I have had full AA cover for 7 years now - All provided free with company cars. During this time I have called the AA out 3 times and the service has varied in quality considerably.
On the first occasion the clutch packed in on an old shape Rover 400. I phoned the AA and gave them my exact location. They advised a waiting time of approx. 1 hour. After three quarters of an hour they rang back to say they couldn't get a patrol to me and would send out a garage. The garage tow truck arrived half an hour later after being given the wrong location by the AA. I was towed to their garage (The local Rover dealer). As the fault could not be fixed there and then I needed a hire car. It then took three hours for the AA to sort out the hire car (mainly because I had no voucher from the patrol man. It took 3 phone calls for them to understand that having this voucher was impossible because I hadn't been attended by a patrol man.
On the second occasion my Vauxhall Vectra wouldn't start. Initially the AA sent out a garage again. He was not able to fix the car and thought it was the immobilisor. He arranged for the AA to relay me to Bristol from Bridgend. When the relay truck arrived the driver had a look at the vehicle and deduced that uit was actually the fuel line that was the problem and that fuel had been syphoned back to the tank and he managed to start the vehicle.
On the third occasion (last month) the powre steering packed up on my three month old Vectra. This time an AA patrol arrived within 30 minutes. He arranged for a recovery to a local garage and arranged for a hire car for the next day if I required it. The relay vehicle arrived within a further 30 minutes. The garage was able to fix the problem the next day and I cancelled the hire car before picking it up.
The moral of the stories are - 1) If the AA send out their own patrols you will be fine. If they send out a local garage then you can expect an inferior service - the AA are not geared up to using outside contractors.
2) Remember the telephone operators rely on maps and may not always be the best at finding out of the way locations.
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Advantages: none- I never actually had a breakdown to use the services Disadvantages: they benefit financially if you do not receive your renewal notice
cscullion 23.09.2009 ·
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Advantages: I passed! Learn in brand new Ford Focus, well trained Instructor, free AA membership for 12 months Disadvantages: cost - you pay for the good service you receive
surfchik27 02.06.2005 (02.06.2005)
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