AAA cancelled me

After being a loyal AAA Plus member for over 5 years, I got this in the mail instead of the usual renewal notice. I pay for the 4 tows/250 miles per year package and have only ever used it maximum twice in a year. As you may have read from my Fiat 124 Spider reliability experience this summer, I had crap service from AAA both times it needed to be towed to the dealership. The first time took them 10 hours to dispatch me a truck. The 2nd time they didn't come until the next day. Both times I was royally screwed waiting on the side of the road in Atlanta summer heat and traffic for hours and had to arrange other rides. At the time I made sure to let them know both times how far downhill their service has gone this year. Seems the feeling is mutual.

Up yours, Jim. You can't quit, because you were already fired.

I didn't know this was a thing. 

I mean... if I owned AAA, I would ban all Fiat owners, too. 

Wow, never heard of that happening with AAA.  I dropped AAA back in 2020 because pandmic forced us to stop traveling so much.  State Farm dropped me some years back because I used too many road service tows, almost the same language verbatim in my cancellation letter.  I don't feel so bad about it now.    

I use mine twice a year minimum for one of my fleet leaving me somewhere.  I would take the time to write a letter in response.  In the age of email I find a mailed letter gets a pretty good response in reply.  I'd go full nerd and detail the scenarios per year which you have used the services and what you paid per year.  This would chap my hiney.  I have been thrown out of an all you can eat sushi buffet so I speak from some experience.

Oof.

I picked up AAA a few years ago when I realized Verizon stopped offer the 3.99/month roadside assist and have used them a good 3-4 times a year. Ruh roh.

My guess is that your situation of needed 10 hours to be dispatched made their metrics look bad.  Rather than fix other things to improve the metrics they eliminated you...metrics fixed!  

Oh, I'd call the 800 number just to hear the explanation.  

Member Handbook, Atlanta

Page 25:
In fairness to all members, roadside assistance should not be used as a substitute for proper vehicle maintenance. To help control membership dues, AAA has an annual limit on roadside assistance usage per member (one service call per breakdown). Refer to the chart on page 41 for roadside assistance limits.

On page 41:

Members who joined after 4/15/21:

Premier: 3 service calls per year, not 4 like for people who signed up before.  

I'll bet that's your smoking gun.  They will not renew your 4 service plan because they are demoting all to 3 services per year.  

I called AAA earlier this year when a flat tire had me stranded on I80 somewhere east of State College PA in the middle of the night. I had a spare but just needed someone to bring a lug wrench. They said they'd send someone, I waited 1.5 hrs before they called back to tell me no one was coming. I said "so that's it?" and the guy said yea sorry that really sucks. I limped the car 1.5 miles to a rest stop and borrowed another traveler's 4 way. I also called another local garage who wasn't in AAA's program or whatever and they just flat refused to come get me.  I haven't canceled the membership but I have considered it, they have a local branch office which I hear makes registering vehicles a breeze compared to going to the DMV. 

In reply to John Welsh :

You just prompted me to review the membership benefits, and you're right! They no longer list the 4 tows / 250 miles I originally signed up for 5 years ago. They just let me renew each year without telling me how they reduced my benefits. 

In reply to dannyp84 :

That's extremely similar to my experience last time. My car overheated, so I called, waited on hold for 20 minutes until they hung up on me, drove another 2 miles until it overheated, called, put on hold...rinse and repeat until I made it home. They towed it from my house the next day.

maschinenbau said:

In reply to John Welsh :

You just prompted me to review the membership benefits, and you're right! They no longer list the 4 tows / 250 miles I originally signed up for 5 years ago. They just let me renew each year without telling me how they reduced my benefits. 

This seems to be regional.  I just checked and locally, AAA offers the "plus" level as 4x 100 mile tows / year and the "premium" level as 4 tows / year, 3 at 100 miles, 1 at 200 miles. 

maschinenbau said:

In reply to John Welsh :

You just prompted me to review the membership benefits, and you're right! They no longer list the 4 tows / 250 miles I originally signed up for 5 years ago. They just let me renew each year without telling me how they reduced my benefits. 

Looks like now it is $131 per year for Premier in Atlanta.  The only verbiage given on that page about towing is:

Towing up to 200 miles for one tow, up to 100 miles each for remaining tows

No mention that it is only a max of 3 services or possible max of 1 tow at 200 miles and 2 more tows at 100 miles.  

Crazy. I have premier with the family and use it semi frequently. I think I had 2 tows in 2021, one in 2020, and a locked keys in car every once in a while. That's why I have the service, to use it...

