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AA Breakdown - Rip Off and Bad Customer Service


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I have been a valued member of the AA for the past 2 years with the Maximum family Cover, I have always thought very highly of them and have recommended them to numerous people.

 

Within one day, when my renewal dropped through the door, my perception has totally changed and I am totally shocked at their lack of customer service.

 

My renewal quote was 90% more than I paid last year, initially i thought they had made a mistake and called them, they clarified the price and said this was because my family (with 3 cars) had called them out 10 times over the past year, they would not budge on or reduce the price !!

 

I know for a fact this is wrong as i keep records, i informed the advisor that in fact it was only seven times as a few of the times i had cancelled due to a long wait time for assistance, 2 of the call outs were also within 24 hours as the patrol said nothing was wrong first time ??

 

I was told to write in with my concerns, An email was immediately sent but they have not even had the courtesy to reply to me.

 

The same cover for a new member is available at half the price i have been quoted, they are insistent on charging loyal customers alot more money.

 

The same cover is also available with competitors at alot cheaper price, dont want to leave them, but feel i have no choice !!

 

What has happened to the AA ???? Not Looking after customers !!!!! Not responding to their emails !!!!

 

VERY POOR - AVOID AT ALL COSTS

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it is true that they have a limit on the number of call outs per year on a family membership, which is six, after that they reserve the right to charge extra.

If that is going to be their response try green flag or RAC, both of which have similar rules.

I had been a member for 30 plus years, but their prices just went through the roof, now with RAC as part of bank account free add on.

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I haven't used them for ages, but the last time I called them they couldn't fix it [not that they spent much time looking for it]. Instead they suggested I call out an

electrician. He found the the problem straight away-something had just worked itself loose. Not impressed with the AA on that occasion.

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I have been a valued member of the AA for the past 2 years with the Maximum family Cover, I have always thought very highly of them and have recommended them to numerous people.

 

Within one day, when my renewal dropped through the door, my perception has totally changed and I am totally shocked at their lack of customer service.

 

My renewal quote was 90% more than I paid last year, initially i thought they had made a mistake and called them, they clarified the price and said this was because my family (with 3 cars) had called them out 10 times over the past year, they would not budge on or reduce the price !!

 

I know for a fact this is wrong as i keep records, i informed the advisor that in fact it was only seven times as a few of the times i had cancelled due to a long wait time for assistance, 2 of the call outs were also within 24 hours as the patrol said nothing was wrong first time ??

 

I was told to write in with my concerns, An email was immediately sent but they have not even had the courtesy to reply to me.

 

The same cover for a new member is available at half the price i have been quoted, they are insistent on charging loyal customers alot more money.

 

The same cover is also available with competitors at alot cheaper price, dont want to leave them, but feel i have no choice !!

 

What has happened to the AA ???? Not Looking after customers !!!!! Not responding to their emails !!!!

 

VERY POOR - AVOID AT ALL COSTS

 

Hello steve15640. This is something that we would like to look into for you, if you do have any outstanding queries then please email [email protected] with Reference FOR32847. Regards, The AA

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well how about this one; Mr AA

My son who is still a member,why I dont know, called them out as starter would not engage, just click then stopped.

AA man came and said checked all earthing and wires, so must be starter motor! jumped car so he could get home

next day same problem so contacted me and ordered a new starter motor, £200 plus got it fitted, another £30.

fine for one day then guess what same thing, stuck at tesco, starter clicked but nothing else,called AA for junp etc., same AA man came and was told it was a new motor, so had a look at connections again, the one to the body was faulty, so fixed and all is well but £230 down the tube. No sorry or anything.

I said you should complain, but he was too busy and it was not his money anyway.

Is there any come back on this sort of thing or is it just 'thats life!'

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Don't change your breakdown cover to Green Flag either, they are just as bad! Called them out today and they refused to recover my car because the arrogant **** from the control room said that my car was in an unroadworthy condition when I took out the policy. The coolant sensor needed replacing as when the outside temp dropped below 3 degrees it thought that coolant was low! No leak or anything, purely just the sensor (confirmed by VW mechanic with 15 years experience!). This was in no way related to the issue I had called them out for which was an ECU problem causing the car to go into limp mode and not rev above 1200rpm. The **** from the control room said that the coolant sensor was related to the ECU problem, when I asked him if he was a mechanic he said that he had mechanical knowledge so I asked him why the coolant warning came on only at low temperatures and his response was "I am not going to diagnose your car over the phone madam". Told him to forget it and cancelled my policy there and then. Driver of Green Flag van who had already loaded my car on to the trailer said that they were a bunch of ***** who did this all the time. When I spoke to complaints the lady said she couldn't understand why the guy from the control room was like that and that my car should have been recovered!

