To be furious with the AA

[TheDelayyAA]

Yesterday at lunchtime, my car broke down at Gretna Green, I called the AA and they recovered us to the services. We were then kicking our heels until 9pm waiting for a recovery home to Liverpool… but they didn’t tell me that we’d be kicked out thirty miles down the road in the driving rain to wait for the next company to take us home.

I had four kids with me… one is my son who is autistic who functions very well indeed but absolutely needs routine, sleep, calm and most importantly melatonin at night or he literally cannot sleep at all. Staying in a hotel room would not be an option for us, we were even scrabbling around in the boot for some random melatonin so we could stay if we had to.

The app didn’t work. I phoned them about 24 times stressing that we absolutely had to get home. Half the time there were arrangements made which the disappeared off the system, we had to watch others break down and be recovered while we stood there twiddling our thumbs. Somebody would be turning up and the next minute the job would be cancelled. We were constantly being told we were at the top of the priority list because of my son and his medical needs but couldn’t or didn’t seem to be able to help in any other way.

They refused to send us a taxi, refused to pay for a hotel room. Refused to do anything but sit and wait, we had exhausted all fun options and eating opportunities and it was chucking it down. I’m proud to say the children were brilliant, they barely even complained. They really didn’t care about my options as a lone woman with a bunch of kids in the dark with piles of pissed men circling around.

We were finally sent a taxi at 11pm and got home at 1am. I had been calling around all sort of taxi firms to try and get us home with no luck. But these guys have contracts with taxi firms and would have been able to sort it much sooner if they’d bothered.

Apparently this happens all the time…one of the driver said he’s known of elderly people left sitting for 8 hours....

I don’t have such a problem if there’s a “lack of resource” because yea it’s a Sunday night height of summer, but for such a big organisation to refuse to dig deep and take some responsibility for getting us home was shocking.

Is this normal? I’ve never needed them before. We have gold level coverage or whatever and they were absolutely deplorable. Been with them for years, goodbye AA.

They are all pretty shit now. I have had similar experiences with green flag and the rac.

Sounds awful but unfortunately customer service doesn’t exist anymore, The only good service you get is when someone takes responsibility themselves and goes above and beyond,

You could put an official complaint in but it won’t change what happened yesterday.

Well done to your children for staying so calm.

I've heard similar nightmare stories OP. I think You and yours on radio 4 did an item some time ago about the problems people had experienced.

Absolutely dreadful when, quite rightly , you assume you are paying for your coverage to avoid situations like the one you experienced.

I honestly had the worst experience with the AA a couple of months ago. I wrote a snotty email and got some compensation but they are dreadful.

What level of cover do you have? If it's just AA standard roadside assistance cover you'd only get recovery to services? You would only be covered to take you home or hotel if you have 'onward travel' cover, otherwise that's your responsibility.

I'm sorry you broke down, that must have been really stressful. But as technically you were safe at services you would not be a priority compared to people stuck on the motorway or country roads.

With standard Roadside Assistance, your car will be recovered to the nearest garage and you'll have to figure out the rest yourself. Do you have the enhanced cover?

As I said in the OP we have the top kw em of cover. So yes recovery to anywhere.

@A116 what happened in your situation? (And I hadn’t considered compo - tell me more about that!🤣)

I left the AA because of a similar experience. They sent the wrong type of recovery truck despite me telling them what they needed to send, then the driver could only take us part way because he couldn’t go over his hours, then we had to wait for another truck to recover us. The whole thing took 12 hours and the AA were utterly shit. They didn’t keep us up to date on what was happening, were totally dismissive and in the end offered me £50 compensation.

I don't bother with these companies.

When my car did I break down I phoned a local recovery firm who arrived within about 20 minutes, took my car to a garage, and then took me home.

For £85.

The AA is yet another great old company that was taken over by a private equity firm and run into the ground. Quality and customer care are barely a consideration in the drive to cut costs.

Have a look at Britannia as one alternative. They've been pretty good for me these past few years.

