21 hours to recover a vehicle 100 miles The rear air suspension failed on my Discovery one Monday evening, first of all I have to say this was NOT during the mayhem of an Easter bank holiday or during a once in a decade freak weather event, this was a normal Monday evening. I called in the problem at 6.50pm giving my exact location, nature of the fault, vehicle details and the fact I was towing a trailer, I was given a response time of approx 21/2 to 3 hours. after 3 hours I phoned and was informed it would be another 45 minutes, an hour later it was still going to be another 45 minutes, and yet again in another hour it was, yes you've guessed it, still going to be 45minutes, now at no point did anyone from the RAC contact me to tell me of the delay or give an explanation. At 1.00am Tuesday morning a contract recovery vehicle turned up, but on seeing the trailer, said he wasn't being paid to recover that, so got in his truck and left. At 2.30am a second recovery vehicle arrives and informs me his depot is only 5 miles from my location, and can't understand why he wasn't called first, however his hours at this point are nearly up, so the RAC have instructed him to take me to a motorway services some 50 miles or so away, where I shall be transferred to another contractor for the rest of the journey, unfortunately that would not be until 8.30am when the next shift takes over. By 9.00am nothing has happened, so I call the RAC who inform me someone is on the way, which turns out to be a driver who has no license to tow a trailer, now, to keep this as short as possible this happened yet again with the next contractor hired to do the job, finally at 2.15pm Tuesday a suitable vehicle and driver arrives and I eventually get home at 4.00pm Tuesday just over 21 hours since I fist called the breakdown in. At no point in the first 17 hours of all this, did anyone from the RAC contact me, despite numerous apologies and promises and assurances that someone would do so. Now you would expect that a customer phoning up after 17 hours waiting, someone would make damn sure it was sorted. But still the blundering goes on. I made numerous attempts to speak to a supervisor/manager,only to be told they do not come to the phone, but would call me back. And I am still waiting for that call. In the end I phoned customer services who reluctantly got involved. I have been a member of the RAC for 16 years ( there won't be a 17th) and have to say in that time this company has nosedived, they may be able to attend minor breakdowns, but if you need recovery, their set up is woefully inadequate, which is saying something for a company whose core business is roadside rescue and recovery I could find in this experience no redeeming features, the experience with the call centre can only be described as appalling, thier apologies as empty as thier promises to call back, a management team not prepared to speak to customers, and a heavy reliance on contractors some of which were were obviously not up to the standard. Bizarrely enough whilst waiting at the motorway services 2 AA recovery trucks arrived together to recover 2 vehicles parked near me, I was talking to the AA man who was astounded at how long I had been there, 17 hours at this point, but he asked me, when was the last time I saw a recovery truck painted up in RAC livery, that got me thinking, I don't think I have seen one for years, And here lies the problem, despite being one of the most expensive road rescue companies, there would appear to be a complete lack of investment, call centre staff who would appear to be very poorly trained led by managers who would appear to be incompetent or just plain don't give a stuff. This is a company in crisis and most certainly a very very long way from what is was 16 years ago. Mistakes happen and I accept that, but this is so much more than a mistake, this was a systemic and repetitive failure at every single level, and as such, can no longer be relied upon when you most need them. I have posted a photo of my silver Discovery surrounded by AA recovery vehicles whilst still waiting for the RAC