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AA Membership Renewal - Stand your ground!
I wanted to share this experience with others and hopefully everyone can learn to haggle for the best deals. Sorry its a bit long but I wanted to get all the detail in, to show persistence can pay off.
I received my renewal last week for this years AA Breakdown cover. I have roadside assistance and relay. I have learned to haggle with them each year but this time it was different.
My renewal cam with the news that thanks to my loyalty they had awarded me GOLD MEMBERSHIP:j............
Unfortunately they also hiked the price from £6.83 a month to £12.34:eek:
So I checked online and the same cover was £80 in one payment or £8.00 a month, so £16 for the privelage of paying monthly in advance. I also checked RAC who offered £79.99 or £8.08 a month but with the sweetener of £10.10 casback and £50 of free fuel. Armed with all this info I mounted my crusade..........
I advised I was not happy with the price quoted and was told they could bring it down to £9.81 a month because I was such a good customer. I politely declined and advised it was only £8 a month online including the levy for paying monthly in advance. She said to me "I don't think it is, you have got that wrong!"........
So I advised her that I had the information on the screen in front of me. She said she would check and then conceded I was right. So she offered to match the price.
I again declined and advised what I could get from the RAC including the free fuel. She then advised me that the £50 free fuel wasn't free fuel as you had to go online to claim £12.50 a quarter!!!!!!
I advised that £12.50 x 4 = £50.00:rotfl:
She again conceded the point.
Tired of all this I said if they were not prepared to go lower, baring in mind I have had no call outs for 4 years then I would cancel. Her reply was that did I not realise that my gold card meant I could have 7 call outs a year instead of 5? So I told her that as I had only had 1 call out in the last 4 years, I was unlikely to suddenly need 5 never mind 7, especially as I only do about 3000 miles a year.
In desperation she then said well if I accidentally put deisel in my tank they would give me £100 towards the repair costs. I advised that I believed that was highly unlikely and still not worth the price hike. She then said well it is impossible for us to go lower because our overheads in coming out to you have increased.
Yawn, Yawn, I reminded her that I had not had any call outs and their only costs to me were sending me the shiny new card every year and taking my inflated monthly payments. I then said look if you aren't going to cut a deal I will cancel now. She said I needed to give 30 days notice, so I gave her due notice and told her to send out cancellation notification. I then asked for a number to ring up to complain about the terrible attitude they had towards existing customers and she gave me a number, then the call ended.
I rang the second number and went through the whole process again after complaining about the AA's lack of loyalty towards their customers. I also asked how they could justify a near 90% increase. She said that when customers had more than one call out they often increased premiums as those customers were an increased cost to them. When I said I had only had 1 call out in 4 years she said "OH", I then suggested that if that was the case then customers who didn't have call outs should receive a reduction, or it was discrimination:D
She asked for my number and if she could call me back, so I agreed. Within 5 minutes I got a call back and she said if they reduced my monthly payment from £6.83 to £6.17 would I consider staying with them? I said I would, so agreed to stay. Yes I could have jumped and still gone to RAC for the free fuel but I also appreciated the better level of service I received on this call and the willingness to negotiate. Also staying for another year, I think will put me in a better position for next years negotiations....
So I managed in the end to go from £6.83 down to £6.17 after being initially being advised of £12.34 for the renewal. This is the 4th year I have haggled my price down and I am now paying less for 2013 - 2014 than I did in 2009.
So be prepared to cancel if you threaten to, stick by your guns, moan like a good un and you might just get a much better deal:beer:
It's off to do the same with the car insurance next month when they put that up by a silly amount. Last year I managed just over £300 off the price but you have to be persistant!!!
I received my renewal last week for this years AA Breakdown cover. I have roadside assistance and relay. I have learned to haggle with them each year but this time it was different.
My renewal cam with the news that thanks to my loyalty they had awarded me GOLD MEMBERSHIP:j............
Unfortunately they also hiked the price from £6.83 a month to £12.34:eek:
So I checked online and the same cover was £80 in one payment or £8.00 a month, so £16 for the privelage of paying monthly in advance. I also checked RAC who offered £79.99 or £8.08 a month but with the sweetener of £10.10 casback and £50 of free fuel. Armed with all this info I mounted my crusade..........
I advised I was not happy with the price quoted and was told they could bring it down to £9.81 a month because I was such a good customer. I politely declined and advised it was only £8 a month online including the levy for paying monthly in advance. She said to me "I don't think it is, you have got that wrong!"........
So I advised her that I had the information on the screen in front of me. She said she would check and then conceded I was right. So she offered to match the price.
I again declined and advised what I could get from the RAC including the free fuel. She then advised me that the £50 free fuel wasn't free fuel as you had to go online to claim £12.50 a quarter!!!!!!
I advised that £12.50 x 4 = £50.00:rotfl:
She again conceded the point.
Tired of all this I said if they were not prepared to go lower, baring in mind I have had no call outs for 4 years then I would cancel. Her reply was that did I not realise that my gold card meant I could have 7 call outs a year instead of 5? So I told her that as I had only had 1 call out in the last 4 years, I was unlikely to suddenly need 5 never mind 7, especially as I only do about 3000 miles a year.
