WTH? You don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know about anyone else, but AAA requires payment prior to providing annual service, which is why I was able to use them for the single tow last year. I had a valid card for service from May 2023 until expiration May 2024.
Their refusal to not accept payment from my bank account when I attempted to renew my service in late April 2024 for May 2024 - May 2025 has nothing to do with any previous non-payment.
Insurance companies nationwide are dropping customers because of damage claims. At heart AAA is just another insurance company.
I would still call tomorrow and get the info from the horse’s mouth and post the results here, as they would be useful for us to know.
Why? Because I found another auto club that provided the service I wanted for the same price. As to why I didn’t care enough to waste time trying to determine: 1) Why my account shows no payment was due when I knew a payment was due, and 2) Why they simply refused to accept the payment without comment? I found an alternative that I like and as I stated before - and despite all the protests to the contrary - they dropped me as a customer and I do not believe it was a mistake - which is their right.
You’re perfectly within your rights to do this. However…
Many people in this thread have disputed your interpretation and offered plausible alternatives, and as far as I can tell, you haven’t given us a good reason for your belief. So my reaction is a mixture of annoyance and concern
Annoyance, because you’ve aroused our curiosity as to what is going on here, but apparently we’re never going to get to find out what’s really going on and thus satisfy our curiosity.
And concern, because is this an example of your general approach to life? Something happens, or someone says or does something, that could have several possible explanations, and you pick one of those explanations to believe, without any good reason other than that it’s the first one you thought of and therefore you’re committed to it.
Also, it occurs to me that one possible reason AAA wouldn’t accept your payment is that you’d already paid and forgotten about it, or someone else paid for you. In which case you’re wasting your money by also paying for another auto club.
You could be right…but I don’t think so! Everyone here - including y’alls truly - is speculating. You could be right, the majority of commenters could be right, or I could be right. In this instance, I’m simply refusing to substitute your judgment for my own. I don’t understand why that should annoy you since never once in my original post did I ask for advice - the topic is simply one that I felt “must be shared.”
Does this mean you are also speculating? Good on you for admitting it. Me, my curiosity would demand that I call the company and find out what happened, even if I had already signed up with another auto club. But that’s because I like fact when they are available.
In any case, since the last chapter of this mystery will not be written, I’m jumpin’ off the hamster wheel.
This is for roadside assistance. It’s not auto insurance. It has nothing to do with damage claims.
Schrödinger’s Auto Club membership.
The principle is the same though.
It’s theoretically perfectly possible that AAA is dropping roadside assistance customers for requesting too many service calls (even if the number of service calls was within the number allowed as part of the policy).
Same, same.
Right, of course we are speculating, but in your OP you stated “I can only assume that I’ve been passively “fired” as a customer without notice.” And all we are saying is “Really, that’s the ONLY logical assumption that you think can be made here?” Because in my mind, there are many other more probable (and less impliedly sinister) reasons for what you’ve experienced besides the one you are stating.
That’s kind of outrageous though? This is a roadside assistance service to help members in distress. You’re lucky you thought to check your status proactively. What if you were stranded roadside in a dangerous area or dangerous weather, and you called for assistance, and the answer was basically “we dropped you because you’re not profitable enough for us.”
If this was intentional and they didn’t send you a notice, you should be mad about it. I’m mad on your behalf. Even if it turns out to be nonpayment they still should’ve notified you, so that you could either fix the problem or contract with a different roadside assistance service.
Yes except for the fact that OP used the service only once in twenty years or whatever. If OP had used them ten times last year we’d be having a different discussion. It’s not remotely same same
How about a cite for your claim that AAA is dropping people who use the number of service calls allowed in the policy.
There are 61 million members in the US and Canada. There aren’t a bunch of clerks with boxes of index cards intentionally dropping people.
There is no way notification wasn’t sent. It was just missed by OP or went into a spam filter.
In addition, they will let you renew your membership on the spot if you need assistance. They will also, as happened to my friend two weeks ago, let you start a new membership if you need help for the first time. I was going to use my card for her and they offered her her own membership as an option which she took.
Your ridiculous nightmare scenario is not a thing.
I didn’t make such a claim.
You’re absolutely right. I misread that and I apologize.
How does AAA actually make money? Like insurance companies, do they invest their member fees? I would think AAA expects to make money in the aggregate even if some members cost them more than they bring in.
But i typically don’t qualify for any of the other discounts. I’ve used the AAA discount lots of times. Most recently when the negotiated rate for a convention had filled before i booked a room. The cost was the same, with fewer restrictions.
Add me to those who think it’s much more likely it was a mistake, and that you could have replaced speculation with knowledge by making a phone call.
But as you’ve already acted on your assumption and paid for a different auto club, i understand why you don’t want to bother checking now. Nonetheless, i think it’s unfair to malign AAA based on pretty thin assumptions.
AAA is a privately held and not for profit company, so they don’t have to please shareholders which is a plus. But they still have to operate in the black to stay in business. Their Trip-Ticks were a big source of income, I think, but the advent of GPS kind of made those obsolete overnight. Insurance companies are dropping customers in places that have big claims problems (like Florida, CA, etc). It doesn’t seem all that likely that AAA would be in that same boat, but if their membership has dropped dramatically (during COVID?), it might have the same effect.
Oh, and AAA does actually offer home insurance in CA.
Seems possible that a glitch in AAA system analytics told them the OP had more service calls than was actually the case.