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“Used to be good but not now.”

written by peter.author on 20/04/2020

I have been a customer of First Call for many years now and have always found them helpful, providing assistance through local garages. In fact I haven't had to use them very much at all. But this time my car broke down in the local town centre and as we live in a village 11 miles away, help was going to be needed. When I phoned First Call they told me that, unless I had my car towed to a garage AND IT WAS REPAIRED (and they would require to see the invoice!), I would have to pay for the rescue.

The car had suffered a transmission failure and at 21 years old it was obvious to me that a repair would be uneconomical. (This was later confirmed by my local garage.) I told them this and insisted the car be recovered to my home in the village. Reluctantly they did this and then charged me £158 for an 11 mile rescue.

They insisted this was in the terms of the contract and I found it was, in very tiny print way down on page 3 of the conditions. Not so obvious - I wonder why! I thought that payment of the subscription guaranteed recovery to home or a garage as the owner preferred at no more cost.

I would have been better to have not joined and arranged my own recovery, it would have saved all those subscription fees.

I wonder if they have changed management from Good Samaritan Jekyll to Vampire Hyde? I will not be renewing in September but will try a rival company (with the aid of this site).

Buyer beware!