does everybody who is with the AA realise that they will no longer take you home (for free) if you have a accident as opposed to a break down?
i had a crash on Mway on sunday night,luckily no one (or dogs) were hurt,but cars prob a right off! the  AA charge £120 call out which includes the 1st 15miles then its £1.50 per mile!
alot of insurance only covers to a nearby garage, but what do you do with 3dogs in the car & hundreds of £££s of equiment & 100s of miles away from home & the insurance company is only dealing with emergancys not queries cos its sunday evening???
when i got home ,5hours later i looked at my membership, & it does say,hidden in the middle of the small print! when i joined 3years ago it was sold to me with breakdown & accident cover,& ive never had a letter informing me differently! its strange my membership costs me twice as much as it did 3years ago but only half the service!!
im moving to the rac as they will recover accidents!

Is that also with the Relay cover ?
Must admit I never read small print and I know i should :rolleyes:

yep! roadside relay only does breakdown now!!!!
isnt that bad that we havent been told by letter?
ive emailed them!not happy bunny!!!

Ive been with them for years too and always thought they were fine .
Would have thought they should definitely have pointed their customers to any change in terms and conditions .

i feel annoyed with myself for not reading them,but i really feel its such an important thing that we should have all been informed!BY LETTER!! the 1st person to collect me was a private company who the AA told to get me,& the driver never knew either & he worked for them 2 1/2 years ago!
ive phoned the RAC today & am going to join them as they still include accidents!

If it has changed I expect it will have been advised when you renewed but most people do not read the changes in their insurance policies etc until it is time to claim which is a tad late............................. :(

it was advised in the small print with no attention drawn to it,hidden away in the middle!!! this is wrong! they think they are a caring company, LOL NOT! ive spoke to so many people that dont know! a letter wouldnt have been too much would it???

I suppose they rely on customers NOT reading it so that they do not cancel renewals (sigh).

exactly! im so cross with myself! but it was the last thing i needed! car crash on the motorway,in fast lane, then have to deal with that! on my own!
im telling everybody i know!everybody who reads this pass it on too!

dont worry I'll pass it on if anyone asks me about AA

Although you can guarantee other breakdown companies wont be far behind either :(

RAC have special drivers to do accidents!
i dont mind paying more to cover it IF its a option!!!!But you just cant get it free anymore!on any plan!!!

Thanks very much for that, half the office are with them and didn't know it had changed.  We just phoned them and they confirmed it, everyone will now be joining the RAC.

They said they had sent a letter out to all customers informing them of the change, but surprise surprise they couldn't send our member a copy!
Sandra

well ive never had a letter neither have any of the people who ive spoken to ! infact ive not spoken to a single person that knows yet!

Im in the car trade so I will pass the word on.  I don't want my customers stuck in the middle of nowhere.

thanks Emma! insurance is bad enough after a crash without this pushing premiums up!

emma, would also be interested in how many people know about this!!!

Just had a thought, does not your insurance policy cover you for accident recovery?  I am pretty sure mine does, I shall check when I get home. I know you mentioned about some not covering for return to home but it is worth checking.

i would be covered to get to their nearest garage,but not home! BUT when we phoned there was only a person dealing with emergaces on & she didnt know anything about policies & couldnt advise us in anyway,garage etc,so i hope they will pay up, the insurance person said to send the bill to them anyway, so fingers crossed! the main point is though i want to get home! i paid membership so that i could get home & i feel misled! i can just imagine trying to get 3dogs etc on a train to west somerset from north wales! never mind leaving all my doggy stuff & show stuff in the car & dog beds,cage etc

Yes it does cover you, but do you need the hassle when the RAC cover you for no extra cost.  We rang the RAC to check and even their basic cover will cover you for accidents.  They told us they had gained a lot of new members from the AA because of this.

There are 11 poeple I work with that are cancelling their DD with the AA tonight and moving over. Not one of them ever received a letter from the AA informing them of the change either.

As Michelle has said your insurance only covers you to the nearest garage. I have a recovery service with the RAC which gets me and my car to any UK address.

Well I have paid for member and associate member for 17 years now and I am not amused, will be changing for sure. So what options are there or is the RAC the only choice?

OH's dad had this very problem and they tried to charge. They complained and won as i think th AA didn't want any bad publicity ( they were prepared to go to papers etc... in their letter) so its worth a try complaining on the grounds you were mislead etc etc...

To be fair to the AA the New Terms and Conditions leaflet they sent me when I renewed my cover (yellow one which says this leaflet details the changes we have made to your cover dated September 2003) clearly states in Point 5 "there is no right to any form of fecoverying following a road traffic accident."  All insurance policies and memberships like this always issue updates etc on renewal, they must, but we just don't bother to read them and even bin them!

So although it is a pain that they have changed their type of cover is after all our responsibility to make sure we read this stuff :D

Hopefully this will be a timely reminder to us all regarding this and other issues!

I pay by Direct Debit and as far as I can remember I only got the slip that tells me how much they will be taking and when, also received a magazine but did not read that. No endorsements or anything like that as one would expect from what is after all insurance.

I pay by Direct Debit too but got this; who knows?

