A former towing company owner is taking on AAA Mid-Atlantic, alleging in a recently filed lawsuit that the motorist club cheated him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and cost him his business.
Larry Bryant, who previously owned Bryant’s Towing, said that for the past five years AAA Mid-Atlantic has been using a faulty customer survey to evaluate the contractors they hire to provide roadside assistance to club members.
Contractors who score high on the survey are awarded a lucrative bonus payment, and Bryant said he received a bonus every month before the new survey process was implemented in 2006.
“Based on the size of my company, I received $30,000 to $50,000 month,” Bryant said.
Survey bonuses accounted for about half of his $1.2 million annual revenue earned from working with AAA, he said.
“The bonus was helping pay my payroll and my personal bills, and that’s how I survived,” Bryant said.
But after AAA hired Florida-based Sterling Survey to manage its survey program, which had previously been conducted via mail-in cards, Bryant said his survey results dropped off a cliff — and so did his bonus payments.
Bryant is seeking $18 million in his lawsuit, filed a few weeks ago in Chesterfield Circuit Court.
AAA spokesperson Martha Meade said the company would not comment on the suit.
At its height, the company had 18 tow trucks, 30 employees and five locations.
Bryant said AAA had previously urged him to expand into Charlottesville and Northern Virginia to provide service to club members. Bryant used bonus funds to finance new trucks, which can cost as much as $110,000.
Once the bonus payments dried up, Bryant said, he soon started falling behind on bills.
Bryant started digging around and said he found some major faults with the program. For instance, he called several customers who had been recorded as having a negative experience, only to be told that the service was excellent and that they thought they were giving the negative review about a different tow company.
The more Bryant complained to AAA management about the program, he said, the fewer service calls were dispatched to his company.
One event in particular led to Bryant’s Towing being eventually cut off from AAA.
After taking his concerns to Sterling Survey, Bryant received a memo from them addressing his concerns and explaining certain details of the program, including the margin of error.
According to the suit, the memo explained that to maintain a margin of error of +/-5 percent, a certain sample size was required. The suit alleges that AAA “failed to ensure an adequate sample size to meet the correct and stated margin of error” and intentionally did so to avoid paying bonuses as outlined in its contracts with towers.
The suit alleges that after showing the letter to AAA territory manager Charles Brady, who is also named individually in the suit, Brady offered a bribe of $10,000 for a copy of the letter. Bryant refused, and claims that as a result he eventually stopped being dispatched service calls from AAA. Brady declined to comment.
By 2009, Bryant said he had no choice but to shut down the business and get rid of his trucks. Some were sold, and others were repossessed.
Bryant said he still has a lot of debts to pay and faces lawsuits from multiple lenders.
“I got people suing me left and right because of this,” Bryant said. “My credit score might be 100. I’m trying not to go bankrupt. I owe these people money, and I want to pay them. If I win this lawsuit, they are going to get paid.”
Although Bryant is the first local tower to file suit against AAA, he isn’t the only one miffed by the 100-year-old motorists association.
Paul Fletcher, owner of Fletcher’s Towing and once the largest local contractor for AAA, said he is preparing his own suit.
“My company, according to them in their own writing, was a company went above and beyond,” Fletcher said, “but I never qualified for this bonus plan.”
Like Bryant, Fletcher said he always hit his full bonus before the new survey plan was implemented but afterward never qualified for the full bonus again, at most receiving $10,000, but usually $4,000 or $5,000.
Fletcher did his own digging and found missing gaps of time between surveys, which led him to believe that AAA was selectively choosing negative reviews in order to skew results below the bonus threshold. He also found that his score was based on 100 surveys out of the 6,000 service calls he was making a month.
Fletcher said AAA told him that arrival time carried 80 percent of the weight with the final survey score, so, last November, Fletcher beefed up his response times.
“I improved my ETAs to under 30 minutes for 92 percent of the calls that I ran,” Fletcher said. “What happened? My score went down.”
Fletcher said his company brought in $2.5 million in revenue when the bonus program was in full effect.
AAA pays contractors around $19 to $23 per call, Fletcher said.
“To change a tire on the side of I-95 is $22. When the bonus was being paid, it amounted to an extra $9 on top of that. That right there is your profit.”
After years of waiting for AAA to fix the program, as they said assured him and other towers were working to do, Fletcher finally got fed up and decided to break his ties with AAA and downsize his 14-year-old company. Fletcher now contracts with insurance companies AllState and Geico.
Fletcher said he sold more than 25 tow vehicles and is down to nine.
“I had to lay off a lot of people and sell my entire car collection to keep from going bankrupt,” Fletcher said, referring to his prized Corvette, a Lamborghini, a Super Sport Camero and a Dodge Viper.
“Better to sell them, pay my remaining employees and pitch in a few dollars to help unload that equipment so I can continue my business,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said he is looking to file his suit against AAA in federal court in the coming months.
ITS HARD TO SEE THE LITTLE COMPANYS RUINED BY A 100 YEAR OLD COMPANY. I HOPE YOU KEEP PUSHING THEM. THIS DAY IN TIME THE ECONOMY IS SO BAD AND THEY NEED TO REALIZE THEY HAVE NOT JUST HURT THE EMPLOYEE BUT ALSO YOUR WHOLE IMMIADIATE FAMILY. HANG IN THERE.
Previosly I had considered AAA to be a company that represented integrity based service. After reading this article, I would have to say my respect for AAA is at an all time low. The underhanded methods that AAA used in this case are an example of true greed at its worst. My heart goes out to all of the small business owners and their families that have suffered at the hands of a large company that has disregarded honesty in their pursuit for money. It is my hope that there will be justice in the end and AAA will be held accountable for their actions.
