RAC declares Manor Estate a "NO GO" area

[lalaland]

Fair enough, the RAC have to protect their staff. However you do have to wonder what the spin on the story would have been had the woman in the car been raped or the man murdered due to being abandoned at the roadside in the 'hood?

 

While that would be terrible, it would not be the RAC at fault. It would be the people carrying out the attack. Also if someone's going to murder someone, the presence of an RAC patrol person isn't going to make much difference.

 

The paper will of course be happy to make a big fuss about it, they sell papers and this sort of thing makes them money, however the problem isn't the RAC it's the idiots that make trouble that are the problem.

 

If this woman was prepared to leave her father on his own and take her son home then it obviously wasn't that much of a high risk.

[Mathom]

While that would be terrible, it would not be the RAC at fault. It would be the people carrying out the attack. Also if someone's going to murder someone, the presence of an RAC patrol person isn't going to make much difference.

 

The paper will of course be happy to make a big fuss about it, they sell papers and this sort of thing makes them money, however the problem isn't the RAC it's the idiots that make trouble that are the problem.

 

If this woman was prepared to leave her father on his own and take her son home then it obviously wasn't that much of a high risk.

 

And the fact that it wasn't a high risk to leave a sick, aging man in the car alone suggests that this has got blown out of all proportion!!

 

What nobody has mentioned of course is that the RAC sub-contract the area in an evening to a private company, as the AA now do in ALL areas at night. Sub-contracting is of course also cheaper - negating the need to pay overtime and so on to permanent employees. The private company, happy to do these patrols, were late in arriving.

 

Now if something *had* happened I know that they would've been hauled over the coals for leaving customers unattended.

 

The spin on this story has been given to make it look as though someone was abandoned due to ruffians on an estate who roam in gangs, thrashing hell out of RAC patrolmen.

 

The truth is somewhat different - someone beaks down on a major road (one which is not a little estate street but is part of a major, very busy ring road), the sub-contracted service is delayed a very long time, customer complains and is later told the tale of the attacks which will garner an emotional response negating the need to apologise for the sub-contracted repairman being late, but suspiciously is not told this at the time they have been left without service. Everyone over-reacts.

[lalaland]

That's pretty much it Mathom. The RAC just did what every other company do as I've pointed out before.

 

I've broken down in the past and had some other company come out to me instead of an AA patrol. It also took longer for them to arrive and on one occasion I was waiting for over 2 hours. It's nothing new.

 

And if the man in question was at risk, why did his own daughter leave him on his own?

 

I still don't see any major fault on the RAC here to be honest.

[Mathom]

Well yes, it's obviously not such a dangerous place if a disabled man could be left alone in a broken down car!

 

The 'fault' in all of this is that the RAC took a long time to call back and tell them they'd sub-contracted the job, which further added to the already long delay. And then they did not apologise but instead chose to tell their tale about the attacks, which was a bit underhand. If they had sorted the job quicker and/or apologised there would've been no story.

 

I use neither the RAC nor the AA and my recovery firm always sub-contract, but they are never ever more than an hour in arriving. If they are then you can get money from them. Maybe everyone should use Green Flag instead?

[helibish]

i feel for the genuine people that live there the minority rule again it is dreadful.

i still believe there are good and bad everywhere and no matter where you live you are not ammune to crime.

i am a member of the RAC they have not told me of the changes in fact i didnt know until i read it on here. this really is a message to all of us in the RAC to avoid this area because if we breakdown we are not going to be helped!!!!!

[UKSentinel]

The surprising aspect of this story is that whilst the Manor (and it's reputation) hit the headlines, along with a picture of Fairleigh Shops, it's ironic that the area is now a private housing estate and has no links with the "Old Manor". I wonder what this will do to the house prices in that area now.

[Darbees]

The RAC is the best value insurance I've ever had and I've never waited more than an hour for them.

 

As has been said in several posts above they should have advised the member they weren't going to attend but the original fault lies at the feet of the yobbos who attacked someone but that is not the residents of Manor in general who unfortunately suffer the consequences of this selfish minority who are in their midst. It is not for the RAC to sort the problem.

[lalaland]

Well yes, it's obviously not such a dangerous place if a disabled man could be left alone in a broken down car!

 

The 'fault' in all of this is that the RAC took a long time to call back and tell them they'd sub-contracted the job, which further added to the already long delay. And then they did not apologise but instead chose to tell their tale about the attacks, which was a bit underhand. If they had sorted the job quicker and/or apologised there would've been no story.

 

I use neither the RAC nor the AA and my recovery firm always sub-contract, but they are never ever more than an hour in arriving. If they are then you can get money from them. Maybe everyone should use Green Flag instead?

 

I agree, it seems there may have been a communication break from the RAC to the customer and that's a problem, but passing it on to a 3rd party still isn't a major problem. The Star may have been better off focusing on the problem with the Manor area instead of focusing on the RAC.

 

Also, reading the Star site I've noticed yesterday morning's armed robbery on the Manor gets a smaller patch and no photo compared to the infamous RAC incident http://sheffieldstar.co.uk/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2727803&sectionid=5730

[lalaland]

i feel for the genuine people that live there the minority rule again it is dreadful.

i still believe there are good and bad everywhere and no matter where you live you are not ammune to crime.

i am a member of the RAC they have not told me of the changes in fact i didnt know until i read it on here. this really is a message to all of us in the RAC to avoid this area because if we breakdown we are not going to be helped!!!!!

 

You will be helped, it will just be by 3rd part companies contracted by the RAC as can occur in other situations too. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Tony]

had the woman in the car been raped or the man murdered due to being abandoned at the roadside in the 'hood?

Since when has that been a matter for the RAC rather than the Police?