Customer Terms of Service

1. Introduction and platform role

Who we are. In a Pickle Breakdown is a trading name of IN A PICKLE BREAKDOWN LTD, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17456795, whose registered office is 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, United Kingdom, IP28 7DE. References to “we”, “us” and “the platform” in these terms mean that company.

In a Pickle Breakdown is a marketplace that helps drivers request roadside assistance and recovery from participating independent Suppliers. The assigned Supplier provides the actual roadside or recovery service.

Our role. We provide the booking platform, administer payments through Stripe, and carry messages between you and your Supplier. We are not a vehicle repair provider, a recovery operator, or the employer of any Supplier.

Checks we carry out. Participating Suppliers must provide specified identity, business and insurance information relevant to the services they offer. These checks do not guarantee future performance or workmanship.

Independent businesses. All services are performed by independent Suppliers. Any additional parts, labour, specialist work or mileage beyond the included service is a matter between you and your Supplier.

2. Service tiers and pricing

When requesting assistance, please describe your vehicle’s problem as accurately as you can — it determines the price and which Suppliers your request reaches. There are three tiers:

• Roadside Assistance — £55. Covers the Supplier’s attendance and up to the first 30 minutes of assistance at the roadside, including a visual inspection and basic fixes such as a jump start or a simple tyre change.
• Vehicle Recovery — £89. Covers recovery of your vehicle, and its passengers, from the breakdown location to a single destination within 10 miles.
• Unsure / Assistance with Possible Recovery — up to £115. Your request is sent to Suppliers able to provide both roadside assistance and recovery. If roadside assistance is all that is required, the final amount is £55. If recovery is required, the amount is £115.

Additional costs. Any additional parts, labour, specialist work or recovery mileage beyond the included service must be explained and agreed with you by the Supplier before the additional chargeable work or mileage is incurred. Those additional charges are directly between you and the Supplier.

3. Your contract with the Supplier

When the contract forms. The roadside or recovery service contract is formed directly between you and the Supplier when an eligible Supplier accepts your request and is assigned to it.

Once that happens we show you the Supplier’s business or trading name, the attending person where that differs and is known to us, the service they are providing, their current status, and an estimated arrival time where one is available. Your direct service contract is with that independent Supplier.

4. Booking and payment

Authorisation. When you request assistance, the applicable amount is authorised on your card. An authorisation ring-fences the money; it is not a completed payment and nothing has been taken at that point.

If no Supplier accepts. No service contract is formed, and the unused authorisation is released. Your bank controls when the released amount visibly updates on your statement.

Capture. The authorised amount is processed in accordance with the completion, cancellation and payment terms set out here. Where less than the full amount is due — an “Unsure” job that needed roadside assistance only, or a cancellation fee — only that lesser amount is taken, and the balance is never charged.

Platform allocation. A fixed platform allocation is retained from each completed tier. It is included in the price shown to you and is not charged on top of it.

5. Cancellation

You can request cancellation at any time while your booking is open. Our policy compensates Suppliers for a journey they have already made:

• Before a Supplier accepts. No cancellation fee. The authorisation is released and you are not charged.
• After a Supplier accepts and is assigned. A fixed £25 cancellation fee applies, comprising £20 to the Supplier and £5 to In a Pickle Breakdown. The rest of the authorisation is released.
• If you feel unsafe. You may cancel at any point. We ask you to tell us briefly what has happened; a photograph is welcome but is never required. Where the safety concern is genuine, the £25 fee is not applied.
• Unattended vehicles. If the Supplier arrives and nobody is with the vehicle, they will attempt to contact you. After a 10-minute wait they may end the job as a wasted call-out. A fixed £25 applies, comprising £20 to the Supplier and £5 to us.
• Materially inaccurate booking information. If a Supplier cannot safely or properly carry out the job because the vehicle or the situation is materially different from what was booked, they may decline it. A fixed £25 applies, comprising £20 to the Supplier and £5 to us. This outcome is reviewable. If you believe it is wrong, report it from your job page within 24 hours and we will look at it; where we find it was not justified, the charge is reversed. If the Supplier can still help you with a different or additional service, the price for that must be explained to you and agreed before they start.
• If the Supplier attends but the vehicle cannot be repaired at the roadside. Roadside assistance is an attendance and assistance service: it covers the visit, the inspection and the work carried out at the roadside, and it cannot guarantee that every vehicle can be repaired there. Where the Supplier genuinely attended and provided that service, it is treated as a completed roadside job and the roadside amount of £55 applies. You can then book a recovery if you still need one.
• If the Supplier cannot carry out the service at all. Where the service could not be provided for a reason on the Supplier’s side — for example they did not have the equipment or capability the job needed, or their own vehicle failed — you are not charged automatically. The job is sent to us for review, your authorisation is left untouched while we look at it, and it is released if no charge is found to be due.
• If the Supplier cancels or does not attend. No customer cancellation fee applies. Your request goes live again, or you may cancel for a full release of the authorisation.

Location data does not remove this right. Location and arrival data may be used as evidence that a Supplier had mobilised or attended, but neither GPS proximity, entry into any geofence, nor a Supplier marking themselves as arrived removes your ability to request cancellation, or affects your statutory rights.

Immediate performance. When you request assistance you ask us to arrange for the service to begin as soon as a Supplier accepts. Where applicable, statutory cancellation rights may be affected once a service has been fully performed in accordance with the law. Simply submitting a request, a Supplier accepting it, or GPS proximity does not automatically remove your statutory rights.

6. Completion

The Supplier requests payment. When the work is done the Supplier marks the job complete and requests payment.

You then choose. You can confirm completion, or report a problem. Confirmation is not the only route, and “Report a problem” remains available throughout an open booking.

If you do not respond. If you do not respond within the displayed fallback period after verified attendance and the Supplier’s payment request, the platform may process the authorised payment administratively. This does not mean you have accepted the quality of the Supplier’s workmanship, or waived any legal or card-provider rights.

Payment processing, or completion of the platform payment workflow, does not remove any statutory, contractual or card-provider rights you may have in relation to the Supplier’s service or our platform service.

7. Problems and disputes

Reporting a problem. A “Report a problem” route is available throughout every open booking and for 24 hours after a job completes. Where it is technically possible to do so, a pending payment to the Supplier is held for review while the issue is assessed.

What we do. We may assist with communication, request evidence, administer payments and investigate platform and payment matters. We do not act as the final legal adjudicator of workmanship, negligence or other Supplier-service disputes, which remain between you and the independent Supplier.

Responsibility. The Supplier is responsible for matters within its control, including performance of the service, its personnel, equipment, vehicles, legal compliance and any loss caused by its acts or omissions. We remain responsible for our own platform services and obligations. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Card disputes and chargebacks. You remain entitled to use legitimate card-provider dispute and chargeback mechanisms. We may take proportionate action where there is evidence of fraud, dishonesty or abusive payment activity, but a legitimate card dispute will not be treated as a breach of these terms merely because it was made.

To raise a problem outside the platform, contact us at admin@picklebreakdown.co.uk.