First Call GB Ltd

I have been a customer of First Call for many years now and have always found them helpful, providing assistance through local garages. In fact I haven't had to use them very much at all. But this time my car broke down in the local town centre and as we live in a village 11 miles away, help was going to be needed. When I phoned First Call they told me that, unless I had my car towed to a garage AND IT WAS REPAIRED (and they would require to see the invoice!), I would have to pay for the rescue.

The car had suffered a transmission failure and at 21 years old it was obvious to me that a repair would be uneconomical. (This was later confirmed by my local garage.) I told them this and insisted the car be recovered to my home in the village. Reluctantly they did this and then charged me £158 for an 11 mile rescue.

They insisted this was in the terms of the contract and I found it was, in very tiny print way down on page 3 of the conditions. Not so obvious - I wonder why! I thought that payment of the subscription guaranteed recovery to home or a garage as the owner preferred at no more cost.

I would have been better to have not joined and arranged my own recovery, it would have saved all those subscription fees.

I wonder if they have changed management from Good Samaritan Jekyll to Vampire Hyde? I will not be renewing in September but will try a rival company (with the aid of this site).

Buyer beware!

I was with firstcall many years and in the beginning was very happy with their service. But I have seen their service steadily decline to the point where on my last two call outs they did not even want to attend the call outs and suggested ways I could get my car going that did not involve them sending a recovery service. The last was some months ago when my brother contacted them regarding my car not starting at home. Despite my paying extra for homestart they would not send out a recovery vehicle and instead told my brother to get my local garage to come and look at the car, which he did and I then had to pay the garage. I was absolutely appalled that they took advantage of my brother not knowing my policy fully and avoided acting as per my paid insurance. I see no value whatsoever in having breakdown insurance with firstcall, am changing my provider and advising all I know to steer clear of them.

After 3 years with this company  I rang them for the first time today requesting  roadside assistance as my Fiat Panda wouldn't start. They asked me questions about the fuel in my car which I answered as best I could as I am not mechanically minded. Initially,  I couldn't see any movement on the fuel guage so I thought it was empty but when I turned the key again the arrow moved and I could see I had half a tank of fuel. They said that because initially I had said that there might not be fuel in the tank that I had to give them my credit card details as that wasn't covered in the call out agreement. What would have happened if I hadn't had my credit card with me as they said they would not send assistance without my credit card details. 3 hours and thirty minutes later the break down mechanic arrived and told me it was my battery, he recharged it and I drove my car to my garage to have it replaced. It was freezing cold today and I had no power at all in the car to keep warm. As a woman on my own in an out of town location with no one around and a car that wouldn't start I feel very badly treated  by First Call and that they were only interested in extracting my credit card details from me so they could get more money out of me for the call out . I'll leave it to you to decide if you want to buy break down cover with this company. My policy with them ends in early January and, given my experience with First Call today,  I will not be renewing it.

AVOID – AWFUL COMPANY !!! I had a legitimate breakdown call out with these guys. They came and fixed it, then later sent me a letter telling me I had to pay £125 for it. When I went to the Financial Ombudsman and they backed off. Also they refused to give me the contact name of their Managing Director.

My car broke down coming off the M55 about 4weeks ago, initially the response was great, the breakdown truck was with me in about 30mins and recovered me home, all great so far, I had the car taken to a local garage where it was diagnosed as the cylinder head had failed and the cost of repair was more than the car was worth. A week letter I received a letter from First Call demanding a copy of the receipt from the garage for the repair, when I sent the letter back I was charged £164 pounds for the recovery as the policy stated that they didn't cover you if your vehicle was not repaired or scrapped. They just use any excuse to get money off you, not interested in customer service, I will never use this company again and will actively discourage anyone from using them.