 

Sorry for the rant, just don't want you to jump out of the frying pan into the fire!

 

Jennie

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  • 11 months later...

Firstly the AA isn’t that trusted old organisation that used to be, it’s now owned and run by a profit driven Investment Company.

Last year I paid £79 for silver membership I've just received my renewal letter offering me the same service as last year at £207.85

And that after a 15% discount!!!

The AA now seem to use the services of local breakdown firms rather than AA patrols, the waiting time has soared and they don't fix the majority of cars at the roadside, in fact they have never been able to fix even the simplest of faults on my vehicles and I always have to be towed or relayed home. The skills level of most patrol men or other sub contractors at identifying the problem is actually too low to be offering a roadside assistance membership. In the majority of call outs the patrolman actually gets the diagnosis of the fault completely wrong.i.e.

Fuel pump failure diagnosed as a blocked exhaust pipe.

EGR valve sticking diagnosed as an air filter problem (the filter was actually 1 week old)

A valve that had snapped and punched a hole through a piston in the engine a took out the turbo at the same time was diagnosed as a dirty fuel pump...unbelievable!

The AA recently sent out a local breakdown truck to relay me home because he didn’t have the equipment needed to change a tyre for the spare!!!

 

The AA is now just a tow you home service and I’m sure you can find the same level of cover and service elsewhere for £30 or £40 I will re post when I find it.

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Firstly the AA isn’t that trusted old organisation that used to be, it’s now owned and run by a profit driven Investment Company.

Last year I paid £79 for silver membership I've just received my renewal letter offering me the same service as last year at £207.85

And that after a 15% discount!!!

The AA now seem to use the services of local breakdown firms rather than AA patrols, the waiting time has soared and they don't fix the majority of cars at the roadside, in fact they have never been able to fix even the simplest of faults on my vehicles and I always have to be towed or relayed home. The skills level of most patrol men or other sub contractors at identifying the problem is actually too low to be offering a roadside assistance membership. In the majority of call outs the patrolman actually gets the diagnosis of the fault completely wrong.i.e.

Fuel pump failure diagnosed as a blocked exhaust pipe.

EGR valve sticking diagnosed as an air filter problem (the filter was actually 1 week old)

A valve that had snapped and punched a hole through a piston in the engine a took out the turbo at the same time was diagnosed as a dirty fuel pump...unbelievable!

The AA recently sent out a local breakdown truck to relay me home because he didn’t have the equipment needed to change a tyre for the spare!!!

 

The AA is now just a tow you home service and I’m sure you can find the same level of cover and service elsewhere for £30 or £40 I will re post when I find it.

 

 

Sad to say the above statement seems to be the case these days.

:mad2::-x:jaw::sad:
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I joined AutoAid a few years ago and was very pleased, I was fed up with the long wait and escalating prices from RAC and AA, it works like a conventional breakdown service in that you call a number and someone comes out to you, mostly I believe from a network of local garages so my experience was quite quick.

Things change a little there as you then have to pay (cash Card whatever) so this is not for everyone, you then send in the receipt to AutoAid and they send a cheque out for your costs.

It's been a few years since I was with them but I can say they are worth having a look at, from memory £39 covered me and my spouse.

I had a 4x4 recovered from near Lincoln to Oxford around £300 so you have to have the facility to pay but I got a cheque to cover it in a little over a week.

well worth a look if you need that service.

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I found Rescuemycar.com a good few years back and they have been excellent and are around £50 a year.

 

 

The couple of times I have called them out - once for HGF on a Rover 75 where they made extra efforts due to it being night and my family being with me and once for a flat battery - they have been excellent.

 

 

Not sure I'd go with the AA or RAC anymore.

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  • 7 months later...

I received a disgusting service from the AA. It's not so much the breakdown MIS-diagnosis that bothered me rather than the total lack of customer after care.

 

Here’s the breakdown details

 

On 14 April 2014 my car broke down and I called the AA. The patrolman arrived and checked the car over. He had a quick look under the bonnet and took a short test drive in the car which was juddering with a sucking back noise when under acceleration.

 

I explained that there was a sudden loud popping noise and the car lost all power at that point and began to judder under acceleration.

 

I also told him that nine months ago, I’d had a new gearbox, turbo and EGR valve fitted and he said it could be any of those three things and it should be towed to a garage of my choice for diagnosis and repair.

 

As I have the car maintained at Marshall’s Jaguar in Lincoln it was taken there (4 hours later on a Gallows Wood recovery vehicle). When the Jaguar technicians checked the car, all that had happened was a hose had come off the intercooler when the clip had rusted through. This was the only fault.

