The rac tricked me

[Jigglyjohnson]

Not sure if it is true but I have been told that Mobilo is going to be run/managed by the RAC.
Can anyone confirm or deny this

Yes confirmed rac cover our breakdown service but they are running dedicated mb techs as well

 

[219]

I phone up the RAC as my battery had gone flat as I hadn’t used my car in 1 and a half months.

Anyway, a guy turned up, quick jump start and the engine bursts into life. No worries see you later.... or so I thought...

Without being asked he says his tester has diagnosed the battery as being faulty and needing replacement. ‘Conveniently’ he has the exact one I need in the van... how lucky am I???

The diagnosis is that the old battery won’t be able to start the car... ok.

So he fits the new battery, I pay £150. I ask to keep the old battery.. you know, as I’m still not thinking this sounds genuine.

So after he leaves, I refit the old battery. Guess what? It starts the car no worries, even 5-6 times. Remember it was only charged for seconds too. I then ran the car for a while and now everything is fine. The old battery Is still performing perfectly. So I was lied too..

So now... I have an unused RAC battery. Sold to me by telling lies.

I also found this, Undercover sting reveals 80 per cent of RAC patrols told customers with 'good' flat batteries they needed new ones

Hmmm.

What are my chances of seeing my Money back?

Excellent , just ask them to come and take it away .

 

[219]

Fitted new battery = used.

Sadly, you will have to chalk it up to experience.

Sale under false pretences = null and void .

Their battery , their problem. Not OP’s .

 

[219]

Leaving aside whether or not you could have got the same battery cheaper elsewhere, batteries are consumable items so you are bound to need a new one sooner or later. So I would keep the new one tucked away (perhaps on a battery conditioner if you have one) so that when you really do need to replace the one that's fitted, you're ready to go.

Why keep a battery that is going to be old by the time you need it ? Could be years .

Get a refund and buy a new battery when you need one .

I’d rather have a brand new battery when I need one than one which has been sitting , even on a maintenance charger , for a few years .

Your money is better in your bank account than decaying on your garage floor .

 

[219]

My SL was laid up at the back end of last year when the gearbox went bang . Still started it periodically, intention being to fix it this year .

Then I had falling out with ex and moved out , car was pushed across the road into neighbours garden to keep company with his collection of half a dozen cars , and lay from January until about six weeks ago .

As expected , the battery was flat ( seven year old Bosch S5 ) . I had told my mate I was giving the car to that he’d have to bring a battery , so he brought the one from his Sprinter and we used that to start the car so he’d have brakes , and I towed him the 5 miles or so to his place . Bye bye SL . He has since bought but not yet fitted another box .

Brought the old battery up , won’t charge on the little toy chargers , but I literally wheeled out my Crypton charger , and slowly the current started flowing . Keeping an eye on temperature as overheating is the danger , but a good bit of current will clean the plates up and it now holds a good charge ( have used it to jump start cars ) and it shows good on my discharge tester . It now lies in the garage on a maintenance charger as a ready spare .

This is a proper battery charger



Monitoring charging voltage as well as current



Very little current to start with



But it came up , and I would give it short blasts of higher current just to clear the plates , but watching battery temp very carefully.

 

[alabbasi]

Alabbasi, Abs' point was that with the battery flat (or barley charged) the patrolman could not have possibly tested the old battery....

If the battery is flat, then load testing won't work. I would expect whoever to test it to charge it first. I have a basic load tester (the type with a heating element) that I picked up for under $30. It works great.

 

[219]

If the battery is flat, then load testing won't work. I would expect whoever to test it to charge it first. I have a basic load tester (the type with a heating element) that I picked up for under $30. It works great.

Snap ! Mine was my dad’s , along with the charger and many other tools I inherited. Some were my grandpa’s .

 

[Ted]

Ha!!!!
That is a NOL10/12
Designed and built by Frank Nolten (hence the NOL10)
Essential piece of kit for me 50 years ago, and despite its simplicity, it would test anything from car batteries to truck batteries if you know how to use it.
I could get it to glow orange on a good truck battery!!!
I got rid of mine about ten years ago and regretted it a number of times since.

 

[219]

Ha!!!!
That is a NOL10/12
Designed and built by Frank Nolten (hence the NOL10)
Essential piece of kit for me 50 years ago, and despite its simplicity, it would test anything from car batteries to truck batteries if you know how to use it.
I could get it to glow orange on a good truck battery!!!
I got rid of mine about ten years ago and regretted it a number of times since.

Good info , thanks

I never looked that closely , other than it is branded ‘Oldham’ as I seem to recall some batteries and other items used to be ?

My dad was a haulage contractor , and when he sold up his business I got my pick of equipment from the workshop .

Alas , I couldn’t bring the huge Ingersol-Rand compressor which needed three phase , besides which it was bolted into the concrete floor , nor the huge arc welder , but I did get the Oxy acetylene set ...

Still also have several ‘Britool’ imperial socket sets , massive valve spring compressors , a torque wrench about four feet long ... among other things I will probably never use .

Another thing I remember from the workshop was a tread cutting gun : with truck tyres when they wore down there was enough rubber to cut another tread and this electric gun had a loop of metal which heated up and would cut a channel .

