AAceptable Service?

cormie

I have full service from the AA, rescue plus with home start etc. This entitles me to have my vehicle taken to a mechanic of my choice and a replacement vehicle too. I broke down today on the way to Wexford, just past Gorey and had to call the AA. Recovery truck came within about 30 minutes, nice guy and everything, he said he couldn't bring my van to my mechanic then but would do it first thing in the morning.

He had nothing to do with the car rental as Enterprise deal with that so he rang the AA and got somebody to get on to Enterprise to ring me, I was supposed to get a call back within 15 minutes, took about 30 at which time I got a call from somebody in Bray who said that the nearest place was Bray or Waterford to rent a vehicle and that one of his guys was in Wicklow and could pick me up to come back to Bray. I said I'd prefer to get a vehicle and continue to Wexford. He asked me to hang on till he called a contact in Enniscorthy.

He rang back and said I could get a vehicle from there but I'd have to return it to them there (which would be a bit pointless as I'd be left in the same dilemma of how to get back home from there then). I said that and he then rang back and said I could drop it to him in Bray and they'd return it to Enniscorthy.

There was an awful lot of messing around anyway but I eventually got a replacement vehicle, however it took 3.5 hours from the time I made the AA call till I was able to drive away.

Luckily I had an empty load as the replacement van I got was tiny so I wouldn't have even fit a sofa in the back if I needed it to go to a customer.

I'm in two minds really, everyone who I dealt with was friendly and helpful and they seemed to all do their bit, albeit each a bit delayed. Put it all together and you get a 3.5 hour delay though. As far as the price goes, the membership is probably cheaper than what it would have cost to get a tow from Gorey to Rathcoole and a replacement vehicle.

It was all just a bit messy and took a lot longer than it could have.

So would you be happy with this type of service or writing a letter of complaint

Esel

If I was writing a letter of complaint, I wouldn't be happy. :pac:

cormie

Aye?

seasam

It's a Saturday and it sounds like they tried their best to get you back on the road unfortuneatly it took a while but they sorted you out in the end
I wouldn't be writing a letter of complaint, you get what you pay for !

mickdw

I think the problem is that we dont get a real AA service at all in rural Ireland. Its just the local garages who do the tow truck service for the AA and there is no connection with the hire car people. We had a case of needing this service once through audi Ireland on a new car. We informed them where we were & that we needed a replacement. Now common sense would say that if the recovery guy is coming with a flat bed that he would bring the replacement car with him but no, he arrives empty, rings the AA or whoever and they say that sligo is the nearest place to pick up a car (75 miles away). Bearing in mind that you would need a car to get there, thats not much good. Then they offered to bring car to us but we would have to drive the guy back to sligo. Eventually they agreed to deliver it. 2 cars had to come in order to take the driver back. Its just a poor service and sounds like they are getting away with murder most of the time.

ttm

I think the service is over priced and fairly crap all round, but I still pay for it :rolleyes:. After having it for 8 years in the UK and using them once I didn't bother over here for a while but joined again when my wife started driving so she could call them rather than me if she got stuck. Used them twice in 5 years and first time got a good local mechnic out in a private car who helped out and even diagnosed the actual probem (broken alternator cable) and helped me get the car home as my wife wouldn't allow the car to be towed on bit of old rope should have had a tow tuck but it wasn't goning to happen. Second time the guy in an AA van was next to useless and while I think a car with a burst rad should get a tow truck my wife again was offered a tow behind the van which she refused. In the end she was forced to drive an overheated car with the AA guy following up. AA guy insisted that the head was already damaged (so not his fault) and it was OK to drive. Head was fine but no thanks to him.

So as mickdw says we don't get real AA service at all in rural Ireland.

Jarren

In my case the car has broken down in Dundrum yesterday(nothing major only cable clutch snapped and I din't want to be getting home on m50 using the first gear). So rang up my insurance company(AIG) and the lines were closed so I found a number for road assistance which I rang straight away.I had my all details ready including policy number with my insurance company however I was not prepared for what happened next.The lady from road assistance company
dint want to know the policy number at all .She was after the name of the broker and the only problem was that I would have to get back home in order
to retrieve this information.She kept saying broker,broker,broker and I kept
saying what would have happened if my car broke down in rural area
After realizing that that I was talking to the wall I just hang up.Thankfully
I had my laptop with me so I rang few car recovery companies and I got quote ranging from 80 euro with no receipt to 140 with the receipt.After 10 minutes
of ringing I found the good price (90 euro +receipt) and the recovery truck came after 40 minutes(very nice guy and everything).He actually said to me
that he never heard that road assistance company would treat the customer in such way(mind you I have full comp and that includes break down assitance+free use of a courtesy vehicle if immobilised due to an accident)
So should I complain....yes Im going to ring them tomorrow ,describe the stress
we were under(I was with my wife at the time),want my money back,that service I got was unacceptable and on the top of that I'm looking for a reduction on my policy and if not First - I'm cancelling policy(only 12 euro cancellation fee) secondly the small claims court for the service that was not provided.We'll see how that works anyway but main thing remains
To the OP
you really received a very poor service for the money you paid and luckily this
time around you had an empty load when you got your van replaced,but what
if you were fully loaded with the heavy and bulky stuff that needed to be delivered to the customer asap.I mean the only got you a tiny van and you could have a customer screaming at you on the phone and this equals stress which you dont need.I really think that you should ring them to complain about the service you received(not about the people the were friendly)
Let them know how you felt and etc.After the phone call the should follow up
on that and either they contact you by phone,post or email to have this matter resolved.I hope everything will work out for you.:)

Regards

Jarek

Thoie

I suppose I weigh it up against what I'd do without AA. If I broke down at some bizarre time/place, even if it takes a few hours to get everything organised, it's still a lot easier than trying to phone relatives/friends to look up phone numbers of places that may or may not answer.

