AA - a national company or just for south of england?

Have just about calmed down after experiencing one of the most inept episodes of customer care on Friday.

I was driving home from work happy that it was at last the weekend. As I was drawing closer to Belfast my car started to go a bit wonky and at the start I thought it was a rough bit of the road but quickly established that it was a blow out. So I pulled over on the hard shoulder of the motorway, got out to look to a bad smell of burning rubber. I phoned through to the AA and after the usual questions about name, membership number etc told the AA worker that I had broken down on the hard shoulder of the M2 motorway heading back into Belfast. He asked if there were any markers near by (which there was as I just happened to be sitting at one) so told him what it was. He asked whether I was west or east ( I hadnt a clue so repeated I wasnt sure it was heading back into belfast. At this point he said I would take priority as it was a motorway breakdown so someone would be there at 5:45 (which was roughly half hour away.)

I put hazard lights on, got outta the car and prepared to wait. Luckily it wasn't overly cold and still fairly bright. At 5:40 the traffic branch of police pulled over and were extremely nice and helpful. They offered to wait but I assured them the AA were on their way. At 5.55 I got a phonecall from someone from AA saying he was on his way and where exactly was I. Even though he had a cockney accentI didn't consider this especially strange. Again I explained I was stuck on hard shoulder heading into Belfast. 10 mins later I got another call from a local guy saying he had taken over the job and would be there in about 20 mins.

By this time it was about 6.10 ( 1 hr after my initial call) so was a bit peeved. I said some other guy is already on his way to which he replied the other guy had been pulled off. By this stage my phone battery was on the red, it was starting to get dark and cold so I got sis to phone the AA office to give them what for. To be fair they were apologetic and said they would be there ASAP.

So at 6:35 ( a grand total of 1 and half hours after I had phoned them to report a breakdown on a busy motorway ) the AA pulled up. I couldnt believe my ears when the local guy explained that they got mixed up and thought I was on the M2 in England. And there's were I have my issue with the AA. Something is clearly going wrong with AA customer service training that he thought I was stuck on the M2 in England as there were a number of obvious clues:

a) membership has a Belfast address

2) more than once I mentioned I was on the M2 travelling back to Belfast

3) I gave actual motorway signpost codes which I'm presuming are unique to that stretch of the M2 in N Ireland.

4) the guy never once asked was I in england, N Ireland, Scotland or Wales.



Surely the fact that the AA is a nationwide organisation the first question the customer line should be told to ask is to establish what part of the country the breakdown is? If not then they shoudn't take our money and allow me to get local help.



Again I say the local guy was an absolute star and even charged up my battery (which incidentally went flat due to the hazard lights being on. Im not the type of person who would generally write to complain but on this occasion I will be. And maybe next time Im due to renew membership I might just check out the RAC instead.