Anybody with Footman James?

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toadoverload
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:48 am

Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#11 Post by toadoverload » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:56 am

I'm with Footman James.

I've just got their standard included breakdown cover.
On average (in London) it's been about an 1hr 20mins from them taking my call to the truck coming out.

They use Lantern Group but may be different across the country. Most of them just seem to want to recover the car but occasionally you get one who knows classic cars.

suffolkpete
Posts: 1132
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:54 am

Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#12 Post by suffolkpete » Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:11 am

A vote for Peter James from me. I used to be with RH and their service was fine, but Peter James came out slightly lower and didn't limit my mileage. Also, they include European recovery as well as breakdown, which is important to me.
1974 Rover 2200 SC
1982 Matra Murena 1.6

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JPB
Posts: 10319
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#13 Post by JPB » Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:04 am

toadoverload wrote:I'm with Footman James.

I've just got their standard included breakdown cover.
On average (in London) it's been about an 1hr 20mins from them taking my call to the truck coming out...
Sorry to ask, but if you've had to call out the recovery people sufficiently frequently to have been able to calculate a meaningful average response time, then this would suggest that you're either incredibly unlucky or there's something essentially in need of attention about the vehicle that's caused you all of these breakdowns so, is there some sort of recurring fault here, on which someone on the forum may well be able to advise with a view to reducing the frequency of your encounters with recovery operators?

Many recovery services that are included with insurance will limit the subscriber to a certain number of callouts per year, for example on my Halifax Bank key policy, I can only call out for help three times per car, per year. Sadly, I can't move the Corolla's three turns to another vehicle that may actually break down so one of these days, I might just run out of fuel in order to get full value for my premium.
;) Kidding, please do not even think about this as it's most probably some form of fraud..
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

GHT
Posts: 1523
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:09 pm

Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#14 Post by GHT » Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:18 pm

JPB wrote:
toadoverload wrote:Many recovery services that are included with insurance will limit the subscriber to a certain number of callouts per year, for example on my Halifax Bank key policy, I can only call out for help three times per car, per year. Sadly, I can't move the Corolla's three turns to another vehicle that may actually break down so one of these days, I might just run out of fuel in order to get full value for my premium.
;) Kidding, please do not even think about this as it's most probably some form of fraud..
I would like to quash the rumour that John is a tight fisted wad. The other day, whilst waiting for his other half, and whilst parked on a meter, he really was waiting for the other half, despite rumours to the contrary that he was actually sitting there waiting for the allocated time on the meter to run out.

toadoverload
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Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#15 Post by toadoverload » Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:53 pm

Fair point! I've had one call out in the last 2 years so can't offer an average.

Here's my '67 Amazon ran out of petrol broken down on the lovely A406

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JPB
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Re: Anybody with Footman James?

#16 Post by JPB » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:10 pm

:shock: Oh no! My heartfelt commiserations, unless the original camshaft gear had stripped one tooth too many and the camshaft had stopped, there's so little likelihood of a 120 failing to proceed that it really would cause people to do a double take!

I never ran out in either of my 140 series Volvos when I was running those as daily transport, but did experience the joy of cam gear strippage and ensuing failure to get me home in my otherwise flawlessly trustworthy 142S, a car that had only covered 22,000 miles from new when I owned it and whose cam gear didn't even do that "is it a big end knock?" thing when it must have been short of gear teeth for quite some time.
I wouldn't be so surprised to see a 240 suffering from a failed ignition amp, or a 740's roof cloth falling over the driver's face and causing a collision as a result, but a 120? How dare that car not manage to reach the petrol station on the contents of its float chambers!

@GHT:
GHT wrote:...I would like to quash the rumour that John is a tight fisted wad. The other day, whilst waiting for his other half, and whilst parked on a meter, he really was waiting for the other half, despite rumours to the contrary that he was actually sitting there waiting for the allocated time on the meter to run out.
An observant, if ultimately misguided man once wrote that I'm so tight that only dogs can hear my farts, but this doesn't excuse anyone for following me around and watching my parking habits. The quoted words above are far too close to reality for them not to be based on observation you see..
:|
He's a proper cheeky old bugger, that GHT! ;)
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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