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‘It’s ridiculous!’ Bemused RAC mechanic tasked with 750-mile journey to repair Orkney woman’s car

It would have taken the RAC worker 30 hours to make the round-trip for the job.

Collage of Hayley Green on left with map from Devon to Orkney route on right.
The mechanic would have had to travel the length of the UK to help Hayley Green. Image: Hayley Green/Google

An Orkney driver has revealed a Devon RAC mechanic was tasked with the “ridiculous” task of travelling to the islands to fix her car.

Council worker Hayley Green’s electric car broke down at the rapid charger near the ferry terminal in Stromness.

Concerned she might be blocking the space from someone else to us, she called to get her Nissan moving quickly again.

However, she was soon called back by a RAC mechanic warning it might take longer than an hour for him to get from Devon to Orkney.

Why was RAC mechanic sent to Orkney from Devon?

When Mrs Green reported her car problems she used the RAC’s automated system, which told her a mechanic would soon be in touch.

When the man called her he asked her to confirm her location, before quickly laughing.

Mrs Green, who said the bemused mechanic was very polite, said: “The first thing he asked me to do was to confirm my postcode. When I told him it was KW16 for Stromness he laughed and said it would take him longer than an hour to get here from Devon.

“He said he had looked it up and it was 750 miles, which I agreed was fairly far to come. I got the impression it had happened to him before.

“To be honest, that was the end of my communication with the RAC because I know the local garage that always gets these calls from the RAC, the AA or whoever so I called them directly and they came to help. I don’t know if they were contacted by the RAC after that.

“It’s silly and ridiculous and it was fine for me, but if it was a tourist then they might have got properly stuck.”

Mrs Green explained the RAC has since apologised to her and offered her compensation for the confusion.

The RAC says it is investigating the issue that caused the job to be assigned to the Devon driver. Image: PA

A spokesman for the company said: “We’ve apologised to Hayley for the problem and delay she experienced.

“The service she received was unfortunately not up to our usual high standard.

“We’re looking at online breakdown reports from Orkney to see what may have happened.

“In the meantime, we ask all our members on the island to report their breakdowns on the phone by calling 0333 2000 999.”

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