How to keep customers

CCP

The AA seem to have come up with a novel way of keeping their customers: every time I have phoned over the past couple of days to try and cancel my membership, I get a recorded message saying they are too busy to take any calls at the moment.

Well, that's one way of stopping me cancelling, I suppose! :rolleyes:

CCP

Update:

I've finally got hold of the AA and they've come up with a rather more honest way of winning back a dissatisfied customer: reducing their renewal quote by almost half, making them much cheaper than any alternatives.

My lesson for today (for me, anyway!) is always haggle - you never know what you might get out of it! :j

fwor

CCP wrote: »

by almost half, making them much cheaper than any alternatives.

I doubt that will make them much cheaper than any alternative. When they got bought out and turned into something run for profit by a greedy venture capital company rather than for the benefit of members I moved to AutoAid, and it's less than half the cost. The AA's performance since they were bought out has been dire, because they cut operating costs to the bone.

With AutoAid you have to be prepared to pay for recovery on your credit card and claim it back, but the savings make that well worth while.

CCP

Thanks for the advice - I'll bear it in mind when I come to renew next year. I'm not sure that the 'pay and reclaim' route is for me, though - I know it tends to work out cheaper but I'd rather pay a bit extra upfront and know that any problems will be sorted out straight away, without having to send off lots of paperwork, make phone calls etc, to try and get my money back.

That's probably just me being lazy, though!

Takoda

My RAC quote for this year was a bit steep so I cancelled my DD and signed on again as a new customer. Guess what? The cost was roughly half of my renewal cost.

Moral - don't EVER renew. Let it lapse and then join again.

I wouldn't touch the AA with someone else's bargepole at the moment though.

CCP

This reminds me of a discussion I was having about car insurance on another thread. Companies do take advantage of customer loyalty, don't they? (That's not a complaint or a judgement - just an observation!)

pitkin2020

i wouldnt touch RAC with a bargepole there call centre you have to call are useless if you break down, we broke down last weekend and hour and half after we called the patrol called and said "where are you i am the location but cant seem to find you?" we asked where he was as we hadn't moved, he replied, "where the hell is that" we said " oxfordshire" rac patrol man said, " well then your bloody no where near us as we are in north devon", anyway the control centre had screwed up the address, i mean how the hell can you get confused between north devon and oxfordshire................3 hours later a patrol van does turn up, we told him he may aswell go away as we need a recovery truck not a mechanic as explained when we called as the clutch had gone, we cant be towed due to the size of the van we broke down in, anyway RAC patrol sat there for 5 mins and requested a flatbed truck. Well finally the truck arrived 6 1/2 hours after the first call the truck is based less than 30 miles away...................they were a cockup from start to finish

chnelomi

CCP wrote: »

This reminds me of a discussion I was having about car insurance on another thread. Companies do take advantage of customer loyalty, don't they? (That's not a complaint or a judgment - just an observation!)

I always assumed that too. nearly every year when it came to the renewal it was always slightly higher than other quotes. Until this year that is, current company was cheapest and as i pay monthly it worked out cheaper for DD without having to pay a deposit on top.

I'm still shocked at that and for the first few days i checked every company i could just in case a saving could be made.