The AA have just lost me as a customer.

cormie

I signed up to the AA last year, got the full package, home start, rescue plus and all that and it cost me about €180. I just got my renewal form and next years premium is €240!

I rang up and asked what the story was and was told the increase is because they now have more units on the road and the wait time is less and have bought new technology to better the roadside diagnosis. A 33% increase is a bit crazy I think, especially since, as far as I know, they don't guarantee any better service. I mean you ring up and you may get seen to quicker.

Since I signed up to them this time last year, I have since changed my insurance company and I'm now offered roadside assistance from the company I'm with. I was going to keep my AA membership for that extra peace of mind, but not with a hike like that.

I only used them once in the year and it wasn't even for my van, but as far as I know, you can call them 5 times a year without effecting your premium for next year.

They wouldn't budge at all on the price either, I asked is there anything you can do on the price? Nope! Is there any incentive to stop customers leaving? Nope! Ah well, they could have got another €180 off me for a year and probably not had to call to me at all. Their loss.

Henry Ford III

Just make sure you have roadside assistance cover from somewhere in place Cormie. Your record of mechanical maladies strongly suggests you need it

bmccaff

only 132 euro today

https://secure.aaireland.ie/personal-membership/

Gregor Samsa

bmccaff wrote: »

only 132 euro today

It's actually €176 when you add the Homestart Plus that cormie had - it's only fair to compare like with like.

Then add €65 for Rescue Plus (new members get this free as an introductory offer - cormie was a renewing member and they wouldn't extend the offer to him), and you get the €241.

vibe666

looks like they're taking existing customers for a ride, figuring people are too lazy to switch.

busman

Had AA myself for years but when I was renewing my insurance with AXA I decided to go with their Rescue Plus option. Think it was about 50euro. Haven't had to use it yet touch wood! Might not have all the bells and whistles of what the AA provide but as long as they will get me and my car home I'll be happy.

itarumaa

What does roadside assistance actually cover if taken from various insurance companies?

Does it include a delivery to home or a delivery to nearest garage?

There is a big difference in this if you fix you car you self.

Speedy007

My sister got an oil and filter change with 25 point safety check on a 04 Clio plus 12 AA cover with Homestart all for €149 at Airside, few dealers around the place have the same or similar offer. She just got the AA stuff in the post the other day and was delighted with what is covered.

cormie

So it seems they reel people in and then pump up the prices once they have them hooked. I'd have no problem paying €180 again so if I have to, I'll let the policy I have now lapse and sign up again. Or else they could just renew it for €180 and save themselves and myself hassle.

Darragh29

cormie wrote: »

So it seems they reel people in and then pump up the prices once they have them hooked. I'd have no problem paying €180 again so if I have to, I'll let the policy I have now lapse and sign up again. Or else they could just renew it for €180 and save themselves and myself hassle.

Fair play to ye for voting with your feet, as Mama harney says, "Shop Around"!!! :D:D

eringobragh

Don't understand why people bother with AA anymore when most the insurance comapnies offer free (or for little money extra) breakdown cover / homestart.

cormie

Well I'm waiting to hear back from my broker on the level of cover provided by my insurance company. If it's just as good as the AA, I wont bother to renew, but if I can get AA for 180 and it has other benefits, I'll go for it too.

eringobragh

cormie wrote: »

Well I'm waiting to hear back from my broker on the level of cover provided by my insurance company. If it's just as good as the AA, I wont bother to renew, but if I can get AA for 180 and it has other benefits, I'll go for it too.

My broker (aaron) has me fully comp with Allianz (Cheaper than TPFT with Quinn!)

I've homestart, breakdown cover, replacement car, etc.

L1011

I'd be interested in hearing if anyones has any experiences with Quinn's breakdown cover - I've both it (as its with my policy) and AA (as it came with the car) but should the worst happen it'd be useful to know who's better to call.

