From Insurance to Road Service, the NZ Automobile Association Is A Joke

 I almost can't be bothered writing this latest account of the AA, its customer service standards and its general performance. From their insurance call centre wallies to their road service call-out operators, they're a bloody joke. And I've written not one, but TWO earlier reviews to unfortunately prove it.

Last Tuesday night, my car was broken into. To say that I was in a stressful, vulnerable situation, late on a dark, wet and windy night, hours from my home, with no money (thanks to the thieves in which the Police had nil interest), no window in my driver's side, no mobile phone, and all alone with my little dog . . . that and more, would make "stressful" a study in the art of the understatement.

I used my wonderful new-found friend's mobile phone to call the AA for road service. The first operator tells me that they "only help with mechanical and structural issues", and that despite the fact I've been a subscriber my entire life, and to their Premium "service", he's happy to see me drive home across the RImutaka Ranges with no window, in the dead of night, in a galing wind, with rain pouring in,, and with my ass parked in a bed of broken glass.

However, I decided to try back and get a second operator. Glad I did. The first operator didn't know his ass from his elbow, apparently.. The second operator advised that of course they provide either glass replacement during business hours, or temporary glass replacement after hours. They wouldn't allow a service subscriber to get back on the road with no window! Nor, he said, would they allow me to sit in shards of broken glass, and he'd ensure the mechanic came out with something to clean it up with.

The former happened (i.e. a plastic window to get me home) but not the clean-up for safety assistance.

The other issue is, I was belatedly advised by another AA service subscriber and policy holder, that I should have been given a rental car to get home in. Of course, the AA never bothered to tell me that.

Unfortunately, This Useless Crowd Are Also My Insurers

Next, I try for better luck re the fact that they're also my insurer.

While on the phone to said insurance call centre, I realise that the spare keys to both my vehicles are in my wallet, as is my address book (showing my address), all of which are now in the possession of the thief or thieves.

I tell her so.. She tells me that "you can get new ones cut as part of your claim, so that will trigger your $500 excess then". I point out that the AA would be making a tidy profit from me, for the cutting of two keys.

I also try to clarify with her whether she means that that the cutting of two new keys should involve changing something in the ignition so that said thieves can't just rock up and drive both my vehicles away at their leisure.

'I SAID, GET A QUOTE!', the Call Centre Girl Instructs Me in Her Most Authoritarian 18-Year-Old Voice

But she - in all her youthful arrogance - is not about to let me speak. Mustering her best 18-year-old-sounding voice of authority, she berates me:  "I. SAID. GET. A. QUOTE." 

Being that I was STILL none the wiser as to precisely what I SHOULD be getting a quote for vs what she was instructing me to get a quote for, I suggested she might let me speak and listen to my need for clarification. But she wasn't about to do that. She simply hung up.

Someone at AA must have become aware of the abortive call, coupled with my previous two reviews of them on The Customer & The Constituent (here and here) . . . because several days later, they swung into damage control and I received a call from someone who organised the collection of my vehicle by the glass repairer and its prompt return. (I actually haven't stepped outside yet to check the work and the nature of the replacement glass, but will be doing so tomorrow. Watch this space, if necessary.)