After reading this post last evening, I did check with AA and the woman I spoke to was very embarrassed to confirm what has been said.    She went off line for a couple of minutes, when I said that I had only realised this when I was informed by a posting on the internet!!!!

She didn't say much after that - apart from the fact that she was sorry....

Margot

thanks every body! for your opinions etc!!! i will let you know what happens,i have emailed them & would certainly consider Watchdog/trading standards & the papers if nessescary!!!!

I don't honestly think you will have a leg to stand on as they will just produce the leaflet I am talking about but I shall be interested to see what happens.

In general when these issues have come up before with regards to banking terms etc the same has been debated on radio and television etc and not in the favour of the consumer :(

i still would be happy to let all their "customers " know for them!!!!
you must admit where it says it in the yellow leaflet ,is not exactly at the top of the list with attention drawn to it, but rather tucked away where its hard to spot & not where youd expect an important thing to be!!!!!!

I've been with the RAC for a few years, although I've not had to use them *touches wood* :D
I pay for mine and hubbies membership with Tesco Clubcard vouchers, I think it was about £35 in vouchers, so very cheap!! :)

liberty :)

Actually I would not agree :D it is not "tucked away" or "hard to spot" it is on the first page facing the "New Terms and Conditions" title and comes under "Changes to your cover terms and conditions"  It is Number 5 in a list of 11 under this section.

If anyone has a complaint regarding their membership they can contact:

Member Relations, AA, Fanum House, Basingstoke, Hants, RG21 4EA

Tel: 0845 6076727
Fax 01256 492306
e-mail memberrelations@the AA.com

It is human nature to point the finger rather than admit our own oversights :D  I am not sticking up for them but trying to be fair; I can see both sides to this and I am afraid that in this case I would come down in favour of them not us! :D

I have not received any new terms and having e-mailed them yesterday they have just replied that they Customer Service will be getting back to me "within 5 days" 5 days? is that a Service to customers of 17 years - not in my book

Obviously if you have not received anything at all this would, I agree, be unacceptable customer service :)

Well, I have finally found out how the members (policy holders) were notified of the change of the terms of their cover, it was in the magazine. Well sorry, I read the first one I received and it has gone straight in the bin ever since. Do others think this is acceptable, I don't, we are used to the KC announcing things in the Gazette but that is a different matter. Think I may well take this further. It is not so much the fact that we have less cover it is the fact that the cut in cover was not made clear. No way can the organisation be trusted in future, the reason I have the membership is because it makes me feel safe when I am out on my own with the dogs, now it would seem it is up to them at each incident to decide if they will cover the request for help or not.

i would say that it is a VERY important change!!! should have its own heading at least!!! if the AA are saying theyve sent out letters telling their customers (re sandrahs post) of the change,then surely they think its a change that would warrent a letter!
i know i should read the small print, but i believe that they rely on the fact that most people dont!!! & that is wrong!
this is not a careing attitude!

if at work i started charging more & halfed the service i wouldnt keep many of my  customers!!!

Just be aware that the RAC is not as good as they make out either. Hubby was driving home from work one night when the enging blew. He phoned the RAC from his mobile. Call centre person took details but couldn't find the road (its a 20 mile long dual carriageway, do they not have maps!?) After waiting more than an hour with the kids still to pick up from the childminders, he phoned for his brother to tow him home. As he arrived at the door, his phone rang. The guy from the local garage was where the car had broken down looking for him. It turns out that the call centre had waited well over an hour before they had phoned the local garage, it only took the breakdown driver 5 minutes to reach the site, by which time hubby had got fed up and made other arrangements.
I suppose each breakdown company will have tales like this one , just our experiance

Lynn

Maybe I have different cover to everyone else, (roadside) but have been a member of AA for 7 years and always knew that they didn't take you home. The deal is tow to the nearest garage or home, whichever is nearest.

Think that is a different option, they will still on my option take you home if the problem is a breakdown but not if I clip a curb and damage a couple of wheels as that would be classed as an accident, not sure where I would stand if I had a tyre blow out or a shock absorber go and that in turn caused me to have an accident. It all needs clarification if I am to continue letting them have my money.

I think I have found a loophole........................

Can you not have a breakdown yourself as a result of the accident and then they will have to take you home.................

or somewhere else....................

:D :D :D

probaley not if your verichle was un roadworthy after the accident!!!!!

Surely it doesn't matter what it costs to be recovered after an accident because your insurance company if  your fully  comprehensively insured will pick up the tab.
Bazza

It does if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere with 3 or 4 dogs at night and can't contact anyone to get you home. Firms that run the vehicle pickup trucks will not do it on the promise of payment sometime in the future or even at the other end.

exactly!!!
my insurance would only get me to nearest garage,yes i am fully comp! ive never worried bout taking out xtra insurance or changing to a company who does cover it because i thought that the AA would sort it all out!!!LOL! why should i pay more though? if the AA sold me the policy with both, i would have expected to be told & a DEDUCTION in membership costs as it is now half the service that i was sold!

:O is it worth being with them then . how many times a year does anyone break down???
i know not very often its probably cheaper to get a merchainc to get you going again