Miss Isle of Man syndrome

[John Wright]

We’re all familiar with the missing Isle of Man, our differences affecting our ability to get Amazon deliveries, credit cards, all sorts.

Two examples, both annoying, this week.

Post Australia claimed they can’t deliver here. Strange, IoM, Australia, and the UK are all in the Universal Postal Union. There are rules about revenue splitting for the cost of delivery across boundaries. Actually resolved by adding via UK on the address. 
 

Motoring rescue organisations. Car blew a relay on Market Street outside the old vaccination hub. All electrics out. Called my rescue organisation. Can’t use the app as it doesn’t recognise Manx registrations. They couldn’t attend a call out as they had no record of valid up to date VED or MoT. No amount of calm explanation that IoM doesn’t have MoT,  and VED isn’t on Swansea database , worked. Best they could do was say if I e-mailed a copy of my MoT exemption certificate….

Ive been with them since University. 

[Passing Time]

I have breakdown recovery through my bank and have had no trouble whatsoever.

[La Colombe]

[Blade Runner]

5 minutes ago, La Colombe said:

And that was before silicone.

 

WTF were the islands women eating?

[A fool and his money.....]

It's often better to shop local for exactly this reason. I used to be with the AA because I travelled drove across a lot - even then they were bloody useless, every single time 

Now I rarely take the car across, so I use Manx Auto Recovery who have been brilliant the couple of times that I've needed to call them. The first time I didn't even have a contract, they came out within half an hour, recovered myself and the car to a garage for £90 I think it was, via invoice about 3 months later.

Likewise deliveries, Manx Indy or Island express will deliver anything you want, especially worth it if it's something big which they'll invariably do cheaper and more efficiently than the supplier.

Occasionally insurance companies across (car or home) are significantly cheaper than here although less and less often - it's only worth any savings though if you know you are definitely not going to make a claim, I made my first ever home insurance claim during COVID with More Than, never ever will I make that mistake again - Tower were £20 more on renewal and, although I've never claimed with them, they couldn't fail to be immeasurably better.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of shit sack companies over here, MT, Manx Gas etc. but on the whole, service is a million times better than you get from a UK company here.

[Bobbie Bobster]

Had this with the AA last year trying to recover a vehicle.  Haydn Minay to the rescue!

OTOH, it does mean that podcasts downloaded on an IoM IP address often don't have as many auto-inserted adverts since the ad-slingers don't have ads geo-specific to the IoM.

[John Wright]

15 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

It's often better to shop local for exactly this reason. I used to be with the AA because I travelled drove across a lot - even then they were bloody useless, every single time 

Now I rarely take the car across, so I use Manx Auto Recovery who have been brilliant the couple of times that I've needed to call them. The first time I didn't even have a contract, they came out within half an hour, recovered myself and the car to a garage for £90 I think it was, via invoice about 3 months later.

Likewise deliveries, Manx Indy or Island express will deliver anything you want, especially worth it if it's something big which they'll invariably do cheaper and more efficiently than the supplier.

Occasionally insurance companies across (car or home) are significantly cheaper than here although less and less often - it's only worth any savings though if you know you are definitely not going to make a claim, I made my first ever home insurance claim during COVID with More Than, never ever will I make that mistake again - Tower were £20 more on renewal and, although I've never claimed with them, they couldn't fail to be immeasurably better.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of shit sack companies over here, MT, Manx Gas etc. but on the whole, service is a million times better than you get from a UK company here.

I still travel 10,000 miles plus each year  in UK and on the continent. My partner who is on the same policy does 5,000. So something like RAC/AA/Green Flag are essential. I’ve made very few claims. And this is the first one they’ve pulled MoT and car tax on me.

When I eventually rang back after half an hour, to try my luck, the operator knew all about the IoM idiosyncrasies and had Manx Auto Assistance with me within 10 minutes ( Wasn’t Manx Auto Rescue the one Wendy Megson was involved in years ago - the fall out between conowners is what started her push over the edge ).

Yes, I get Amazon parcels, that won’t come here direct, sent to IE’s depot in Middleton. But I was surprised that Australia Post had a problem. I’ve family in Aus & NZ and we send Christmas and birthday parcels each way. Never a problem before.

Car and household I’ve used Tower for over 40 years. I can phone and e-mail and get response by return. Try that with Admiral or Direct Line. I can even go in and speak with them.

[NoTail]

RAC have been very good for us on the IOM (twice). Bloody brilliant repatriation our motorhome and us from south of France. 

[Gladys]

Not directly related, but is there a recovery service that will cover you for a trip to the UK? 

[Derek Flint]

Green flag

[John Wright]

30 minutes ago, NoTail said:

RAC have been very good for us on the IOM (twice). Bloody brilliant repatriation our motorhome and us from south of France. 

I’ve never had any problems before. First joined in 1975 when I was at uni and got my first car. I got a no joining fee membership as I was “introduced” by my dad, who joined when he got his first car in the immediate post WW2 period. More than 75 years between us.  But then it was a club, patrols saluted if they saw your grill badge, you got a key to open the call boxes. Now it’s an insurance operation, a business selling financial and other products, and like all policies there are T&C, two of which appear to be that your vehicle has a valid MoT and VED.

[Albert Tatlock]

Thanks to the power of Bushys...I've got the tits to enter now 😉

[Roger Ram]

I must be lucky.

I have never needed a breakdown service or to be recovered in more than thirty years of driving an average of more than 20k miles a year.

The cars and bikes normally have a recovery thing as part of the warranty, and I think these days just have a button you press above your head but thankfully have never needed them.

I hope I haven’t just jinxed that.

[Jarndyce]

2 minutes ago, Roger Ram said:

I hope I haven’t just jinxed that.

Whoops!   Too late…

Edited June 18 by Jarndyce

[kevster]

13 hours ago, John Wright said:

like all policies there are T&C, two of which appear to be that your vehicle has a valid MoT and VED.

The AA has an 'islands' option that covers IoM and CI. You get some bits for freewhich you have to pay for in the UK. They use local agents - Manx Auto or Hadyn. Never had any problems aprt from one time when the AA man couldn't find me - he was on the Isle of Wight and I was at Ronaldsway!