Check out this AAA scamming attempt

B

Bailey28

Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
86
Location
Gainesville FL
Wife and I went out of town a few months ago. I normally don't drive her car however on longer trips I do the driving. At the hotel I left her parking lights on by mistake after fiddling with the headlight switch trying to get them to shut off. Next day the battery was drained, car no start, so we called AAA for a jump start. We have been gold members for years.

Typical AAA dude shows up and gets it started. Immediately after it starts he says "Wow, look at that... your battery amperage is showing only 180 amps...... I got a new battery on the truck and I can do it for $240.... whadda ya think?

Now knowning that the battery was fine the day before on a one year old car and the alternator never had a problem I gave him a look said no, the battery will charge up after a short while.

Dude pulled his cranking box off the battery posts and left. Battery was fine, no further problems with it.

What a ****ty way to try to dig into someone's pocketbook.
 
Depends on who you get, I guess. My wife and I flew to NJ for work for a week and left our car at Detroit airport.. in the parking garage with barely enough room to get to the hood latch. We landed to temps in the 20s and as we grabbed our luggage and headed to the garage, I got on the app which failed to start the car on several attempts. Mind you, this car was a 24 with 7k on it. AAA showed up in what I’d consider record time. He had a very thick accent but I couldn’t have asked for a nicer guy. Of course he showed up in a ford transit van, packed to the gills with new batteries. Obviously he could tell the car was new and that the battery would be under warranty, and didn’t even try to sell us a new one. This was right before Xmas so I tipped the guy a $50 (which was all I had) and we drove straight to the dealership. He has a very busy route at Detroit metro, and had commented how many new cars, all makes, all models he jumps on the regular. I now have Schumacher jump boxes in all my vehicles and new batteries.
 
So you left your lights on draining the battery, he verified that you only have 180 amps capacity as a result, then he asked if you wanted a new battery & you thought it was a scam? I understand what you're saying but that's not a scam. Perhaps an opportunity for them to sell you a battery. It would've been a scam if you never drained your battery & there was nothing for them to see about the battery drainage. All that being said it would be a good idea to see what the meter shows but I don't doubt it simply due to your draining the battery the night before.
 
D1dad said:
and had commented how many new cars, all makes, all models he jumps on the regular.
Click to expand...
5-6 years ago, I jumped a lady's battery and we chatted a bit about her new car (<2 years old) often going flat.

All I could say was that the car companies were too rapidly delving into electronics and that some of that gear created parasitic losses.
I suggested keeping up with service bulletins and manufacturer fixes, but added that she might want to get a "trickle charger" for her garaged car.
However, I could see she was in no way mechanically inclined.
 
I was under the impression that the local AAA representatives are not direct employees of the company. Sort of a subcontract/franchise arrangement? Assuming this is true, it's not AAA trying to upsell, but the local rep.

BTW, I had AAA back when I was doing a lot of vehicle fix and flipping, because they had a DMV service, which saved tons of headache compared to the real California DMV, where I live. What I didn't realize, is that they had my credit card number and put my account on auto renewal. I'm an idiot, my fault, because I don't check my statement often enough. I paid for the service for way too many years, unused, before I figured out what was going on. Turned off auto renewal, and they kept sending me new AAA cards, trying to get me to renew. No joke, I received at least 25 letters, bills, notices, etc, while they chased me. Pretty crazy.
 
I see it as an attempt to relieve me of $240 instantly. Being an AAA driver, I am certain this wasn't his first attempt at a jump start. If he was being totally transparent he would have said let's let it run a few minutes then check the voltage and amperage again.

It would have taken longer to change out the battery than to just wait and see if it was charging properly. I agree that the battery had 180 amps in it after 12 hours of draw and a cold start. However let it recover for a few minutes first before asking me to peel out my wallet.

To me this was his dishonest attempt to sell me a battery we did not need. Call it what you want, but will I lump 'upsell' tactics into the scam category if I already own what you are trying to sell me and it doesn't need to be replaced. Now if the lady at Denny's says 'would you like to upgrade from fries to a side salad?' I consider that an honest upsell, because chances are I don't have the fries or salad in front of me when she's asking.
 
Shouldn't the car have gone in to power saving mode before killing the battery. ?
My ****box 2009 saturn does this can't imagine a new car not having this feature ?
 
I've been an AAA member since 1993. It used to be a great service that I bought memberships for my whole family. I told my family to trust and do what the driver said needed to be done, that's how good it used to be. I'm truly thinking of going another route now.

The battery scam is the worst. Latest one was my 2015 Trax. I had bought a battery three months earlier. I always write in sharpie the month/date on top of each battery when I installed it, it's very visible. Fan relay stuck open on it while my wife was with her sister and drained the battery overnight. AAA shows up and sells her a new battery. No "let's tow it to a shop", no "that's a new battery let's charge it", just sold her a new one. Expensive too, no deals on those.
They also got my kid on a 12 month old battery in Los Angeles. Bad alternator.
AAA corporate doesn't care in the least. "Our drivers are trained and know what to look for". I'm guessing it's a high commission deal for them.

