Porsche Assistance

[lowndes]

Yesterday I received through the post what appear to be changes to the terms and conditions to Porsche Assistance that I purchased in March 2014.

Having quickly read the document I sent the following mail to Porsche Assistance. May be a storm in a tea cup time but not harm in giving Teddy a bit of air time.[]

" Begin

Dear Sir

At the beginning of April I received my Porsche Assistance Policy Booklet for my new car REG NO. REDACTED which provides breakdown cover until 2017 (3 years). The letter dated 2 April 2014 accompanying the Policy Booklet came from The Porsche Customer Assistance Centre Manager at Porsche Assistance in Bristol.

In the Policy Booklet it says "Benefits and services are provided by RAC Motoring Services".

In the Terms and Conditions towards the back of the Policy Booklet it says "This Policy is a contract between Us and You". You is defined elsewhere as "....the person named on the Porsche Assistance membership card....".

Us is defined as RAC Motoring Services.

This morning I received through the post a letter dated 15 April 2014 from Customer Experience Manager at Porsche Cars Great Britain Limited in Reading. This letter is headed Porsche Assistance-Change in Supplier and Service Improvements and contained a booklet entitled Porsche Assistance Service Description.

The letter says inter alia "Please therefore find enclosed the revised booklet of your Terms and Conditions..."

The period of entitlement set out in the letter is from 1 May 2014 through 03 March 2016.

The expression Terms and Conditions is not used in the Service Description booklet but definitions section on pages 6&7 has defined Us and You differently to my original Policy Booklet.

I have not been able to find any reference in the Service Description booklet to it being a contract.

On the basis of the information I have it is not easy to understand what changes You have made to the Porsche Assistance that I purchased in early March 2014.

Would you please explain in detail what has changed and the original terms on which you have relied to make those changes.

Yours sincerely

...end."

 

[Lancerlot]

It seems Porsche Cars are changing administration of the Porsche Assistance service from RAC to AA. [] Regards, Clive.

 

[BigCat]

It took 6 months after delivery of my 991 before I received my policy booklet and then yesterday I received the same letter as Lowndes telling me the AA has taken over from the RAC and that my cover runs through until January 2015 which happens to be 1 year short of the 3 years that is in the contract that came with the car furthermore, which is odd given it's VW Group, my wife just received a letter from VW saying that the Roadside assistance Cover for her Golf MK7 is going to be provided direct from the RAC with effect from 1st June so I wait to see what comes next for my Audi Q5. I would have thought if VW is the parent company why not use the RAC for all the car brands in the group and get the best deal?

 

[waxman]

recieved the same letter yesterday - my personal experience from RAC/Porsche Assist : they were excellent when i called them out over a puncture in the 997 - fast/polite and efficient. My experience of the AA has been very poor/expensive/did not care etc over the last number of years, so i am expecting problems - only time will tell!

 

[lowndes]

Just to follow up on this. If like me you bought a car with a Third year Warranty (pretty standard these days I think) then from 1st May until the 2nd anniversary of your new car purchase the Assistance will be with the AA. Thereafter it will revert to RAC for the remainder of your period of Warranty/Assistance. Apparently this arises because Assistance is part of the Third Year Warranty package and is an insurance product that RAC who provide the insurance are unwilling at this time to give it up. I learnt this when I spoke to Porsche this morning to ask if there was an answer to my earlier query about Assistance. However when it became clear that my e mail had been placed in the cyber waste paper bin I promised to resend it. The more dealings I have with Porsche corporate the less confident I become in the current integrity of the marque.

 

[pwebb]

Thanks Nick, that explains why I've heard nothing as my car is just into the 3rd year warranty.

 

[BigCat]

I had to call out Audi Assistance yesterday due to a problem with my Q5. The chap who came out said that from the end of they month he simply transfers to the AA who are taking over the contract from the RAC for VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda i.e the VW Group marques, he also expects to be getting trained to cover Porsche but wasn't sure when that would happen.

 

[ralphmusic]

That will be the TUPE effect whereby employees dedicated to a contract stay with the contract - worrying about training though but I guess these days it is just a call to a recovery truck. When mechanics could diagnose and cars were simpler, roadside repairs were possible but now we have morphed though roadside component swapping to just getting car back to a dealer.

 

[ralphmusic]

Just got back from hols to find my new Porsche Assistance card in the pile of mail, but the card runs only to the end of the two year warranty, not the three years. Called Porsche Assistance on 0118 919 1744 who said "they are in error and should have been issued running to the end of the full three year period" AND "we will issue a corrected replacement to those who ask for one" so I asked....

 

[Motorhead]

I assume that the emergency assistance call out numbers remain the same as before: 0800 777 123 (UK) & 33 472 435 255 (Europe)? Jeff

 

[BigCat]

The UK number is the same but for travel in Europe it changes to 00 33 4 72 17 25 73 or the freephone in Europe is 00 800 13365984

 

[ralphmusic]

Numbers on the card are...

 

[Motorhead]

Yes Ralph, that's what I thought having checked the Porsche Extended Warranty brochure on the web. Since your's is an up-to-date card, I don't know where Adrian got those Europe numbers. Very confusing. Jeff

 

[ralphmusic]

As an alternative to the freephone number, the UK control centre land line is 0121 275 2853. Sometimes freephone can be an issue (cost or having to redial) from mobiles.

