NRMA Roadside Assistance

Yesterday am 7th June my car would not start rang NRMA the girl was very polite! When the driver arrived ahead of time quoted tested my car and said I needed a new battery! He did not have the special European brand for my Hyundai. He said he would get my car started and follow me home then go to get the battery! He did this only waiting about 15 mins! Colin you were my Angel! We had a laugh felt saved! Dianne Morgan Matraville

NRMA don't care!
I recently had a very bad experience with NRMA Roadside Assistance. I have been a member for many years and was very disappointed following my recent request for assistance.
I was heading north on the Hume Highway back to Sydney and my car broke down, the NRMA representative attended about an hour and a half later and advised he couldn’t fix the broken radiator hose and that my car needed to be towed. He advised I would have to be towed 47km south to Goulburn (away from my destination) but if I wanted to go 40km north to the nearest town of Moss Vale I would need to pay for this myself. I should point out that if I was towed to Goulburn this would have added nearly 100km to my trip.
The NRMA representative then quoted me $450 for their tow service to take my car to Moss Vale which seemed pretty expensive. I declined his offer and rang a private towing company who did the job for $275.
I was very disappointed that NRMA would not tow my car the shorter distance as part of my membership but what concerns me even more is that the NRMA did not provide competitive market rates for towing.
When I rang their customer care they advised me of their policy and suggested that if I was not happy with what had happened then I should take the matter to the Department of Fair Trading.
This is clearly not the type of organisation that has its Members interest at heart!

Absolutely appalling.
I paid for windscreen chip cover as part of my membership. When I got a chip, I contacted NRMA & was put through to their supplier National Windscreens and told that my Sydney Suburb of Mt Colah was outside their coverage range and that I had to pay them a travel fee or drive the car myself outside Sydney to Gosford.
What an absolute joke. How could Sydney be outside their coverage?
When I phoned NRMA to complain, I got nowhere. When I emailed a complaint to NRMA, I got nowhere.
I then lodged a complaint with the Department of Fair Trading.
Then I received an email from "[name removed]" at "Member Relations" with a reference number of "0252740" stating that as I'd contacted Fair Trading, they were going to wait to be contacted by Fair Trading rather than talk to me.
So it took NRMA two weeks to simply say that they can't be bothered resolving the matter and were just going to leave it to Fair Trading.
Meanwhile, we've been unable to use the car for weeks now due to the defective windscreen and have been forced to organise and pay for the repair ourselves even though we had already paid for windscreen coverage with NRMA.

I’ve been a NRMA roadside member for 19 years. 2 years and 1 month ago I called for a new car battery. They replaced it and told me it has a 2 year warranty. Today I had battery issues so I called roadside. The man told me my battery is faulty and unfortunately you are 1 month out of warranty. You wouldn’t replace my faulty battery without a charge and look after me today just because I’m one month out of warranty. I’m horrified that I have supported you for 19 years and you didn’t give back just this once. Even as a good will gesture. Is this how you treat your clients? 19 years with NRMA and all I got from the duty manager was ‘we don’t care you are one month out of warranty.’
I now know NRMA don’t care about there clients, it’s all about their back pocket.
I am canceling my membership and advise everyone to stay away!

Always amazing service. The people they send out to help me have always been fantastic in particular those most recent emergency I had.
My brakes failed while driving on a main road with my daughter in the car, luckily I had the chance to go uphill and slow the vehicle down before sliding into the left lane and pulling over with the handbrake!!!
Anyway I called NRMA, Friday afternoon, 40degree heat, right on 5pm on a main road.
WoW! They go there quick with the tow truck, offered to drive us home on the way to the service station, and helped us stay cool, and took care of everything else for us.

Thank you NRMA Roadside Assistance!

I am a NRMA member, Club Care (member benefits, NO roadside assistance.) I joined Club Care about 11 years ago on a special promotion - no joining fee, and have used roadside assistance when I upgraded to a higher membership level. I now use another roadside assistance that is far more value for money - c$60 vs $110 for Classic Care. Sure the competitor does not have its own fleet of company vehicles manned by its own employees, but their sub-contractors seem to be able to do the job (mainly jump starts, locked keys and towing that I have used.)

A little while after I renewed in 2018, I learned my $35 for 12 months Club Care membership has been replaced by a $60 for 12 months Blue Care. There are extra benefits, but I currently use only 1 - the quarterly magazine. My 11 year relationship with NRMA does offer discounted insurance with NRMA, but other insurance companies offer better for value.

