You make the phone call and eventually after option 1, option 4, option 35, and the rest you get to speak to a person. This person will take all your details and money over the phone and tell you that an engineer will get to it straight away. This person although employed by the RAC is not an engineer and knows very little about the vehicle you are having inspected. If you have told them that you have concerns because the drivers door fell off when you opened it and that there is a swimming pool in the drivers footwell they will not understand, or care.

You have given them the registration number, ABC 123, vehicle location Hinchley in London and point of contact as a Dave at the Vauxhall Dealership there. The car you're hoping to purchase is a Vauxhall Vectra

The job they have done has been completed and processed and on to the next phone call.

Your details then eventually get to dispatch and they then eventually decide which engineer is going to get the job and when he is likely to get the inspection started. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow depends on the weather and general chit chat with associates.

You have now had four or five different people deal with your inspection process and off goes your engineer to the Vauxhall Dealer in Hinckley just outside Birmingham. He then spends ages trying to find the salesman and vehicle but to no avail.

The engineer phones to dispatch, the sales team, his team leader, the accounts department, friends and family and eventually works out that he is in the wrong place.

All this time you the customer think everything is going well. You make the phone call back to the RAC going through option 7, option 5, option 12 and again eventually managing to speak to a person who has no idea about you or your inspection.

They cannot get a hold of the engineer He may be inspecting the car as we speak, he may be stuck in traffic, he may be finished the inspection, we really don't know and don't particularly care but we will try to find out and phone you back.

Eventually they get a hold of the engineer and he tells them the story and they tell the sales team and the team leader and so on.

At last your vehicle has been inspected and you get a call from the engineer who is using his own personal mobile phone to call you, which the calls are charged to him. You can guess how long the conversation lasts! Then if your lucky, four or five days later through the letter box comes a report. You will understand very little of it and you pick up the phone and call the RAC, Option 1, option 4, option 7 and eventually you get to a person who once again knows nothing about you or your inspection. From sales, to dispatch, to the team leader and eventually the engineer might call you back but only when he gets ten minutes.