I waited for over 4 hours to be "recovered". By the time the recovery vehicle arrived, the repair garage was closed. To take me home just over 100 miles it would cost me an extra £483. I had to stay overnight after being taken to a huge industrial site to the repair garage. The garage was fine and they did fix the car first thing in the morning. Needless to say l have cancelled this policy. So always read the small print, better still don't use this company. A very stressful and unpleasant experience

I won’t go into lengthy details of what happened as there are plenty of examples below, but basically a few years ago they extracted £200 or so from me, to tow me home. I was very busy building a business so didn’t have the time or energy to fight it.In the course of business though I was forced to learn how to use the courts to force payment of money owed, it really is easy, just google moneyclaim. Knowing the above and having had the fact I had been unfairly squeezed for £200 grating on me for a few years I knew I had to have a crack at them in court.They tried a counter claim but this was struck out before it got to court. In court was great, the judge basically read my case, explained why I was right and asked them asked ‘bearing that in mind do you want to go on?’ They did and lost. This is a classic example of how it went;FC; why did you not listen to the lady on the phone and take your car to a garage straight after?Me because following that your trained mechanic stated the car was fine and I should on and enjoy my day. I know nothing about cars, why would I be arrogant enough to ignore a trained mechanic?FC; how do you know the lady on the phone wasn’t a trained mechanic?Judge; can I just ask, was she a trained mechanic?FC; blabber, no, blabberThe moral of the story is there actions are unlawful, if any other reviewers in my position took them to court they would be compensated.Don’t get me wrong, I am all for giving people a chance. In court they did blabber on about changing their terms and bearing the judges’ comments in mind, even sounding genuine, hence me deferring public criticism of them. Looking at these post court reviews does suggest they really are a leopard that will never change its spots.

Quite simply the most appalling breakdown company I've every encountered. Without a doubt the worst service I've every received from any company that claims to provide a service to it's customers. DO NOT TAKE OUT a policy with first call. After 4 years of using this company without having to use them, on a recent journey, Bank holiday camping trip with the family I had no power steering or ABS. After endless phone calls over a 24hr period I was told that no assistance would be provided as the car was still mobile. This left me an hours drive from home, with little option than to drive a dangerous car with my family until it stopped completely, luckily within walking distance of my home.

On calling once again I was told I would have to pay for any assistance as I had driven with a known fault.

One of the people I spoke to even agreed with me that the service & breakdown policies that are offered by first call a 'shocking'.

This company should be allowed to continue trading!

I've been with First Call for nearly 10 years and never had to use them until yesterday.

They will take your money but they are not there when you need them. DO NOT USE!

I was exchanging my car and had a part exchange agreement with the garage. I didn't drive my car for 2 weeks for fear of damaging it. It was left in perfect condition on the drive. Over 2 weeks the battery went dead.

I rang First Call to jump start me and they said they would but only after £125 charge even though their policy says they'll come to the house!!

I was completely honest with them and they said that they wouldn't come out and jumpstart me because I was going to part exchange the car and not take it to a garage for mending (but only the battery was dead - it didn't need any further mending - and I was taking to a garage anyway!)

I rang my local car shop and they popped out with a battery and got us up and running in 3 minutes (thank goodness) so we were able to go ahead with our plans.

We were travelling to North Wales a journey of approx 4 hours. Our temp gauge warning light came on red, and despite stopping to cool engine, it kept coming on at quicker and quicker intervals. In the end we had to call out First Call GB Ltd. The person on the end of the phone was superb, and despite our location in the middle of nowhere, managed to get a recovery vehicle out to us within a hour and a half, which was amazing given our location. We were recovered to Garaj Arwyn's Garage just outside Caernarfon (our destination), which specialised in minis, and was still open at 7.30 on a Friday night! The FCGB worker kept us appraised of the situation, and gave us confidence that things could be sorted out as she had spoken to the Garage explaining our situation and fault. I have to say Arwyn's Garage was superb and miraculously was able to find and fit required part so that we could travel back home on Sunday morning. However, without the knowledge and efficiency of the FCGB employee, I don't think the weekend would have had such a good outcome. So would just like to say a 'BIG THANK YOU' to the person on the end of the phone, who turned the nightmare start to a planned weekend break to the enjoyable weekend we had hoped for.