Far from happy

We were intending to have a fairly last minute weekend away in the New Forest. Got all packed up and had a leisurely start to the day.

About 12 miles in to the journey we started to smell what I thought might be electrical burning. As the smell grew stronger we decided to pull into the next lay-by, which with luck with not far.

V got out and shouted we were on fire!

Luckily we have fire extinguishers on board and after a moments fumble getting the thing out of its cage and removing the safety I put the fire out.

That was the start.

Luckily I had the Breakdown number in my phone. All went ok until the person on the other end said can you hold! On his return to the call he said he had referred this to his manager and as this had been a fire I had to contact my insurers. Not to happy as I wrongly felt I had purchased breakdown with my insurance policy.

Once. again luckily I had the insurers phone number on my phone. A very helpful lady took our details. Again I was asked to wait. On the ladies return I was informed I was not covered and my policy had expired in September!

My head was in a bit of a spin as to how I could confirm I had indeed got insurance. Luckily she stated I had the expired policy through a broker. This was true for last years but not this so I persisted, I am insured. No nothing in our records.

Then I had a light bulb moment. This has happened to me before with the motorhome! Please check under my car policy!

Ah yes there you are.

You are insured. Sorry about that.

As the conversation progressed I was informed of the policy excess I would have to pay and then later still via an email informed that the fire has been noted as my fault and will need to be declared at renewal.

To add to this story we had the breaks done just before we went to France back at the end of August. So why the fault! Why the fire!

We were successfully recovered back to the garage who did the brakes. The email I mentioned also contained this nugget. As I'm not using a recognised repairer there is a further £200 on top of the £500 excess already liable for.

I only wanted to be recovered back. Now it's turned into all this. My mood was and is still not so good. Its really knocked my confidence in the garage and the vehicle.

I guess I should be grateful it didn't happen in France.

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