What is the Sterling Research actually doing with the members information? What is the actual purpose of this program? Why was the AAA phone counselor low scores taken out of the survey when they noticed they had a internal problem at AAAMA? If it is proven that the statistics that AAAMA gives out are in fact deceptive, how will the media outlets feel about the statistics AAAMA gives you? This isn’t just about the money for the towers…it might be about the money for AAAMA .The AAAMA President wrote in the AAA World magazine that he likes to right the wrongs, he has been advised of this, he turned his eye. While Sterling Research group in Florida sends out statistics to gaming industries and hotels, how are they qualified to design such a program in the towing industry when on the survey it doesnt even identify the tower the survey is on, and in the towing industry you can have multiple companies from AAAMA service you on the same day depending where you are located? Why doesn’t AAAMA come forward and Sterling come forward and answer these questions? I will send a copy ( one of many) of the local territory manager’s comment on the actual survey that states, no one took the survey in the household, who took it then? What are the missing gaps of time and sequence numbers? Why did you really shut the program down when I showed you how it repsonded? Why did the former AAAMA rep put in writing that AAAMA understands the more surveys the higher the score when you know the sample size is too small for a valid statistic? Why were members apologizing to me because they thought the survey was on another company? Why did the territory manager advise me to print the items before yall shut it down? I will also send a copy of the email where AAAMA territory manager says their is severe repercussions to dropping out of the “tow for just AAAMA” contract , when I advised them I needed to work for others to fill in the income gap from no bonus money and the contract had no such repercusiions, he then sends one that says, “i got your attention”, this is how a 100 year old company operates? Why does AAAMA give out cell numbers to the survey company to call members on for a survey if they are concerned with safety and not being distracted while driving. I always put the member and AAAMA first and foremost, and my record with them proves that. My goal is to show how AAAMA and Sterling Research group operate deceptively and unethically, the cars and money mean nothing. What does mean something is the members, the towing industry, fair and ethical play in business, a passion for what most towers do, friends and family, and small businesses that are the backbone of the working class people.
I spent 4 years behind the wheel of a Fletcher’s tow truck and every day it was the same thing. “Totally satisfied”… “customers first” … “wash your truck”… and “what if that was your grandmother on the side of the road? hurry up!” Paul really does care about every single person waiting for a Fletcher’s truck to come save them. He always spent top dollar on the best and newest equipment. He knows a customer likes a new truck but a driver loves one. Everybody likes Fletcher’s towing. The police always acknowledged me in public if I was wearing my fletcher’s shirt. I think that’s a good thing. Haha. Paul has always done the right thing and he deserves the same from AAA.
As a former AAA employee and someone that knows both Paul and Larry very well I can say that there is definitely some validity to their concerns. I know in many cases that people are quick to dismiss this type of claim as frivolous or sour grapes from a disgruntled business owner but during my tenure with the company there was a great deal of concern about the validity of the survey process as it was being implemented. When area managers like me posed those questions to senior management they were usually rebuffed in a way that made it clear that they did not like being questioned. Little clarification was ever offered despite overwhelming statistical anomalies and inconsistency in the month to month results.
One must also understand in the case of Paul Fletcher, AAA Mid-Atlantic approached him to run all of their calls in the Richmond area based on the strength of his performance with the company for many years. He was the largest contractor and most highly regarded contractor in AAA Mid-Atlantic and if the survey results his bonus was based on were invalid or being manipulated it would have resulted in substantial financial savings for AAA.
I also know that when the Sterling program was implemented that the Sterling research group recommended using the survey results to tabulate a quarterly score because that would increase the validity and reliability of those results. AAA was determined to implement a monthly scorecard for contractors so they disregarded that suggestion at the expense of accuracy. As a result scores became very volatile and there was also evidence to suggest that frequently people answering the survey questions were not the people that received the service.
One should also be aware that implementation of this survey program coincided with the largest pay raises AAA had given in many years. Those raises were made necessary by spiking fuel prices because in some areas contractors were making $15.00 per call in 2005 when gas was $4.00 per gallon. The internal belief among most of the veteran employees is that the changes in the bonus program (which used to be based on hard statistical performance data like response times) was an attempt by the company to reduce bonus pay to help offset the cost of those pay raises.
I left AAA to do some consulting and became a small business owner myself, so my empathy in this case is definitely with Paul and Larry who did their job well for AAA only to be discarded when they started to ask uncomfortable questions about their compensation. Frankly too many large companies try to use accounting tricks and improper assessment tools to save money at the expense of the guys out there doing the actual work.
I would say that it is more dangerous to be a AAA member in the Richmond area since contractors like Paul and Larry have left the company, you are going to sit on the side of the road longer and deal with drivers that don’t have the quality of training or equipment that their employees did. As for survey scores, I can’t imagine they are improving in this area since the departure of these dedicated contractors.
I have been a AAA member for many years and they have done this provider very dirty. What happens to all our information does it get sold off to the highest bidder? My advice to anyone who would be interested if they did this to one provider how many others are there that have gotten the dirty end of the stick? Well all i can say is we hope you make them pay for what they have done to you guys and god bless. Goodbye and good luck AAA members this is enough for me to say goodbye to AAA. They are not the only fish in the sea.
As promised……
This is a actual message left in the “fix it” portion of the actual survey where Charlie Brady, my AAAMA representative called me and told me “he left me a present to show AAAMA how corrupt the program was” in which he had confirmed in writing on the program that another person other than the member that was present at the breakdown took the survey ( another reason why Sterling did not understand the industry). We were told for over a year, these surveys would have a appeal process to correct the unjustified negative impact they had to our scores, businesses and income, when in fact the actual service was rated incorrectly, the appeal process was just another ploy by AAAMA to string us along and keep the money for themselves. 5 out of 25 surveys flawed means no bonus…ironically, with missing gaps of time and sequence numbers missing, it always worked out to a low score… there is a track record over a 4 year period of this.
