Mayday and Caravan Storage
Comments
-
A few years ago I was recovered with car & caravan. Caravan taken to storage, car to my mechanic and me taken home which happened to be about 5 minutes walk from the garage. Recovery driver given a cup of tea and toast when he dropped me off. Things may have changed since then.
0 -
I look forward to an official reply.
I did actually ring up and ask the very same question. I recorded the phone call but I serm to have lost it from my phone. 😟 The answer I got was that delivering the caravan to storeage and the car to home or a repairer (in case of recovery) would not be a problem. I was assured that common sense and consideration would be used - or words to that effect. (N.B. this is not an/the official response)
Now I will be watching for the official response, with the hope that it matches what I have been led to believe is the case.
I have to say, I have (unfortunately) used the Mayday service various times in different circumstances, and apart for the longer wait a couple of times, have been really pleased with their response.
David
0 -
When we broke down in Germany our insurer (Saga) arranged to recover car and caravan to our home. About one month later, car and caravan turned up at our house and the driver agreed to drop the caravan off then to take the car to our nominated garage which was about 10 miles away. He told us that actually he was going to sleep over at the local motorway services and deliver it next morning. This was a great help because we would have had to have paid for a transporter to the garage as the auto box had failed.
The point is that I am not sure that any of this was written into the policy but there was obviously some flexibility in what the driver was allowed to do. Maybe we were just lucky!
0 -
I don't want to rely on 'common sense' as there is no 'common' sense as we all think differently and don't necessarily have views in 'common'. As for 'consideration' I have no desire to rely on the 'consideration' of a third party who may consider my problems not covered in the T&Cs.
0 -
Possibly we are lucky in that the caravan is stored about two miles from our home and the dealer is about a mile up the road from the storage so dropping things at all three would not be a big job for the rescue truck. At the end of the day if there is a problem, then probably slipping the driver a few pounds would sort it.
0 -
If you have ever worked for a large commercial business (Like this club is) and in a position where you are constantly bombarded with emails form other internal departments, then you would understand why these things take so long.
You, and me are one of thousands wanting answers, but normally it has to come from one person who has many other things to do as part of their job.
Incidentally, that was one of the factors that made me take my pension early. I just didn't need the grief that came with the job
0 -
Quite correct however we are PAYING a membership fee every year for a service that is not happening. Why is the club receiving so many emails? Why hasn't the club improved its facilities to deal with more emails? Most organisations send you an email stating that they have received your email, but do the club do something similar?
In the meantime Joe Bloggs is stuck with his car in the caravan storage compound as Joe has to wait 28 days before they will take it for repairs! Taking them a very long time to "investigate" this?
0 -
possibly the delay here is that there is going to be a trail which ends at Green Flag who provide the cover. I suspect they realise the answer to this costs cost them a lot in lost premiums with the wrong answer and possibly in recovery costs with the right one. It may need someone in authority to decide where they go.
1 -
"Most organisations send you an email stating that they have received your email, but do the club do something similar?"
Yes, they do
1 -
I would like to find out the answer to the original question as well, As i have premium cover and my caravan is stored in Strathclyde Park and i live about forty miles away which could be a big problem for us.
Could i please add we went up to Strathclyde Park last week to collect my leisure battery to bring it home for recharging, but almost had a nasty prang in my car due to the entrance of the Park being like a ice ring (unsalted) we had to return home because of this, I wonder how anyone entering or leaving the site got on.
0 -
Hi all,
First of all, please accept my apologies for the long time in posting a response to this thread. Obviously this is quite a complicated subject, and as it refers to a set of policy terms supplied by a third party partner business - in this case Green Flag - I had to ensure that they were happy with the response.
To that end, my second apology is for the length of the following response - but again, I wanted to be as clear as possible and get my response as thorough as I could.
To that end, having discussed the situation with Green Flag at length, hopefully the information below will clarify what is and is not currently covered:
Firstly, we must clarify the difference between ‘Nationwide Recovery’ (which is the ‘normal’ recovery element of the policy); and ‘Dual Recovery’ (which is the policy feature that tries to facilitate a Member being able to continue a holiday or break in the event of a breakdown).
So, for Dual Recovery, if you are on your way to a pre-booked camp or caravan site and suffer a breakdown, your caravan will be taken to the site and then your car will be taken to a local repairer and every attempt will be made to repair it during the length of your stay. After this, reunification of car and caravan depends on the scenario in question, but can be summed up as follows: if the broken down car has been repaired during the trip duration, it would be the customer’s responsibility to collect it and reunite it with the caravan before driving home; if a repair has not been achieved during the length of the stay, Mayday would work with the customer to recover all the vehicles to one single destination under the terms of ‘Nationwide Recovery’, as detailed below. Therefore, the only ‘double drop’ scenario would be the initial drop of the caravan to the site and the car to the local repairer on the way to a camp or caravan site.
For Nationwide Recovery, which includes recovering broken-down vehicles after a trip or on a journey that is not to a pre-booked site etc, recovering car and caravan to two different locations does not currently apply. In this situation, Mayday’s terms and conditions do not include cover for a caravan to be taken to a different destination to your car. You can choose whether to be taken to a garage to repair your car; or taken to the storage facility where your caravan needs to be left; or taken to your home – at which point you are then responsible for collecting and transporting any vehicle to any further destination.
