The most common response is probably "what, that still exists? I thought it died with my grandfather."
Who needs an archaic, out of touch, worthless group when we can design travel maps online, make bookings from our smart phone and get roadside service with our car warranty or onboard system?
All very true. AAA is dying. And as it circles the drain, it cuts resources and treats people with disabilities like little children.
The only reason we've been members? Well, we've had it almost 30 years and back when we started, you needed travel brochures, TripTiks and other stuff from AAA -- it was before the internet.
Why do we continue with it?
My wife has a specialized van equipped with a wheelchair ramp and 6-point turn driver's seat that allows her to travel independently, with her wheelchair, for her high level job.
But such a van costs more than $60,000 plus $1k per month to maintain.
The only specialty repair shop worth a damn is all the way up in Pompano Beach, 40 some miles from our Miami home.
AAA Plus gives tows, for free, to your repair shop of choice. Most roadside assistance and onboard coverage only gives a tow to the nearest shop for general repairs.
Thus our reason for staying. Plus, AAA has trucks that come out and install batteries for only the cost of the battery.
Wheelchair vans in hot climates kill 48 month batteries in less than 2 years, so having AAA come out with a fresh heavy duty battery also paid for the membership dues.
But last night, my wife's van died. AAA had just put in a new battery a month ago.
The truck came out, checked the system and found she had a dead alternator -- which the mobile trucks do not have.
So we phoned AAA and asked for a first thing tow to a local shop that knows how to baby my wife's van.
They normally don't schedule ahead, but this is a reasonable accommodation.
We even held, for nearly an hour, to talk to a supervisor. We were flatly turned down.
This meant there was no chance of my wife getting her van repaired and back on the road in time for her to conduct a scheduled Americans with Disabilities Act training that would have improved the lives of thousands.
So we get up early and call AAA.
My wife very politely and clearly explains that she needs a flat bed tow truck. A regular "hook" truck will damage her costly and sensitive van.
The dealership, van conversion company, her specialty wheelchair van mobility expert in Pompano and the corner garage that takes care of non wheelchair access repairs ALL HAVE STATED EXPLICITLY that she should never take a tow from something other than a flatbed.
So we get a call that the tow truck is 15 minutes way. Yet it arrives an hour later.
And it's a regular hook truck. And I go ballistic.
My wife calls, is put on hold, ignored, treated like a third class citizen.
Finally, a supervisor in customer service comes on.
He explains that some customers ask for a flatbed truck when a regular truck will do.
He goes on to basically treat my wife like a two year old. Ignoring her, being patronizing and acting like a wheelchair user is some drooling fool who cannot speak for herself.
This would be like calling a black man "boy" or treating a college professor African American woman like a stupid child, based on centuries-old stereotypes.
Listening on speaker phone, I start cussing him out.
Meanwhile, the AAA affiliate driver of a standard tow truck is empathetic and tries to give enough battery charge for me to drive the van. Of course, I can get in with out using the dead wheelchair ramp. So this option would not work if I were on the road.
The driver and AAA say it will take 2 or more hours for a flatbed tow truck.
We could have had one at 6 a.m. like we needed, but of course the call center on Tuesday night discriminated against my wife and refused an ADA accommodation, so why should be surprised that we are given patronizing, patently offensive, 10th class citizen status on a Wednesday morning?
We were treated so poorly, that we finally let the regular hook driver try to gingerly tow my wife's van to the nearby shop. If he had to take a highway, this wouldn't be an option. So two professionals would have lost a day's work each waiting for the never arriving flatbed.
We got to the shop. Who knows if my wife will be on the highway a month from now, and chassis damage from the non flatbed two causes a crash that kills her.
You would think the AAA would be the No. 1 organization on earth working to prevent such a thing.
But because it is dying, incompetent and discriminatory toward people with disabilities, we may well have doomed my wife's expensive, fragile, essential wheelchair van to permanent damage that could result in very serious injury or death.
Thanks for nothing AAA. You should refund 30 years worth of our dues, plus interest, and offer free lifetime tows to make up for the events of the past 24 hours.
Oh, and maybe training your call center folks to respect people with disabilities and listen to their specific requests and accommodate their needs with professionalism. You might want to mix that in to your repertoire....before you flush down the toilet with every other obsolete thing from the 20th century like VCRs, rotary dial land lines and tape decks.
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