John Mason

they lost me too, a few years ago

it was €120.00 and they increased it to €180.00 on renewal. so i phoned up and they just said the cost had gone up. so i told them i wasnt renewing the policy.

two days later, the car had a flat battery,phone AA and they were refusing to send anyone out because i wasnt renewing my policy, as i pointed out i still had 6 weeks paid time with them - la la la big arguement, but some eventually came out

i have free RAC with insurance company and i have to say, they are brilliant

kdevitt

I would never cancel my AA policy - its been a lifesaver on loads of occasions, especially when I've been in someone elses car which has had a problem.

My missus needed to use the breakdown cover from her policy a few months back and it was woeful. She was charged €90 to get the car to the garage we wanted to do the work - they'd only tow a car within 2.5 miles of the breakdown, which negates the point of having it. On top of that, the guy they sent wouldn't attempt to fix a car on a callout - it was tow away only.

cormie

Which policy was she on?

kdevitt

cormie wrote: »

Which policy was she on?

It was with Eaglestar - just the standard one which came with the policy.

unkel

eringobragh wrote: »

Don't understand why people bother with AA anymore when most the insurance comapnies offer free (or for little money extra) breakdown cover / homestart.

Good luck to ya if you ever need it.

kdevitt wrote: »

I would never cancel my AA policy - its been a lifesaver on loads of occasions, especially when I've been in someone elses car which has had a problem.

+1

cormie wrote: »

as far as I know, you can call them 5 times a year without effecting your premium for next year.

6 times

You're charged for any subsequent call out

eringobragh

unkel wrote: »

Good luck to ya if you ever need it.

Mates with quinn and they were out within the hour. I'd prefer to keep 180euro for a tow if needed rather than forking out that every year .I've only ever needed a tow once.

TheBigLebowski

MYOB wrote: »

I'd be interested in hearing if anyones has any experiences with Quinn's breakdown cover - I've both it (as its with my policy) and AA (as it came with the car) but should the worst happen it'd be useful to know who's better to call.

I had to use it there a while ago. Never really considered the fact that I even had it until I broke down at 2AM on the N4 near Kilcock. Gave Quinn a ring and they were there in 20 minutes. The guy dropped us home and offered to take away the car and do the repair. I was happy with the repair work that they done so all in all, a positive experience.

What else would AA do for me, are their mechanics topless girls or something?

January

You do know the AA covers YOU and not the car.

If you take out home insurance/travel insurance/motor insurance out with the AA you get membership to the break down service for €67 euro a year, this does not include Home Start or Rescue Plus though.

If they are deff not budging on the price, let your policy lapse and then take it out again, sign up online the day your policy lapses even.

I got mine free

January

TheBigLebowski wrote: »

I had to use it there a while ago. Never really considered the fact that I even had it until I broke down at 2AM on the N4 near Kilcock. Gave Quinn a ring and they were there in 20 minutes. The guy dropped us home and offered to take away the car and do the repair. I was happy with the repair work that they done so all in all, a positive experience.

What else would AA do for me, are their mechanics topless girls or something?

Most of their callouts are fixed at the roadside...

L1011

adrieanne__x wrote: »

You do know the AA covers YOU and not the car.

Unless it comes with the car, that is. My policy is attached to the reg plate of the car and paid by Fiat Auto Ireland, not attached to me...

Elessar

I really don't see the point in the AA. Most, if not all insurance policies have breakdown cover now on par with the AA. Mine with Axa has home start/roadside assist etc. so why should I sign up to the AA?

unkel

eringobragh wrote: »

Mates with quinn and they were out within the hour.

That was fairly good goin'. I reckon he was lucky. Mind the AA have been there for me within 15 minutes on most occasions

But I'm the first to admit the AA is a premium service. It's not cheap but the service is second to none. That said, if I drove brand new cars, I probably wouldn't be a member.

TheBigLebowski

unkel wrote: »

That was fairly good goin'. I reckon he was lucky. Mind the AA have been there for me within 15 minutes on most occasions

But I'm the first to admit the AA is a premium service. It's not cheap but the service is second to none. That said, if I drove brand new cars, I probably wouldn't be a member.

What are you basing this on? When I called them, they were out within 20 mins.

TheBigLebowski

adrieanne__x wrote: »

Most of their callouts are fixed at the roadside...

My repair could not have been fixed at the roadside, otherwise it would have been...

