donatello

I have to tell about my recent very poor experience with the AA.....

Doing 80 down the motorway when i lost all electrics and ended up on the hard shoulder. Couldnt get he car started so decided to get the AA out.

1) Phoned them and they said i was a priority as i was on the motorway and somebody would be with me shortly.

waited 2 1/2hrs............

2) FInally a recover truck arrived. The guy got out and had a look at the car,couldnt see the problem so said he would have to tow me to the garage. So he proceeded to lift the front wheels up and levae the back wheels on the floor.

He says jump in lets go.......

3) Im no mechanic, but i said to him surely you cant tow a 4 wheel drive car like that? Surely you have to secure the back wheels and get a trolley under then? Else the gearbox will be ruined!
Oh yes he says.... your right.... I was more annoyed as on the phone i had told the AA it was a 4WD and they still sent the wrong vehicle. My scooby could have been ruined!!!!

Off goes that tow truck and 1 1/2 later another arrives....

4) THis finally gets me on the back and then off we go.

From breaking down to getting home 5 hours. I shant be renewing my membership!!!!


Anyone else got any horror stories?

unfeasablylargegonads

iTrader: (3)

ohh dont get me started.... not AA in my case, but direct line, they cost me an engine (well after taking them to court it cost them an engine).

Got a mechanic friend, says 1/2 the breakdown people who drop cars off to him are complete muppets.

Trashman

Only breakdown in recent years the guy stares into the engine bay (Laguna at the time) for a good 5 mins, then asks "Where's the dipstick?".....Sadly my answer was a wasted opportunity but then I needed the tow to the dealer

mark@wrx

HAd almost exactly the same when my cambelt jumped teeth. Sent a dolly truck despite beng told it needed a flat bed then 1 hour later the truck arrives. Had to drop me off part way to put me onto another truck that was going "nearer to where I live". Tag team relay....

ricardo

In contrast, I drove out of the car park at work late one night and the engine died, wouldn't start so called Subaru Assist, expecting a truck. Nope, what turned up was a Techical Support Vehicle (people carrier full of stuff) and a guy who was going to fix it (he said).

And he did ! - by a process of elimination it was isolated to the fuel pump not getting any volts, turned out to be a bad contact in a wiring block next to the tank (under the back seat).

He rewired it and off I went.

Full marks to Subaru Assist... definitely not a muppet in this case.

Dream Weaver

Odd, have used them about 10 times in the last 2-3 years and everytime they have been great. Membership is in the wifes name so maybe the lone female aspect works

BishopDevious

Went round to my mates the other week. Been there a couple of minutes when his dad phoned him up. He had broken down at 1pm and was still waiting for the AA man to turn up (By now 6pm).

We went up to Rotherham to get the fish he had bought home and into a tank before they all died. On the way back we took Steve some lunch and stood around chatting for another half an hour. We were just about to leave the car at the side of the road and pop off home when the AA man turned up. That was at around 7pm.

I found that absolutely pathetic, Steve was irate. Don't think hes renewing!

ThrustSSC

Sounds like it's luck of the draw... I saw superb service from the this week.

My fiancée car was parked outside my place from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. When she started the car fuel spewed out underneath – the line had been cut to siphon the tank. She called the AA while I rooted in the garage loft for some fuel line and clips (don’t ask why I have these).

I live out beyond the Styx, but the AA were here in less than half-an-hour and Liza was mobile again in 10 minutes. I reckon I could barely have beaten them to it and that’s without having to get here. No prizes for guessing who the AA man blamed for the spate of such incidents around here.

Top service and full marks for the AA.

The police on the other hand weren’t that interested in the huge palm-print on the wheel arch – they took a print from it, but we had to take the car to them, and they could only do it between 0800 and 0900 on a weekday. I kid you not!

a11exf

I used to be a mechanic and i spent most off my days in the job fixing what the AA had screwed up. They say they get your car going and they do but usualy they make things worse just so you can get home without a tow. So baisicly what im saying is try not to let the muppets try to fix it and get them to take it to a garage for you it will cost you less in the long run..

SiPie

Terrible service from them for my g/f's car recently...

