What REALLY annoyed me yesterday

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camerassassin

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It's taken me a while to calm down.

When is Life Membership not Life Membership ?

According to the RAC there ain't no such thing !!

Way back in 1984 we took out Life Membership of the RAC and have used it a few times in the past. My husband died 13 years ago but I still have the card in my wallet.

I needed their help yesterday - car had a really severe brake problem and I classed it as undriveable so phoned the RAC.

Oh they don't want you to talk to a human now - they want everything done on the Internet - what standing beside a broken car on a Motorway ?

Eventually I got a human - explained my problem and told them the garage I wanted her taken to was about 5 miles away .

Guess what - they no longer have life membership - they can't trace me on their databases not by name , membership number, or the address we used at the time of taking out Life Membership or any since , not under my deceased husband's name either !!

Yes they would come but I would have to pay £££££££££ PLUS the cost of a monthly membership !!

Thanks to a very good friend who was with me I found someone to come with a recovery vehicle last night and my car is now in the garage and I hope to hear later today how things are going.

OH and to add insult to injury - I'm 82 and a disabled driver !

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
So frustrating! Check your bank account. Ours has a monthly fee, quite normal these days. We have AA membership included in that fee :)
 
We have never been notified that Life Membership no longer exists !! My bank account is checked regularly - nothing goes out from there to the RAC

IF anyone in the Glasgow area needs car recovery the guy I was recommended yesterday has reasonable costs for this - he was very very helpful . I'll pass details on to anyone
 
camerassassin said:
We have never been notified that Life Membership no longer exists !! My bank account is checked regularly - nothing goes out from there to the RAC
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So when you took out life membership with the RAC in 1984 how did you pay for it. Was it a one off payment, an annual subscription, or monthly payments?
Was there a time limit on life membership?
Are you still using the same bank as you did 38 years ago?
When did your bank stop making payments to the RAC?
 
L320Rio said:
Was there a time limit on life membership?
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If there was a time limit then it would hardly be "life" membership, would it?

The RAC recovery service was turned into a limited company in 1978 and sold to Lex Service in 1999, since when it has undergone various changes in ownership. The organisation with whom the original contract was made may therefor be held no longer to exist.

More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAC_Limited
 
L320Rio said:
So when you took out life membership with the RAC in 1984 how did you pay for it. Was it a one off payment, an annual subscription, or monthly payments?
Was there a time limit on life membership?
Are you still using the same bank as you did 38 years ago?
When did your bank stop making payments to the RAC?
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It was a One Off payment - we have never been asked for money since

I'm still furious
 
Oh yes - 2 addresses ago - a flat on a Land Rover !

I had spare wheel . hydraulic Jack but not enough strength to get the wheel off [ damaged arm in the past ] and the RAC came out straight away - the guy was glad of my Jack :)
 
This sounds like a case for Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert).

As well perhaps the Honest John motoring column in the Daily Telegraph.

I wonder, does the Membership Card say "Lifetime Member" ?
 
camerassassin said:
Oh yes - 2 addresses ago - a flat on a Land Rover !

I had spare wheel . hydraulic Jack but not enough strength to get the wheel off [ damaged arm in the past ] and the RAC came out straight away - the guy was glad of my Jack :)
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I actually meant the date.
 
camerassassin said:
The card states Life Membership Member since 1984
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I return to my post above......I think you need some support to hold them to account!

PS in the light of when you last used them ( @L320Rio ) upon support intervention to get RAC to reply meaningfully there might be a 'get out clause' that they wrote to you......but the public shaming by the likes of Martin Lewis and/or Honest John will at least put the spotlight on them!
 
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Good Grief - that's not engraved in my memory - possibly 25 years ago ??
 
camerassassin said:
Good Grief - that's not engraved in my memory - possibly 25 years ago ??
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camerassassin said:
I can't find any paperwork - I hold the card - what more should I need !!
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Come what may, were I in your shoes I would write to the aforementioned potential support sources to help get a resolution.

PS somewhat annoyingly I cannot find a direct email address for Martin Lewis. His site has lots of guidance about matters fiscal and seems to reply on the User to User forum.....perhaps sign-up to that forum and get some engagement going.

PPS as for Honest John, it is not clear that he is still at the Telegraph but perhaps to expose to the public the issue an email to dtletters@telegraph.co.uk this one is for the Daily Telegraph not the Sunday Telegraph.
 
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camerassassin said:
The card states Life Membership Member since 1984
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I'm sorry to hear about the initial trials and tribulations, but that seems like a bit of a result.
I certainly wouldn't drop it.
But I'm not sure this is one for Martin Lewis. Maybe the citizens advice bureau?
Do you have a local Radio station? I'm sure they'd love to hear how the RAC left a disabled person stranded.
Our's also has a FB page, for local news and issues, maybe your's does too?
 
