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Extremely Disappointed – A 5-Month Nightmare That Cost Me Financially, Mentally, and Emotionally
I am beyond disappointed with how AA Insurance handled my stolen vehicle claim. My car was stolen in December and recovered later that same month, yet AA took over four months to finalize anything. During this entire period, I was left without a car, forced to manage my daily life under huge stress, while still paying for insurance that gave me no support.
I did everything right on my part. I gave AA all the information they asked for, including my Spark mobile records, all correspondence, and access to anything they needed to investigate the case. I was patient and respectful throughout, thinking they would do the same.
Instead, I was met with silence, rude behavior, and shifting blame. I had to borrow a friend’s vehicle and pay him $200 a week, which was a huge financial burden—especially as I’m the sole earner in my family. We struggled during this time, not just financially but emotionally. The situation caused sleepless nights, anxiety, and an ongoing sense of helplessness as I waited endlessly for answers.
When I was finally contacted in March, I was told there was “no theft-related damage” and I should just take the car back. But when I saw it, the reality was completely different:
• Back seat damaged and misaligned
• Rear bumper broken
• Music system not working
• Dashboard cracked
• Interior dirty and clearly mishandled
All I asked for was a proper mechanical assessment before accepting it—but instead of support, they accused me of refusing to take it and told me I had to pay storage fees.
When I asked for some compensation for the five months of stress, financial loss, and emotional toll, I was met with cold and dismissive replies. No empathy. No accountability. Just pressure to close the case and walk away.
AA Insurance turned a terrible situation into a long-lasting trauma. I feel let down, disrespected, and exhausted by this entire experience. I would never recommend AA Insurance to anyone. If you’re looking for support in tough times, look elsewhere. This was one of the worst customer experiences of my life”
“I bought Travel Insurance with AA. Had couple claims so I lodged. It's nearly a month haven't got any feedback. Everytime I call AA they ask me to call their backfire support Allianz and when I call them they say they not trained on AA travel insurance claims. So where do I go? It's pathetic experience when you claim travel insurance with AA. Please think again! It's very disappointing.”
“This company has new intentions of honoring people's claims. They are only interested in taking people's money and investing it to gain more. If you put a claim in them will automatically look for ways out of it. If you make a complaint that will use there internal systems and the IFSO which are supposed to be independent but are actually 100% paid by them so they are not in anyway independent. If you want results I recommend the use of a Lawyer and putting in front of a Judge. They are independent and not paid by them. Let's look at the definition of the word Insurance and ask the question what is at that we are actually paying them for.”
“We took out a new policy with the AA. Three weeks later we changed our car for an identical (but new) model; no other details had changed. When I contacted the AA to advise of the change of vehicle I was told that the price of our insurance would increase by 60%. I was advised to go back to a price comparison website to seek a better price. I found a cheaper quote elsewhere but was then told by the AA that the refund on our policy would include a cancellation fee.
So my options were to accept a 60% increase on my premium or pay a cancellation fee in order to take up a cheaper policy elsewhere.”
“I have been waiting for a claim on my car for over 2 months now, and I am now going around in circles with them and them saying that they are waiting on things like quotes and how they are waiting on there assessor to get back to them.
yep cool doing dome dew diligence on things like checking to see things are legit but this is getting beyond a joke now”
“Absolute waste of my time. Spent 3 hours with them on the phone. They questioned me about the most private details of my health and at the end they declined my life insurance application for having iron deficiency in the past (which is now resolved)!
Get a better system rather than wasting people's time!”
“My car suffered from a heavy structural damage to the right door making the B pillar twist.
Sid the assessor told me to take the vehicle to Green park panel and paint to discover if the B pillar is bent via a 3D measure.
When I received the Vehicle the next day the vehicle had suffered from an object mark to the top hinge the marks appear to be going away from the accident and twisted pillar.
Sid also said the pillar wouldn’t be replaced just repaired , I took this message to a NZTA certifiers to clarify. He said the B pillar must be replaced to manufacture speciations.
Be careful people these guys are doing dodgy repairs if I happens to be an older ladies I would have been driving around in a unsafe vehicle with a weak pillar.
I have my lawyers involved!”
“Bought AA travel insurance, Very bad experience. No one responds to concerns after claim is raised. Settlement of claims letter mentions reasons which are not specified in terms and conditions and rejects the claim. When i email to talk to claim manager, i did not receive any emails or calls. Very Very bad service. Don't buy insurance from AA.”
“AA Health Insurance is THE Worst insurance company. AA drag their feet on pre approvals. We applied for pre appoval 4 weeks prior to a procedure and they had not even looked at it in this time and had to pay for the procedure in the hope they would provide the financial support that we had payed for and needed.
The underwriter is NIB. Do yourself a favour and bypass AA and go straight to NIB. AA customer service is appalling. They DO NOT answer the phone or respond to emails.”
“My experience with AA car insurance claims has been a nightmare from beginning to end! I have rated them 1 star which they are not even worthy of! PUTRID SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!😖”
“I took out a site cover policy for my house renovations late last year and I need to update the amount insured by 24k to the existing policy .
After waiting for nearly 2 weeks snd 6 phone calls to
Follow up , I was being transferred to vero to pay and get the updated lcertificate and was promised that it would be sent to me the next day . After 2 days of no correspondence I decided to call back and was put on hold for 30 mins to speak to someone from vero who had no idea where my certificate was , put me on hold for another 20 minutes until she found it & when I received the email it was the old original certificate with the old amount . This has been a very stressful
Experience which is causing me huge cost implications as my renovations been stopped until bank receives new certificate .
I called me AA insurance the person I spoke to
was unhelpful and simply said to wait for the update certificate and hung up on me . Absolutely disgusting service . I have multiple policies eith AA and always pay my premiums on time and to be treated to this is horrific .”
“After over ten years of car insurance with AA Car Insurance I will never use them again due to their unrealistic premium hikes that have doubled. AA Car Insurance simply don't care about customer loyalty and only justify the extortionate policy hikes for their own profit and shareholder returns. Yet another "too big to fail" corporate giant losing sight of their ethics in their unquenchable thirst for profit over people and the planet.”
“At AA Highland Park, what a shambles. You seem to have staff, but you are way under resourced for the amount of transactions and population in the area. An absolute waste of people time!”
“AA Insurance is very un-professional, Disorganized and lacking feeling. Had to explain things 5x, send items through multiple times, wait over a month to see any results then had to initiate the complaints process. As the victim in a serious head on crash, they accepted liabilty of the crash and the claim, then proceeded to give my client a month run around and made my her feel like a criminal effecting her mental health negatively - Very poor service 1 star is for the one team memeber that did a good job. Not very impressed from a company that historicly has been a solid part of NZ community for generations. Need to do better”
“Absolutely horrendous service taken a week just to speak to someone about a claim feel like I'm throwing money into the wind especially considering I had this to avoid the exact situation AA is putting me in. Would NOT recommend.”