..in all fairness they had contracted the job out to a pure muppet from a local garage, but it's still the AA that's offering the service

jerryh

A couple of years ago..................

Finished building nippy nova, headed off to Crail one Sunday. A retainer clip on drive shaft snapped. 15/20 min job I thought when he arrives. 45 mins later patrolman turns up..............."sorry we don't do roadside repairs on a Sunday I can only tow you home" (with a straight face!).

Couldn't believe it.............now with NU breakdown. Been great when I've needed them recently. They use the RAC if one of theirs isn't around.

TDT

I work err...... on the motorway and the number of muppets we deal with masquerading as recovery contractors is massive.

For example, I stop behind a lorry that has broken down, driver tells me the gear box is knackered. I arrange "specialist" recovery - what do they send? A fecking 7.5t Ford Cargo. 4 hours sat on the side of the M42 waiting for some ****** to organise their lives!

NotoriousREV

One of my neighbours is an AA man and is a top bloke and more than willing to help me out with all those annoying clips and stuff that you never have handy. He's a true car enthusiast (restored an MG Midget on his driveway and won MGOC Best Chrome Bumpered Midget on his first outing) so they're not all bad.

Generally though, I'd rather repair my own car and phone a mate with a tow rope if I break down

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Got to be honest, They sorted a problem on my little Nova and the the guy did it by elumination, it turned out it was an electircal fault within the distributor and the guy had the new spare part on board with him......Nice one AA.
Cheers
Colin

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

No complaints about the AA from me. They sent a mechanic followed by a flat bed truck in a reasonable time when my MY00's big ends went, and again when the rebuilt engine developed an oil leak (dripping onto the hot exhaust) a few weeks later. It took me a lot longer to get home from the Subaru dealer by train on a Sunday afternoon...

ScoobyLee

Was with AA ... now with RAC..

mo,s scoobymonster

AA are crap once was comming down the m1 at 10.30 my old scoob's fuelpump jammed phone them told them was going up north a good hour and a half drive told them 4wd car etc said will be with me within 30 mins, after 1.30 mins and several phonecalls later a guy comes in a ****ty tow truck dont knowabout these engines. so i said you gonna tow me home or what he says "ive beentold your only going to leicester" (15 mins away) no so then he took me 5 mins down the road to a service station and said another truck will be coming to take you home. waited in the cold service station a good 2 and a half hours. then a truck came from birmingham. loaded it up. finally got home at 6.30 in the morning. they take the p1ss. wouldn't have bben bothered if i was by myself but had my mother father and brother with me to. so you wonder why we bother paying them!!!

eric Scofield

Had alarm probs, stuck in central London (40 miles from home) - called the AA, the guy stood around scratching his head for a while telling me (as if I didnt know) how complex these cars were and that he didnt really like to touch it .. eventually towed me to some seedily little place in Camden Town where he had keys to a lock-up (which seemed strange but a good idea at the time as leaving it on the street wasnt very appealing) the garage called me the next morning quoting 800 quid to fix the alarm - called my local alarm installers who laughed out loud at the quote and suggested that they get the car going and I bring it to them who would install a new alarm for half what this garage was quoting to fix the current one .. Phoned the garage and they said they had made the car road worthy - when I got there to pick it up they charged me over 100 quid simply to disconnect the immobiliser and had left the car almost entirely without electrics - by now I was desperate to get the car home and rather than let them anywhere near it again drove all the way home (50 miles by now) through rush-hour traffic without indicators, radio, elec windows, airbag light constantly on etc etc .. It wasnt so much the AAs attempt at fixing it though utterly useless, that bothered me, it was the fact the guy had keys to a lock-up, and the garage subsequently turned out to be absolute sh*te ... the thought of back-handers kept creeping into my mind ..

Took the car to Scoobysport - they had the whole thing sorted in under an hour (including the alarm amazingly) and charged me pocket money ..

The AA used to really good, and still some of their mechanics are genuinely knowledgable and keen to help, however too many poor responses lately drive me to the conclusion ..... it's RAC time !!!

Matt_Turbo_2000

The fact is with all the breakdown services i.e. AA RAC Direct line is if it's after 6pm or in a busy period you are likely to get a local garage come out to you with a tow truck rather than an AA mechanic and these people havent got a clue and will just tow you away!