Blue Care also requires the use of an app. It is bad enough that Goggle, GeeMail, Fakebook, ePray, etc. track me; I would have to give NRMA my personal data and that app eats into my precious mobile data allowance too.

This forced change from my "cheap" $35 Club Care to the "more expensive" $60 Blue Care is now giving me the blues. I am going to evaluate my membership as renewal is in about 5 weeks time. I do not like the 71% price jump; it seems like an insidious rort by NRMA management to take advantage of its loyal members. Also paying $60 for 4 magazines a year seems a waste of money.

Make no mistake, NRMA is not a mere motoring club providing its members assistance; it is a profit driven organisation with well paid directors and senior managers with their hands in the members' pockets. If I could get the Blue Care for $35, I'd probably renew. As it is, I am doubting on renewing to get Blue Care; when in doubt, don't do it.

Wow Just wanted to Say Thankyou!!!!! Such fantastic service by Steve today ,I locked my full coated border collie in my car on a hot day 30° ..N..R.M.A took 5 to 10 mins to arrive !!!!! Thankyou to Steve my Hero we were in Curlcurl

My son is away in the Navy and his Ford transit camper's sliding door was jammed. I spent 2 days trying to open it stripping the door from the inside to no avail. I thought he had it covered for NRMA road service and when i called them the vehicle was not, however because i have been a member for over 25 years and my son is serving in the Navy arrangements were made for me to drop the vehicle into a local NRMA depot and they had it open in two minutes. NO CHARGE. Excellent service and found the staff at the depot very obliging.

After a two hour wait, I could not be any more complimentary of the nrma technician that attended to Sydney airport, he had been flat out since 8pm and still was most helpful and courteous, just a genuine guy!

Lost my car key - one with an electronic transponder - the other day in a city 3.5 hrs away from my home. Luckily there was an option of getting the spare key to me if someone drove to me. But I called NRMA Roadside Assist to see if there was an easier option. First time I've called them in a long, long time. Very disappointed in the way the call was handled. The guy came across like it was the first time he had ever encountered the situation. When pressed for options he offered to get me towed (!!!), or to call an auto electrician but cautioned me on the cost of this. This experience got me thinking - why am I am member? If all they can do is change tyres, fix batteries and tow cars - I can organise these things on a case-by-case basis directly with other suppliers as and when I need them. What's the point of Roadside Assist if you can change your own tyre, call a local battery company, or call a towing service?

I am a gold member with NRMA. Over the years I have rarely called them. Yesterday my car broke down. I rang them at 11.35am. I explained my passenger was really sick (Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer receiving heavy doses of chemo every week) and that in this heat it was not good for her. They said they’d put me as a priority and i’d be the next on the list. At 1.58pm nearly 2 1/2 hours later they arrived. By then since my friend looked like she was going to pass out, we called a cab. I was supposedly on the priority list at the top? The man was in Avalon when I originally called. For the next hour when I called every half hour he was in Avalon. When he arrived I find he went from Avalon to Palm Beach to do a job before getting to me. That is why it took 2 1/2 hours to get anyone. So I have to ask, had roadside assistance cut down on staff that they appear to have only one person servicing the whole area? Absolutely appalled by lack of service.

I've been a member for about 10 years. I've had to call on NRMA, on average, once a year & they've never let me down. The roadside technicians are friendly, helpful & know their stuff. I've learnt more from them about my car than my regular mechanic.

I couldn't start my car so I rang NRMA road assistance. The waiting time was 90mns initially but received the text message within the next 15mns!
Patrol staff, gentleman called John came to assist and could fix the problem very quickly and smoothly! I could learn a lot from his expertise and had a great chat with him which immediately reduce my anxiety level that my car had major problems.

Thanks to NRMA for employing more people like John in their roadside patrols and dealing with us with such a great courtesy, Merci John.

Called road side assistance as my car wouldn't start. Was low on petrol and when the service guy came he said it was due to the angle that the car was parked and that it would read that it was empty. He then put some petrol in my car to see if it started (which it did) and told me I had to pay him $15.00 cash for this. I didn't have any cash so he told me I had to drive to the petrol station, he would follow me to ensure that I did pay him the money which I did not get a receipt or any other record of this.. I don't believe he filled my car with $15.00 worth of petrol and want to know if this is standard NRMA practice and also did he then declare the money or confirm he received this on behalf of the NRMA or do you have a record of this transaction?

Been waiting for roadside assist for 3 hours 20 minutes now. Was told I’d have a 50minute wait initially. Wondering how much longer (coming to you live from metropolitan Sydney)...

