Complaint AA Breakdown Renewal without notification

joymac

I'm not sure if I'm in the right section but In January this year my daughter, her husband, 18 month old baby & two friends broke down in the middle of Dumfriesshire & had to be pushed off the road by the local police. She eventually had to phone the AA as they were about 2 hours from home. Short version is that she had to take out membership PLUS roadside assistance PLUS Relay. This took so long to do that 2 of their mobile phones died. They were left for 4 hours off the main road, in the dark, with no toilet facilities & no food & a toddler. this service cost them £112 to join THEN another £128 to be towed home - a whopping £240. This service can be bought for £69 on-line. She wrote to them to complain & eventually got a letter back saying that it costs more when you join at the roadside, not fair to their existing members blah blah. I appreciate it will cost more at the roadside but £171 more & abandoned for 4 hours - I don't think so. Their attitude stinks. Basically it was-we've got your money so tough. I'm appalled. Is there anywhere we can lodge this as an official complaint - anywhere with teeth is what I really mean

The_AA_Company_Representative

joymac wrote: »

I'm not sure if I'm in the right section but In January this year my daughter, her husband, 18 month old baby & two friends broke down in the middle of Dumfriesshire & had to be pushed off the road by the local police. She eventually had to phone the AA as they were about 2 hours from home. Short version is that she had to take out membership PLUS roadside assistance PLUS Relay. This took so long to do that 2 of their mobile phones died. They were left for 4 hours off the main road, in the dark, with no toilet facilities & no food & a toddler. this service cost them £112 to join THEN another £128 to be towed home - a whopping £240. This service can be bought for £69 on-line. She wrote to them to complain & eventually got a letter back saying that it costs more when you join at the roadside, not fair to their existing members blah blah. I appreciate it will cost more at the roadside but £171 more & abandoned for 4 hours - I don't think so. Their attitude stinks. Basically it was-we've got your money so tough. I'm appalled. Is there anywhere we can lodge this as an official complaint - anywhere with teeth is what I really mean

If your daughter and son-in-law have outstanding issues that they would like to address with the AA, we welcome them to contact our Member Relations team on 0844 209 0556.

Twon82

Hi All,

Long time reader of Money Saving Expert and my first post. I have found this site and the advice of it's members to of great help and it is very much appreciated.

I too have been stung by the AA's automatic renewal without my prior knowledge or being informed.

I was checking a statement for an old back account that I do not use...(only use it for paying off my loan and credit card) to find that the AA had took £133.25 had been taken form my account using my direct debit card.

I have had no renewal letters through the post and I even called them last august to inform them of a change of address when I moved house.

The money taken out has taken me over my overdraft limit and I have now received a letter form my bank stating I will be subject un-arranged overdraft charges of £6 per day (5 days worth until I realised and have had to transfer funds from my new bank to my old account to prevent further charges.

I called the AA on Friday and the guy on the phone said they would refund the money but that it may take up to 21 days!!!!

I am furious as now I have been left short of money for the remainder of this month and with £30 in un-arranged overdraft charges!!

Even though they have said they will refund the £133.25 I will be out of pocket with bank charges which were not my fault and also considerably inconvenienced financially for the rest of the month.

Is there anything I can do to get the bank charges back and the refund more quickly???

wealdroam

Twon82 wrote: »

Hi All,

Long time reader of Money Saving Expert and my first post. I have found this site and the advice of it's members to of great help and it is very much appreciated.

I too have been stung by the AA's automatic renewal without my prior knowledge or being informed.

I was checking a statement for an old back account that I do not use...(only use it for paying off my loan and credit card) to find that the AA had took £133.25 had been taken form my account using my direct debit card.

I have had no renewal letters through the post and I even called them last august to inform them of a change of address when I moved house.

The money taken out has taken me over my overdraft limit and I have now received a letter form my bank stating I will be subject un-arranged overdraft charges of £6 per day (5 days worth until I realised and have had to transfer funds from my new bank to my old account to prevent further charges.

I called the AA on Friday and the guy on the phone said they would refund the money but that it may take up to 21 days!!!!

I am furious as now I have been left short of money for the remainder of this month and with £30 in un-arranged overdraft charges!!

Even though they have said they will refund the £133.25 I will be out of pocket with bank charges which were not my fault and also considerably inconvenienced financially for the rest of the month.

Is there anything I can do to get the bank charges back and the refund more quickly???

What is a direct debit card?
Did they use your debit card, or was it a direct debit?

Either way, you agreed to the automatic renewal last year when you renewed then.

It seems that you intended to let the cover lapse this year and not bother with further AA cover. It is always a good idea to confirm your intention when cancelling anything.

As your renewal was approaching, did you not consider it strange that they did not contact you about renewal?
Did it not cross your mind that perhaps you had not heard from them because they had failed to register your change of address correctly?

Twon82

Thanks for your reply!