Esel

irishbird wrote: »

i have free RAC with insurance company and i have to say, they are brilliant

What insurance company are you with? Just so I know who to ring at renewal time!

L-M

MYOB wrote: »

I'd be interested in hearing if anyones has any experiences with Quinn's breakdown cover - I've both it (as its with my policy) and AA (as it came with the car) but should the worst happen it'd be useful to know who's better to call.

With Quinn. When the car broke down about 30 miles away from home i complete forgot about their breakdown cover. After tryin a few other ways i rang them and they said the would send a mechanic out to check the car for me, i said "The timing belt has snapped, it won't be going anywhere from here". After this she said they could tow the car to a local garage for free, where a mechanic could fix it, but as i was going to do it myself i needed it home.

Long story short, it encoured a charge of €100 cash or €130 credit card etc. (pressuming Quinn make commision on it.)

Got the car home with only a bit of damage to the bumper when they were putting it on the truck. Also it took over three hours for the truck to arrive from a ten mile spin(don't know the stand times so this could be the norm).

Ah it was a mixed bag really, i'm not too up on towing prices but it seemed grand at the time. Don't know whether to vote it good or bad.

unkel

TheBigLebowski wrote: »

What are you basing this on?

Nothing much concrete, I'll grant you.

We've been doing these threads for years now and this is the first one that I remember that has some positive comments about breakdown cover from insurance policies

And as well as my own positive experiences, I've rarely heard anything bad said about the AA. But as I said, it's a premium service - it ain't cheap

eamon234

More units on the road my arse. I've called them twice in the last six months both for things that could have been easily sorted by the roadside with their existing equipment - I was told there were no dedicated AA vans in the area they only used third party breakdown service I have my brother as an associate member on my policy he has had the same problem with them we're both in a 20 mile radius of Limerick city - what's the point in paying for a service when I only get a half arsed version of it?

unkel

eamon234 wrote: »

More units on the road my arse. I've called them twice in the last six months both for things that could have been easily sorted by the roadside with their existing equipment - I was told there were no dedicated AA vans in the area they only used third party breakdown service I have my brother as an associate member on my policy he has had the same problem with them we're both in a 20 mile radius of Limerick city - what's the point in paying for a service when I only get a half arsed version of it?

Yep I believe that is a problem. A sub-contractor is likely to be sub-standard compared to an AA man (are there any women? )

All my callouts have been in the greater Dublin area and only one time did I get a sub-contractor who wasn't really "equipped" to do anything for me but tow me home

sdanseo

irishbird wrote: »

i have free RAC with insurance company and i have to say, they are brilliant

esel wrote: »

What insurance company are you with? Just so I know who to ring at renewal time!

+1, same - who?

batman2000

Hibernian rescue is attachated to my policy (they bought out RAC btw...) Out within half and hour, couldn't fix it on the spot, got a tow truck and no charges incurred ......

victor1

LADS,
i was going to join aa today, but from reading above , dont think i'll bother?

itarumaa

AA cost for me 11.83 per month, that is not really a huge amout of money.

They have saved me twice, another time they towed my car 12 miles and most important I did get the car home where I was able to fix the car.

Now I am borrowing my friends car and it is good to know that I will get help if required, since I am covered and not the car.

cormie

Ok, just rang them back asked was there anything they can do on the price and she said she could add the home start for free, which would have brough the total to €196 I think, I then mentioned that if I let the cover expire and then sign up the next day, I can get everything for €176, she said that offer expires on Friday, with my policy expiring on the 27th, so it wouldn't still be available for me, I said I signed up to the same offer last year so it would probably come again in a few weeks and she said she could give me the rescue plus for free instead. So they kept my custom and I saved got it for the right price.

MissTF

I have breakdown assistance with Hibernian car broke down Saturday morning on the way to work they were out within an hour and managed to fix the problem on the roadside with no charge so ill be sticking with these lads!

Notorious

About a week into my first policy with Quinn I had car trouble at a local petrol station. It resulted in the car being left at the station for 2 days. So on the third day I called them from work looking to arrange collection for my car that night. They pretty much picked up the phone straight away. Turns out they wouldn't book it in like that, so I had to ring back later when I was free meet them.

