Complaint AA Breakdown Renewal without notification

mikey72

drwatson1970 wrote: »

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.

The aa is regulated by the FSA. As such, you should be able to make a complaint to the FOS. Inform the AA in writing you require 100% refund, plus a payment to cover all your overdraft fees, cost of phone calls, and a nominal amount of £50 to cover your time to sort it out. If they do not pay, refer the complaint to the FOS.

drwatson1970

mikey72 wrote: »

The aa is regulated by the FSA. As such, you should be able to make a complaint to the FOS. Inform the AA in writing you require 100% refund, plus a payment to cover all your overdraft fees, cost of phone calls, and a nominal amount of £50 to cover your time to sort it out. If they do not pay, refer the complaint to the FOS.

Thanks I will follow your advice and ill let you know how I get on

drwatson1970

I have posted the same message as above on the AA Facebook page out of sheer frustration.I was given a reference number and email to contact as a result.
I responded and received some standard reply so I followed it up asking for detail and was told I had been contacted on my mobile and left a message that I should ring customer service as they need information.

No missed calls and voice mail is turned off ????.I am out of credit as I used it calling the AA and the bank. I also have no land line so feeling stressed that I cant ring them back.
This really grinds me down. When this happed last year we were in a better position and it hardly mattered.But now things are so totally different and every penny counts.I am out of work and my wife is sick .I am sure returning a few quid wont hurt the AA but minus few quid to me at the moment is a family disaster.My car insurance has not been payed,bank charges are accruing and swallowing up anything I deposit.
Isn't it funny how small things can spiral out of control.All I want Is a full refund.

AWCBMTH

a transaction appeared on my online statement yesterday for £121.00 it was a POS transaction. I called up Natwest and queried it, they told me it was payment made with a canceled debit card and they were very sorry because something like this has never happened before. I was naturally concerned and ask the customer adviser if POS meant point of sale. The answer was yes. I then asked if it meant the individual using my canceled/expired card would need the card at hand, again the answer was yes. So by this point my imagination is running wild and I'm now very worried there is someone running around out there with my old debit card somehow able to use it and that there is a new breed of fraud, after all the customer service officer at Natwest said "THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE". The conversation ends with me being reassured that the card has now definitely been canceled (does this mean that old debit cards are sorta kinda canceled some of the time?) and that the POS fraudsta would not be able to use anymore of my money. A query has been raised on the Natwest system and a customer service adviser will be calling me back within the next 5 working days (don't rush guys it's just my hard earned cash). This morning I log onto my account to find the POS fraudster has magically changed to AA car insurance. No letter for renewal reminder and using old card details.......interesting.

The_AA_Company_Representative

Hello AWCBMTH, 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 FOR16810. We look forward to hearing from you. The AA

specs78

I too, have just had a nasty shock when checking my online credit card statement. AA have taken £145.80 from me, and I haven't received any post from them saying the cover was about to end (I had forgot about it, as I don't even have the car any more, which the policy was for)

I have already alerted my credit card company that I did not ask for the money to be taken. That amount is almost half of my gross wage a week. Thanks a lot, AA (Thieving sods)

GolfBravo

specs78 wrote: »

I too, have just had a nasty shock when checking my online credit card statement. AA have taken £145.80 from me, and I haven't received any post from them saying the cover was about to end (I had forgot about it, as I don't even have the car any more, which the policy was for)

I have already alerted my credit card company that I did not ask for the money to be taken. That amount is almost half of my gross wage a week. Thanks a lot, AA (Thieving sods)

The forum AA rep will most likely advise you to send them an email to discuss the issue.

I've been through this before - in a follow up letter the AA then claimed that they could trace only one phone call (to cancel my membership years ago), not three. They didn't mention the fact that they charged my credit card without authorisation (obviously they don't consider this to be an issue), their main issue was that they couldn't trace a call. How convenient.

brockhurst

I just cannot believe that in this country it is possible to take money from peoples bank account without their knowledge.
like others we cancelled membership of the AA when renewal came because of such large increase.
returned from holiday to find they had continued to take money.
This made the account overdrawn, the bank went ahead and payed, so now as well as the money the AA have taken we also have bank charges for overdraft not agreed?
Usual running around on the phone, got nowhere.
They are all a bunch of conmen, all sealed up between each other. If it had been for a couple of million £ i wonder if the bank would have been so quick to pay?
Anyone, any idea what we can do. ( just pay up and shut up as usual)? DO NOT USE THE AA, Years ago were a well respected company, like most things in this country, gone to the dogs.

wealdroam

brockhurst wrote: »

I just cannot believe that in this country it is possible to take money from peoples bank account without their knowledge.
like others we cancelled membership of the AA when renewal came because of such large increase.
returned from holiday to find they had continued to take money.
This made the account overdrawn, the bank went ahead and payed, so now as well as the money the AA have taken we also have bank charges for overdraft not agreed?
Usual running around on the phone, got nowhere.
They are all a bunch of conmen, all sealed up between each other. If it had been for a couple of million £ i wonder if the bank would have been so quick to pay?
Anyone, any idea what we can do. ( just pay up and shut up as usual)? DO NOT USE THE AA, Years ago were a well respected company, like most things in this country, gone to the dogs.

This is really easy to sort out.

Just write to the AA with confirmation that you cancelled your breakdown cover and they will refund you.
By supplying this confirmation, and copies of bank statements showing you extra expenses, you will have no trouble those too.

By the way... have you now cancelled the Direct debit?
If you cancelled the DD earlier, then your bank will recover the money from The AA under the Direct debit Guarantee.

GolfBravo

wealdroam wrote: »

By the way... have you now cancelled the Direct debit?
If you cancelled the DD earlier, then your bank will recover the money from The AA under the Direct debit Guarantee.

Well, the thing is there is no direct debit to cancel.

In my case I did not agree to any direct debits, my bank didn't have any direct debit authorisations for the AA membership renewal - the AA just kept my debit card details and then just charged it 12 months later.

Which reminds me, I should follow up on my official written complaint to AA - sent it over a month ago, yet to hear back from the AA crooks.