AAA and AAA Car Care Plus – Clarence

I called Monday evening to make an appointment on Tuesday. I had a coupon for the winter car special $ 39.99 for an oil change, tire rotation, brake check, battery test, and new winter wiper blades. When I made my appointment the woman on the phone was great, she got me an appointment for 10 am on Tuesday which was perfect, I figured with an appointment meant that early I would be able to have my car back mid-​afternoon. Tuesday morning I went in to drop off my car, I had to stand there for about 15 minutes while the man at the counter entered all of the information about my car that I told the woman on the phone the night before. When I gave him my keys he said that they would give me a call as soon as my car was ready. All paper work was done and I was leaving at 10:15. I hadn’t heard anything from them by 2:30 pm so I decided to give them a call. The man on the phone told me that they had not even looked at my car yet! I was furious. I had dropped my dogs off at the vet for a surgery before I dropped my car off, and because the appointment for my car was so early I did not arrange a ride to pick them because I assumed my car would be done, they didn’t need to be picked up until 4:30 so I assumed I would have my car back way before they needed to be picked up. The man I spoke to on the phone as extremely rude and I could tell he just wanted to get off the phone with me. He told me that it was standard for them to have the car for the whole day. I explained to him that I needed my car to pick up my dogs from surgery and that if anyone told me it was going to take the entire day I would have made other arrangements all he said was «ok» no apologies just more attitude. So at this point AAA had my car for four hours and had not even looked at it. He told me that everything they needed to do to my car would take about 2 hours and they had anticipated my car being ready around 5, so they anticipated 7 hours for my oil change and tire rotation! I received a call back at about 4:30 that my car was done. At this point I was picking my dogs up from their surgery and I needed to talk to the vet and get their medicine. I called AAA to let them know I would not be able to get there at 6 when they closed. The same rude man I talked to before told me that my only 2 options were to either not get my car until Wednesday morning or I could pay over the phone and he would leave my keys in the car. I explained to him that at the latest I would be there at 6:10 pm, he told me that since I would be there after close they couldn’t do anything. You would think that after my experience someone would stay the extra few minutes so I didn’t have to have my car unlocked. I arrived at 6:05 to get my car and I saw people still in the window of the building when I got there. I started my car and went to drive it, it just doesn’t feel right. So after having my car from 10 am– 6:00 pm AAA left me unsatisfied and my car unserviced. But they did throw in a couple free car wash coupons… I will never go back there and I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. I understand that businesses have off days but they should have a manager there to handle these situations.

I find aaa’s service to be downright appalling. my 2003 subaru forester broke down on me with a flashing check engine light for two misfire codes meaning it should be immediately turned off and not driven. I relayed all of this to the guy who answered my phone call, but he failed to tell the driver that. When the driver called me, he told me he had already turned the vehicle on which could have caused serious engine damage. Compared to what they did to me next though, that was only a minor annoyance.
They diagnosed it and told me it would require all sorts of work to run again. Their quote came to over $ 4100. I’m not exaggerating. That’s literally their quote. Imagine holding that packet in hand when your amazing third party mechanic drives out to AAA after you give him the key and fixes it for the cost of a $ 108 ignition coil (AAA wanted $ 245 for the same part from the same parts dealer, by the way). That’s it. $ 100. Aaa tried to scam me out of $ 4000.
The next slap in the face was that I had paid them $ 100 to diagnose the «issue». I essentially paid them for their wonderful service in attempting to rip me off.
I am currently looking into how I can report them to the corporate office. I feel ashamed to admit this but I very nearly fell for this scam.

Waited 6 hours for an oil change and they never got it done. Dropped the car off at 9:35AM. I usually go run errands for 2 hours while waiting for service. I stopped back after 4 hours and the car was inside the garage but they said no one had worked on it yet. I came back at 3:30 and they still had not touched it with seemingly no intention of performing the oil change. I requested my unfinished car back after that and will never take my car back to this location.

Now, I am possibly a AAA fangirl. I’ve had a AAA card since I learned how to drive, back when I was 16, so I’m somewhat biased in general towards AAA.
I’ve needed to get my car completely legal in NY State, and the last thing I needed was a state inspection. I figured, hey, these guys are close to my work and have decent hours, so why not?
Making an appointment was really easy, you can do it through their website, and they’ll show you the next available appointment, which was conveniently at 8:05AM. Check-​in once I got there was a breeze, and they had a shuttle waiting for me to drop me off at work, since I specified in my reservation that I needed a ride.
When they let me know my car was ready, they dispatched the shuttle back, and I was able to get checked out and back to work over my lunch break easily. Everyone there was friendly and nice.
My only reason for docking a star is that their shuttle only runs until 4:30PM, even though they’re open until 6. If I’d had to wait until after work, that would have been inconvenient for me. Otherwise, no complaints, and they also give you a coupon for a free Delta-​Sonic wash with your purchase, which is a nice touch.

Great routine inspection and oil change. Pretty fast for a monday. The attendant stayed late so i could pick my car up at closing. Highly recommended for AAA members. Look out for coupons in the mail as well.