was made and it is also apparent that he has had work carried out to the vehicle previously through a third-party garage - which was covered by the RAC warranty.
"Our company are sincerely sympathetic to the fact that Mr Summers has experienced an issue with the vehicle, but this would be an instance that could not have been foreseen before he had covered over 9,000 miles in a short period.
"We can confirm after being contacted by Mr Summers that our customer care team contacted and liaised with the repairing garage (Vauxhall) who confirmed that the claim has not been submitted to the warranty company at this time due to further checks being carried out, nor has the claim been declined by them.
"Our company has also explained to Mr Summers that should the claim not be successful with the RAC that he should come back to us, and we would look into this matter further. Of course, following on from this, our senior management will contact Mr Summers on Monday to ensure that there is nothing further that we can assist with at this time.”
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