AA Complaint Advice

INAMESS

Hi i'm hoping for some advice over an incident that happened last month, I went to London (100 miles from home) for a day out with my child, I parked at a tube station car park, whilst in London I lost my car key, I am a member of the AA so I rang them and all they did was offer to send a locksmith but it wouldn't be until the following day. Clearly this was no good to me at all, given that they call themselves the 4th emergency service I expected more help than that. I made a complaint a few days later to their complaint department and after 6 weeks have finally received a reply which said they are happy with how they dealt with things and as far as they are concerned the case is closed. Does anyone else think this is unsatisfactory? Should I take it further and if so where do I go?
Thanks

Clive_Woody

I don't believe that the AA supply replacement keys, so even if they could have got your car open you wouldn't have been able to get home.

What level of cover do you have with the AA (just wondering if they could have towed you home if you had the right level of cover - Onwards Travel or whatever it's called).

Scrapit

What are you covered for? What did you expect? What are you hoping to gain?

INAMESS

My cover is roadside and relay. As a so called emergency service I would have expected more help than just “we can get you a key tomorrow” when I was stranded in London with a child, even if it had meant me having to pay extra. I had no offer to get me back home, no offer to open my car for me, no offer to help source someone who could get a key quicker than the next day, no offer to help in another way such as finding a hotel etc. In the end I managed to sort things myself which took about 6 hours. I think it was poor customer service.

fatbelly

Their cover does not seem to include this. It may be worth looking at whether other organisations are more helpful.

What is not covered:
• keys;

Onward Travel (Stay Mobile) is not available following an accident or self induced fault (possible examples of self induced fault include: mis-fuelling, lost keys or locking keys in Your Vehicle)

Aylesbury_Duck

INAMESS wrote: »

My cover is roadside and relay. As a so called emergency service I would have expected more help than just “we can get you a key tomorrow” when I was stranded in London with a child, even if it had meant me having to pay extra. I had no offer to get me back home, no offer to open my car for me, no offer to help source someone who could get a key quicker than the next day, no offer to help in another way such as finding a hotel etc. In the end I managed to sort things myself which took about 6 hours. I think it was poor customer service.

What you would have expected should be what they agreed to provide when you took out cover, not what you think they should provide.

I'm sure you can buy cover or subscribe to some sort of service from somewhere that provides the services you wanted, but it looks like you didn't buy that as part of your package with the AA. I can't see you have grounds to take your complaint further.

Car_54

INAMESS wrote: »

Clearly this was no good to me at all, given that they call themselves the 4th emergency service I expected more help than that.

I believe the somewhat controversial advertising campaign where they called themselves "the 4th emergency service"was at least 20 years ago ....

George_Michael

Car_54 wrote: »

I believe the somewhat controversial advertising campaign where they called themselves "the 4th emergency service"was at least 20 years ago ....

Their "4th emergency service" advertising campaign may have been 20+ years ago but the AA have referred to themselves as "The 4th Emergency service" far more recently than this.
I first joined the AA in 2013 and this slogan was being used by them in their brochures then and it carried on being used for a while after this.

Scrapit

INAMESS wrote: »

My cover is roadside and relay. As a so called emergency service I would have expected more help than just “we can get you a key tomorrow” when I was stranded in London with a child, even if it had meant me having to pay extra. I had no offer to get me back home, no offer to open my car for me, no offer to help source someone who could get a key quicker than the next day, no offer to help in another way such as finding a hotel etc. In the end I managed to sort things myself which took about 6 hours. I think it was poor customer service.

Open your car? Why? You haven't got a key. No use opening it. If you had a breakdown they would have relayed you. Bit you didn't breakdown. You needed to sort it your self cos it's was your problem, not theirs. They didn't cover you ,no grounds for a complaint.

Mutton_Geoff

You lost your own key. Sometimes we have to take responsibility for our actions and not look to blame others to cover us when we make mistakes.

Car_54

INAMESS wrote: »

The 4th emergency service ad was a lot more recent than 20 years ago!

You’re right. The ad campaign lasted until 2002, so only 17 years.