Mayday and Caravan Storage
Hi,
This is just a heads up for people who have Mayday breakdown cover and store their caravan at a storage site.
In my naivety, I always assumed that in the event of any issues with my car Mayday would pick me up, drop off my caravan at our storage site, which is about six miles from my home, and then take my car back to my home address, or a local garage. It turns out that this is not the case. Apparently they will take my car and van to my caravan storage site and then leave me there to my own devices. Alternatively, they will take me to my home address and then leave both my car and van there (not an option for me as the van won't fit on my drive}. The choice is yours, it's either one or the other.
This only came to light last year when one of our centre members had to use Mayday, and both their broken down car and caravan where deposited at their storage site. They then had to arrange for a garage to recover the car to their home address. On contacting the Caravan Club after the event they were given sympathy but told sorry, those are the conditions of Mayday membership.
I have to say I am a little disappointed with the Caravan Club and Mayday. I pay over £100 a year for their breakdown cover and it does seem a bit poor that onward recovery, especially where it is fairly local, is not provided. Does anybody know how Arrival or Britannia Rescue would deal with this situation?
Anyway, the main point of this post is just to highlight this issue for Club members who store their caravans at a storage site. Fortunately I've never had to use Mayday's services, and yes, I have been naive in not reading the small print. Apparently it's on page 6 of the policy document!
Happy caravanning.
Comments
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Not sure it is quite that bad, if there is somewhere in storage to park the tow car.
In 2008 I had a failure of the intercooler on the tow car near to Fort William. We were brought back home with the caravan using a low loader. It was about 8 hours trip with the inclusion of a break for a meal. The caravan and car were stored on my drive. I could have arranged for Mayday (Green Flag) to collect the car and take it too the garage for repair when needed. I chose not to take that up as, although I wasn't prepared to tow back 350 miles I was happy to drive the car 10 miles for the the warranty repair when it could be booked in.
In 2016 when a front coil spring broke and ripped through the tire I was recovered home and Mayday happily came out a few days later when I had arranged a garage to undertake the repair to pick me and the car up to take us to the garage at a prearranged time. Presumably if the car was at the storage centre the same could be arranged.
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I have the Mayday Premium cover and questioned this in 2017 as my caravan is in storage 1 and 1/2 miles away.
Their reply was because I have dual recovery they will drop the caravan at storage and the car at home, as long as the storage site is within 10 miles of the home address.
Obviously the various permutations of what vehicle breaks down is covered as long as both drop offs are within the 10 mile home zone.
I just phoned up to be certain this was still current, as my renewal is the end of February.
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Apparently they will take my car and van to my caravan storage site and then leave me there to my own devices. Alternatively, they will take me to my home address and then leave both my car and van there (not an option for me as the van won't fit on my drive}. The choice is yours, it's either one or the other.
Some mis-information here, both Mayday products offered by the club have dual recovery and will facilitate the recovery as mentioned above by Metheven...
On contacting the Caravan Club after the event they were given sympathy but told sorry, those are the conditions of Mayday membership.
Interestingly this information is backed by a member of the Club staff.....
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Easy T - I am afraid it would be bad for me. If my broken down car is dropped off at my caravan storage site how am I to get home? I suppose the only options are cadge a lift or get a taxi. My storage site is on the small side so it would not especially convenient for the storage site owners to have my broken down car stuck in the way.
Metheven - Thank you for replying. That's very interesting. I contacted the Caravan Club in November and I was told very clearly (in writing) that it is not their policy to recover you to storage and then home. Like you, I have premium cover. When you say you just rang up do you mean today?
I don't know if the very helpful Caravan Club staff monitor this forum, but if they do would they care to comment?
Thanks
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This is part of the response I got from the Caravan Club in November:
"At this point in time, Mayday breakdown would only offer recovery to EITHER your storage facility OR your home (or a local garage) – as detailed in Page 6 of the Policy Wording. Obviously you would be offered the choice of which destination would suit your circumstances at the time of the incident in question."
It then goes on to say:
Assuming the scenario was a broken-down tow-car, but the caravan is sound and roadworthy, what this would mean in actuality is:
You could chose to get your car taken home, or to a garage (along with the caravan), but you would then have to make your own arrangements to get the caravan moved to the storage facility;
Or
You could chose to get the car and caravan recovered to the storage facility, but you would then need to arrange to get the broken-down car from there to either your home or a garage.
Seems very odd. The Club seems to be saying different things to different people.
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When you say you just rang up do you mean today?
Yes Stato, after reading your post I rang Mayday on their 0800 0515318 number, to be certain this was still valid before renewal. The lady on the other end could not answer the question personally but transferred me to the breakdown dept where the guy informed me it would happen.
So yes I was told no problem, in reality there could still be confusion but if in that scenario then I would stand firm at drop off point(s)
I will report your post asking for an answer from the Club.
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Hi everyone, I have forwarded this discussion to the insurance team to get clarification and will post once I have further information on this.