There was also an optical wheel alignment kit - why didn’t I think to take that ?

I did miss having the workshop with pit for working under vehicles .

 

[219]

I just looked out of curiosity bl**dy hell , I wouldn’t like to buy one now !

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[Ted]

That is ridiculous.
Could have made a killing on mine - I thnk I got rid on a house move, along with a Wilkinson test box and a Smiths instrument and voltage stabiliser tester in wooden box.

 

[MikeTyson]

always disappointing to hear stories like this

 

[219]

Sorry, do what, be tested, hold a charge for a couple of months or stick a label on?

Unless I'm confused you can do that will them all, of course a faulty battery may not hold a charge for a couple of months.

Even with a healthy battery many modern cars cannot be left for a couple of months due to alarms and other electronic items being a small but constant drain .

My own car , which has a healthy battery just over a year old , between the alarm and the dash cam , possibly other items , will drain down if left much more than a couple of weeks .

I’ve heard others comment that a week in an airport car park is too long .

It isn’t a fault , just how it is .

On the other hand , I can remember some of our older cars which could lie for months on end and start at the first turn of the key .

 

[219]

I know this is old but The same thing happened to me today I was charged £155.00 I also kept the old battery and was told because I kept it It would be on the invoice I asked if there was a charge he said no. As you something was off. I am miffed. I only found this post by accident.

You don’t have to ask to keep the old battery : IT IS ALREADY YOUR PROPERTY .

And how dare they invoice you for something that is already yours ! It isn’t theirs to take away - the same applies to any parts replaced on your car , by a workshop or elsewhere - any items removed from your car are your property .

 

[Deleted member 126251]

My SL was laid up at the back end of last year when the gearbox went bang . Still started it periodically, intention being to fix it this year .

Then I had falling out with ex and moved out , car was pushed across the road into neighbours garden to keep company with his collection of half a dozen cars , and lay from January until about six weeks ago .

As expected , the battery was flat ( seven year old Bosch S5 ) . I had told my mate I was giving the car to that he’d have to bring a battery , so he brought the one from his Sprinter and we used that to start the car so he’d have brakes , and I towed him the 5 miles or so to his place . Bye bye SL . He has since bought but not yet fitted another box .

Brought the old battery up , won’t charge on the little toy chargers , but I literally wheeled out my Crypton charger , and slowly the current started flowing . Keeping an eye on temperature as overheating is the danger , but a good bit of current will clean the plates up and it now holds a good charge ( have used it to jump start cars ) and it shows good on my discharge tester . It now lies in the garage on a maintenance charger as a ready spare .

This is a proper battery charger



Monitoring charging voltage as well as current



Very little current to start with



But it came up , and I would give it short blasts of higher current just to clear the plates , but watching battery temp very carefully.

That reminded me of when I did my national service in the army. 6 of us were specialist drivers seconded to a huge vehicle depot and our job was to drive armoured cars, some tracked vehicles & other specialist vehicle just to keep them moving.

Flat batteries were the biggest problem. The mechanics had banks of batteries (presumably paralled up) on chargers similar to yours. Their way to check if the battery was ok, was to disconnect one and briefly short the terminals.........the bigger the spark the better - I saw it happen once and always made sure I was nowhere near them after that.

 

[219]

That reminded me of when I did my national service in the army. 6 of us were specialist drivers seconded to a huge vehicle depot and our job was to drive armoured cars, some tracked vehicles & other specialist vehicle just to keep them moving.

Flat batteries were the biggest problem. The mechanics had banks of batteries (presumably paralled up) on chargers similar to yours. Their way to check if the battery was ok, was to disconnect one and briefly short the terminals.........the bigger the spark the better - I saw it happen once and always made sure I was nowhere near them after that.

Certainly wise on the older ‘open cell’ type batteries where gas would most likely be leaking out !

 

[Dryce]

You don’t have to ask to keep the old battery : IT IS ALREADY YOUR PROPERTY .

I suspect that this is only an issue because the assumption is most customers will want the battery disposed of - with the complication that they do have scrap value - so there is the issue of the mechanic having to account for it to ensure they are not accused of taking them.

 

[219]

I suspect that this is only an issue because the assumption is most customers will want the battery disposed of - with the complication that they do have scrap value - so there is the issue of the mechanic having to account for it to ensure they are not accused of taking them.

It would more properly be dealt with by giving the customer a receipt for their old battery , free environmentally friendly disposal ( much as you do when you get tyres fitted , although there is a charge , despite tyres also having a residual scrap value ) .

The presumption being if no receipt issued the customer retained the battery .

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Certainly wise on the older ‘open cell’ type batteries where gas would most likely be leaking out !

They were the old wet lead acid type where the caps had to be screwed off for charging or topping with distilled water / acid....spewing hydrogen while charging and there weren't one or two there were dozens of big batteries on charge.....

 

[219]

They were the old wet lead acid type where the caps had to be screwed off for charging or topping with distilled water / acid....spewing hydrogen while charging and there weren't one or two there were dozens of big batteries on charge.....

From memory , even the caps had small breather holes from which gas would escape - doesn't bear thinking about