11/1/2010 6:06:39 PM – 1013 Fletchers’ Towing: member said they didnt take survey
11/1/2010 6:10:17 PM – 1013 Fletchers’ Towing: member said she was totally satisfied as well
11/2/2010 5:08:51 PM – Charlie Brady: CBRADY-11.02.10 spoke with L. P. took the survey for her daughter, L. P. She said Fletcher’s did a wonderful job, kept her informed of changes and she rated this event as neutral because she wasn’t actually the person receiving the service. However when she spoke to her daughter later she wishes she would have rated this service as Totally Satisfied because the driver showed genuine concern about her mech breakdown.
here is one which was verified the member never took a survey……but its reported as a negative survey.
11/1/2010 6:09:40 PM – 1013 Fletchers’ Towing: member states no survey taken to her knowledge said she was totally satisfied
11/2/2010 5:00:46 PM – Charlie Brady: CBRADY-11.02.10.spoke with Member K. P. and she states she did not take a survey and no one in household took survey. She said Fletcher’s did a wonderful job and O D T-AAR also was a Totally Satisfying experience.
Now what you want to note is the date on these, this is 2 out of 25 for the same week, and there is 3 more like this from the same week, you can figure the score out, 2 % under a payable bonus figure. I sent these to the President of AAAMA Don Gagnon, with phone numbers to the members for him to call to verify, his reply was “obviously we have a difference in opinion on the integrity of the program! My reply was, “what integrity, when you don’t even look into this when I send the evidence to your desk, how does this show integrity with such a huge amount of flawed and false surveys?
Why would the current tm for AAAMA verify in writing my findings were correct and not once tell me this was a legitimate program?
How can AAAMA give out reports to anyone with any kind of reliability of accuracy with flawed reports such as this?
How can a certified research company keep their accreditation of accuracy with such flawed numbers and a reckless program that is negatively impacting the working class people.
How can they all know, as verified in the email from Sterling to AAAMA that the sample size, to this day, is inaccurate.
I would suggest the Governors, State Attorney’s, News reporting agencies ask AAA, how do they come up with these numbers? Are they real or made up? Do you understand they are seriously flawed and why haven’t you done something to correct this rather than turn a blind eye to it? I believe the members should ask AAAMA who they are giving or selling their information to and for what purpose? What is Sterling Research group doing with that information? What is the safeguards of the members information and what is it being used for? I have written documentation from AAAMA that they have no control over the document retention they send the research company, what happens with the members information? what is being researched out of that information, what information is being handed over ? There are a lot of questions to be answered in this reckless program, in which just two of these surveys could be the difference in a $50,000.00 a month bonus for my company…That’s right, sounds like this program wasn’t figured out to begin with and then a fraudulent act was committed to prevent a $600,000.00 dollar a year bonus being paid to my firm….I have to laugh, who in the world believes a company would even consider paying that amount of money out as a bonus? I am sure I can provide the number to get in touch with these people for a news organization to contact to verify with them, these surveys either were not taken and taken by people who were not with the vehicle, thus costing me my business. AAAMA and Sterling knows full and well this is wrong and have done nothing to correct it.
and the severe consequences…
In a message dated 5/25/2010 5:14:07 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, cbrady@aaamidatlantic.com writes:
I must have misunderstood your intentions to drop the PSP. Please think carefully about this “strategy” of violating the contract you signed. It could have severe repercussions.
So what is it going to be? Stay in the PSP and run for other clubs?
Paul replies:
is there a page I am missing? according to my psp contract 2.2 the contract shall remain in full force and effect. I do not see any severe repercussions listed for me not signing a letter wishing to terminate the psp addendum
Charlie replies:
I got your attention, there are no repercussions……..
Years ago I used to be a sub conctractor for AAA always gave 110% to the cust0mer. I would treat the customer like my family member. My pay check would reflect that. One day I got upset with AAA when my mom called AAA when she was broken down on 64 in Richmond, Va. She requested from AAA for me to come help her. She was told that was not possiable cause your son
is coming from other side of town that would be to much money to pay him. We are a non profit organization. Ha Ha they make all the money the sub contractors get dogged. Last but not least the stearling survey comes in affect and the company I work for gets affected, and my pay check went down the drain. How am I supposed to support my family? On peanuts?
Here is another from the local TM for AAAMA trying to get this corrected with his company,
In a email dated 5/23/2008 from Charlie Brady to Paul Fletcher, Charlie writes:
It will not affect you. I don’t have anyone that can provide the level of service that you and your staff does that could replace you.
I think you are wise enough to know that no matter who the contractor is the survey would be the same!
Anyway, I would suggest you write a letter addressed to me, with copy to Glenn and Lance (which I will deliver, don’t mail it) about the concern you have over the survey.
I think you should try this in lieu of arbitration. Keep it factual and to the point, and don’t editorialize or point fingers. I think this would carry much weight with them. I keep informing Glenn via email and conversation but he can only do so much. I think it is time for Lance to get involved and for it to come from you and not me. I am too close to the fire!
———————————————————————————————————————————-
Now, I was ranked number 2 on a list of 490 contractors, but I cannot hit my bonus, it would be a rather large bonus if I say so myself….I was ranked number 1 on their honesty list for billing……I even reported the contractors that had overbilled them, and told them how to check on others that were overbilling, they re-couped a huge sum of money from the ones that were overbilling….. I didn’t offer the bonus plan, they did. They don’t even identify the tower the survey is on. This is a crooked, reckless, deceptive, and unfair way to do business. This is how AAAMA and Sterling Research Group operates? I thought AAAMA was a company you could trust.
I was a aaa mid atlantic contractor in new jersey- I have a letter from aaama in 2006 stating they (sterling) needed to do 300 surveys per month per contractor to get a valid survey. I have a phone recording from 2009 in which sterling group tells me they do 30 (yes 30-thirty), i too complained, only to be told i was wrong. I was terminated for bogus reasons after exposing this survey issue,employees at aaama advertising bi-sexual massages for 175 an hour.Both employees were upper management at aaa mid-atlantic in hamilton nj.The ads for “massages” were on craigslist with very graphic nasty photos! Don’t forget about the background check program which is a fraud and possibly resulted in a AAA member’s death in wilkesbarre, pa. How is this company still not-for-profit?