They are all pretty terrible these days, unfortunately. I have tried a few, but settled on Green Flag now as the service is the same as the others but at least they're cheaper.
I don't understand how a service can cost more (allowing for inflation) than it did 20-odd years ago and have to act on its contract less often (modern cars break down much less), yet struggle to tend to their customers in a reasonable time frame. They are rarely able to get you back up and running now as well, as they don't send someone with a decent range of tools and common parts. They must be pocketing an awful lot of profit, because on the face of it they have more income with lower service demand!

I use Autoaid... they're cheaper and use all the same recovery people as AA and RAC. Not been too bad at all after a nightmare experience with RAC.

Doesn’t surprise me! Left me stranded on the motorway a few years ago.

The AA CEO is [email protected] if you want to contact him with a complaint.

I had a dire experience with rac broke down in live lane of dual carriageway. Called was told ASAP as dangerous. I was there for hours starting to get dark and hazard lights dying.A police car pulled in behind me and left blue lights on. Eventually they sent the job to a contractor but that could of been done hours previously.

Similar to my experience too- broke down 8pm at night finally got home 1pm the next day. I received compensation after complaining

Normal I would say. Theyare all terrible. The last time I used the AA they simply did not come. The time before, the RAC said they had no availability until the next morning, to get a taxi home and call them again in the morning.

I've always found Green Flag to be very good to be fair. They only use local contractors who have been able to give me accurate info re local services etc. never had to wait more than about an hour, but i guess ive been lucky.

Oh and the key cover I bought with RAC. They told me that it only covered recovery up to 11 miles but I was 24 miles from the dealer. No clue. Told me I had to get the car to a dealer, even though it was locked and I was unable to get into it.
I got someone on line I found who came out and reprogrammed and cut keys and sent them the bill. Which they paid. I complained that they didn't have a service which actually met what the policy was for. Never heard from them again.

My friend had the same last summer; her, her husband and two kids broke down up in the highlands. They waited hours for recovery and we’re just dropped at the next service station to wait for the next recovery vehicle to to bring them the next leg of the journey but that would only get them half way and there would be another driver sent for the next part. It honestly looked like it could take over 24 hours to get them home.
There were no hotels nearby, very basic services so not many food options, they were told it would be an 8 to 10 hour wait. I ended up driving up to the highlands to get them and bring them home (we’re near Glasgow). The service was shocking.

AA is terrible now. We use Auto Aid. They say they will get to us within 2 hours. We were once in the middle of nowhere literally and they took 2.5 hours, and that was only so long as the guy got lost trying to find us.

We've had some really bad and some not so bad experiences with them over the last few years! The bad was really bad! And they offered compensation before I even complained because they knew they had messed up. However because the initial recovery driver couldn't go over his hours we were taken to a car hire place and given a hire car so we could get home and the car followed separately with different recovery drivers. Surprised they don't do this with everyone that has the full recovery package. This was in 2024 as well. Took an age to get the car back but we were able to get home much quicker. Just as well with little children!

We broke down in a seven seater with five kids and a dog on the M1 and Green Flag were absolutely amazing. They drove us 150 miles and they had to get a second vehicle as there were seven of us.

I just cancelled my AA membership because the premium went up by almost 50%. I got cover with someone else for £45 for the whole year with a £40 excess. I don't drive very far and my car is regularly serviced so I will take my chances. The last time I called the AA out I had to wait in the dark with my son for around two hours on a country road. It was my own fault because I didn't see a traffic calming kerb.

Green flag were great last week. They initially said 45 minutes, but had to update it because the chap coming discovered someone had pinched the ramp (scrap metal) overnight
So he was 2 hours.
I was in a supermarket car park so safe.

He took me to the garage and waited while I talked to them, and offered to take the car to another garage when they couldn't look at it that day .

I've called them 3 times now and they have always been excellent. This was the longest I've had to wait, even though one time it was from our driveway.

DD had her car written off by a Green Flag mechanic. He decided to work on an issue without disconnecting the battery. Effectively hot wired the car which then jumped forward into a brick wall.

The repair company were so embarrassed they bought the car from DD at a price she named. I assume the mechanic is now working elsewhere.