As a female driver on your own they'll ask if you're in a safe place and other general questions about your well being, and will put you to the top of their list. I once got stuck in a particularly "unsafe" spot in the dark. I had a fair idea of what the problem was and we agreed it would probably need a tow truck. However because it was going to take quite some time to get a truck to me, they sent a motorbike out to babysit me until the truck came If I'm somewhere OK I'll tell them I don't need priority, so maybe they have a record of that and treat me nicely.

So, OP, while I wouldn't have been ecstatic about a 3.5 hour delay, considering the number of people involved, and the various offices that have to be called and get organised, I'm not entirely sure anyone else would have done it faster. If you do decide to write a letter of complaint, I'd encourage you to include the bit about people being friendly and helpful, just slow.

cormie

That's really it I guess, what would I do without the AA. How would I get my van back to my mechanic and then what would I do? Had it been quicker and I got a replacement transit, I'd be here praising them. I just had a quick glance of their T+C's. Nowhere does it say about an expected time of being back on the road, but they do advertise that they are there within the hour which would give the impression you'll be on the road within the hour.

If I had a load in the van it would have been a nightmare and I imagine I would have been a lot more pissed off than I am. Infact, I'm quite glad it happened when it happened as I've done over 4,000 miles the past month and had it happened on any of them miles it would have been a lot worse.

I do have rescue cover with my insurance company too which I could have used and see who sorted me out first, but my phone battery was low and didn't want to be going to mad on the calls :P

seasam

jarecki1976 wrote: »

In my case the car has broken down in Dundrum yesterday(nothing major only cable clutch snapped and I din't want to be getting home on m50 using the first gear). So rang up my insurance company(AIG) and the lines were closed so I found a number for road assistance which I rang straight away.I had my all details ready including policy number with my insurance company however I was not prepared for what happened next.The lady from road assistance company
dint want to know the policy number at all .She was after the name of the broker and the only problem was that I would have to get back home in order
to retrieve this information.She kept saying broker,broker,broker and I kept
saying what would have happened if my car broke down in rural area
After realizing that that I was talking to the wall I just hang up.Thankfully
I had my laptop with me so I rang few car recovery companies and I got quote ranging from 80 euro with no receipt to 140 with the receipt.After 10 minutes
of ringing I found the good price (90 euro +receipt) and the recovery truck came after 40 minutes(very nice guy and everything).He actually said to me
that he never heard that road assistance company would treat the customer in such way(mind you I have full comp and that includes break down assitance+free use of a courtesy vehicle if immobilised due to an accident)
So should I complain....yes Im going to ring them tomorrow ,describe the stress
we were under(I was with my wife at the time),want my money back,that service I got was unacceptable and on the top of that I'm looking for a reduction on my policy and if not First - I'm cancelling policy(only 12 euro cancellation fee) secondly the small claims court for the service that was not provided.We'll see how that works anyway but main thing remains
To the OP
you really received a very poor service for the money you paid and luckily this
time around you had an empty load when you got your van replaced,but what
if you were fully loaded with the heavy and bulky stuff that needed to be delivered to the customer asap.I mean the only got you a tiny van and you could have a customer screaming at you on the phone and this equals stress which you dont need.I really think that you should ring them to complain about the service you received(not about the people the were friendly)
Let them know how you felt and etc.After the phone call the should follow up
on that and either they contact you by phone,post or email to have this matter resolved.I hope everything will work out for you.:)

Regards

Jarek

It was resolved they did what they said they would do and got him back on the road considering where it happened I think the op was lucky it wasn't longer ! As the OP said in the T&C there is no time limit mentioned as to when they will have in back on the road.

Could luck with the small claims court maybe you should see if Judge Judy will here your case !

Jarren

seasam wrote: »

It was resolved they did what they said they would do and got him back on the road considering where it happened I think the op was lucky it wasn't longer ! As the OP said in the T&C there is no time limit mentioned as to when they will have in back on the road.

Could luck with the small claims court maybe you should see if Judge Judy will here your case !

If Judge Judy can't then Judge Joe Browne will do

seasam

jarecki1976 wrote: »

[/b]

If Judge Judy can't then Judge Joe Browne will do

I'll make sure I tune in let me know when you are on

Jarren

How about right now :pac:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FprGeGPKGBM&feature=channel_page

Esel

cormie wrote: »

...they do advertise that they are there within the hour which would give the impression you'll be on the road within the hour....

They have a magic wand?

turnsoutIwas

I had reason to call the AA two weeks ago. Car wouldnt start at all. Guy came out and spent ages checking everything. Eventually told me that the fuel pump was dead. I told him I would probably have a go at it myself so he showed me everything I had to do and left it that all I had to do was undo the jubilee clips and swap the pumps. That guy went WAY beyond what I would have expected so I have to say I am very happy with the service-it costs me €6 a month.