Wowee - I wish I had brought popcorn at the start of this thread

 

Literally it’s clicking a button when I book a hotel, it’s no effort.

I just saved twice as much as my membership cost in one hotel stay at the beach.

Never had an issue with AAA service anytime I have called them. It’s like $160 a year, who cares?

 

$160 - is that AAA PLUS?

 

I have no clue. I will have to look.

 

It’s even cheaper than I thought lol, it’s $90 a year. So I made my membership back 4 times over in one hotel stay.

 

I used to pay roughly $100 for PLUS. Standard is around $50 or less from what I recall. PLUS gives you tows up to 100 miles I think.

 

SW17LS, I didn't ask for anything special or "concierge", no need to be judgmental. I explained my situation and asked to put in a safety concern. What I expected from Lexus roadside was the same as what I would expect from any other roadside - send a tow truck if can't unlock the glove box, basically. I've had experience with AAA, Progressive and other roadside services and I know what to expect. Lexus roadside was not on par, not even close, which was disappointing given what their brand stands for. From waiting on hold for 15-30 minutes every time I called to a 3-hour ordeal due to some disconnect between them and AAA - the whole thing was wrong on so many levels. I'm surprised you don't see it that way. But yeah, I agree - Lexus Roadside is not AAA, that's why I now recommend keeping or getting a separate roadside.

Btw you're wrong about "they never send tow truck with lockout service." How do you know that anyway - do you work for them? Lexus acknowledged it was a mishandled case and that it should have been a tow truck in the first place (my parking space might have cleared out enough.) Tow to the nearest dealership, cut the new key - the whole thing would have been over in an hour.

 

So you routinely lose your keys and have everything locked in the glovebox? This has happened to you more than once? How is that possible?

And Lexus has acknowledged this was a "mishandled case" I thought they left you for dead and erased your request from their servers?

As I said before, your expectations are out of whack here and your "ordeal" is largely over-dramatized.

 

I've always used AAA for years and never had any problems. I used to work closely with towing companies and a tow truck company owner once told me they have agreements with AAA that their dispatches always have priority over other towing calls.

 

SW17LS it's not helpful. You're getting personal and off topic here. Not interested - you weren't there.

 

If you want to just read your own viewpoint, write it in a journal, not on a discussion forum.

And my guess is if you are a AAA member and you call AAA you will get faster service than if you call Lexus.

I remember when the Lexus roadside expired on my ES300 they called me and tried to get me to renew it, and my response was why? All you do is call AAA...why wouldn't I just join AAA? The other thing is AAA will cover you regardless of what you are driving, Lexus won't. So if you have a rental car or a friends car and its not your Lexus, AAA has you.

 

If my rental car breaks down, I call the rental company, Avis in my case.

 

I've never had a rental car break down, but my guess is they too will just call AAA. Bottom line is, AAA has the network and the demand to keep the network of drivers out there complete. For an entity like Lexus, or Avis, or a credit card company it just makes sense to buy into that network vs trying to build a new network from the ground up just for you.

Last year I was in NJ and my wife's aunt had issues with her CR-V needing a new battery. I went out and bought a battery and installed it, but that wasn't the issue. I called my AMEX Platinum roadside assistance to come get it. Guess who showed up? AAA.

 

It's happened to me twice and both times they came with their own truck and a replacement rental..

 

You have bad luck with rental cars LOL

The point is, all of these services are going to be very very similar...because by and large they all just call AAA. You gotta wonder, if you are AAA do you give priority to your own direct members? Probably.