AA Membership Problem

staffy18

Hi Everyone

I am an AA member for breakdown. I know it renews in January and normally I get the letter around Christmas to tell me how much the year's cover will be then I call them up and ask them to revise the price and then it goes out of my bank.

This year, earlier this month, I realised that I'd not received the letter from them saying how much it would be. So I called them up, at several different times throughout the day, on different days, to hear a woman say that they are too busy dealing with breakdowns and can I ring back later before being cut off. This happened EVERY time I rang so I got more and more annoyed.

Tonight I get home from work to find the letter - dated 24th December 2010 - saying the fee is £110 and will be taken from my bank account on or around the 10th January. I was like - hang on a minute - its the 12th now - and got on the phone straight away, only to hear the same snotty message. I kept ringing and ringing and then was in a queue for 32 minutes before I gave up as I was sick of being told that someone would answer my call shortly and that the bloody AA have Sat Nav so can be with you when you are broken down quicker.

Having now logged onto to my internet banking, and they took £110 out of my account today - but as there is not enough money in my account to cover this - as I didn't know it was going out - it has bounced and I will be charged £25 for the bounced direct debit.

Obviously I am fuming. I accept that the Royal Mail have been busy with all the Christmas post and the weather, but so annoyed with AA for never answering the phone and now I have a further £25 to find.

Any advice??:mad:

Gene_Hunt_2

Avoid anything with an automatic renewal.

You'll find you signed up to it.

DavidHayton

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

Avoid anything with an automatic renewal.

You'll find you signed up to it.

Often you can get a better deal if you agree to automatic renewal. However when I do this, I always cancel the auto-renewal ASAP - to avoid situations like this. David

jjonesy

Even though it renews automatically, the fact that you pay by direct debit means that they broke the rules.
Under Direct Debit rules they need to give you 10 working days notice before they attempt to take any cash.

The fact that they did not get this letter to you then they should not have attempted to take the cash. Contact you bank and say that the AA have breached the Direct Debit Guarantee system. A sensible bank (if they exist) will refund the charge. Otherwise ask them to raise it as an indemnity claim via the Direct Debit System.

See below the Direct Debit advance Notice rules.

Advance Notice

• An Advance Notice is the notice period given to the payer in respect of notification of the date and the amount to be collected.
• You must give notice to a payer before the 1st Direct Debit is collected and in future if the due date, frequency or amount changes.
• The Advance Notice is a written document and the default period to send this out to your customers is a minimum of 10 working days plus postal time (unless any other agreement is in place) prior to the collection date.
• Where the payer is paying on behalf of another person or party, the Advance Notice must be issued to the Direct Debit payer. i.e. the person who signed the DDI.
• You must collect the Direct Debit on or within 3 working days after the specified due date as advised to the payer on the Advance Notice.

Hope this helps a bit

mikey72

Another auto renewal that's been trying it on recently.
Have a look at
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2967602

They should agree to cancel with a complete refund, or if you want to negotiate they will match the lowest price you could renew as a new member for.

karlie88

staffy18 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I am an AA member for breakdown. I know it renews in January and normally I get the letter around Christmas to tell me how much the year's cover will be then I call them up and ask them to revise the price and then it goes out of my bank.

This year, earlier this month, I realised that I'd not received the letter from them saying how much it would be. So I called them up, at several different times throughout the day, on different days, to hear a woman say that they are too busy dealing with breakdowns and can I ring back later before being cut off. This happened EVERY time I rang so I got more and more annoyed.

Tonight I get home from work to find the letter - dated 24th December 2010 - saying the fee is £110 and will be taken from my bank account on or around the 10th January. I was like - hang on a minute - its the 12th now - and got on the phone straight away, only to hear the same snotty message. I kept ringing and ringing and then was in a queue for 32 minutes before I gave up as I was sick of being told that someone would answer my call shortly and that the bloody AA have Sat Nav so can be with you when you are broken down quicker.

Having now logged onto to my internet banking, and they took £110 out of my account today - but as there is not enough money in my account to cover this - as I didn't know it was going out - it has bounced and I will be charged £25 for the bounced direct debit.

Obviously I am fuming. I accept that the Royal Mail have been busy with all the Christmas post and the weather, but so annoyed with AA for never answering the phone and now I have a further £25 to find.

Any advice??:mad:

which number were you trying to ring? did you try other numbers?

my renewal is due in a week or so, i rung them on 0161 332 1789 (existing customers - found on their website) a few days ago. got through first time and managed to bring the price down.

i'd ring CS, highlight the point you made above. they may refund the £25 as a good will gesture (prob. will depend on how long you've been with them) - worth a go?