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Heinz

In January 2006, I re-joined the AA after a gap of a few years. I did so online and the self & spouse fee was £45.

I was lucky enough not to need the services of the AA during 2006 but, nevertheless, the renewal letter which arrived recently quoted a renewal fee of £68.50 - a 52.2% increase!

Naturally, I was not best pleased with such an increase and e-mailed to cancel.

I have today received your Membership Renewal letter dated 24/11/06 advising me that my renewal will cost £68.50 if I renew it when it becomes due on 12/1/2007.

£68.50 represents an increase of more than 50% on last year's £45 charge and, even in rip-off Britain, is unacceptable.

Do not attempt to charge my credit card, I do not wish to renew at that price.

Please acknowledge receipt of this notification and the instruction contained herein.

Incredibly, the reply I received was:

We are sorry to learn that you no longer require AA membership.

To close your membership you will need to contact our membership administration department on 08705 444 444, selecting option 2 followed by option 3. They are open Monday to Friday between the hours of 08.00 and 20.00 and Saturdays 08.00 to 17.00.

Needless to say, my response to that was less than favourable:

I thank you for your reply of 9/12/06 to my e-mail cancellation of 5/12/06.

I will not be calling the 0870 number you mention (in fact, your organisation's use of such disguised premium rate numbers is another reason why I have decided to terminate my membership) so, if, bizarrely, you consider yet another department needs to be informed, I would be obliged if you would do so.

I find it surprising that neither you nor the Customer Services Department to which I addressed my message have internal communications procedures with the Membership Administration Department to ensure members' instructions are passed on.

Please advise them specifically that they should not attempt to charge my credit card because I do not wish to renew at the excessive price quoted.

Amazingly, their reply was:

In order for me to advise the membership department that you wish to close your membership and to comply with the Data Protection Act, I need you to supply the following information:

* Full Postal Address

* Date of birth

* Reason for Closure

It will not surprise you to learn that my response was, again, to the point:

(1). I do not wish to close my membership, I have merely advised you (this is the third time) that, upon expiry of my current membership at 23:59 hours on 12/1/2007, I do not wish to renew same.

(2).This and my other recent communications with your organisation have merely been to advise of that decision and that, as a consequence thereof, you may not attempt to make a call for funds from my credit card of bank account for a service which I will not be renewing.

Your organisation has my details recorded against my membership number and I am astonished that you would have so little knowledge of security procedures that you attempt to make me divulge the details now requested via an insecure medium such as e-mail. Obviously, I will not do so.

I would suggest that you merely pass copies of these communications to the other department so that, using my membership number to access my details, they can take whatever action (in fact, it is inaction) they consider necessary.

Incredibly, they even had the utter nerve to reply:

Please accept my apologies for misunderstanding that you wished to close your membership.

I initially referred you to you membership department who would be happy to discuss your renewal cost with you and make any adjustments. As you do not wish to telephone them for me to pass this information to them and look into you membership details then whether this is by telephone or email to comply with the Data Protection Act, we have to ask security questions.

* Full Address including Post Code

* Date of Birth

* Please advise the amendments to your membership you are enquiring about.

Not unreasonably (IMHO), my reply to that was:

Despite me reminding you of the security implications of attempting to get me to divulge personal details via an insecure medium such as email, you have again attempted to do so. I regard such attempts as phishing and I will not do so.

Let us be clear. I do not wish to cancel my membership, I simply do not wish to renew it when the current period ends on 12/1/07.

Accordingly, you are NOT to attempt to call monies from my credit card(s) and/or bank account(s).

There are no data protection issues there. The instruction is NOT to do something, not to DO something.

However, in an attempt to help you, I hereby give permission on this one occasion for you to communicate with me by telephone*. You have my ex-directory number on file.

The call should be made from the number you quoted in your 9/12/06 email and the CLI must display that number.

Please instruct your agent that he/she will be expected to answer security questions when he/she calls. Those questions will refer to my original application.

As I am sure you would expect, failure to answer any such question correctly will result in immediate termination of the call.

Who's winning?

Well, actually, the RAC is because I've now joined them (£41.99, after £12 Rpoints rebate, for a year's self & spouse membership) and the credit card which was used to pay membership last year was one which has been withdrawn from the market and no longer exists even as a brand name.

* Needless to say, I never did receive that telephone call!

wearside_2

Your experience made me smile. I have been through similar experiences and I am sure that you will find that too from others when they reply to you post. Well done for being so tenacious!

Weggy

Being a former employee of the AA, their replies are no surprise to me.

The fact that an ex employee is with the RAC, also tells its own story!