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My daughter's away at uni, and has her old 90k mile little car with her to get about. It's a decent runner but 15+ years and 90k miles old so we pay roadside assistance so she isn't stranded.
Her lights failed last term, driving back from Uni one evening and while she could limp home on sidelights she then called the breakdown service as that's part of what we pay for. If she'd been at home I'd probably have looked myself, but as they'd both failed I wondered if some weird electrical fault (wouldn't be the first in her ownership)
It turns out that both main bulbs had blown - and probably one had already gone and she hadn't realised because she clearly doesn't check stuff!! So the callout guy had two bulbs on the van and fitted them for a not totally unreasonable (so I thought) £40 for over the barrel pricing
She's now home for Easter and I used her car last week as it was last in line, and it was like driving with a torch. My eyes are shit, early cataracts, but even so. Looking from the front, they were very orange - not right. A bit of googling suggested a few options but 'cash rich time poor' (not that cash rich mind!) I booked it in with the local auto electrician indie.
He did the diagnostic check on battery, alternator, earthing, etc. - all the suggested possibilities - with a blank. Almost stumped he then had a thought - and the parts that the breakdown guy luckily had had with him were truck fittings - 24V. No wonder with half the power they were bloody dim.
I've now had to pay £45 for diagnostics, and another pair of 12V bulbs.
Best part of £100 which I could have done for around a tenner, and a chunk of which could have been avoided had the roadside guy not taken advantage of a young girl in need.
Grrrrrr!
I would be raising a complaint with the roadside assistance company. Thats clearly not on, unless it was a 'this will get you home' measure.
I have sympathy and I would almost certainly also be fuming but on the other hand as a disinterested party when you suggest your daughter set out with only one main bulb and then had none while miles from home then the only thing you can moan about is him not letting on they were 24v if he was aware.
She was at home at the time! (Uni home) - identified 2 blown bulbs, fine, could have sent her to Halfords if he didn't have the right bits and she could have paid to have them fitted there.
I suppose trying to be charitable, he may not have realised and just seen H7 on the box, but all the same.......if a pro roadside assistance guy doesn't know that what faith is there in other fixes.
[edit] for clarity - they failed on way home, she phoned me, 'what do I do?' I say where are you, she says outskirts of Leam, I said drive it home carefully on sidelights and then call for assistance in the morning. I live 120 miles from Leam BTW
if a pro roadside assistance guy doesn’t know that what faith is there in other fixes.
Roadside assistance is there to get you going in an emergency. Which, arguably he did. Given that they're working with limited resources, and their entire job is to get you going with what little they've got, it seems an easy mistake to make under the circumstances.
I'd say it's a missuse of services. If she wanted a proper fix, she should have taken the car to a garage (or Halfords) during daylight hours.
(quarter power, if I remember my schoolboy electrics correctly 🙂 )
I’m quite impressed that roadside assistance would come out for blown headlight bulb in the first place - to my mind that falls under routine maintenance / consumables.
That said - I agree that putting 24V bulbs into a 12V car without telling the driver is a bit off.
Is there a chance he actually told her but she blanked that info as she didn't understand what he was saying? It's horribly common in IT life and I can fully understand that if you are stressed and late you would hear 'bla bla you can get home now'.
Annoying but I'm going benefit of the doubt on this one as i don't know how easily identifiable it is to identify a 12v bulb from 24v unless they were in packaging. If she made it back to home, i wouldn't necessarily have gone down the breakdown recovery route either and suggested Halfords or similar
Shirley that's not an MOT pass and therefore must but a breach of the contract?
So it's the OP's fault. God's in his Heaven and all's right with the Single Track World 🙂
"Taken advantage of a young girl "
Really?
Hyperbowl much...
Young girls don't drive cars and go to uni.
Pretty much agree with the above few posters really.
The guy sorted a fix on a car that normally wouldn't qualify for roadside assistance due to its age anyway.
I'd contact them and raise a query/complaint. May have just been oversight and they may refund some or all of the £40.
I'd also be telling your daughter to go and buy a set of spare bulbs for the car. So when another bulb goes she can sort it out herself.
I must admit I didn't think "roadside" assistance would come out if you're at home (unless you have homestart and the car won't start....)
a chunk of which could have been avoided had the roadside guy not taken advantage of a young girl in need.
I appreciate your frustration, but honestly this seems unfair. Your average roadside assistance van isn't going to be a mobile Halfords warehouse. It could have been a genuine mistake, it could be that it's all he had in the van and it was better then darkness. It may well be the "best part of £100 which I could have done for around a tenner" but you didn't, did you. Everything is easy when you're round the corner and know the answer, if that's not the case then that's why you pay someone else to do it.