Now their service is getting bad. My other daughter waited 3 hours, with no updated ETA each time she called, and I finally told her to take an uber home. This was at 10pm on a summer night in Boulder Colorado. They had a truck coming from Aurora CO, over a half hour away. When I contacted AAA later on asking them if they didn't have anyone closer they said no, they were all busy. I don't think they have enough tow companies signed up anymore or they won't pay the rates. She waited over an hour the next day for a truck to finally come. How long will they wait on a winter night?

If I can't use the service for my daughters safety and concern hey won't get ripped off by a driver, it's worthless to me.
 
AAA does not own tow trucks and what not. They hire local tow companies and pay them to do the jobs.

The guy should have explained the situation better.... You battery is dead,it may charge and be ok but if you want piece of mind I can install a new one.

Nothing wrong with that but a tow truck driver does not generally make a good salesman.
 
c502cid said:
I've been an AAA member since 1993. It used to be a great service that I bought memberships for my whole family. I told my family to trust and do what the driver said needed to be done, that's how good it used to be. I'm truly thinking of going another route now.

The battery scam is the worst. Latest one was my 2015 Trax. I had bought a battery three months earlier. I always write in sharpie the month/date on top of each battery when I installed it, it's very visible. Fan relay stuck open on it while my wife was with her sister and drained the battery overnight. AAA shows up and sells her a new battery. No "let's tow it to a shop", no "that's a new battery let's charge it", just sold her a new one. Expensive too, no deals on those.
They also got my kid on a 12 month old battery in Los Angeles. Bad alternator.
AAA corporate doesn't care in the least. "Our drivers are trained and know what to look for". I'm guessing it's a high commission deal for them.

Now their service is getting bad. My other daughter waited 3 hours, with no updated ETA each time she called, and I finally told her to take an uber home. This was at 10pm on a summer night in Boulder Colorado. They had a truck coming from Aurora CO, over a half hour away. When I contacted AAA later on asking them if they didn't have anyone closer they said no, they were all busy. I don't think they have enough tow companies signed up anymore or they won't pay the rates. She waited over an hour the next day for a truck to finally come. How long will they wait on a winter night?

If I can't use the service for my daughters safety and concern hey won't get ripped off by a driver, it's worthless to me.
Click to expand...
Last time I used AAA roadside service I waited FOUR HOURS for them to arrive. I made 2 or 3 phones calls too, trying to get an ETA.

Eventually I called another towing company to flatbed the vehicle home. $500 but worth it at that point. But no sooner did the $500 guy arrive than did AAA. Thankfully the $500 guy understood.

Scott
 
Bailey28 said:
Typical AAA dude shows up and gets it started. Immediately after it starts he says "Wow, look at that... your battery amperage is showing only 180 amps...... I got a new battery on the truck and I can do it for $240.... whadda ya think?

Now knowning that the battery was fine the day before on a one year old car and the alternator never had a problem I gave him a look said no, the battery will charge up after a short while.
Click to expand...
Here's where AAA could be in a no-win situation. Let's just say you drove the car awhile and the battery didn't get fully charged, OR the complete discharge ruined the battery, AAA would get another phone call saying that they should have offered to sell you a new battery. Many years ago, before headlights timed out, I forgot to turn headlights off on a Friday and when my car wouldn't start on Monday, the battery would not take a charge. It was toast. So I think they were just covering all the bases.
That being said, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have purchased the new battery, either.
 
hemitom said:
Shouldn't the car have gone in to power saving mode before killing the battery. ?
My ****box 2009 saturn does this can't imagine a new car not having this feature ?
Click to expand...
On most of the vehicles that have this feature, the parking lights and emergency flashers will not activate the power saving mode.
 
This isn't the worst scam out there, usually after a car battery is drained that much it never comes back. A lot of people would be fine having the battery replaced so they don't get stuck again or have to deal with going to a shop.

And to echo the above, what kind of a car doesn't cut battery power if something is left on? GM has had this feature for 30 years.
 
Agree. That and short tripping and the smart charge crap that automakers are using to squeeze an extra 1/10th of a mile out to please the epa. When I went to pick up my wife’s, basically new car with the battery replaced. The service guy said they see new cars coming off the trucks with bad batteries. This is a dealership that sells Nissan, ford and Honda..I think it’s more of a Clarios (or whoever) issue than it is auto manufacturers. At least my bad battery was clarios. I actually just got home from replacing the battery in my daughter’s enclave before the temps drop down to -30 this week. Newish ac delco that tested at 41% state of health and was causing all kinds of electronic issues.
 
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