None of the other motor clubs are not-for-profit,AAA ‘s stated mission in its founded was to promote highway construction-not auto glass , auto repair ect! Its time for government officials to take a long hard look into this organization., including the pay sheet tax deductions fromcontractors that no one (AAA , cpa ‘s , state tax personnel ect) can explain!
So, if we want to survey a towing company, wouldnt we name the towing company when we know the member could have up to 4 different companies service them in one day? If we presume everyone involved with this at AAAMA and Sterling has at least a high school education, and we want to ensure we have numbers we can use to our advantage on this corrupt system, if we don’t identify the contractor, we will have a batch of bad numbers to work with for our own use…..knowledge that we aren’t going to produce correct numbers… thus the 5% accuracy we report, actually is not… hopefully the ” towing industry ” isn’t smart enough to figure this out. Or as the email specifies, it is on a overal club level for AAAMA, and the population is the number of calls coming in for service, we actually design this for AAAMA and they intentionally misuse and incorrectly apply it to a individual contractor…..for their own purpose, are these people at AAAMA and Sterling wanting us to believe this is a credible program? Maybe Glen yarborough can explain that after being notified in april 2007 by Sterling the varience was in fact improper, and not what was originally stated, he replies my email, stating, “afterall, the more surveys, the higher the score”, which is a true statement showing AAAMA and Sterling had knowledge of what they had deployed in this program. Why do you think they keep everyone on a low sample size…..yes I have that email too, and encourage the proper legal perople to look at it, and the case for intentional fraud by AAAMA and a conspiracy to commit fraud with Sterling Research group will be blatently obvious, as is the liability for a faulty product that has caused unconcievable damage to the towing industry, and the motoring public. The intentional attempt to conceal what was happening with the program, how it responded to outside influences, that will prove what is was actually doing, and after the shut down of the program what the changes were. With the suspected education level of the people involved, they clearly know what they have done, and it was done so in a reckless intentional manner.
So today, AAAMA”S best new PSP, in front of the Police, was unable to tow a motorcycle, so that AAA PSP company called us because ” we were a company he knew that could respond swiftly and able to do the job with the proper equipment ” !
A few years ago, a high ranking public official told AAAMA that Fletcher’s Towing had improved the image of AAA in the area……..sounds like Fletcher’s was far set apart from the rest, but according to AAAMA’s Sterling research surveys we are not….well that’s what they wanted me to believe…
you see, after the false survey’s, the data transfer contamination in the survey’s, and the drilling down to a specific bad number intentionally manipulating the score….
I look forward to the day to get to court to hold the ones responsible for this fraudelent system accountable.
How AAAMA and Sterling Research group operate in the way they have operated this program is part of the reason the economy is the way it is. It effects everyone, small business, members, private and public sector. There is a ethical way to accomplish what their goals are without deploying unfair business practices upon many good contractors. Not everyone worked for this, but the ones who did, deserve to get paid. I pledge to work to see this thru.
Everyone should read the current AAA World magazine, the letter from the President, and you will now see part of the reason for this fraudulent survey program. I can say its fraudulent and no one from AAA or Sterling says a word, because I am telling the truth. One of the reasons for them having a survey plan like they have is so they can eliminate towers and repair facilities where they want to put their own in. They are working on legislation right now telling you they care, what they care about is getting your money… if they really cared, they wouldnt have non ase mechanics messing with fuses and batteries in your car right now through the battery program they have…yes folks these people are just anyone they can put behind the wheel of the truck to install batteries, some have no training at all and are not even mechanically inclined. But the real issue is them working with legislation for the wrong reasons, Mr. Cantor, I think it is time for you to get involved. I sent Mr. Cantor a email, I am not sure if it went thru, so I will send another. AAAMA and Sterling Research are reporting false data, and they have had knowledge of this for over 4 years, that’s fraud, all for the same reasons they are working with legislation right now, to line their own pockets. I said it, I stand by my statements.
Every AAA member who has purchased a battery from AAA should request to see the “test” receipt and look at the cca the person put into the test. Put in the wrong cca and it will show “”bad, replace battery”. AAAMA is pushing battery sales, they wont write you up, but they will tell you you need to sell more batteries on this program. The drivers are paid for battery sales, thus are enticed to “fudge” the test to gain a sale, it’s human nature for a lot of people to “do whatever it takes to make more money” at the expense of the consumer. Any of the members who bought a battery and then had to go to a dealer and find the real problem with the vehicle will know what this means. Now AAA is getting involved in legislation to be able to work on your brand new car under warranty………This “not for profit” organization is going down the path of retail profit for their own gain rather than staying true to their roots of assisting the motoring public. Ford, Gm, and Chrysler needs to take a look at this, as well as every dealership in America across the United States and if anyone wants proof AAAMA uses false data, produces false data, for their own gain, just needs to call me and I can show you. This whole program is wrong for all involved. Every dealership would be negatively effected by what AAA is attempting to do, another way AAAMA is hurting the economy telling the members they are trying to look out for them when in fact they are just looking out for themselves. When the President of AAAMA says the Sterling Research program has full integrity, I can prove that is a lie, when the Vice President says respond to the member quicker and the score will go up, I can prove that is a lie. Obviously when AAAMA and the Governor of Delaware sign the “no texting while driving” law in a photo shoot at AAAMA headquarters, but inside the building AAAMA is giving out cell phone numbers to entice distracted driving to Sterling Research to call the members up to 5 times to text answers on a survey, they clearly are ones that like to look like thay are doing the right thing, but actually they are only looking out for themselves and their own pockets. They even used the Governor on that one!
