Complaint AA Breakdown Renewal without notification

Arwen

I cancelled the AA too.I had mine on Direct Debit, no renewal stuff and they DOUBLED their payments and took the money out my bank.

I phoned and complained, and eventually got a snotty guy who tried to argue with me, but I held firm and got my money refunded.

I am with the RAC who I must say are excellent.:T

glaux

I am absolutely fuming, I just saw from my bank statement that the AA took £66 out of my account. I had forgotten to cancel the Direct Debit... I tried to cancel my AA membership last year, but the guy on the phone was really pushy and in the end he talked me into getting something called a "One call out membership". He said it was free for a year and that it was valid for a single call out. He made it sound like it was some kind of reward for my loyalty, when in fact it was a sneaky ploy to keep me into a contract. Now I just found the original letter I got after agreeing to this deal and the small print says:
"At the end of this Membership year your Membership will be automatically renewed to standard Roadside Assistance cover"!
But also:
"A renewal notification will be sent to you well in advance of the renewal date reminding you of this".
Now I'm 90% sure I never got this letter, but what if I did get something from the AA and simply binned it, thinking "I am no longer a member anyway, this must be junk"?
I am certainly going to say I never got the letter and ask for a refund. I just wish it wasn't 9pm and I didn't have to wait until tomorrow. So annoying!!!

The_AA_Company_Representative

Hello Glaux, we hope you have contacted the relevant department to discuss this. If there is anything further you would like us to address, please email the details to [EMAIL="chat@theaa.com"]chat@theaa.com[/EMAIL] including your full name, address and membership number with Reference FOR56721. Thank you, The AA

cantabkitty

For what it's worth, I phoned to cancel my membership today and the person did it and refunded my card with no quibbles. It actually renewed yesterday (I just forgot all about it) and I asked nicely if I could still cancel.

AAscam

^^^^ I wish my experience was as positive.

I joined the AA last year, but didn't realise my payment method was regarded as "continuous"...... which is obviously my fault for not reading through the junk they sent.

My membership comes up for renewal on the 15th Jan (tomorrow). I contacted them last week to cancel my membership, and requested a refund for the monthly payment they have already taken from my bank account (even though my membership has not yet reached its renewal date).

I believed that I was within their 14 day cooling off period for renewals. How wrong was I, their rules for cancelling "continous" payments are not given anywhere near the prominence they give to their 14 day cooling off period. For "continous" payments you have to give 30 days notice even when the membership is up for renewal. Therefore my refund was refused.

Lesson learnt, and the AA will never again see a penny from me. They are a grubby, unethical, short sighted company. For the sake of £17 they have lost a customer forever. If they had played fairly I would certainly have considered using one of their many products at some stage in the future.

I have now joined the RAC using my clubcard points, no financial details have been handed over, and I'll certainly be far more careful when handing over my debit card details to any organisation in future.

The 4th emergency service - don't make me laugh, you are doing a genuine disservice to the 3 emergency services by trying to associate yourselves with them. I'm severely tempted to arrange for a breakdown to occur within the next few weeks just to get my £17's worth :mad:.

Horizon81

Yes it's pretty shocking. I'd rather pay the few quid extra and not direct debit things like this. I presume you were able to cancel as of nexr month - i.e. you weren't tied into another 12 month contract.

AAscam

I was able to cancel my membership, but I am now still an AA member until the 15th February. My payment was via a monthly DDR, so they only helped themselves to one months payment in advance.

I signed up with the RAC on the day I initially cancelled my AA membership, firmly believing I was within the 14 days renewal cancellation period, and that the money they had already taken out of my bank account was taken in error, and would be refunded without any problems............ how naive was I

I now have 2 breakdown policies in force at the same time, but it will obviously be the AA who get the call if I do happen to breakdown within the next few weeks. The longterm plan is to stick with the RAC and renew when the time comes by using my clubcard points, so that I never have to hand my financial details over to companies that operate in the underhand way the AA chooses to do business.

Edit - I've just noticed the AA have amended their terms and conditions to include the right to cancel the policy without any refund if they believe there has been a breakdown in its relationship with the member. Presumably cancelling your renewal and telling the AA exactly what you think of them could be considered as a breakdown in relationships :-)

DontGiveUp2011

I've just checked my bank statement and found a charge of £62 for an auto renewal. If i'd not checked my account I wouldn't have been wise to this - I've moved house recently, so no letters or card from the AA.

I took out an offer last year, and certainly don't remember anything about an auto renewal! I've moved house and don't really use the car anyway, so I wouldn't have renewed it, but now I am trying to cancel it - the first time I got through to someone they insisted that it was correct as I'd signed up to auto-renewal, and they'd sent out a letter to my old address.
They have my email and phone number, but they didn't bother to check if I actually wanted to authorise this payment.

I'm now on hold (queue time is 10mins!) after being hung up on on my first attempt!!

It's now sorted. Although the guy tried to sell me cover for a car i'm no longer using! he said 'since you've already paid, we could give you a reduced cost for your cover' haha :rotfl: A firm 'no thanks, i just want a refund' was fine. Refund will take 21 days to be paid back.

For those needing to go through this, the number you need is 0161 332 1789 (same as 0843 316 4444 from saynoto0870) press 2, then 2 again to cancel your auto-renewal.

Daboss

Hi ( first post here )

Just joined this forum after many years lurking, so hello.

I'd like to add I've also been a victim of the AA renewal issue and will be posting details with the letter i received from the AA today. But first i thought i'd see if the above AA rep will respond to my email as would like to her their review ( they seem willing to help in some form )

Thanks
D

secretmachines

cantabkitty wrote: »

For what it's worth, I phoned to cancel my membership today and the person did it and refunded my card with no quibbles. It actually renewed yesterday (I just forgot all about it) and I asked nicely if I could still cancel.

that's good to hear - anyone else with experience of this?

I plan to cancel the renewal of my AA membership (and take up a much better offer for the same cover elsewhere).

My renewal date is Monday 2nd Feb, will I be ok to call and have it cancelled tomorrow? I have today cancelled the direct debit (annual payment) via online banking.

I presume as there is this 14day cooling off period, if the renewal price has already been processed by my bank, I can still have this refunded?