Complaint Review: Automobile Club of Southern California

Under the guise of non-payment of my 1-yr. membership renewal, AAA sent me a deceptive letter stating, “your payment did not include the full amount to continue the services shown below.” Referring to their (AAA PLUS) level membership.

In my case, I no longer needed the AAA PLUS additional benefit this year and crossed off or ignored the coupon field showing the additional amount; however, I sent the correct amount of payment which AAA banked. Furthermore, my payment was on time.

I would caution AAA members to carefully read promotions from this company. The first place people typically look when billed is the bottom-line, i.e., what it costs! AAA’s marketing department surely knows this.

A follow-up call to "Supervisor Gino” met with excuses. He didn’t accept my feedback as a learning experience or at least how one of his company’s customers reacted to its sales practices.

I would suggest AAA either perform focus groups and gauge reaction to its sales and marketing efforts or stress the benefits of adding or renewing AAA PLUS to one’s auto club membership vs. stressing out its long-time customers with deceptive sales pitches such as the one I and others, no doubt, have received.