The AA Driving School, nationwide UK Review

Overall Rating

I booked my first driving lessons in with the AA because they are a reputable company and I thought that I would be looked after as after all driving is what they are in the business of right? Well, I have just had to request a refund for the lessons that I have not yet taken and make a complaint about a number of things with regard to their general service. Luckily for them the driving instructor that I was allocated actually seems quite good (which is why I have given the value for money a rating of two stars instead of one, although since he is the first and only instructor that I have experience of, it is quite hard to be completly sure of this yet). I was sold the lessons based on the fact that I would have access to the AA's online tutorial service which to this day, even though I have contacted AA many many times to report this, I still have no access to and still have no idea of what the problem was or when it would likely to be fixed. I have still not received my welcome pack which contains my official driver's record that should be used to document my progress by my instructor, without it I have no record to show other instructors what levels I have already worked to and so on. But the single most frustrating aspect of all was the laxed and almost apathetic and horizontal attitude of the staff on the telephone contact line, the fact that I had some problems that I expected them to resolve swiftly seemed to be quite audacious of me, I liken the general reaction to be a bit like a twelve year old being asked to, but not wanting to, clean their room. This was the biggest problem of all for me, sure I had some problems but things sometimes go wrong don't they, especially in such a large organisation such as the AA? The important thing for me was how the AA would deal with resolving these problems and in the end I felt the only option I had was to obtain a refund and make a complaint. I still don't beleive that I'll get a response to this in the time stated in their policy either since the general customer service seems to be provided by staff that don't seem to know anything about the company thatthey work for (e.g. where they can find their complaints procedure etc). I can only comment on my own experience and I'm quite sure that there are others out there that have had a very good experience with the AA, but the impression that I am walking away with today is that they are an extremely disorganised and badly run service provider, were the fine balance of increasing revenue and providing a good service has tipped way too much over the wrong way - typical symptom of being taken over by venture capitalist? I couldn't say? What I do know is that I won't be going back.