If I were you I'd take it up with the recovery company. I'd be more annoyed that I was paying an annual premium and still had to get my hand in my pocket for bulbs which were incorrect. There should be some recompense to be had there for their mistake.
Overly harsh.
I bet half the people on this forum won't even be able to read whether the 2mm high lightly stamped rating of the bulbs on the shiny metal baseplate read 12v or 24v at the roadside when there is no sun out and reading glasses. Maybe not even read the box !
Another vote to have a bulb kit in the car. Then she can just hand it to the roadside assistance (even though they would only have one headlight bulb in the kit)
I bet half the people on this forum won’t even be able to read whether the 2mm high lightly stamped rating of the bulbs on the shiny metal baseplate read 12v or 24v at the roadside when there is no sun out and reading glasses. Maybe not even read the box !
I’ll bet 99.9% of forum members have a mobile phone with a torch on it though, and a roadside assistance recovery tech will certainly have a torch. And that the latter would read the box, because, you know, it’s their job?
Note to self to buy spare bulbs for car.
Honestly, if she's counting on that car for uni and so on, she needs to make sure to take care of it properly, if a bulb had already gone, why hadn't she noticed until the other one went, is that all that's wrong with the car just now, does she check her tyre pressures, oil and so on, or is that just stuff that gets done at a service once a year, or worse, at the MoT?
Make sure she has a decent garage she can use nearby, she understands basic maintenance of the car and not to count on roadside assistance to come along and fix every small problem, some of those agreements have a limited number of assists before they start charging more!
Sucks.
But personally I would put more effort into getting your daughter to take note of her car more and put a spare bulb set in the car.
I suspect complaining to the breakdown won't refund your £100, you will just get an apology.
Surely the first bit of "diagnostics" should have been to take a bulb out and read the side of it? Second option would to buy some replacements from Halfords or Amazon and try them out.
I would be onto the roadside assistance people though, they've charged her for fitting the wrong part and probably made the vehicle less safe than if she'd just driven to the nearest Halfords the morning after to be diddled by some sweaty yoof for bulbs.
Maybe it’s all the AA man had on him, but your daughter has forgotten he told her?
I can't imagine it would be in any way roadworthy with 24V bulbs in. If that's all he had, I'd have expected him to go and get the right ones, or tow her to the nearest parts shop.
And if he didn't know they were 24V bulbs, I'd say it was remiss to not notice how dim they were after fitting.
Tbf to his daughter it appears that no one in this day and age seems to walk round their car before setting off occasionally. It strikes me as something that used to be passed down from the parents to the kids rather than expecting the driving instructor to do it. I know my dad taught me - and I'm already getting my daughter to help me do it ....she knows what a non working bulb looks like age 4.5 - she told me last week mum had one out on her car so we went out and replaced it together.
But I see the same cars for weeks on end driving round like cyclops either people don't bother and/or are ignorant to the basic requirements to drive a car. Ask any mot tester. Most cars fail on really basic things that you don't need to be a mechanic to see.
But the recovery truck got her mobile again. You'd be surprised how shit your lights can be and pass an mot..... Anyone with a classic using Lucas units will know the phrase fire flies in a jar.
C1 / Aygo / Peugeot 107 - £100 to effectively change headlight bulbs? Take my money and skin your own knuckles and double jointed fingers.
Mk1 Cayenne or XC90 both of which have genius level removable headlights that should be the default standard for all cars and I'd pay you £100 for the pleasure of changing the bulbs
I’m surprised a 2009 car doesn’t tell you when a light is out.
my good-brand-but-low-spec 2013 told you exactly which one had gone.
my 2001 car just told you a bulb was out.
if she’s driven on ignoring a warning, make her pay the £100 as an honestly fairly cheap life motoring lesson she won’t forget.
they’ve charged her for fitting the wrong part and probably made the vehicle less safe than if she’d just driven to the nearest Halfords the morning after
Assuming the worst case scenario didn't occur and she was in an accident because of no headlights. Or was it the daytime in which case why call the AA?
I say where are you, she says outskirts of Leam, I said drive it home carefully on sidelights and then call for assistance in the morning. I live 120 miles from Leam BTW.
120 miles in the dark without headlights?!
it appears that no one in this day and age seems to walk round their car before setting off occasionally.
The STW Road Captain™️ approved pre-driving checklist would be fun. 😃
RM.
Think I'd be complaining. You're paying for a professional service, and sticking 24v bulbs in a car when it should be 12v is anything but professional.
I’m surprised a 2009 car doesn’t tell you when a light is out.
This is true.
C1 / Aygo / Peugeot 107 – £100 to effectively change headlight bulbs? Take my money and skin your own knuckles and double jointed fingers.