6 years ago my car broke down on the side of the road and Jess gave me exceptional customer service over the phone. She whispered sweet nothings into my ear and made me calm and relaxed until roadside assistance was there to help. It’s a day I’ll never forget and makes me proud to still be part of the NRMA. Many thanks xx

Car towing Caravan started losing all power 100 Km west of Adelaide. Rang NRMA who responded quickly and offered to tow car and van back to Nissan dealer in Adelaide. We opted to first try to get back to Adelaide on our own(successful). NRMA then organised and paid in advance for accommodation for us and our dog until car was ready (before we arrived in Adelaide). They also provided taxi to take us to our accommodation. We did have Premium Cover. Member for 30yrs plus. Good one NRMA

I got bogged on Mount Hay Road in Leura, although the road was unsealed but it was still accessible by 2WD. I only got bogged because of an error of judgement on my part - I reversed onto the wrong spot. I accept full responsibility

I rang NRMA and spoke to the operator. I told her my location and where I was. I mentioned I left the bitumen and she got back to me saying all the patrol cars are only 2WD and I explained to her that the road was accessible by 2WD and I was only 1km into the unsealed part of the road. (I would have expected patrol cars based in the Blue Mountains or similarly mountainous areas would be equipped with 4WD).

She spoke to dispatch who flat out refused to take the job. I understand their concern, though locals would have no issue taking their 2WD much, much further into this road. The end of this road is a carpark which is 7km away.

I asked the operator if NRMA could organise a tow truck, she again refused but gave me two numbers to ring so that I could organise the tow myself. (By then I was getting panicky as it was a hot afternoon in the Blue Mountains and sunset was only 2 hours away).

I rang one of the numbers and the company hasn't done towing 'for years' according to the staff who answered my phone. Thankfully they referred me to a local tow company who came and rescued me in an hour. All he did was to pull my vehicle back on the road and I was on my way. The whole operation took about 15 minutes.

I get NRMA's reservation to come out to a 2WD accessible-unsealed road but I am disappointed that they couldn't organise a tow or at least give me the right information. Getting stuck in a seemingly remote area on a very hot afternoon on my own without any support is not a good experience. During my wait for the tow truck (60 minutes), not a single car came past me. I've been members for 9 years and this is only my 2nd time requiring roadside assist and NRMA could have been more helpful instead of saying 'all the best', not our problem. My renewal is coming up and this incident will most certainly make me reconsider membership. Perhaps also consider acquiring 4WD patrol cars - surely my problem is quite common.

I have been an NRMA Road Assist member for 16 years.
My flight arrived in Sydney after I had been away spending time my family and I realised I had left my car keys at my family‘s home, but had a spare set in my car.
I rang NRMA and explained my situation. I was told it was a 3 hour wait.
it was an extremely hot day, I explained to the operator that I was going through the breast-cancer journey and I was in serious pain with anxiety, for which I am undergoing treatment, and I have a letter from my doctor to to explain this, which was supplied for my travelling.
The operator had no empathy whatsoever and again repeated the options, wait for 3 hours or find an air-conditioned coffee shop or cancel and arranged to rebook to meet them at my car the following day.
My question was, do you not triage customers with health conditions? she replied unless you have a child or dog in your car you will have to wait 3 hours! No priority for disability customers.
I explained to her with my health problems none of these options were going to work for me so I had to call a locksmith he was there in 20 minutes he charged double time, an exorbitant fee as it was just after 5 pm at that stage, and my Uber driver allowed me to stay in his air-conditioned car until the locksmith arrived which again cost extra out of pocket expenses.
I told the operator I wanted to make an official complaint and they sent me a text message to say someone will get back to me, which was one month to the day after my plea for assistance!
The staff member who called regarding my complaint was originally non-apologetic, saying how busy they were, and they have a multitude of members, to assist, or words to that effect.
My response was they are clearly understaffed otherwise why would there be a 3 hour wait.
it wasn’t a rainy day and the traffic was fine.
I will not be renewing my membership as it cost me far more than the membership fee to get out of the stressful situation I was in.
My membership was renewed in October 2018 and this incident occurred in December 2018, I asked for a membership cancellation and a pro-rate rebate which was refused.
Get your act together NRMA!
CC: [name removed] @ 2GB

We broke down in Queensland RACQ are unhelpful and difficult and was eventually put on to Keith at NRMA. He was excellent, explained all the services and called back with accurate response times and how NRMA could help. He missed nothing out and was courteous and very pleasant ensuring we were quickly and appropriately rescued. He made me feel special and I instantly felt looked after. Well done and thank you.