I meant to say debit card in my post. My mistake.

Just to clarify I have never renewed the breakdown cover. I have only been with the AA for one year and signed up due to a promotional leaflet that I received through the post when I purchased my car. Seemed very reasonable at about £15 for 12 months.

I paid by debit card thinking that this was a one-off purchase, that it would run its course, and if I wanted to renew there would be some correspondence, whereby I could agree to the new renewal.

I was totally unaware they could take money after paying with a debit card, let alone the huge increase in the cost of cover.

I thought they would perhaps be in contact when the renewal was due, but didn't think anything of it until I saw money had been taken from my account using my debit card.

It was only when I spoke to the guy at AA on the phone that I thought perhaps they had registered my change of address incorrectly...but I did telephone when I moved house and informed them of my new details, which was confirmed to me by the operative.

I thought I had covered myself by informing them. If I can't trust a company to register my details correctly when I inform them of a change, then how can I have confidence in their products? I may even get post-dated letter through the post yet as claimed by others on this thread who have?? Who knows??

As can be seen by the number of posts in this thread and numerous links on "AA payments system criticised" the way the AA run automatic renewals does catch people out!!

I am aware now and will be in the future...'once bitten twice as shy' as the saying goes.

Surely they need to make it explicitly clear to people when they sign up for their products and not hide it away in the T&C's.

That aside is there any way I should approach this where I am not left out of pocket??

Thanks for your reply Wealdroam! Any advice would be much appreciated!

mikey72

They do need to make it very clear, they also need to send you details of the renewal, with a very clear price, a reasonable time before the renwal date, with clear instructions on how to avoid the remwal. There are a lot of threads where they appear not to. Report them to the FSA, they may decide to look at them if they get enough complaints. As to the overdraft charges, submit a written complaint, asking for compensation as they have not notified you of the renewal, and if they don't agree, advise them you will submit the complaint to the FOS.

wealdroam

Yes Twon82, you did agree to the automatic renewal last year.

You are right, it may well be in their T&Cs, but surely that doesn't mean it is hidden?

Lots of companies do this sort of thing.

Can I suggest you keep an eye on your car insurance renewal too?
It is just possible that they use the same tactic, and if they have failed to make a note of your new address, then I can foresee a post from you complaining that they have also 'ripped you off'.

As for your current situation, my advice is to accept some of the responsibility and look forward to the refund that the AA have promised.
Sorry, but I do not think the AA are totally responsible for your bank charges, and I can only suggest you ask them to cover that loss. No harm in asking.

Twon82

Thanks for your replies guys!

I do accept a level responsibly for the overdraft charges and for perhaps not being as proactive in seeking out that the breakdown cover is not automatically renewed, but surely companies need to make this more clear when you sign up??

Just because "lots of companies do this sort of thing" doesn't make it right.

I am a strong believer in conducting business ethically and building strong customer relationships and inspiring confidence. Judging by the number of posts on this thread alone, and articles about the AA when you Google "AA payments system criticised", I am not alone in being caught out with this!

It may be legally right, but I don't think it is ethically...and I would have expected an organisation with the AA's reputation would have at least considered revising this (the first post on here is dated 2008, and the BBC Moneybox article 9th April 2011.)

My car insurance is with Direct Line, and has already come through by post (they managed to record the change of address correctly with a simple phone call, coincidentally on the same day that I called the AA) to which I am quite happy to continue with...so no future posts about being 'ripped off' to worry about!

We all live and learn, and so I will be more aware in future. After all it is sites like this that equip us with the knowledge to be more aware in future dealings.

I have sent both an email and a written letter via recorded delivery. So now wait and see!!

Thanks to both of you for your advice...it is much appreciated!

The_AA_Company_Representative

Hello Twon82, there are a number of points raised in your post that we would very much like to discuss with you. Please could you email into us, our address is [EMAIL="chat@theaa.com"]chat@theaa.com[/EMAIL] and title your email Reference 9605 . We look forward to hearing from you. The AA

drwatson1970

Dear AA.
Thank you AA for spoiling my weekend.

You harvested cash from my wife's bank account using card details you have stored for a canceled membership.This is the second year running.
You have made the account overdrawn and the knock on effects will take some time and expense to sort out.
It took a considerable amount of time to contact you by phone. Annoyingly once we did get through it was a very uninterested someone who grudgingly arranged for a refund(yet to arrive)and it came with a "33% administration Fee". Add phone calls and bank charges plus the time and stress two years in succession, joining the AA has been quite an expensive mistake.

You claim to be an emergency service, God help anyone who needs to contact you by phone in an emergency, smoke signals would have been more efficient in my case.

A 33% fee for refunding what you had no rights to take in the first place. I feel like I have just been mugged!

I have followed the on-line complaints procedure. So far an automated reply thanking me with advice about how long I can expect to wait for a response(3 days).

The AA a Brand In decline.