When you hear the name of AAA what comes to mind? Honesty, service, trustworthy? These are the things people want in a company that is coming to rescue them on the side of the road. It is sad to say that I have lost all faith in the brand name. I was Paul Fletcher’s General Manager for 3 years and a driver for 6 years. Let me tell you what the 3 things I listed above we did everyday 241/2 hours a day. We never let up or gave AAA any excuses why we couldnt get the job done. There was no such thing as sorry I cant get to that right now send to another station. We took everything all day and all night. Kelly’s towing never could keep up with there calls or maintain their trucks or keep insurance on them for that matter. How would you feel if your grandmother was picked up in a 20,000 pound tow truck with a driver that was always high on something and the truck didnt have insurance on it? Didnt one of them loose a car and run over a member? Wow but guess what they were hitting bonuses??? How is that the most repulsive, unreliable company in the area achieved bonuses? The difference between the 2 companys is about 4000 calls a month. So to pay them isnt a big deal it wouldnt hurt their pockets. Now to pays us would have broke the bank 50k a month is some serious cash. Were we so blind to really think that this money was going to be obtainable. We as a company at the time still had trust in AAA to do the right thing and to pay us what we were owed. We worked hard to try for a perfect score and to be honest the harder we worked the lower the scores got. I remember every friday watching the surveys come in and I would call the members within minutes after the survey stated that they were not “totally satisfied” and they would say I didnt take a survey or I thought I answered it with totally satisfied for everything. You can only hear this but so many times before you start to question the program itself. I even called members back on speaker phone in front of AAA TM to prove that the surveys that were coming in were false. This happened on more than one occasion. So do you think these surveys got removed? If you answered yes you are wrong.
One thing you need to know about this whole situation is that the AAA name is only as good as the people driving the trucks or dispatching the calls. Fletcher’s Towing was AAA in Richmond. The people at the top do not really understand what dedication it takes to be the best in the business. All they see is dollar figures and it has clowed their vision from the ultimate goal which is to provide members with the best service, trucks , employees that money can buy. Did anyone let them know that that Pul Fletcher was awarded Towman of the year award? You do not get that award just being so Joe Blow towing company. The only way to receive this award is by the recommendation of Chief of Police! We did what we did because it was our life not our job. I was once told, “If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life”. And AAA has taken that from me.
AAA did not only affect the contractors but the 60+ employees that we Fletcher’s Towing gave a job to that we had to let go due to their reckless actions. Another thing that i find puzzling is after I left Fletcher’s the TM for AAA came to my new place of business to offer a me a fleet manager position but when it came down to it wouldnt return my calls or emails about the position. I have applied at AAA for a few positions and have not been excepted. Is it because I’m not qualified enough? or maybe not enough experience? or maybe is it because who I use to work for? I wonder if they think I was trying to be a spy? lol. The reason I decided to write this is because I feel AAA has treated everyone involved unfairly including myself and I hope they pay for the things that they have done!
Good luck to everyone involved.
To Paul Fletcher: Thank you for everything you have taught me and I would not be the man I am today without your guidence. I’m sorry you have to even go through this, AAA wishes that they could be half the man you are. Keep fighting for what you believe in.
Statistically people want to voice their dissatisfaction and will go out of their way to do so. The trick to beating the AAA survey is getting the 98% of your members who are happy or “Totally Satisfied” to actually report that back to AAA. The whole system is designed to sort the unhappy. We are all more prone to voice a complaint than a praise. Does anyone have suggestions to get more totally satisfied people to convert to actually sending the survey in?
Kyle Maxwell
Desert Valley Towing
Oak Hills CA
u ask the question we all as towers been asking for 3 years. i promise u between paul and myself will find out soon. look this site ur reading is the best. call me if i can help u in anyway. larry bryant 804 389 2036. ps aaa is just taking money from u and all towers someone should be in jail for this.
Kyle, No one should have to use tricks in their businesses….but, i found the trick, i manipulated their system with a flood of “totally satisfied”, what happened? my score ended up being lower than the previous month in which was a good month with only 70% of 5500 service calls being answered in under 30 minutes, so, when i raised the bar to 92% of the calls being taken care of in under 30 minutes, the score went the wrong way…..but the important part is, with just making this one change and flooding their system with “totally Satisfied” surveys, for the first time in four years they couldnt produce the score on friday as they did for 4 years, and they tried again Saturday, then finally on Monday, they created my abnormally low score….and it was full of bogus surveys……which I put before them, and then they proceeded to shut the system down, not just mine, but every contractor they had….I’m sure any contractor on the AAA Mid Atlantic survey system remembers logging in to a blank screen in November 2010…….So, obviously they can counter your tricks whenever they feel like doing so..lol, and try to cover it up, so, like one tower told me who has tried every trick possible, he just stopped looking at it because he knew they were just going to keep on doing it, so he gave up… another one who went above and beyond got a ten day notice over his low scores after he did everything he could to make it work, he has lost everything, many more have been booted because of low scores…. I treated every customer as they were my Grandparents, I dont know anyone who doesnt love their Grandparents…..I know what my score was…..this fraudulent program, which they jointly designed and manipulated, has wrecked everything i worked for. What their philosophy of this program teaches a person is care about no one but yourself, and I could not stomach it anymore. I cant even get them to stop all the mass mailings to my mailbox with envelopes of “certificate of coverage” and “put with your important papers” in large writing….in an attempt to trick someones Grandparents into filling out the credit card info inside and getting another life insurance policy…….let’s see, retail battery sales, car repair shops, insurance, travel, towing, all this is a “not for profit” organization? really? Believe me, I’m holding my tongue, I am trusting the legal system will hold them accountable. They sent me a letter after we asked why the survey system was shut down, they replied that I had interogated and harrassed the members over bad surveys……I say bring proof, they cant, because I never did that, not once…..I never asked a member why they gave me a bad survey, I did call them and ask what I could do better, their reply was, it was wonderful….I stated that AAA had reported that they were disatisifed with the service, they replied, no, we never took a survey, or the Lady Lindsey that apologized because she thought it was a survey on another tower, not me, and Mr. Seabourne that used 3 calls up to get his tire changed, my company was the 3rd one that actually did the job, and he was trying to let them know the other companies, but the survey did not have a place for him to leave that info, and Mr. Gagnon or Lance Soubini neither called Mr. Seabourne to check and see as I gave them the info, they said they didnt see a problem…..so what kinda tricks do you think you can play with people like AAAMA? the only thing I can think of is they might understand is a courthouse, of course they tell you they are so big you will never be able to get them there…. I will work on this until it is resoved……. and in the letter they sent to the contractors recently letting them know they are replacing the Sterling Survey, they are putting their phone counselors back in the new survey……so if they took them out of it 4 years ago becuase they didnt want everyone seeing the low scores…they knew it had a problem….why did they take their counselors out, and now they are going to be back in….. deceptive, unethical, lacks integrity…this is what your dealing with with AAAMA. I mean they could always sue me for my voicing my views….I would actually like that, so I can show my view of them is right on the money…Good luck dealing with them if you are still a contractor..
