You are not safe with Axa

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AXA Assistance Breakdown Cover
★★☆☆☆
2.0
24.0% of users recommend this
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CheyenneCarney's review of AXA Assistance Breakdown Cover

“You are not safe with Axa”

★☆☆☆☆

written by CheyenneCarney on 08/10/2022

On holiday with my sister we had to pull off the road due to an engine coolant leak. Breakdown cover is through Co-op but provided by Axa. My sister was able to clearly state the problem and that the car needed recovery. We clearly gave our location. The lady in the call centre seemed unable to grasp either and was unhelpful to the point of rudeness. She made clear to my sister, the car’s owner and driver, that she did not believe the coolant had a leak and told my sister it just needed refilling. Finally she said that someone would be sent out to us.

Approximately four hours later a breakdown recovery truck and driver arrived. He had to phone us to get our location as Axa had not given it to him. The driver, pleasant enough himself, had been sent to say there was no coolant leak. He showed us the engine by torch light then pointed to a stain on the road surface below it and tried to insist that we had wrongly assumed this older stain was the result of a leak. He continued the pretence until we offered to put more liquid in so he could watch it drain. The man then explained that he was not allowed to recover us. He kept saying he was “just worker” and “it’s not up to me”. Having failed to persuade us that we had imagined the leak he called his boss for permission to recover us. This was refused so he drove away leaving us in the layby with an undriveable car, many miles from our holiday home, hundreds of miles from home, knowing we had nowhere else to go for help.

My sister had to phone the call centre again. They said they would then arrange for a recovery driver who was allowed to do the recovery. They said it would be approximately another 90 minutes. Even if Axa were being truthful this time – truthful about the length of wait and intending to send help - it would have been after midnight by the time someone got to us. Given the unhelpfulness and lack of honesty to that point, being two women in an unknown area hundreds of miles from anyone we knew with nowhere else to go for help, we could not take the chance of waiting. We were very fortunate, given the late hour, to be able to find accommodation.

The following morning we called and explained it all again to someone who said they would arrange for a recovery truck and told us to be ready shortly. We hurried back to the layby then waited over four hours until the recovery driver phoned us, about to start his trip, because Axa had not given him our location. When the recovery truck finally arrived the driver was efficient, competent, pleasant and cheerful. Everything a stranded motorist could wish for. He checked the engine, loaded the car onto his truck and drove it to the arranged garage with no fuss.

From the first call to arriving at the garage took 21 hours, cost us £160, caused a great deal of stress and fear and placed us in danger. My sister made a complaint but neither Axa nor Co-op have bothered to respond.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY – THEY WON’T LIFT A FINGER TO KEEP YOU SAFE

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