Complaint AA Breakdown Renewal without notification

funkycoldribena

onelifeleft wrote: »

and I'd be switching to the RAC (£160).

How much???? Are you mad?

onelifeleft

Covers several vehicles, relay the whole works. Break down in the middle of nowhere with 3 kids and it's worth it mate.

mikey72

I paid £94 for roadside, and relay with the AA, for joint membership, then got £42 cashback.
So £52 all in.

boredofthis

okjak wrote: »

Beware of AA sharp practice. I cancelled my AA membership a year ago to go with a better alternative with whom I have been happy to continue. Today I recieved a 'WELCOME BACK' notice that the AA will AUTOMATICALLY renew my membership and charge my credit card. It advises me to call them for any queries or cancellation but that call is eventually disconnected on the pretext that they are too busy.

The AA was bought up by an agressive private equity company a few years ago. They appear to act as if they can come back and charge you at any time in the future. I have looked at their T & C whcih makes no mention of any such right. I have written and faxed the following:

I refer to your notice dated 27 March 2011 ref membership no. 6356 0181 5294 9273. I cancelled membership last year. No advice or claim regarding any restart of membership was given at that time. You now allege that you are entitled to automatically restart my membership on 29 April 2011 and charge my credit card. I have not contacted the AA at any time since cancellation, have not authorised any such restart or payment by any means whatsoever. Please confirm receipt of this message, that my membership has been cancelled permanently and that no further attempts to restart or collect payment will be made. I have tried to contact you by phone as advise in your Terms and Conditions (p20) on 0800 but have several times been disconnected and told to call back later. If confirmation of this message and action taken is not received I will take it up with the FSA, Financial Ombudsman, consumer and media organisations and claim against you for any costs incurred.
I do authorise you to contact me to confirm cancellation but do not authroise you or any other partner organisation to contact me by any means whatsoever for any product sales related purpose.

Same just happened to me today. I'm not allowed to post links, but if you try "AA payments system is criticised" in google, it will take you to BBC Moneybox article on the issue. AA answer when challenged by BBC shows they knew full well and they say they would act to stop it, but end of May and it's still going on. This article also explains how they can get money from an expired credit card, since some of you have been wondering (and your bank can't stop it, and neither can you).

jlrtech

"AA told BBC in April they'd do something"

seems we are still victims of our own success :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

miller

boredofthis wrote: »

Same just happened to me today. I'm not allowed to post links, but if you try "AA payments system is criticised" in google, it will take you to BBC Moneybox article on the issue.

Interesting read, thanks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13013183

10 days for a renewal letter to arrive? Have Royal Mail introduced Third Class especially for them?

Also I've got an outstanding complaint about their Home Insurance which is already with the FOS as they failed to reply in 8 weeks.

On a positive note, their Savings account wasn't bad! But I think this is administered by HBOS.

I would like to see an email one month before the policy is due for renewal along these lines:

Dear xxx,

Your AA breakdown policy is due for renewal on xx/xx/xxxx.

Our renewal price is £xx.xx, an increase of £xx.xx (xx %) on last year's premium.

If you do not wish to renew, please visit our website and click "cancel my membership". A confirmation email will be sent and your card will not be charged.
<web address>

Thank you for your custom over the past year.
<name>

jlrtech

if you knew what goes on behind the scenes :eek:

acoull

Last year my husband & I took out a one year European Breakdown policy with the AA to cover our trips abroad. In April this year the AA sent a renewal notice which we did not take up as it was not needed. On returning home,following an extended stay away, we found a letter from the AA confirming renewal of the policy and confirmation that money had been taken from our credit card. We immediately contacted the AA & explained cover was not needed or required & that we would like the policy cancelled & a refund (at a pro rata rate). We have been told that this is not possible as we had opted into an automatic renewal agreement with them last year. In fact when taking out the policy we were not informed that this would be the case & indeed had they done so we would not have taken the policy in the first place.

Setting aside the actual dispute it is the AA's attitude which is so deplorable & I would urge anyone thinking of taking out any products with this organisation to think not just once but twice as it may cost you dearly - and what is worse on a recurring basis.

gazebo

my story is as follows

today I logged into online banking to discover £115 debited by the AA.

I have not received any paperwork from them regarding renewal, so this debit has not been pre notifed.

I called the landline number on back of membership card and was told that they sent out renewal documents on the 26th June.

If I'd called to cancel the renewal before then, it'd have cost me nothing. Now that I'm within the 14 day cooling off period, they can cancel my membership, but it'll cost £20.00 admin fee.

I asked politely why I should pay a fee when I was not pre notifed of the amount. They refused to help.

I will be going into my bank tomorrow to carry out a direct debit recall because as far as I am concerned (and why would I lie?), they have not adhered to the principles of direct debits as they have not pre notified me of the amount they were going to take.

There ends my story.

gazebo

gets even better when they called today to ask to verify my address as they've received returned correspondence. Do we think they'd refund me? Rather than waiting for this to happen, I went to my bank and asked them to process a direct debit recall.

I am still annoyed though