i would love to participate or testify againt aaa/ma any way i can. they left me high & dry after 40 years of dedicated service to aaa members, our eta every month average was 30 mins or less. i just did not get along with their mental midget bill mallen. we bickered regularly but always did our job well. jim baumann j&r sunoco belford, nj 732-787-3064
if everyone looks at this for what it actually is, with the economy like it is, and the research AAA Mid Atlantic did prior to deploying this dishonest business scheme (survey process handled by Sterling where I showed them the false surveys and the surveys that did not belong to my company, and where they didnt even name the contractor, and where they had missing sequence numbers and gaps of time missing from a ivr automated dialer calling numbers constantly…. about their member retention down as a club, and their new memberships being down as a club, and what they needed to do to try to overcome this…..I think it will point directly to what will eventually be shown. Do the research, the time line is there. Did they do the unthinkable? When legitimate or conventional avenues make the attainment of a goal difficult or impossible, whether as individual or as corporate actors, did they resort to illegitimate or deviant avenues hidden in normal business activities motivated by their own business difficulty and spread it out over 300 contractors? This ain’t just fuzzy math !
I started out as a contractor in 1990 and it only paid 10 for a jump start 12.50 for a flat tire and 24 for a tow. now it is 2011 and we only get 25 per anything we do. My expences have gone up 200 percent and AAA doesn’t seem to care at all. When you complain to the supervisor you get talked down to like you are nothing. If they can build new buildings and service centers for millions of dollars and spend a fortune on a nascar race car you would think that they could give more than we got paid in from the 70S on the retail side. Now they are building a car care center in williamsburg va. so they can rape the general public. there is a quota of amount of money per car that they always charge, at 500 per car. How can they get by with it? I always tell any customer about them and how we are treated. I also would like the IRS to investigate them and see what they can find about an organization that does around 75 billion a year and pays no taxes. I will stand behind anyone that goes after their behinds. AAA has put 5 towers out of business here in the past 10 years. They promise you everything and give you dirt. I refuse to be abused by them and i do wish they were out of business. If it were not for AAA we could all do very well, but with all their clients it doesn’t leave much for the one man operator who does give excellant service. But i will survive without them. I have found that most of the people that have AAA live in gated areas where they can more than afford to pay regular prices for towing. I always tell them that their car insurance will pay too and they could save money by doing away with their AAA cards and having their car insurance pay instead, most of them will cancel their membership when they can save money. I know of at least 50 people that have done this and it makes me feel good. We have to stand together on this.Thank you for letting me vent.
Michael W Varble
owner operator
Mike’s towing & recovery
P.O. box 2538
Willaimsburg Va. 23187
757-253-1335
I have one more suggestion, perhaps we should all go to the local news station and tell them about what happens to us everyday and let them tell the general public all about their unfair practices. I have been in towing for 35 years and i feel that i give excellent service to everyone including AAA members.Channel ten has Andy Fox that will ride someone to the ground when he confronts them about any issue where the big guy treats the small guy bad. I have seen Fletchers Towing and several others in the Willaimsburg area doing service calls for AAA, Fletchers is about 60 miles from here and he still gave great service to his customers, several of them have asked me why someone from so far away was there to tow their car.I told them that AAA was so bad to us local towers that we decided not to take AAA as a contractor anymore. I am on suspension for not bowing down to them.Now they are using towers from Newport News and Hampton to run the calls here. There is only one contractor left here that is actually from here. I found out that they only get $20 dollars per call when here in Williamsburg. They put Randys, Bumble Bee, Village Wrecker service and two other towers i cannot recall out of business here in the past 10 years. If i can help let me know. I noticed that every truck from Fletchers i saw was clean and had a well dressed driver in it, I have never heard any bad comments from anyone about them. Good luck and merry christmas to all of you hard working dedicated towers out there that really care about the customer and not just the money. I love what i do and work hard to get the job done whether it pays good or not. Thank you again for this opportunity to voice my opinion.
Michael Varble
Can anyone tell me the status of this lawsuit?
I will update you as soon as I possibly can… google aaa mid atlantic lawsuit AAAMA member killed by aaama contractor with her own vehicle after calling aaa mid atlantic…… if the editor of this blog can call me or email me, I have a news story that need to get out to the motoring public….it could save someones life today…
I have asked they put procedures in place immedieately to prevent this as I witnessed another AAAMA tower putting a member at risk just last week.This needs to be a priority as AAAA members are at risk.
Coroner rules tow-truck death homicide
By Bob Kalinowski (Staff Writer)Published: March 10, 2011
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A woman’s death during a AAA tow truck call earlier this week in Plains Township has been ruled a homicide by the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office.
Meanwhile, AAA Mid-Atlantic on Wednesday suspended the company, Herbert’s Towing in Wilkes-Barre, that it dispatched to assist 55-year-old Denise Polinchak for a vehicle problem in the parking lot of the Social Security Administration building.
The company said Herbert’s was suspended for a previous, unrelated matter pertaining to background and driving record checks for employees.
