Re: AAA, it is with Mr. Alain Arnell
Posted by:
Grover
(---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: December 22, 2011 09:51PM
I promised to share my feelings and the facts about AAA. As promised - here goes - and I hope Arnell reads this. FYI, we arrived home on December 14th so I've settled down - somewhat.
Arrived on time and met Didi (a worker for Arnell) with a sign in his hand with my name as well as 2 others on it. Guess what; Didi shares with me that "the van has left with another customer and will be back shortly...EXACTLY what I didn't want to happen - left for the AAA lot? Couldn't possibly be, I thought. In a nutshell, I was told by Arnell that the car would be parked at the airport - ready to go after filling out the paper work. Horrible way to do business, just horrible. We waited near 15 minutes for that van to return FROM THE AAA LOT ! - how's that for starters?
Next, the issued car was an 04 or 05 Corolla; the driver's side visor fell out of the ceiling, the windshield washer did NOT work (safety issue big time), the key would not open the passenger's side door because the keyhole was smashed in, the electric window on the passenger side had to be pulled, by hand, to get it to finish closing, all 4 hub caps were missing with rusted out wheels, cuts in tires that after some thought were dangerous, and the brakes were mushy and squeaky. The car was given to me with less that 1/2 tank of gas. Lastly, everything black inside the car was covered with a product like Armour All that was the consistency of vaseline. Steering wheel was caked with the stuff - looked shiny - but, was far too slippery - and resultant greasy hands each time I drove. The car had 57,000 miles on it. That was Saturday - arrival day, I returned the car on Sunday due to the safety issues.
We get a 2nd Corolla on Sunday - this time with 47K miles if I remember right. Power steering was mushy, again the passenger side key hole was mashed so the key was inop on that side, the tire pressure looked good on the inspection but on Monday the fronts were near flat with slow leaks. Left rear tire had a 3 inch tear that I didn't notice on inspection, the A/C took near 30 minutes to "cool" the car and then it was weak - clearly not maintained. Lastly, the engine warning lite came on on Sunday evening. Returned the car on Monday. It gets worse.
Next we are issued an Enero (Nissan Altima equivalent) - a big car for getting around - in and out of tough spots and squeezing into small parking spots - NOT satisfactory - not near what we agreed upon. On this one, the steering wheel shimmyed with an alignment problem (pot hole result, I'm sure), glove box door fell off onto the floor when I went to put the paperwork in it. Had Myra, another employee, resolve that one - I was too pissed off to put it back together. There were 2 hubcaps missing with rusty wheels, and lastly the window washer sprayed up the windshield maybe 4 inches - workable but far from quality - again, it, again, was a safety issue.
I get it. AAA defenders will hindsight this with ease - I know that I should have paid my bill and walked away to another company. I chose not to because 3 days of my vacation were somewhat spoiled, already. I didn't care to mess up another one. So I kept the Enero in hopes it would not break down; it did not.
I did receive a phone call from Mr. Arnell as I was signing the papers for the 2nd Corolla. He was apologetic and said, "I promise new cars next year". Did I receive any dscounted rate for my trouble and for his failure to maintain his cars? Nope, and I chose not to get into a verbal war - not my nature - nor was it worth making the day that much worse. ALSO, and this was important in my mind's eye, I knew that I was going to be Arnell's worst advertisement via this forum once I got home.
In a nutshell, AAA made 4 days of my vacation troublesome - Arnall has lost my business. For those of you who have had great experiences with AAA - per your recommendations - tell me what was good because I can't tell you anything good - except for Didi and Myra - they did the best they could and seemed embarrassed about their cars.
I lost, Arnell won - but I hope this note encourages you to go elsewhere for your car. I'm off my soap box. Grover