When I rang that evening, I was on hold for 40 minutes before somebody picked up the phone. :mad: No apologies from them, but after the call I had the recovery company out to me in 20 minutes.

So kind of a mixed bag of feelings for the Quinn recovery service...
According to the booklet they give you when you join, they pay for only an hours worth of labour if you want it fixed at the roadside, or they pay for it to be towed away to a place of your choice.

cormie

Jaysus,

Had to ring the AA today after a puncture and the guys who fitted my new tyres tightened them too much with the gun:mad:

When I rang, they said that my cover had expired I gave them the go ahead to renew the cover back in September as is obvious in the above post of mine so I had to sign some indemnity form to say I'd pay €150 call out plus membership, which I wont be doing, but it's the procedure. The lady on the phone said nothing about €150 but just said I'd have to pay the arrears or whatever but they wont know until Monday so if anyone else is doing the same, make sure you're definitely covered after giving them the go ahead to renew.

The guy came and was very friendly and got me sorted in no time.

I had two wrenches in my van, neither would do it, couldn't get the grip and they kept slipping, I'm heavy enough and had all my weight around it, he came with I think it was called a Britool wrench and with a small bit of effort, he got it easy enough. Just had a quick google and britool wrenches cost a fair whack!

Sirtoyou

I must praise the AA and their service.I've used them for 5/6 years now and aways got great value from them.I've always had the full package homestart rescue + etc. as a taxi driver with an older car I felt it was a must.
My latest experience was last sunday night 11thJan.I broke down in the bad storm and knew it couldn't be fixed roadside(crankshaft pulley snapped).They arrived within 40 mins towed the car,covered the cost of a taxi to collect the hire car 43euro.There was a mix up with the hire car and it wasn't available so they covered my taxi home later that night.The hire car company collected me the following morning and gave me an extra days car hire for the 'inconvenience'.They also dropped me home after I returned the car.This is a great service imo and well worth the money.

maidhc

The AA would want to offer some service for €240 p.a. I can only see it paying for itself if you drive a 1970s Alfa.

Hibernian insure and provide breakdown cover on my Capri for €200, and the focus costs €450 for fully comp with hibernian and all the bells and whistles attached.

Used hibernian once, and they did exactly what was required of them with no fuss.

unkel

cormie wrote: »

Jaysus,

Had to ring the AA today after a puncture and the guys who fitted my new tyres tightened them too much with the gun:mad:

Maybe I should change your thread title to "The AA have just saved me again - I am delighted to be their customer"

cormie

First time I had to call them for my own van and it was a bleedin puncture! I usually enjoy timing myself on tyre changes and I couldn't even get the nut open :mad:

And according to them, I'm not their customer, going to ring them in a while and see what the scéal is!

cormie

Just got onto them there and apparantly I rang up and cancelled on the 14th of October... news to me!

Waiting for them to pull the call (which I'm 99% sure they wont be able to find unless I rang them in my sleep when I was having some crazy AA dream)

EDIT: Ahh good oul o2 online usage details, just checked my usage for the 14th of October and no calls to AA!

cormie

Finally got this sorted more than a month later. They rang to say that they couldn't find the call (which I knew I never made) and that they apologise and could reinstate my membership from that date. So I rang today and renewed it, so basically I had since September till now for free

Esel

Cormie strikes again! Brian Cowen should hire you as a consultant.

Blitzkrieger

***wits - I tried to renew my membership online yesterday. Clicking on 'renew' and logging in brings me to a page that tells me my membership is expired, my bill is 0EUR and only allows me to add cover when I already had full cover. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of companies that can't get a simple working website up....

cul-2008

fair play to those who have actually left AA and went elsewhere.

If only everyone had the same 'cop-on' as ye do we'd all have cheaper insurance..

Stevie Dakota

I declined my automatic renewal requesting the lower introductory price and was told 'no'. So I took up cover with Aviva at lower cost. Now I get a letter from AA offering a greatly reduced renewal, €187 V €235 (2 cars with Homestart). Too late! So if you are renewing, demand the lower renewal!