Police said Polinchak died from injuries she sustained when a tow truck driver for Herbert’s reversed her vehicle and struck her with an open door around 6 p.m. Monday. The tow truck driver, Robert Wickham, 55, of Dallas, was arrested for the suspicion of driving under the influence after “police detected signs of alcohol impairment,” police said.
Polinchak died Tuesday from multiple traumatic injuries and her death was ruled homicide, said Luzerne County Chief Deputy Coroner William Lisman.
“AAA Mid-Atlantic is saddened by the circumstances surrounding the accident and expresses sincere condolences to the family of Ms. Denise Polinchak on their loss,” said AAA spokeswoman Jana Tidwell. “Since all facts are not yet available, we will not speculate on the details of this tragic accident. We will be cooperating with any law-enforcement investigations and will await their findings before commenting further on the accident.”
The organization said it suspended Herbert’s Towing from providing AAA service due to a “possible breach” of the company’s independent contractor agreement due to a matter not related to the fatal incident.
Herbert’s has had a 30-year affiliation with AAA and averages approximately 500 calls for service each month for AAA, the organization said. Officials for AAA said 80 percent of AAA members requesting assistance said they were “totally satisfied” in their experience with Herbert’s.
Police said Polinchak was critically injured shortly after she called AAA for help with her vehicle.
Investigators say Wickham was attempting to reverse the woman’s vehicle from a parking stall when Polinchak was struck by an open driver’s side door. Polinchak sustained critical injuries and died a day later in Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, police said.
Tidwell confirmed that AAA Mid-Atlantic received a call on March 7 at 4:50 p.m. from Polinchak for assistance and AAA subsequently dispatched Herbert’s towing. Herbert’s is one of several AAA independent contractors in Luzerne County, Tidwell said.
Tidwell said that once accepted as an independent contractor for AAA, each contractor must annually certify they have conducted background checks for felony and misdemeanor convictions going back 25 years, as well as annual motor vehicle and driving records checks for all drivers providing roadside assistance to AAA members.
Herbert’s most recently submitted certification on January 19, 2011, stating that it was in full compliance with those and other contractual requirements, Tidwell said.
As a matter of course, AAA Mid-Atlantic terminates any independent contractor that fails to meet their contractual obligations, she said.
In Wednesday’s edition, The Citizens’ Voice reported that the fatal incident in Plains Township was the second run-in a Herbert’s Towing driver had with Plains Township police in recent weeks. On Feb. 28, an officer observed a Herbert’s tow-truck traveling on East Carey Street without any rear tail lights illuminated and the officer stopped the vehicle because he couldn’t see the registration plate.
A records check of the driver, Donald Mosley, 40, of Wilkes-Barre, indicated that his driver’s license was suspended and the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department had a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear in court on several theft cases, according to Plains police.
Police also noted Herbert’s recently purchased the tow-truck, but never registered the title with the state.
Mosley was jailed and the tow-truck was towed from the scene, police said.
Officials for Herbert’s declined comment when a reporter visited the Kidder Street business on Wednesday.
Polinchak’s obituary appears today on page 27.
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2055
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/coroner-rules-tow-truck-death-homicide-1.1116769#ixzz1nBGlwQ8k
I have now heard from Delaware, New Jersey, Texas, California, Michigan, all with the same story here in Virginia…… I believe the states should start looking into this as two of these areas the towers have been asked to buy more equipment only to get a decreased territory within weeks of buying additional equipment. This is in my opinion malicious at this point asking a towing company to purchase more equipment then cutting their revenue….which produces a certain end for the tower. I beleive if this is looked into by the states they will see exactly what is going on with this corporation or non profit… I also have a recent email from the AAA National President where I brought a serious safety concern to his attention, his reply was a snide remark rather than appreciation that quite possibly prevented another person being put at risk of serious injury and or death at the hands of a tower sent by AAAMA. I am looking into a report of where this service also let a vehicle come off of a towtruck and run into a playground at a apartment complex. I have asked for a response of what safety measures have been put in place to prevent this…..Mr. Hancock’s statement above seems quite appropriate and on point. I would offer to meet the heads of AAA with my evidence with cameras rolling so they could offer a response to what is written in this blog… Im up for it AAA, are you?
I don’t think AAA is going to agree to meet with a disgruntled former contractor who obviously has an axe to grind with them.
I have a issue with them knowingly utilizing false data. Either Sterling Research group provided false contaminated data or AAA the organization contaminated it for their own agenda, either way using false information knowlingly to prevent millions in bonus payouts to contractors, not only is ethically wrong, but it also deminishes the quality and safety of the service that is sent to its members. This is about towers in more than one state that has been railroaded. It is my opinion it was a “dishonest business scheme” by AAA as the tower the survey was on was never mentioned to the consumer, thus the original design was “set up” to fail for the contractor to begin with. When you overcome those odds, and then you see the false data, missing gaps of time, sequence numbers, and show them what you found, then they shut the program down for over 300 contractors, not just you…. When you show verified false data to every person in AAA all the way to the President of the company, and they look at it, then look at you and say..” we differ on the integrity of the program”, what integrity does it have when the data being used is false? To watch a program week after week for 4 years, knowing you are performing, and seeing false data, week after week for over 200 weeks…..its not about being disgruntled…..I have no axe to grind…its like going to work and at the end of the week your boss said you didnt work and wont be getting paid, and it happens again, week after week for 200 weeks…….what would you do? I chose to leave a company that treats its contractors in this way, at least im not like the other two who AAA knowingly used to a point where there was nothing left and they are no longer on this earth…..yes I’m serious….and do they really care about your service? for you or your family member? After they have had as much experience as they do, towing how many cars a day across the US, if a situation arose that took the life of a 55 year old Mom after she called AAA, wouldnt any person who gave any care at all for the service they provide, put some procedures in place to prevent another life being lost? As they bring up issues with the Police saying the tickets are for revenue not safety, didn’t they use the false surveys with knowledge they were false to keep the money for themselves and obviously let safety go out the window after not taking action and using the surveys properly to remove unsafe contractors they had many complaints on for unsafe practices? I say again no axe here…..and im not disgruntled….
