Ripped off by the aa

mikeopvc

I had to call the AA to rescue me last weekend and as I wasn't a member I ended up paying £142.50.
The guy came and all he did was remove a snapped alternator belt and charge my battery so I could get home.
I got the paperwork through yesterday from the AA and it seems my level of membership is very basic, ROADSIDE
As far as I'm aware this is only worth about £30 so it seems they really took advantage of my misfortune and overcharged heavily.
Is there anything I can do by way of canceling or changing the membership to recoup some costs.
Long shot I know but this site has lots of clever folk on it some of which may know a trick or a loophole to help me out.

thanks

vikingaero

AA Membership is an annual membership and cannot be cancelled with a refund. You can defer membership. You got charged a fair rate for the service.

Kilty_2

You called out the AA when you werent a member - they charged accordingly.

They'll have made you a member as part of their call out charge for non-members - there's nothing you can do to make that cheaper.

It will be much cheaper next year though and I recommend you keep such cover to prevent this situation reoccurring...

custardy

so exactly how much do you think an emergency call out should cost?
given that basic cover is only £30 then why not have it in place before you breakdown?
if everyone just had ot pay breakdown cover prices when they broke down then nobody would bother with having cover

Shimrod

The AA membership (like the RAC, Green Flag and others) should really be considered an insurance policy against the costs of a breakdown while out and about. You've already discovered the cost of not having this sort of membership can be quite high, so why would you want to cancel the membership now that you've got it? What will you do the next time something goes wrong on your car?

mikeopvc

custardy wrote: »

so exactly how much do you think an emergency call out should cost?
given that basic cover is only £30 then why not have it in place before you breakdown?
if everyone just had ot pay breakdown cover prices when they broke down then nobody would bother with having cover

Wasn't expecting to just pay £30 of course, I was simply asking if anyone knew of a way for me to get more for my £142.50 by way of a discounted upgrade to a better level of cover or something like that, not sure really what I was hoping for, just though I'd throw it out there and see what happened.

I've been told now though;)

lilac_lady

The £142 would surely consist of £30/40 new membership fee and the rest would be for the repair of your car at the road side because you had no insurance with them?

Inactive

Well it certainly wasn't a " rip - off ".

Just learn the lesson and move on I guess.;)

espresso

I see that nobody has mentioned lack of maintenance! It is very unlikely that this alternator belt would have just snapped on a properly maintained vehicle, so any money saved on regular maintenance has been wasted on the AA.

mikeopvc

Never had car trouble before, (touch wood) so with this in mind I suppose it never occured to me that I needed to be a member, silly I know.

At least I am a member now, I only wish I had taken more notice of the initial call and I'm sure that had I known I was paying for the most basic of cover I would have paid a bit more for a better one.

Everyday's a school day

mikeopvc

espresso wrote: »

I see that nobody has mentioned lack of maintenance! It is very unlikely that this alternator belt would have just snapped on a properly maintained vehicle, so any money saved on regular maintenance has been wasted on the AA.

Apparently it was down to an oil leak from the crank seal, I do have the car serviced so is it something I should mention to my garage, I'm no mechanic but surely it would take some time for oil to corrode a belt so maybe it should have been spotted on the last service.