Cobra said:
I'm sorry to hear about the initial trials and tribulations, but that seems like a bit of a result.
I certainly wouldn't drop it.
But I'm not sure this is one for Martin Lewis. Maybe the citizens advice bureau?
Do you have a local Radio station? I'm sure they'd love to hear how the RAC left a disabled person stranded.
Our's also has a FB page, for local news and issues, maybe your's does too?
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What with social media.......yes, perhaps one way to get people talking. Though the more (different) directions you can engage the conversation the better.

What is the old saying don't get angry, get even! Maybe not 100% the right saying but the little person needs a bigger steady voice to get others on side when bringing big organisations to fess up to their responsibilities:)

@camerassassin whatever you decide to do I sincerely hope that you get satisfaction.
 
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One to add to the list of public interest avenues.

The "you and yours" Radio 4 magazine style program?

Youandyours@bbc.co.uk
 
camerassassin said:
I can't find any paperwork - I hold the card - what more should I need !!
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As I pointed out above, the first question is: what organisation was the membership granted by and to whom.

It appears that the company now trading under the RAC title may well have no legal relationship with the organisation that made the original contract. If that is the case, I could see you wasting a lot of time on a hiding to nothing. Before doing that, it might be worth looking for a qualified lawyer who offers a free initial consultation or trying the Citizens Advice Bureau.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
As I pointed out above, the first question is: what organisation was the membership granted by and to whom.

It appears that the company now trading under the RAC title may well have no legal relationship with the organisation that made the original contract. If that is the case, I could see you wasting a lot of time on a hiding to nothing. Before doing that, it might be worth looking for a qualified lawyer who offers a free initial consultation or trying the Citizens Advice Bureau.
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Many organisations change hands and in actuality or effect the new organisation takes onboard the legacy responsibilities as part of that takeover. I surmise there a caveat

I know this is a different circumstance but I had a savings policy that matured in 2005 and after a fairly torturous search this year (letters and emails) I found the company that has that legacy responsibility. That was a company A, sold to B and then sold to C and C once found could not have been more helpful in sorting the matter out.

It would be a surmise as to how many such RAC Lifetime Members there were but why the heck doesn't the current iteration of the RAC have in the support line customer support script a system to know how to handle such enquirers......at the very least to inform them who to talk to about it, if the terms were changed!
 
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Box Brownie said:
This sounds like a case for Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert).

As well perhaps the Honest John motoring column in the Daily Telegraph.

I wonder, does the Membership Card say "Lifetime Member" ?
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'Honest John' hasn't been writing the Telegraph's motoring column for quite a while now. I think Alex Robbins took over the Q & A, and that might be worth a try.
 
I'm still sitting on this and cogitating
 
camerassassin said:
I'm still sitting on this and cogitating
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Is the “membership card” you mentioned the original one or have you been receiving fresh cards from time to time. Maybe there is some other detail on it/them which would help.

I’m a bit surprised RAC offered a “life” membership for a single payment! However the RAC used to be an actual real “club” at one time, possibly when you joined, which may have been a factor.
 
To my knowledge it's my original card - I have no memory of ever receiving another.

Indeed I was not aware it was no longer the same organisation as it was originally. To me it was the same as it always had been - a club where many folk had their badges on their front bumpers and were saluted by the mobile patrols !!
 
As posted in the other thread on this subject.

This raises a couple of questions:
Did the OP inform the RAC of her new postal address each time she moved house?
Are the RAC legally obliged to honour the “Lifetime Membership” when they were taken over by another company?
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AndrewFlannigan said:
As I pointed out above, the first question is: what organisation was the membership granted by and to whom.

It appears that the company now trading under the RAC title may well have no legal relationship with the organisation that made the original contract. If that is the case, I could see you wasting a lot of time on a hiding to nothing. Before doing that, it might be worth looking for a qualified lawyer who offers a free initial consultation or trying the Citizens Advice Bureau.
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It is still the RAC though.

They will have had a list of Life Members. They should still have it.

This is what they say about themselves:
The RAC offers complete peace of mind for all its 12.7m-plus personal and business members for all of their driving needs. We provide a differentiated range of driving and mobility-related services, principally breakdown assistance, for consumer and business customers, and retail motor and telematics insurance products underwritten by a panel of leading insurers.
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I think you need some back up. Companies can be very good at denying all knowledge and responsibility in the hope that the other party will just give up and go away, although that's obviously not true of all of them.

I agree with the suggestions to approach the Citizens Advice Bureau. Their services are free, and they'll probably get in touch with the RAC and try to resolve this for you. There are other options but I'd start with them.
 
Join the AA and see if their legal cover covers the RAC not honouring their Life Memberships...
 
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