First Call GB Ltd Review

Overall Rating

Cheap.

You get what you pay for.

Had been with First Call GB Ltd for a few years with no problems. Then had to buy a new (used) car earlier this year, as my old car had been hit and had to be written off and I needed another car immediately. I discovered the day after I bought the car that the fuel gauge was faulty, but, since my father-in-law had just died, there hadn't been time to have it repaired, as we were travelling back and forth between Birmingham and Devon. I was very careful to keep petrol in the car so that I wouldn't run out, and had just put in £30 worth about three days earlier (it's only a 1.4 and I only drive 6 miles to work, so that should have lasted well over a week!).

Anyway, the day before the funeral, my car died on my way home from work. The repair chap arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but thought the problem was that the car was out of petrol, even though I thought that was impossible, so he towed it to the nearest service station, I put some petrol in, and the car did start right up. I've since had the gauge fixed, but never solved the mystery of where all the petrol went...it's been fine since.

The problem came when I got a call on my mobile *on my way home from my father-in-law's funeral*! And was told that I wasn't covered for the call-out because my policy didn't cover being out of fuel, but it might have done so because the gauge was faulty, but *because I knew the gauge was faulty they wouldn't cover it*. When I tried to explain that my father-in-law had just just died and that I simply hadn't had a chance to have it fixed under the circumstances, they held fast to their 'rules are rules' stance, with no compassion, no understanding of extenuating or exception circumstances (a death in the family), and that was that.

I accept they have their rules and what's in the policy, but the call centre person who rang me was a cold-hearted rhymes-with-witch who wouldn't even let me talk to a supervisor. I even offered to send a letter from the vicar verifying what I'd told her, and a copy of the repair paper once I'd had to fuel gauge fixed verifying the fault, but she wouldn't even let me do that. Basically, it was 'so sorry, but too bad'.

I appreciate they're a business and have to keep to their policies, but to be so inflexible and cold-hearted even due to a death in the family, that's not *good* business, and I shall take mine elsewhere.