It’s a shame what AAA micromanaging has done to the independent contractor. We too have pointed out inconsistencies with their survey system. It basically translated into a “paycut” for the contractors across the board when they went to an outside source. We are probably one of the higher paid AAA contractors in the rural area and we’re so fed-up with the poor management practices we’re ready to sell trucks and cut ties with AAA. Good luck with the lawsuit. It will be difficult going up against a company that retains it’s own fleet of attorneys.
When my survey results were verified in writing by my territory manager and handed to AAA with the phone number to the member that stated they did not take the survey or it was on another contractor as the survey does not specify which contractor the survey is on, as you can have multiple contractors service the same day,and the management of AAA look at a pile of known false surveys and their reply is they dont see a problem….its beyond inconsistency…to describe it properly would be, AAA knowing these were false, knowing it was set up to be manipulated by them, has lost all integrity and honesty in their programs which is more than likely why they are losing member base at a alarming rate. Having worked for other motor clubs as well, I have to say the other clubs have never put such a program to work at the detriment of the contractor. AAA attempts to isolate towers in their PSP program while other motor clubs encourage you to be involved in as many programs as you see fit for you to be able to suceed. AAA has gone down the wrong road with contractors, and if the members did their research, they would look for alternatives as if a contactor is not able to maintain the equipment and has to cut corners whith the service AAA is sending to them….it is not a good mix and is very dangerous. As more contractors are seeing, AAA set in motion as a dishonest business scheme to reduce payouts when the economy was rough rather than tightening their own belt as other companies did. Look the description up for that. Good luck, stay in touch..
Not if it becomes a class action involving several states involving several contractors.
I’m a tower out in California and went through the EXACT same situation with AAA. After all the cuts from the bonus program many towers complained that all their profit were gone. AAA’s solution was to eliminate 60 towers contracts and put them all out to bid. AAA doubled the size of the contract territories; this created only 30 contracts available to bid on. The result was 30 towers who had contracts for many years were now out of a job. Many of those towers faced serious financial trouble. The ones that did win the contracts were forced to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars and are now struggling to make a profit.
i know exactly what your going through brother,aaa only wants you tow tow exclusively for them too,ive heard stories of them calling around to contract stations posing as other auto clubs to see if you will accept money from them ,next thing you know your contract is suspended…………i am disgusted by this behavior…..at the end of the day it is your tow company and trucks to do with as you please,and we are here to make money. i hope you win your lawsuit……after all you are not the first tow company they have bankrupted.
there goal is to isolate you so they can push you around…….at the end of the day ….how many tow trucks does aaa own? maybe a handful………without the tow companies they would have nothing and that is something they are failing to recognize………………can you imagine one day if all of the contract stations decided to not run their calls for a day……im just sayin.
company calls surveys
40 West Auto Care 12,588 602 B. P. Auto Services 10,090 600
Fletcher’s Towing 55,234 600
This is public information from the internet that is posted above !
Thought this would enlighten the readers to the volume Fletcher’s delivered. The bouns was $9.00 per call times 55,234 calles= $497,106.00 that’s just the bonus for one year ! also note the volume vs surveys……they never intended to pay out a half a million in bonuses to one particular company…. If a company was able to achieve what Fletcher’s obviously achieved by a call volume of that size, and as noted in the survey above where the member acknowledged his driver showing a genuine care and concern for her daughters breakdown, but they kept the surveys in his mix they knew were false negatives, and never surveyed the proper sample size for his company or many others, and never mentioned the survey was on what company, or never verified the person taking the survey was the actual member…Is AAA this sloppy and uneducated? or do they know exactly what they did to all these contractors and why?
Then i recieve emails such as this…..
—–Original Message—–
From: “Sonny Crockett”
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 8:54am
Subject: AAA cust sat survey data
I am trying to reach Fletcher’s regarding his concern about the quality of the AAA survey data from Sterling Research. Please send me his email address or phone #.
Signed,
ex Sterling employee
AAA and Sterling Research group need to come forward. I hope every contractor who has lost everything they have, or recieved the 10 day notice from AAA will continue to work towards bringing these two companies to justice for a program that is no different than seen in the news where other companies have done the same thing and now have to pay back to the people for what they did. AAA is actually worse than this as members have been fataly injured due to their less than adequate service they prefer to send for the same reason as they deployed this program, their own pockets at the expense of the consumer. I will show soon a actual email from the President of AAA National that shows the lack of regard for human life in my opinion, You can form your own opinion from the email….. I, as in the way I ran my company that grew it to be the Largest AAA Mid Atlantic had servicing their members, have a genuine care and concern for the industry I served. AAA Mid Atlantic should have listed to their members just like in the survey in an above post…..
Paul, shoot me an email. We should talk. scaudle@ctsi.net
Paul,
I met you and your wide during the battery thing in Baltimore prior to this case being public. Please send me an email with your contact number my email is sessas@sessasroadside.com. I believe we have a lot to discuss.
Thank you
I would love to know the outcome of the lawsuits I too have PSP trucks for sale due to AAA shutting me down. On Wednesday I recieved a 100% performance bonus then on the following Wednesday Dave Schwab of AAA East Central tells me Im not making the numbers and gives me my 90 day notice to cease doing business as a PSP.
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You rarely see a outcome to anything, therefore here is mine. I forgive the people responsible at AAA Mid Atlantic and Sterling research group for their unethical misguided system and for not correcting what they knew from day one was a system to take from those who actually provided the service AAA Mid Atlantic collects the payment for. After purchasing over 160 tow trucks and servicing over 1 million roadside assistance calls, I have had a very unique experience doing so and will work towards ensuring the consumer and hardworking Honest towers can benefit from that experience and knowledge. I thank everyone and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very sucessful New Year.
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