 

[BigCat]

The European Numbers came from the new revised handbook that was sent to me in April with the letter telling me that the provider had changed from RAC to AA with effect from 1st May, the letter specifically mentioned that the European Numbers had changed but the UK number remains the same. I've only had my 991 since January 2013 and it took until July 2013 for any documentation to come through but when it did I also received the same card that is shown in the previous posting. The new documentation package did not include a replacement card but I've fixed that see below. I also called Porsche GB Customer Service 01189 191 744 and they confirmed that the numbers I posted earlier are correct (for me) however some customers will still have their Porsche Assistance provided by RAC so the numbers will not have changed for those people, the advisor I spoke to said that the majority of customers contracts would have switched to the AA it all depends when the car was purchased new or Porsche Approved which suggests it might be the timing of the start of the 3rd year warranty. Anyway the person I spoke to is also arranging for a new card to be sent to me. Maybe if you have not received the letter then you are one of the customers who fall into that category with your contract still managed by the RAC, I can see from the picture of Ralph's card that expiry is in 2015 whereas for me it's 2016 probably worth a call to Porsche to get clarification.

 

[Motorhead]

Thanks for that Adrian. I'm running on the Porsche Extended Warranty with Porsche Assistance, so it could be that I'm still on the "old" numbers. However, I'm reminded that they haven't updated my card since 2013 so it looks as though their customer service isn't that great. Best, I think, to give them a call for clarification. Thanks again. Jeff

 

[ralphmusic]

After a track day last week I had cause to call Porsche Assistance because of a noise coming from the near-side front wheel area. Although braking effectiveness was normal, I had a 150 mile drive home and did not want to risk causing damage to the disc. My call was answered after a couple of minutes, long enough for me to wonder whether I was dialling the correct number. The AA call centre quickly found my vehicle on their records, noted the fault, but when I said I was at the main gate for Goodwood Motor Circuit the answer was "where is that?" The call handler could not find it on their system so I suggested he Google it - now they had located me, there were no Porsche Assistance vehicles available so I was assigned a normal AA van which arrived within the estimated 30 - 45 minutes. The AA van man asked whether the car had been on track, answer "Yes" - "well Sir" he said, "the AA cover does not include issues arising from track use". I explained that the Porsche Assistance scheme did and asked him to check with his dispatcher who confirmed the AA van man could look at my car but that if there was any damage due to track use I would not be recovered. Anyway, the AA van man removed the wheel, visually checked the brakes, tyres and wheel, couldn't find any obvious cause and the noise which was present with the wheel on the car had ceased when rotating the disk with the wheel removed. So wheel back on, test drive OK and I was on my way. The AA van man was polite and diligent and there was no point in my getting difficult with him as to whether I was covered because it was clearly not his fault. I subsequently took the car into Exeter PC for a confirmatory check-up and the service manager said that in the last 12 months clients' cars had been recovered from Silverstone and Snetterton to Exeter after off-track excursions. I called Porsche GB Customer Assistance and spoke with Damian who confirmed the extent of cover re track use by email: "Further to our conversation today, I can confirm I have investigated the matter for you and spoken with our Porsche Assistance Account Manager. He has confirmed that there is no reason that you shouldn't have been recovered into a local Porsche Centre. You can have your car recovered if there is track use. We will be raising this issue internally to ensure you don't face the same problems if this was to happen again." Damian called me a couple of days ago to confirm a couple of points on my experience as they were working with the AA to ensure the cover is properly understood. I was lucky in many respects that I did not need recovery from track but I hope that these service provider transition issues will be quickly fixed.

 

[pwebb]

Good useful knowledge and experience Ralph. Thank you for posting this up for future reference.

 

[Rintoul]

I am not impressed at all with the changes to the Porsche assist scheme. I too received information back in April about the changes indicating that my cover would expire at the end of 2 years and not the 3 years. I rang and was advised by Damian that I was definitely covered for the 3 years and that I would receive confirmation in the post just before the 2 years were up. Nothing was received, so I rang and spoke to him, he promised to chase it up. Nothing. So I rang again, more promises, still nothing. Rang and spoke to Michael, very sorry sir, even rang me back to say there may have been a problem with the address that they had on file???? You will definitely get new documentation in next few days, still nothing received. After 4 non productive phone calls over the last couple of months, I now need to resort to writing letters in order to illicit a response, more waste of my time. I hope that I never need to rely on Porsche assistance. []

 

[okellyt]

ORIGINAL: Rintoul I am not impressed at all with the changes to the Porsche assist scheme. I too received information back in April about the changes indicating that my cover would expire at the end of 2 years and not the 3 years. I rang and was advised by Damian that I was definitely covered for the 3 years and that I would receive confirmation in the post just before the 2 years were up. Nothing was received, so I rang and spoke to him, he promised to chase it up. Nothing. So I rang again, more promises, still nothing. Rang and spoke to Michael, very sorry sir, even rang me back to say there may have been a problem with the address that they had on file???? You will definitely get new documentation in next few days, still nothing received. After 4 non productive phone calls over the last couple of months, I now need to resort to writing letters in order to illicit a response, more waste of my time. I hope that I never need to rely on Porsche assistance. []

Sorry to hear your woe, all I can ay the one time I really needed them they came through - however not without some cajoling and mini niggley mistakes