wont call to breakdown wanted to charge

I broke down today and called GEM, who were very unhelpful. I had young children in the car including a 5 month old baby with me and it was a very cold day. My vehicle was smoking and had a burning smell; I informed this to the operator who asked me to check the engine oil and asked me when I topped the engine oil up last. I advised the agent of this and was informed that they can get a service van out to me, but would charge me £90.00 plus £3.00 for every mile the service van drove to get to me if it was down to poor maintenance. I advised the agent that I am not a mechanic and I do not want to be charged for something I am not sure of. There was no low oil warning light to advise me of this on the vehicle dash board. How could the operator assume that the car was not properly maintained without knowing the service history of the vehicle .Is GEM using this as an excuse to charge their customer? I have been a loyal customer for several years on the all singing and dancing recovery extra family plan and with the experience I have had with them today I will not be renewing my family membership. I believe if i had been a member of RAC AA, Greenflag etc they would have come out to look at the car and if need be recover the car. i will be forwarding a complaint to GEM .