I had he misfortune to breakdown in the French Alps, in a Truck. We were driving along an Autoroute when the engine stopped dead, without any warning. We had a look, but could not find a fault. However the truck started, it would only do 50 Km per hour, so we limped off the Autoroute, to a local road. I found a supermarket and parked in their car park. The engine stopped and would not start again. This was on Saturday night, so we got in our bunks and went to sleep. Sunday morning I called the Iveco call centre. The call centre rang me back to say before the local garage would come to me I had to pay 600 They called our UK dealer for payment, but being Sunday they could not help, as we only have a pay as you go account with them. I offered a credet card, but was told that this could only be accepted Monday to Friday in office hours. So waited until Moday morning, paid 600 to UK dealer. This got the ball rolling. After 4 hours two truck fitters turned up. We tilted the cab, so they could get to the engine. They connected jump leads, tried to start the truck, then changed two fuel filters, and left me. Two hours later the call centre called, saying th truck could not be repaired in the car park. I would have to be towed to the workshop, at a cost of 2500 euro. The garage was 17 Km away. I said that I would not pay that much. I asked for the garage to return with a laptop, that plugs in to the truck, runs a program, and prints out the problem. On the Tuesday morning I get a call from the call centre, to say that the garage would not bring the laptop to the truck, they would tow me to the garage, then use the laptop to find the fault. I said no. Wednesday lunch time, the call centre phoned to say, the local garage was now offering to tow me the 17Km to their workshop for 1900 euro. I said no that this was still to high. I was told that this is France, you have to pay.
At some point on Wednesday my local UK dealer made a report to Iveco UK. I had many calls from their Customer Services. But they all kept telling me, that I was i France and would have to pay. On Thursday Iveco UK phoned to say that they had managed to get the garage to agree to come back to me with the laptop. A car turned up with the laptop, ran the program. I asked what the problem was, all he said was, now we tow truck to garage. I phoned Iveco UK told them what had happened. They then called France to find out what the fault was, the garage refused to tell them the fault. I also complained that I had an Iveco Truck, and the garage that attended was a Renault dealer not Iveco. They explained that in France you had to have the nearest garage, even if it was the wrong one. Iveco UK then said it would find an Iveco dealer to come out to me to find and fix the fault. After a few hours the UK phoned to say that the nearest Iveco dealer would come out to me, but they wanted 3000 euro.
On Thursday morning Iveco UK customer services called to say that they had done al that they could for me. They asked what I wanted to do, and reminded me that tomorrow was Christmas day. I said I would stay with the truck uptil the new year. Then when the UK trucks got rolling, I would use someone as a return load get home. Iveco UK phoned me again to say that they would pay 2000 for a UK tow truck to drive out and collect me. I would have to pay anoher 300 plus ferries and tolls.
Only problem now, trucks cannot drive on Sundays or public holidays. So a tow truck could not get to me until after Christmas. Monday night I get a call from the tow truck driver he tells me he is one hour away. We got home on Wednesday, dropping of the truck Stormont Trucks at Kent. They looked at the truck Thursday morning found and fixed the fault in under an hour. It was a broken cable to the started motor, the ECU (onboard computer) shut down the engine.
I would like to say thank you to Stormont Trucks and Iveco UK. The way the French garages are opperaing is illegal under EU law, and they must be stopped. Please email me if you have been ripped off by a French Garage
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