However, there are occasions where cover may be provided ‘outside’ the terms and conditions. For example, if the storage facility for the caravan is on the way to the final destination where the car is being taken, and there is little or no impact in cost, a double drop might be provided as a gesture of goodwill, but would be entirely at the discretion of the Mayday recovery operator.
Finally, if a Member also has the ‘Super Cover’ level of the Club’s Caravan Cover, Section 4 of the cover wording (Miscellaneous Expenses) includes reimbursement of up to £3,500 for “Removing the vehicle and/or caravan to the nearest repairer” OR “The cost of returning the vehicle and/or caravan to your home address”. In effect, this means that whichever Mayday breakdown option you choose, your Caravan Cover will ‘plug the gap’ in the double drop issue. I should stress that, at this time, the Member would need to arrange the second drop, pay the cost and claim it back, and that this is only available for the ‘Super Cover’ option of our caravan cover, and not the ‘Standard Cover’.
Meanwhile, we are in continuous discussion with the Mayday team at Green Flag about product enhancements, including improving these areas of cover, and are working to assess the impacts of a double-drop service on the Mayday contractor networks, to assess the service provision and price impacts of any changes.
0 -
Thanks, the cover does leave you desparatly short and even if it cost a bit more I would say you need cover to get the caravan and cars to the respective different addresses. Quits simply the caravan has to go to the storage as I cannot accommodate it at home and I cannot leave it at home. I am sure the wardens at Strathclyde Park would not let me leave it there as they have no provision except possibly the car park and getting home from there would be a problem.
The house is only a further couple of miles away in near enough a straight line if coming from the South so may be they would drop the car off there but if I come in from the North I am not so sure.
Sorry but this bit of the cover will need a serious rethink and I will be asking the RAC who administer the C&CC scheme what they would do.
0 -
Thank you David Smith for the first response from the Club on "CT" that I could describe as detailed and comprehensive.
0 -
Thanks for the reply, obviously I was given false information when I rang the breakdown service. My renewal is the 1st March so at least I have a month to look elsewhere for the cover I need.
Pretty poor service that should have been tailor made to accommodate car and caravan scenarios, be it outward bound or homeward bound and two different residences for both vehicles.
Beggars belief how CAMC can associate itself with something so lacking.
0 -
Some store their caravan close to where they live; others store it close to where they use it. I don't think a distance limit would be acceptable to those who, for example, store their caravan at Strathclyde Park in Scotland, and live in the Midlands of England.
0 -
What a good idea. I think you are on to something there.
If the membership of The Caravan Club included the basic Mayday service in its price, members could then opt to pay more by way of supplements for higher levels of service. It would just need figures for the uptake on the Mayday service to work out the increase in fee required, and as it would be spread across all members, not just those currently joining Mayday, then the increase might well be quite small.
I recall that there was some proposed legislation that included all motor vehicles used on the road to have basic breakdown recovery cover in place (as in many other countries I believe) but that it is languishing due to the present distractions in Westminster.
0 -
I agree ET. Recently we had ours on a service pitch at Cirencester, some 140 miles from where we store it and live. Just before we were due to pick it up, it occurred to me that if someone ran into the back compromising our towing capability we would be responsible for getting it back, as I doubt greenflag would believe we were just on a day out from the site.😀
0 -
Thank you David for clarifying the situation.
It is disappointing that Mayday does not provide adequate cover for members who have to keep their caravans at a storage site. I don't know how long Mayday has been in operation but I am a little puzzled that this cover wasn't built in from the outset. I would guess that a sizeable minority of members use a storage site, and, ironically, the Caravan Club are possibly the largest provider of caravan storage spaces in the UK!
Anyway, as David has said, the Caravan Club are in continuous discussion with Green Flag about product enhancements, so lets hope this issue can be resolved in the not too distant future.
Thank you to all who responded.
0 -
We thank David for the reply however it does leave a glaring shortfall in the service offered by Mayday when you take into consideration that probably a good percentage of members store their caravans at a different location to their home address.
As we have the highest cover and pay the extra, we have always been under the impression that the caravan would be taken to the storage and the vehicle to a garage or in the event it is a weekend or a Bank Holiday, vehicle home to be collected the next day and taken to the garage. Our caravan storage depot for the caravan is about 8 miles from our residence.
So what happens currently if the vehicle breaks down and is taken with caravan to caravan storage however the vehicle cannot be left at the garage as the garage is closed for the weekend or Bank holiday? Would they then take the vehicle home and collect the next day to take to the garage?
0 -
Thanks for the clarification but as some have said it is different to what I thought I was covered for, also the comments regarding the possibility of a gesture of goodwill may be applied is not satisfactory, I don’t pay for a service that depends on a gesture of goodwill being applied.
It reminds me of the only occasion in 10 years I needed to use Mayday and the arguments to get the car taken to a dealership 14 miles from the site, us two and our dogs back to the site, when you are 250 miles from home you don’t always know where the nearest dealership is who is prepared to do a repair under warranty so we asked to be taken back to our site so I could find a dealership to sort the car out, they recovered us to the site but then refused to take the car the next day the 14 miles to the dealership.
It was only when I said the option was to recover car and caravan 250 miles back home after our holiday that they agreed to pick the car up and take it for repair the following day
The breakdown vehicle they sent to recover us back to our site was the filthiest I have seen, inside far worse than outside and yet he refused to take our two dogs, he did agree as a “favour” to take them, I don’t want to have to rely on a favour thank you.
I am another who will re-evaluate my membership to Mayday recovery.
0
