The AA

Let me start by saying that when my vehicle did breakdown on two occassions during my initial AA cover, the breakdown service went smoothly and I was certainly grateful for the recovery service they provided me at the time, but I do have a little gripe about The AA now.

If you don't require AA breakdown membership for your vehicle anymore then make sure you cancel the cover and don't suspend cover. Five years ago I had AA cover on my car and when I changed that car in 2005, I called The AA to say that I did not require the cover anymore as the new car I was purchasing would have breakdown cover as part of the agreement.

Well seemingly I did not cancel my AA cover I only suspended it for 3 years. Years on I am supposed to remember this, so much to my surprise I have just received a letter and full membership pack with new membership card etc saying that my cover has been reactivated.

So without warning and checking with me first they have reactivated my old membership cover, so not only is the membership pack addressed to my old home and registered to a car I no longer have, the annoying part is they say money will be debited from my bank account within the next two weeks.

How can they justify reactivating a membership, even if I did only ask for it to be suspended as this is what they are saying to me now that I have complained to them, without getting in touch to see if a) I still lived at the address they have on file, b) do I still have the vehicle the membership is set to cover and c) is my payment method still valid.

If ever there were a waste of money, paper and other costs then this must rank up there.

Obviously when I telephoned up to complain and make sure they cancel the newly re-activated membership and make sure no payment is debited, I get told its all my fault for only suspending membership for a number of years and that I am supposed to keep them up to date with change of address and change of vehicle etc.

Yes like I am going to remember to do that when I know I don't have AA cover for any of my current vehicles.

So remember if you no longer require AA cover and you don't want to be surprised in a few years time, make sure you cancel the membership and not just suspend it, or further down the line in a number of years, you can look forward to receiving a shiny new membership pack with probably out of date details and an unexpected expense about to be debited from your bank account. And thats not taking into account the time you will have to spend getting in touch with them, which took me two phone calls for nearly 30 minutes to eventually cancel this reactivated membership.