Britannia Reviews 29

Reported our breakdown due to a flat tyre at 4:35am, on an unlit A road a few miles south of Newbury. I was informed that the response time would be up to 2 hours and I'd be contacted when they were 20 minutes away. Heard nothing by 6:50 am, so rang again to be told there'd been a problem getting a local garage to respond, but someone would be with me within the hour and they'd keep me informed.

At about 7:30, two different breakdown companies had contacted me to say they were responding, so called Britannia again for clarification. I then received further calls from both drivers, so chose the company with the quickest response time and cancelled the other company myself!
Once the recovery vehicle had finally arrived at about 8:30am (from Petersfield, 43 miles away!), the service was very good, although the driver had apparently been given inaccurate details of our location, despite me using 'What3Words', which unfortunately had caused further delay. We were back on the road within 25 minutes.

I used LV Britannia and found them to be excellent. The lady who answer my call listened carefully to me, and explained everything clearly. They were very quick, 20 minutes and polite and professional. All in all, a great service. Would definitely recommend.

My car had computer issues on a Friday afternoon and within an hour National Rescue were at my house.
The breakdown man was polite and knowledgeable and despite trying to reboot the system, a tow during the working week was required to a local garage.
The next breakdown man was equally polite and knowledgeable and had the car on the truck in minutes.
5* experience with Britannia Rescue and also National Breakdown.
Thank you

I have been with Britannia Rescue for around 20 years. I was with the RAC, but following an article in the Yachting Press relating to recovery of trailer boats, I changed to Britannia Rescue. When my annual renewal became due last week we had a hiccup with our bank and the payment failed. My wife called them to pay via card to be told, very frankly, we couldn't pay with our business card. The payment had been taken from our business account for 20 years! I should say we are Sole Traders (not a LTD company) and have been trading for 41 years, therefore we personally are the business. Additionally, we moved address (10 years ago!) and we used our business address as a postal address, including on our driving licences, while we had great fun touring in our campervan, boat and our caravan for almost 8 years. Britannia Rescue were notified of the changes. I should also say we have only ever called them once, near Oswestry, when our bulldog locked himself in our Jeep with the keys in. The operator speaking to my wife, asked if the address was a business address and ask if we lived there, which of course we do not. As my wife tried to explain (we had bought another property early last year when our touring came to an end), the operator said quote; 'well do you live there or not' rudely and with attitude. My wife struggled to explain so passed the phone to me. At this point I also found our boat wasn't covered anymore. Apparently, the trailer is, but not the load, ie. if you have a caravan, the contents are not covered, and the same applied to a boat trailer so this operator stated. With this stance, I asked, 'so do I tip the £25K boat off, weighing 2.8 tons, in a lay-by? Basically, 'yes' was her answer. The operator had already debited our other card by this time and now I am waiting for a refund (14 days apparently even though it has just been taken a few minutes prior). I would hate to speak to this person in a position of needing help following a breakdown, and certainly wouldn't trust them to provide any cover if they could get out of it. It is owned by LV (Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co, as it used to be) and I believe Britannia Rescue should be trusted with that in mind.

Reported breakdown at 5 pm. Informed that it would be up to 2 hours before I could be recovered and would be contacted when they were 20 minutes away. 7 pm and nothing heard. Rang again to be told there's had been delays with ETA of 7.45 pm. Let's see if they can manage to stick to that and keep me informed. Not impressed so far.

Update: 7.49 pm and not been recovered and no further communication. If I could give a negative rating, I would. Awful service.

Further update: Once the recovery vehicle arrived, the service was very good. Don loaded the motorbike quickly and recovered me to my home without any problems and he was good company too! It's a pity about the poor communication from Brittania and the ridiculously long wait.

Got breakdown cover in 2022, I would usually make it so it doesn’t renew, but apparently I didn’t this time which could of been a mistake on my side, how ever when calling to cancel after realising years later after 3 payments on a car I don’t own, and explaining on the phone, the women give me a bad attitude, said I agreed to it renewing, and when I asked her to repeat herself, just spoke to me like I am thick. I am expecting 1 refund which is good but didn’t like the women’s tone on the phone and how they take money out yearly without my bank app saying it’s a re accruing payment. Just make sure you check after a year to ensure it won’t renew at a higher price each year

Best cakes egg cakes are made in this company 😋

My car seized up in the middle of a junction, as if that wasn't stressful enough, the cso I spoke to Lorraine insisted my car was untaxed ( it was taxed) then told me the recovery people wouldn't take me home, but to a place of safety, when i was literally at the end of my road. She had already asked if there were any medical conditions I had, I said I was diabetic and needed my medication, thankfully I was able to ring my partner at home who was able to bring them, but if I'd have been miles away they wouldn't have taken me home, due to their systems being wrong?
Her attitude was awful, no empathy whatsoever

There's some terrible reviews on here. I've got to say Britannia rescue went above and beyond to get us home from France. There was a change over at a service station but apart from that we are really pleased with the service we received.

Absolute scam.
Lost my car keys and they refused to take me home as it was too far!! 65 miles.
Told me it was not covered, although the section in there website shows what's NOT covered, and keys are not included in that section.
They told me they would recover me but only to nearest garage.
Now if that is not a contradiction I don't know what is!
They say they ONLY cover mechanical breakdowns, so no electrical issues.
In my policy it says I'm covered for being g stuck in mud, BUT apparently if the vehicle will not drive out they will charge you for specialist equipment such as a winch!
It seems they will do and say anything to not recovery you and your vehicle.
Absolutely disgusting service.
Cover now cancelled and back with greenflag.