Eh. It's a 30 second job both sides with great access on the Peugeot
It's not about checklists. A walk around the car looking with your eyes would tell you something's wrong.
I’m surprised a 2009 car doesn’t tell you when a light is out.
I've a 2015 and a 2016 and neither tell you a lights out. But much like tpms and the pain in the arse that is when it starts to fail. More sensors mean more people become reliant on the sensor rather than physical checks.
My 2002 golf took great delight in quite often telling you a door was open.......yay for canbus
My 1987 land rover will tell you when the indicator bulb is out though. .
Breakdown guy defo at fault- should have texted the lights using the bulbs and sent her off to Halfords- assuming it was daylight, I’m surprised they didn’t charge for the call out though.
Just handed over my old ‘05 car to my eldest. Stuck new bulbs in cos the old ones were shit- but they worked and they are now in the glove box. It doesn’t have a spare wheel, just a can of squirty, so I’ll be buying a space saver for the boot, and showing him how to change it. Compressor already in there and I’ve put a high viz vest in. He did very well at uni but also has not a lot of common sense, so I’ve talked him through what to do in a breakdown.
Just changed a headlight bulb on my 05 Jazz- involves removing the plastic lining in front of the wheel and then using contortionist skills or child labour to get to the fitting, what kind of designer does that? A sadist? Anyway, I’m with the ‘it’s not really a roadside assistance job’ crew on this one, she was home and could have popped to the petrol station for new bulbs the next day. Life lesson…..
Wow, tough crowd, but thanks for your thoughts. Because there is a lot of confusion and misreading/ misunderstanding a summary
I get a call one evening a few weeks ago. She's at Uni in Leam, I'm 120 miles away. She says her lights have gone out. IDK at this stage whether they have both, or one went before and now a second. All comments of 'should be checking ' etc, totally fair but doesn't make what happened ok. There is no bulb out warning on this, it's a 2007 Mitsubishi Colt. IDK where the idea it's a 107 or clone has come in.
She says what do I do and as she's already on the outskirts of Leam I say get home carefully on sidelights. A quick Google and I get her to check fuse but overlooked possibility of both bulbs going at same time, my fault - as I said we have had electrical issues before due to a bodged Bluetooth installation FWIW
As we pay for breakdown cover incl cover at home may as well use it. So we did, the next morning; she got back to her Uni home so next morning was ok. Those that say blown bulbs aren't covered or similar, nothing in the docs for that, and they carry spares so read into it what you will.
The rest is as stated, fitted two wrong parts in daylight. Maybe he didn't know or realise, at that point it wasn't an 'emergency this'll get you going again' excuse but still to be clear, within the remit of what we pay for. At that point remember, I'm 129 miles away and we don't know it's bulbs. If he didn't have the part he could have sent her to Halfords instead, those who know Leam will know it's a mile from student town. Maybe took advantage of is 'hyperbowl' and maybe anyone else would have got the same treatment. If it was my wife or my Dad, I'd still say it smells to me like some wool has been pulled over some eyes.
Oh, and I don't have proper cataracts, my optician has said they are in my future. They don't just appear one day and that's it, they develop and one day will make my eyesight too bad to drive if I don't get them done.
Maybe charging for the bulbs meant no call out fee which is normally about £100, just a thought.
No call out charge on our policy, something about fair usage rather. Yes, I guess we've wasted a call out on a blown bulbs, but we didn't know that at the time of course
Wow, tough crowd, but thanks for your thoughts. Because there is a lot of confusion and misreading/ misunderstanding a summary
I was with you 100% until
I’d still say it smells to me like some wool has been pulled over some eyes.
To gain what exactly? To take a young woman for £40 of which he'll see none of and recover the three inches of boot space that a couple of truck bulbs were taking up?
Hanlon's Razor applies here I fear.
Fair comment, you're probably right
As for fair usage, I think Jon did the right thing because
Just changed a headlight bulb on my 05 Jazz- involves removing the plastic lining in front of the wheel and then using contortionist skills or child labour to get to the fitting, what kind of designer does that? A sadist?
I've told this tale before. A work colleague drafted my assistance after failing to fit a headlight bulb in an Astra van. After me initially going "WTF is wrong with you?" it turned out, I couldn't work out how to do it either. A quick hop into Halfords to cheekily skim the Haynes manual, "step 1: drain and remove radiator"...
That was maybe 20 years ago. It's easy to take the high horse but cars are increasingly user-hostile when it comes to DIY.
And also to reiterate, at that point we didn't know, even think, it was blown bulbs. It was trying to diagnose from 120 miles distance and I didn't ask the right questions.
I'd probably do it myself but it is one of the remove wheel arch trim and have three elbow efforts