Lone female with young child, abandoned after waiting from midday to 6.30pm to be collected from dangerous verge of motorway after traumatic accident! Yesterday I had to call AA, with whom I thought we were covered for accident and breakdowns. We had a crash at 11.45am in the fast lane of the M4, due to sudden braking of several cars in front of us. Our engine got crumpled and I managed to get it into the hard shoulder. AA said they would come within an hour and it would cost £375 (!) which we would probably get back from insurance. Later, I was to find out that it is pointless calling the AA for accidents and that your insurance can sort it all out much quicker. However, I didn't know that at the time and my (not present) partner said to just go ahead with AA. 2 hours went by. No one called to update me at any point, even though they promised they would.. Another hour, and another. I chased them and was given their 3rd party rescue company's number. Curt and unhelpful, they said another 2 hours. After 5.5 hours in total of waiting on a steep noisy slope behind the barrier near my crashed car, I called again - this time, the 3rd party tow vehicle had broken down and they'd told AA this 30 mins ago. The job had been cancelled. Nobody - neither AA nor the 3rd party rescue company, bothered to call me and tell me. I called AA again - 20 mins on hold before someone answered, my son extremely upset by this point, my battery running out - they had no idea what was going on but would look at new options for me - and it took another 40 mins before they called back to say they had ZERO options for me. Great, thanks a lot AA. I've paid you £375, waited hours and hours in a dangerous place, and you are completely incapable of doing the job I've paid you for. Then - £75 cancellation fee - which I am supposing we won't get charged since effectively they cancelled us. Eventually our insurance company sorted out a priority rescue vehicle to tow us within 25 mins. Moral of the story: don't bother with AA membership, no point. They should be refunding us the membership fee AND recompensing me 6 hours of wasted time and trauma!