Do not go anywhere near this company. You try and cancel your policy and payments are still taken of your debit /credit card. I cancelled in December 2024 and payment were still being taked in May 2025. These people say oh yes we can see you cancelled and we will make a refund only to be told that they are looking at what went wrong. No mention of we have made a refund and are sorry.

Positives about my stay at the Britannia:
Clean toilet, bedding and 2 towels provided. 10 minute walk to Haymarket Station.

Negatives about my stay at the Britannia:
This is the worst hotel room I've ever stayed in. I paid £137 per night to sleep on an uncomfortable, noisy mattress and had to have 2 cold showers due to no hot water. The hotel is run down, dirty and loud. It used to be a travel lodge but doesn't seem like it has been updated since the change of ownership/name.

The teaspoons were used/dirty. The bathroom had a dirty and rusty mirror, broken fixtures and a shower curtain that sticks to your skin when you have your cold shower.

I chose a room without a window because it was the most affordable option at £137 per night. I knew it would be dark but the decor did not compensate for the lack of light. There were bare walls with cracks and chips of paint falling off. The skirting boards had mould and hair on them in some places.

The mattress springs dig into your skin. When I rolled over, the bed springs made quite a lot of noise. I could hear other bed springs from other rooms through the walls! Including general chit chat from the room across the hall.

The bathroom fan was loud at night and the safety fire exit sign lit up the room in bright green so you could not have a dark quiet room to sleep in. The air con was not adjustable.

The kettle was too big to fit into the sink and the cups provided were plastic. Only 1 toilet roll was provided and the body wash dispenser was filled with water and NOT soap.

There was no service during the day to replenish the tea bags and milk. The security in the building was low as no key card was needed to get to the rooms. A key card was only needed to enter the room.

WiFi was not provided and costed £14 for 2 days!! WiFi is essential for safely planning travel in a foreign city. Check out 10 am, so I needed to use the bag storage service which had a cost too.

When I asked the receptionist for a blanket or spare duvet to soften the bedsprings, she brought me a bundle and said 'I found this, I don't know what it is, but you can use it'. The staff were friendly but had a clear, distinct lack of professionalism.

If you can, avoid this hotel! I am generally quite easy to please, but this hotel fell short of all expectations. There was a vibrant hostel in a renovated church across the road which seemed much better (Belford Hostel) which could save you a bad night sleep and some cash.

Sell stock they don't have and poor communication three weeks I'm still no order arrived

straight forward to deal with
answer the phones fast and politely
and even offered a cuppa ,but no biscuits! .. ahh well, but seriously no nasty shocks or surprise fees as with other auction sites
recommended ,,thank you

We broke down on Thursday 7/8/24 at about 3pm we were told as its the clutch it can't be fixed at the roadside with out even looking at it. We where told to arrange a garage and they would take it.. They arranged to pick it up between 9am and 11am.then we just kept getting told lies, it would be between 1pm to 1.30 at the latest then they are nearly there. Then it changed to between 2pm to 2.30 because they had to collect another car, then changed to 2.45pm. They finally turned up at 3.45pm. I am disabled and if it wasn't for the people living where the car broke down I would have been sitting in the car all day. These people are going on holiday tonight and had to stop in all day when they had lots to do, we can't thank them enough or condemn this so called rescue service enough. They just told lies all day and left us feeling embarrassed telling these people they will be here soon

Always been brilliant, even worked for them 30 years ago when they belonged to c.s.m.a.
I can honestly say they have been the best company ever untill my recent call out ,!
My car wouldn't start at home, call out was there quickly as per usual, then disaster. Had a young lad obviously not very qualified who couldn't find what the problem was
he spent about 2 hour trying to resolve the problem he asked me if I had a car manual, so I got the manual out for him, then he was on the phone talking to someone on the phone for advise,?
Eventually I got told I would need a garage to investigate, he never even tried to jump start the car, anyway off he goes no car working, ?? Next day my daughter came tried to jump start it and it still wouldn't start ! then I thought get manual out read it,! and it said could be fuel pump, so I looked at fuse box took the fuse out and replaced it with another one nothing to loose and , wow runs perfect again, why didn't mechanic try that, Im a 74 year old women, who solved a silly easy problem that mechanic couldn't,!
Thank god I wasn't broken down away from home,
Obviously L.V are not using reputable companies anymore, very very disappointed used company Hobbs recovery

Date of experience: 07 August 2024

Hi, don't trust any of their staff as they can easily rob your money for a room you booked and get kicked out saying you are not in the system after booking with Booking.com it is disgraceful

Great pub, great atmosphere

Great atmosphere and bar tender smashed it for us.

Food definitely fantastic

Great English restaurant/pub in Spain

Terrible service. Did not realise I did not have home recovery. But Britannia (LV, Allianz) said pay £100 and someone will come out and have a look. If they can’t fix it they will recover it to local garage. Thinking they will try and fix it I agree. Guy turns up and says I have no tools and only here to recover it. He said looks like it’s the belt.

I know thats a simple job and a decent roadside firm would have fixed it! Not blaming the recovery driver but Britannia should be sending out people equipped with tools!!! Cancelling the membership which I have been renewing each year!