If you get an AA RAC mechanic chances are he will know what he is doing and fix the fault.

They are all as bad as each other I wouldnt say the AA is worse than RAC.

willy

AA caused £710 worth of damage to my car a week before the NBO2.
I managed to push them to get it all fixed in time..
Search on my username to see more details.

*****

Turbotits

iTrader: (2)

Just to let you know, Me and my partner both work for the AA. We do work 24hours, and it is not until about midnight that you will end up with mainly garage agents should you call us. And we do fix cars on a sunday.
I'm sure their are some muppets about, and not knowing every patrol means i can't comment on their abilities, but the majority of us are not muppets and do take pride in our work, and do not try and make situations worse.
In future, if you do call the AA/RAC just tell them you do not wish for a garage agent and they won't send one. Sometimes we spend just as much time clearing up after them as garages do.
As for the waiting times some of you have had, i understand that and can't defend it in any way. But please understand that the patrols only get a job when the office gives it us, so it's not always the roadside staff at fault regarding delays.

a11exf- it makes no difference to us whether we tow your car or fix it, so why would we want to make it worse? It actually affects us more when we make something worse than when we tow it. In all fairness if you dont want your car fixed at the roadside when it breaks down then you shouldn't be a member of a breakdown service!

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Well - I have to say that the AA have been uniformly good to me over the years - including two engines self-destructing... and having a VERY long natter with two guys on the same day when the bloody vacuum pipe went awol... spent more time nattering about performance cars then fixing the problem

WR1 Ant

Rubish, both AA and rac patrols work until at least midnight in some areas its 2 am


At 3 am in the morning all you want to do is get to where you are going !!!


Aggreed!!! but depends on patrol


Check other thread with poll on whos best also check who won this years JD power servey (RAC.)

Turbotits

iTrader: (2)

We actually work 24hrs. The AA have a specific night shift who cover from around 10pm to 7am.

And yes the RAC did win the JD power this year, but the AA won the previous 2 years.

The AA have over 3600 patrols, the RAC have under half of that, so for quicker response times, i would say the AA, but as for skills it's difficult to pick as every company has the good and bad in it.

Gary C

I broke down and was told 45 minutes, then after an hour was told it would be another 2 hours. They had obviously redirected the truck destined for me.

2 times before though they were great. Luck of the draw I suppose and they must have cut costs to the bone to compete with the new boys which means lack of cover and poorer service.

wrxmania

Anyone got any good stories about the AA - they are getting lambasted here but I cannot believe that they are totally bad.

Let's balance it out a bit. BTW I have no allegiance - RAC member for 5 years and now Subaru Assist.

Brian

mart360

AA 1 rac 0

my scoob refused to start at work,,

clicky solenoid,, immob probs who knows!!!

spent 30 mins trying to fix it myself but couldnt work out what was wrong,,

even got a price on fitting a new immobiliser next day, cos thats what i thought the fault was/..

called the AA who turned up within 30 mins!!!

ran his diagnostics over the car.. and did some checks identified the problem

(increase of resistance due to 'fur' build up on subarus wierd batterey connector.)

he then did a full charging check / battery check for me.. all ok

1 tick for me



my mate dosnt like the aa... not after having a trailer with a puncture and being left at the roadside.. they wouldnt take the trailer!

Mart

Ederboy

I blew my turbo on the M11 roughly at midnight. By 01.00am my car was on the tow truck.So AA gets from me

SyHightower

iTrader: (1)

broke down in my works car last month, renalt scenic, the gear linkage poped off, AA turned up in 35mins and 10 mins laters was off.

cant really fault that

Si

Ian D

About 9 months ago clutch cable broke on my second car, a really c*** Renault Savanna Estate, called AA, THEY said one hour to Patrol arriving, after 45 minutes get text message saying patrol is 10 minutes away, exactly 10 minutes later AA man arrives, I expect to get recovered home as it was a Sunday and little chance of getting a new clutch cable, but out he gets with a toolbox and makes up a temporary cable from a kit to get me going for a few days until I can get a proper repalacement. Excellent service.