RAC partnership

Onto News and Updates
#1

Hi everyone,

We’re excited to announce today that we’ve partnered with the RAC, to bring our subscribers first-class roadside assistance and servicing. The RAC’s reputation, along with its focus on innovation and adaptability to meet the needs of a new electric car era, made it the obvious choice for us.

What has changed?

Mobile Servicing

If your car needs servicing, you now have the choice between the RAC’s EV experts coming directly to your home/workplace, or you can still take it to a local garage if you prefer.

Roadside Assistance

In the event a car needs attention on the road, you will benefit from the RAC’s renowned roadside service. The process will remain the same, but the resolution will be faster!

As always, if you have any questions about this - please feel free to leave your questions on this thread or get in touch with our customer team at [email protected]

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#2

All, sounds good. Hopefully I won’t need to use this anytime soon :thinking:, but anyone who does, please post on here how it all went, whether a yearly service or a breakdown.

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#3

I have space on my branded 500e for some RAC decals if they’d like to sponsor me :wink:

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#4

I just booked my service at home with them I received an email with a link very smooth and easy

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#5

I had a terrible experience with RAC in January where I was left on the side of the road for 12 hours. Even the tow guy they booked to come take the car told me to not use RAC, but let’s hope this service is better as that was direct from Citroen/DS

#6

Most companies out there seem to stay stagnant and not really look to improve once they have a decent customer base, but Onto seem to be constantly adding bits and bobs and listening to customers, about to renew after my first month and this seems huge. Like everyone says hopefully we won’t need them, but it’s a great reassurance

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#7

This is what I wanted to ask @Lily_at_Onto

Considering Citroen and Renault (amongst others) use RAC as their own assistance, yet the few times I had to use them they were extremely poor and as above left us for eight hours before they subcontracted the recovery work to another company, how are Onto proposing this is going to be any better through this new agreement?

I assume there will be SLAs, but what happens if they aren’t met for example? Is there going to be an assurance to Onto drivers that you’ll guarantee to be recovered within X hours?

1 Like
#8

I do trust that this new agreement with the RAC goes a long way to eliminating issues that have been seen by some, mainly because this is an EV specific contract, so the RAC will hopefully handle this correctly from the beginning of any breakdown call. No doubt we will hear soon as someone, somewhere will have an issue as everything in life fails at some point whether it is man made or in nature.

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#9

I get that, but I must have had five instances of needing breakdown assistance through my time at Onto and Elmo.

Not a single time did the RAC even attempt to fix my car, no matter what had happened. Even when my brake fused to the wheel, it took 48 hours for someone to even come and recover it less than a mile to my nearest Renault garage.

The most recent two breakdowns the delay in getting someone to me was so much that the RAC didn’t bother showing up themselves and subcontracted it to a recovery company.

Unless Onto have set some incredibly strict and enforceable SLAs with the RAC I feel this is slightly meaningless - and from the initial post from Lily there hasn’t really been much in the way of any explanation in how it’s meant to help anyone - apart from they can give you some charge and basically recover the car?

Sorry to be “that guy”.

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#10

I feel for you as the history above just shows how badly recovery/breakdown/fix can be.

I have never used the AA/RAC and others throughout my driving lifetime, because the first and only time breakdown recovery was required…. You guessed it… they failed to turn up.
We sorted it ourselves and that was decades ago.
On the other hand all the company cars I have had over the decades, there have been some breakdowns, multiple tyre blowouts, etc. as you would expect and I just sorted it myself even though they would have been covered by the agencies. I’m an engineer and can sort a lot of things, but as I get older I would want and expect a timely response to issues with cars and they will happen of course.

It will be interesting to see just how the RAC respond/resolve to Onto fleet issues (breakdown/recovery) over the coming weeks/months and more importantly the timeliness and information flow across all parties, but mainly keeping the customer informed and happy.
The customer should never have to do all the running around, but that is often just what happens.

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#11

The main thing is they will service your car at home so no need to go to a dealer

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#12

My main thing was the “RAC’s Renowned Roadside Service” for me has been five breakdowns, of which the RAC themselves only attended one - and every single time it was recovered immediately with no attempt of a repair whatsoever.

In fact, my only Onto-subscribed breakdown wasn’t recovered or even looked at for 48 hours.

I may be the minority but getting someone coming out once a year to do the service is less of a priority for me than having acceptable cover/response if you do break down.

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#13

I fully agree with that. Yearly service is not the main requirement, its timely breakdown response and resolution. Lets see what feedback we see in the next month or so.

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#14

To be honest I have used most breakdown services over the years and can’t say any of them have been exactly timely or efficient ,I think its just the way it is ,too many breakdowns not enough breakdown vehicles…not sure how things will be any better with whoever they use as a partner

#15

According to @Grandadgeorgec, RAC patrolmen used to salute you when they saw you were a member of the Club. (Motorists would display a metal badge attached to their radiator grill or bumper).

Can anyone confirm this, as it sounds a bit far fetched to me?

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#16

Correct my Dad used to have a RAC one on his car, and my Grandfather was a AA member and proudly displayed his badge on his old Rover.
The Aa had your member no on theirs

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#17

Absolutely correct. I vividly remember this all the time travelling in the car when my dad was driving. Can’t remember if it was RAC or AA or both that he was a member of. But the badges as above, proudly displayed and the services guys on motorcycles saluting as you passed.

They used to have ‘boxes’ all over country that they operated out of.

I have a picture of one still ‘maintained’ that I took a year or two ago. Will dig it out and attach later.

EDIT… Here’s the pics…

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#18

I believe this to be correct but the man waving the red flag walking in front of my car always obscured my view.:older_man:

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#19

Thanks to the senior members of the forum for giving us younger ones an insight into their early motoring experiences :wink:

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#20

If you can remember that far back you would have been driving a black Model T Ford and you should also change your username to GreatGreatGrandaGeorge :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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