The AA are parasites..

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Deleted member 26715

Guest
The AA cultivated an image of being the motorists friend during the 20th century and it seems many customers believe this image still holds good despite the fact that in 1999 it became a private limited company no different from many other commercial organisations.
I find that strange, I thought it always was a private company, did it change from a private members club, to a PLC?
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
A tenner for making changes seems reasonable; £25 doesn't. I'm not suggesting that anything specifically listed in my post was "unusual or misleading" - every example does however seen exploititive, disproportionate and punitive.

As for misleading; how about being repeatedly told that a claim would result only in the failure to accrue a further year's NCD; then only after repeatedly pushing for concrete confirmation (which took several days to achieve) actually being told that it would reduce the number of years of NCD by more than 80% from 17yrs to 3?


Sorry to be a pedant but you don't have 17 years NCD. The max regardless of how many years you have driven is 5 or 6.

I can't really make any comment on you said they said as I can only see 1 side of your argument. Good luck though.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Sorry to be a pedant but you don't have 17 years NCD.
Sorry to be pedantic to your pedant that's not strictly true, it all depends on the company, the industry now due to the comparision sites appear to have settled on 9, but I have had renewals in the past up to 11 years.
 
I find that strange, I thought it always was a private company, did it change from a private members club, to a PLC?
The Automobile Association is indeed a club. No idea how you get membership. Probably old boy network.
The AA rescue, motoring, travel, insurance etc., is a separate legal entity that has changed hands several times. No idea who owns it now, but you can be sure it won't be a charitable institution. It is a money making enterprise, and we are all legally obliged to use either them or similar concerns. They know that and so rip us off as often as they can.
 
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wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Are you not aware that these are human beings that you are talking about, @wafter? However cross you feel about their employer, do they really deserve to be spoken about like that?
You seriously have a problem with my use of mildly critical language of a non-present third party whose repeated inability (for whatever reason) to do their job correctly could have cost me a lot of money?

Sorry to be a pedant but you don't have 17 years NCD. The max regardless of how many years you have driven is 5 or 6.

I can't really make any comment on you said they said as I can only see 1 side of your argument. Good luck though.
Indeed, however 17 is still the number of years recorded on my policy and even if capped at 6yrs "effective" the difference between the incorrect information supplied and the eventual truth would have been the loss of 50% of of my NCD.

For what it's worth they responded to my formal complaint with admission of their failings and an apology; not that their hollow gestures are of any use or interest to me whatsoever.
 

snorri

Legendary Member
I find that strange, I thought it always was a private company, did it change from a private members club, to a PLC?
The association demutualised in July 1999 to become a private limited company.(Quoted from Wiki)
They do still have "members", I suspect this is to preserve the motorists friend image more than anything else.
 

alicat

Legendary Member
Location
Staffs
You seriously have a problem with my use of mildly critical language of a non-present third party whose repeated inability (for whatever reason) to do their job correctly could have cost me a lot of money?

Yes, I do and in my opinion it isn't 'mildly critical' to dehumanise people on minimum wage whether they are present or now. In fact it's worse when you aren't saying it to their faces.
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
Sorry to be pedantic to your pedant that's not strictly true, it all depends on the company, the industry now due to the comparision sites appear to have settled on 9, but I have had renewals in the past up to 11 years.


Getting renewal documents does not equate to NCD years. They are just renewal docs. :okay:
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Getting renewal documents does not equate to NCD years. They are just renewal docs. :okay:
If that was the case then why are they required as proof of No Claims, which as all insurance companies are connected to the MIB anyway they aren't really needed, but are still used as a gesture.
 
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wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Yes, I do and in my opinion it isn't 'mildly critical' to dehumanise people on minimum wage whether they are present or now. In fact it's worse when you aren't saying it to their faces.
Crikey... so now it's basically considered unacceptable to criticise anyone ever regardless of how mild or what they might have done to elicit it?

FWIW the minimum wage comment wasn't included to somehow denigrate them based on earnings; rather to suggest that the £25 admin fee demanded for perhaps 5-10 minutes of said employees time would be akin to three hours of their time relative to their wages; and thus grossly disproportionate.

Not quite sure why you seem so desperate to find any reason possible to attack me :rolleyes:
 
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wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
^^^ you're twisting my words.
Care to elaborate? I could say the same of you regarding your incorrect accusation re. my minimum wage statement..

Ultimately is it really worth both of us wasting our time arguing over the intricacies of one of us getting screwed over?
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
FWIW the minimum wage comment wasn't included to somehow denigrate them based on earnings; rather to suggest that the £25 admin fee demanded for perhaps 5-10 minutes of said employees time would be akin to three hours of their time relative to their wages; and thus grossly disproportionate.
Especially when many more modern online systems allow you to do it for free.
 
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wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Especially when many more modern online systems allow you to do it for free.
Indeed.. my last provider allowed this and it was very much appreciated. Unfortunately though as usual their renewal quote was less than competitive (another industry blag) and as such I ended up with this bunch of idiots..
 
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