Now, I also haven't had bad experiences waiting for a tow, mine have all arrived within I think 45 minutes or so which is great. 

rslifkin said:

maschinenbau said:

In reply to John Welsh :

You just prompted me to review the membership benefits, and you're right! They no longer list the 4 tows / 250 miles I originally signed up for 5 years ago. They just let me renew each year without telling me how they reduced my benefits. 

This seems to be regional.  I just checked and locally, AAA offers the "plus" level as 4x 100 mile tows / year and the "premium" level as 4 tows / year, 3 at 100 miles, 1 at 200 miles. 

AAA is all regional.  Here are the current NW Ohio offers:

$149 for 5 services (1 @200 miles and 4 @ 100 miles
$109 for 4 service (4@ 100 miles)

maschinenbau said:

In reply to dannyp84 :

That's extremely similar to my experience last time. My car overheated, so I called, waited on hold for 20 minutes until they hung up on me, drove another 2 miles until it overheated, called, put on hold...rinse and repeat until I made it home. They towed it from my house the next day.

John Welsh said:

 

 

Member Handbook, Atlanta

Page 25:
In fairness to all members, roadside assistance should not be used as a substitute for proper vehicle maintenance. To help control membership dues, AAA has an annual limit on roadside assistance usage per member (one service call per breakdown). Refer to the chart on page 41 for roadside assistance limits.

 

 

 

I'm betting the multiple calls in different locations for the same breakdown are more likely the smoking gun.

I think I've written about this, but I burned through all 5 days of my AAA 100 mile coverage in a week with my truck.  It was a hoot*

* it was not.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Another thought...

Weren't you in Indiana 5 years ago?  Are you listed as a AAA customer in Indiana (which might have better rates) but using your benefits in Atlanta?  

As a Ohio AAA customer, I can get a tow in Atlanta but I can see where AAA would not want me to remain on the AAA Ohio plan (cheaper) if I were in Atlanta all the time.  

Here are the Hoosier AAA offerings:

I had to dig deep into the handbook of Hoosier AAA to find that the gold and platinum are both just a max of 4 services per year.  But also digging deep I found this statement:

...member incurs twelve (12) or more emergency road service calls over a three (3) year period, Hoosier Motor Club reserves the right not to renew that individual's membership

Instead of improving their own business, let's just cancel the customer......  cancel culture is a real sickness these days.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Ah, I think that's what happened. When I transferred my membership to this region, I guess my benefits got reduced without me knowing there were regional differences. Still sucks. 

I gave up on AAA when I blew the driveshaft out (like, literally out and rolled across the next few lanes of traffic) from under the Caprice. Guy with a flatbed showed up 2 hours later and then told me he couldn't help "because the car was lowered". Nothing crazy, would have gone on the wrecker no problem. Called AAA and they said sorry, it's modified, can't help you.

Ahhh yes the ole "you weren't supposed to actually use the service you paid for" business model. This will surely work out well for them moving forward. 

We dropped them last year when my wife's battery died (luckily at home) while I was on an out of town trip. I actually got home from my trip and jumped it before the tow truck made it. Thanks for nothing.

84FSP said:

I have been thrown out of an all you can eat sushi buffet so I speak from some experience.

That's it? You're going to leave us hanging?

Once one of our church youth leaders had a plan to take a bunch of hungry teen guys and see if they can wipe out the buffet in one pass at CiCi's Pizza.  I stayed home that day.  

Just for giggles, it might be interesting to write a letter to AAA, documenting when their service was used, what your plan allows, and include a copy of a letter to your state's Insurance Commissioner complaining of unfair business practices or what ever else you can think of.

It really makes them pucker when they think someone is calling them on their BS

We dumped AAA a while back and switched to Good Sam.  Better coverage, and cheaper for the RV/trailer coverage, though they're not fantastic.

AAA here in AZ will NOT tow you off a dirt road (not offroad, just dirt or gravel)... their service ends with the pavement.  There's a LOT of unpaved roads in AZ.  I did use AAA once when I threw the water pump belt on our NA... no problems, but it was under 10 miles.

We used Good Sam in 2020 for our Bronco while on a trip to CO.  Took almost 2 hours to get them to actually call a tow truck because they couldn't figure out where we were, even after I gave them a specific description, highway and mile marker, and GPS coordinates.  Three times.  Their computer system seem to be incapable of generating a response without a street address, and the kid working the phone (who sounded like he'd never driven outside a city) was clueless.  You'd think a company that specializes in roadside assistance for RVs would be better at figuring out rural locations.  Once they actually called the tow, it was there in 17 minutes.