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I took out the Mayday cover last year with the personal cover option.
In early December my Motorbike broke done, the alarm/immobiliser was faulty. they recovered the bike to my home as it was late and the dealers were closed but would not take it to the dealers the following morning unless I paid the going rate. I questioned the dual recovery and was told it only applies when a caravan is with the vehicle. They also sent me a text saying that a similar fault on the vehicle recovered is now excluded from cover for a period of 28 days.
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Easy T - I am afraid it would be bad for me. If my broken down car is dropped off at my caravan storage site how am I to get home?
If your car is taken on a low loader for a repair at a garage when you are on holiday you will have to arrange your own transport to collect it.
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On the online booklet I just looked at it seems to be pages 9 & 10 that cover it, not 6.
The wording does clearly say or, not and in regard to the destination. However, the wording also says includes dual recovery and refers to page 11. Surely that's what's happening, caravan to storage, car picked up again and taken to garage / home.
The only issue I can see is if you have already taken advantage of the dual recovery to continue your holiday.
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We have, thank goodness,so far only needed to use Mayday once some years ago and the took us all to our storage then car to local dealers garage before taking us all home ,i have no reason to think that that service has been reduced,
Ours due for renewal March so it will be interesting to hear the clubs latest reply via Rowena or the clubs Mayday person
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Which the opposite of what I was told a few years ago. When the 'fan belt' failed on my car while on my way home from work at around 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening, the recovery firm recovered my car home and said they'd call again in the morning to take it to be repaired if I wanted. I sorted it myself. I too have personal cover.
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I did look it up in the T&C's on line and it states dual recovery is only applied to pre booked holidays
From the website.
Dual Recovery
(Dual Recovery is not included with Roadside
Assistance and is applicable for pre booked and
during holidays only)0 -
This is a big concern to us as we are about 8 miles from the storage site and the dealer for the Jeep is about 60 miles away. We cannot leave the Jeep in storage for 28 days so that it can be taken to the dealer and would be very much out of pocket if we had it towed at our expense to the dealer from the storage location.
If we were to break down while on holiday and they towed us back to the storage site as no way would we be able to store the caravan at home, how would we then get home or even get the vehicle to the dealer? We have the premium cover also and are paying it to cover just such a scenario.
No objection paying to collecting the vehicle once it is repaired.
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They also sent me a text saying that a similar fault on the vehicle recovered is now excluded from cover for a period of 28 days.
I was told the same recently when we had a problem with the car. However, they did say if you had the problem looked at / corrected by the garage you would be covered if it reoccurred. Ours was a fuel flow problem. Green flag got it going, garage did lots of checks but couldn't find anything wrong. I kept the garage bill in the car for the next month, however fortunately no reoccurrence.🤞
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That was only 24 hours ago, Surfer.
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Which is more than enough time to ask a simple question off Mayday that will probably take less then 10 minutes!
If you were in the position stuck at your storage site due to your car and caravan been delivered there should you then wait a couple of days for an answer?
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Don't think they work weekends either
Best get comfy 
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But we're not and one needs to be reasonable and realistic when staff have many other things to do as well as answer our questions.
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Interesting. We have recovery of all our vehicles, including MH, and if towing our caravan, via our bank. We needed to use this service a couple of years ago while away in Mid Norfolk with our MH. They sent a recovery vehicle, and we were asked what we wanted to do. (Our dogs complicated things, few if any recovery services will transport dogs in their cab.) So, they took us back to our CL, and promised a mechanic out the next day, ensuring we were safe and could stay in our MH overnight in warmth and comfort. Mechanic duly arrived next morning, had a good look but couldn’t fix MH there and then. So, bank agreed to relay our MH home, or rather to our repair centre of choice, while I arranged for BIL to come and collect me and the dogs. (The dogs could have gone in the MH, on the low loader, but frankly this was unsafe and they are more precious to us than the MH!) So although we needed the help of a willing relative in terms of getting the dogs home safe, the service we had regarding the initial rescue, the attempt to get us fixed the next day, and then relaying our stricken MH home was second to none, and all part of our Bank Account. This is the only breakdown cover we have, no Mayday, no RAC, Etc..... My OH got home safe with the MH, it was dropped at garage, he was taken home, while I opted to sort out the dogs. The bank phoned us half a dozen times to make sure all was well, and keep us informed.
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Like the Esso card fiasco the CC leave you hanging with no answers. I am PAYING the CC a membership charge and I am PAYING for the breakdown service so yes I do expect an answer to a simple question within less than 24 hours or have they that many issues with the breakdown service that they are so busy replying to queries that they cannot find the time to make a 10 minute phone call!.
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"Calm down dear" its the w/end,and like all companies with numerous staff dealing with all sorts of "urgent?" requests it is in the queue,Green Flag as Esso will probably have been contacted but they will also have as I said above, nothing in either "problem?" areas is
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