In desperation she then said well if I accidentally put deisel in my tank they would give me £100 towards the repair costs. I advised that I believed that was highly unlikely and still not worth the price hike. She then said well it is impossible for us to go lower because our overheads in coming out to you have increased.
Yawn, Yawn, I reminded her that I had not had any call outs and their only costs to me were sending me the shiny new card every year and taking my inflated monthly payments. I then said look if you aren't going to cut a deal I will cancel now. She said I needed to give 30 days notice, so I gave her due notice and told her to send out cancellation notification. I then asked for a number to ring up to complain about the terrible attitude they had towards existing customers and she gave me a number, then the call ended.
I rang the second number and went through the whole process again after complaining about the AA's lack of loyalty towards their customers. I also asked how they could justify a near 90% increase. She said that when customers had more than one call out they often increased premiums as those customers were an increased cost to them. When I said I had only had 1 call out in 4 years she said "OH", I then suggested that if that was the case then customers who didn't have call outs should receive a reduction, or it was discrimination:D
She asked for my number and if she could call me back, so I agreed. Within 5 minutes I got a call back and she said if they reduced my monthly payment from £6.83 to £6.17 would I consider staying with them? I said I would, so agreed to stay. Yes I could have jumped and still gone to RAC for the free fuel but I also appreciated the better level of service I received on this call and the willingness to negotiate. Also staying for another year, I think will put me in a better position for next years negotiations....
So I managed in the end to go from £6.83 down to £6.17 after being initially being advised of £12.34 for the renewal. This is the 4th year I have haggled my price down and I am now paying less for 2013 - 2014 than I did in 2009.
So be prepared to cancel if you threaten to, stick by your guns, moan like a good un and you might just get a much better deal:beer:
It's off to do the same with the car insurance next month when they put that up by a silly amount. Last year I managed just over £300 off the price but you have to be persistant!!!
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Comments
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Are you for real?
Most folks get free breakdown included with their insurance.0 -
Are you for real?
Most folks get free breakdown included with their insurance.
That's not correct at all, breakdown cover is chargeable as an extra at the time of purchasing the car insurance.
Back to the OP's point, the AA have sadly become obsessed with fleecing loyal customers though stunts like this. The only way to do breakdown cover nowadays is by changing supplier ever year (remembering to cancel payments to the previous one), while always taking full advantage of cashback offers for new customers.0 -
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seems easier just to switch to rac,0
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I wanted to share this experience with others and hopefully everyone can learn to haggle for the best deals. Sorry its a bit long but I wanted to get all the detail in, to show persistence can pay off.
I received my renewal last week for this years AA Breakdown cover. I have roadside assistance and relay. I have learned to haggle with them each year but this time it was different.
This is the 4th year I have haggled my price down and I am now paying less for 2013 - 2014 than I did in 2009.
So be prepared to cancel if you threaten to, stick by your guns, moan like a good un and you might just get a much better deal:beer:
It's off to do the same with the car insurance next month when they put that up by a silly amount. Last year I managed just over £300 off the price but you have to be persistant!!!
So far this year I've cancelled AA membership after ca. 20 years and no callouts, changed house insurance and changed electricity supplier. My policy is cancel first [by stopping bank payments] and then tell them - saves a lot of telephone time although they all seem to have special staff who try to get you back. Next I'll do it for car insurance but the big one is the bank - been with them for 52 years. In general I find that the big organisations care nothing and give no reward for customer loyalty. They rely on customer inertia and push premiums and charges as far as they judge that they can without the customer rebelling. All very unsatisfactory.0 -
Are you for real?
Most folks get free breakdown included with their insurance.
Yes I am for real, if you get breakdown included in your insurance, you have paid for it in the premium. Alternatively you can get it as part of a premium bank account that you pay for at around £10 a month. Nobody gets breakdown cover FREE in this day and age. You pay for it one way or another.
It would seem you are not a fan of haggling to get the best deal on things from your response. A lot of people like me are on limited budgets and need to know about not just accepting a renewal price for anything anymore as you end up being fleeced, with no discount for loyalty anymore from anyone it seems.
I am quite proud to think that about an hour of my time and a little research saved me over £70 in premiums on my breakdown cover. It might not be for you but lots of people do it and if my experience helps someone save some money then it was worth the effort.0 -
I have been with the AA for years as I find their service to be pretty good.
Each year I have to call the on renewal and so far they have always roughly halved to premium and come in below RACs on line introductory price. Only takes 15 minutes or so.0 -
+1 for haggling
My experience with the AA Gold card scam was to phone up and quote the equivalent RAC new member price. Told them to beat the price or I'm leaving. Worked a treat and I kept the AA gold membership (whatever that does)
Dave0 -
Exactly the same with me, came in a tenner under the RAC introductory price.+1 for haggling
My experience with the AA Gold card scam was to phone up and quote the equivalent RAC new member price. Told them to beat the price or I'm leaving. Worked a treat and I kept the AA gold membership (whatever that does)
Dave0
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