Copy of e-mail received and sent- May 28, 2010… >Did you re-new your AAA yet? Yes, just this a.m., but downgraded to Classic instead of the ridiculous “Plus.” (Now, I have to figure out what meds, doctor, or clinic/hospital is going to have to take another postponing of a payment to compensate for Wife’s and my AAA renewal.) As I told the AAA filly on the toll-free phone number when she asked “Is there anything else I can do for you?” “Yes,” I replied. Pass it on to the AAA financial gurus that set up these plans that folks like me – and there’s plenty of us in Florida (but evidently, AAA doesn’t believe in demographic studies), would be happy to keep AAA-Plus if AAA gave us a reason to, namely, more emergency calls instead of the foolish “100 mile” deal. Give us retirees, who live off a picayune retirement and/or S.S. check and who, therefore, seldom leave the house except to feed the ultra-wealthy medical institutions, doctors, and pharmacies, the option of: (1)- an extra 100 miles or (2)- eight emergency calls with its 10-mile limit. ( I’d even renew the AAA Plus if the calls were increased to 6). The so-called AAA financial wizards who run these multi-million-dollar conglomerates, with their so-called alleged acumen of “Business Administration degrees”, etc. just don’t get it (nor, do I believe, they want to.) They can’t relate to senior citizens who don’t have the health to fix their own flat tires, or who, periodically absent-mindedly, might lock themselves out of their cars, or have to keep postponing, because of their limited income, the purchase of a new battery until it finally goes dead. Even during our working years, how many of us utilized the 100-mile deal? If the gurus at AAA would check my record, for instance, they would see I used it one time only (in the past 5-10 years) when the car wouldn’t start at the Leesburg Mall. Wifey, sadly enough, was also with me (a rarity). If she wasn’t, I would’ve told AAA to tow it to the nearest AAA repair shop in Leesburg (within the very limited 10-mile radius) and I’d have Wifey come over and pick me up in her car and then make the return trip to pick up the car when it was repaired. I would win financially. Two round trips to Leesburg is far below the initial cost of our AAA-Plus membership..
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AAA doesn’t get it: Most of us senior citizens keep our cars in top shape as much as possible (one vehicle now is getting TWO tires on it since one of them had a flat area on it – and I don’t want to have it blow on the road (as my mechanic informed me it was ready to) forcing me to call AAA. So, regardless of AAA or not, we try to avoid calling ANY tow truck. We have no incentive whatsoever to purchase AAA Plus simply because of its offered100 miles. How far is 100 miles from Floral City? Totally useless. Again, it’s not the mileage, but the # of emergency calls. Whether it’s the Classic or Plus, it’s still limited to the picayune 4 annual calls. Will I or Wifey get through another year? It’ll be on a Hail Mary, and if any breakdown does happen outside the 10-mile radius, it’ll be a screaming of “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” which, I assure you, will be done with minimum reverence, but I have to chance it. (One car, 12 years old has 175K on it; the other one, 16 years old, has 145K on it.) About 2-3 years ago, one of Ed’s Towing drivers (AAA Towing-Inverness/Floral City) informed me that Ed gets paid pennies on the dollar by AAA for what it cost him to make a local call; his profit margin does increases “significantly” with long-distant calls, because of what AAA pays him, which I find financially mind-boggling because the truck has increased mileage and also “down-time” for its driver on long distant calls. An Orlando AAA tow-truck told me the same thing some years ago. True, there are many morbid-wealthy Yankees that make their bi-annual trips to and from the North, but how many? Even if they have AAA-Plus, and they get stuck in the boonies of S.C. on I-95, they’re still going to have to spend $$ for the unplanned, extra lodging and food – and what are they really saving on the tow cost? If they’re more than 100 miles from a AAA repair shop, they’re still going to have to pay the whopping extra tow-truck’s mileage fees. The bottom line for AAA is the dollar-deity. AAA caters to the wealthy, not to the middle-class or lower socio-economic status citizenry – and I’m probably in the latter category since I have to stand out on 41 & Gobbler with a sign, “Please donate to help pay AAA membership fees.” (Do I dare wonder why I witness so many passers-by giggling or directing me to Heaven with their middle finger?) I’ve written to AAA before about it, but as usual, no response. In the vile, uncaring business world, it’s easier to ignore something than for any elite personnel to respond to it in detailed writing, regardless of my long-stabilized home address and/or e-mail address which AAA has had for years. We customers/members are an unknown number in a depersonalized computer, We serve one purpose (as we are to all money-maniacal insurance companies): Ferociously feed their bank accounts and get as little as possible in return. WJK-May-2010
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