 

They reconnected the hose and put a new clip on and everything worked fine again, which took just five minutes.

 

However, being a Jaguar main dealer, they always carry out computer diagnostics before and after as a matter of professional standard procedure and the resulting bill was £267.13.

 

When I was on the phone to the Jaguar workshop the day before they received the car, I explained the loud popping noise and immediately said it sounds like the intercooler hose had come off… and they were correct!

 

The AA promises that if it is technically possible to mend a car at the roadside, that is what they will do.

 

My complaint is that it could have been repaired at the roadside (as confirmed by the Jaguar garage) but they failed in this instance. This was not just misdiagnosis, but a failure to carry out basic inspection checks. I was also left without the car for a week and had to pay transport costs to get to pick the car up from Lincoln.

 

I wrote to the AA and in their reply I received, referring to their patrolmen, they say: “They have to work without the advantage of a well-lit, comfortable workshop and sometimes, even the simplest of jobs can be hazardous when attempted at the side of a busy road.”

 

This is just an excuse. Firstly, the diagnosis was wrong and the fault was never attempted. Secondly, at the time of the breakdown, it was broad daylight and the sun was beaming down. Thirdly, there was an empty car park to a dog-walking field exactly opposite where the car could have been driven (or pushed) in order to carry out a proper inspection in complete safety. Further, the patrolman never used the ‘onboard computer’ that the AA proudly boast about in their adverts. This would have diagnosed the fault.

 

Furthermore, the AA say that the patrolman was unable to find anything ‘obvious’. The Jaguar garage told me this is a common fault in cars of this type one of the first things to check considering the symptoms and if the AA patrolman had simply looked underneath the car at the front, he would have seen that the hose had come off the intercooler.

 

The AA then state that any work the patrolman might have done could have voided the warranty on the parts I’d had fitted nine months ago at the Jaguar garage. This could never have happened as the fault and its simple repair would be nothing to do with these parts. It was a simple, clearly visible fault that could have been repaired at the roadside within five to ten minutes.

 

Even furthermore, to confirm the fact that mistakes were made and not just misdiagnosis, I was travelling in a friend’s car the other day which broke down and also being an AA member, he called them out. When the AA patrolman arrived, he was very professional and quickly diagnosed a faulty gearbox meaning we had to be towed back home.

 

While in the AA van, I gave the AA patrol man the exact symptoms that happened to my car and straight away he said “sounds like a hose had come off the intercooler or something like that” … and he was exactly right!!

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Disgusting AA Service.

 

While I really do sympathise with your story, as an ex roadside mechanic (Green Flag and Britannia Rescue (among others)), it can sometimes be hard to diagnose even the most simple fault at the roadside (or in a car park) if you've never come across that kind of thing before. We're all human and occasionally miss something that could be staring us right in the face.

 

Certainly he could have used his in vehicle internet whizzy thing and it sounds like it probably would have given him the answers, but maybe (and I'm not trying to make excuses for him) it wasn't working, or had only just been installed in his van and he hadn't been trained how to use it. We'll probably never know.

 

It's the (complete lack of) "aftercare" from the AA that really gets me though. There's really no excuse for that.

Please note that my posts are my opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of legal advice.
In fact, they're probably just waffling and can be quite safely and completely ignored as you wish.

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Absolutely... I'm not complaining about the misdiagnosis... I understand that can happen on occasion... What I am complaining about is the AA's refusal to simply accept that mistakes were made. The email replies from their 'Special investigations Executive' just shirk their responsibility to loyal customers. As long as the Fat-Cat managers pockets keep full with cash, customer satisfaction takes a back seat. Worst customer care in the market place!

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Absolutely... I'm not complaining about the misdiagnosis... I understand that can happen on occasion... What I am complaining about is the AA's refusal to simply accept that mistakes were made. The email replies from their 'Special investigations Executive' just shirk their responsibility to loyal customers. As long as the Fat-Cat managers pockets keep full with cash, customer satisfaction takes a back seat. Worst customer care in the market place!

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For future reference, and I've not got anything to do with them personally, I've been hearing very good reports about these people. http://www.startrescue.co.uk/

 

From looking at their website, full UK coverage with at home and recovery, starts from £35 ish per year. Which is a darn site better than the majors can offer.

 

And to be as unbiased as possible, there's also http://www.rescuemycar.com/ who offer "personal cover" so that you're covered in any vehicle you're in.

 

Both seem to utilise the local (nearest available) recovery agent rather than relying on their own 'patrols'.

Please note that my posts are my opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of legal advice.
In fact, they're probably just waffling and can be quite safely and completely ignored as you wish.

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