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AAA Looks to Open
Car Repair Shops
Thu Jan 8, 3:37 PM
ET
By EMERY P. DALESIO,
AP Business Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. - For
years, the country's largest auto club has certified auto repair shops
— and then had to mediate seemingly inevitable consumer complaints
about cost and quality.
Now, some local AAA chapters have decided to try their own hand at the
$130 billion-a-year repair business.
"This is someplace where consumers definitely need help," said
Jean Ann Fox, consumer protection director for the Consumer Federation
of America.
Since the first AAA-branded shop opened in Santa Clara, Calif., in 1999,
local American Automobile Association chapters have opened some 20 repair
shops under the AAA name.
AAA's local chapters own and operate the shops independently of the national
organization, which is based outside Orlando, Fla.
In North Carolina and South Carolina, AAA Carolinas has opened five AAA
AutoMark repair shops in Raleigh and the Charlotte area over the last
three years — more than any other affiliate in the country.
And that's only the beginning. The club eventually hopes to have 50 locations
across both states, building on services that include emergency road aid,
car-buying assistance and an insurance agency.
"We think there's this big chasm between what the consumers want
from auto repair and what's being delivered," AAA Carolinas president
David Parsons said.
AAA is not the only brand name moving into an industry long dominated
by mom-and-pop corner repair stations. Muffler chains Midas and Meineke
have both expanded their services to include general repairs.
"A lot of what is being done, in my opinion, is being driven by how
we want to have our cars serviced in this country," said Tony Molla,
spokesman for the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence,
which certifies automotive technicians and parts specialists. "Most
consumers tend to stick with one location that they have a relationship
with and trust."
"As far as brand recognition, AAA is right up there with the Good
Housekeeping seal of approval," Molla said.
Seonwha Kim came to the Raleigh AutoMark shop this week after a series
of bad repair experiences.
One day after going to court to sue a mechanic over a faulty $3,100 transmission
replacement in her Infiniti J30, Kim asked the AAA repairmen to check
her rattling brakes. She was worried that a mechanic who recently fixed
the brakes had cheated her.
The AAA technicians confirmed her fears, telling Kim that the high-priced
brake components she had purchased were actually of low quality.
"I didn't believe any mechanic so I just wanted to bring it to AAA,"
said Kim, a college student in Raleigh.
AutoMark stores employ certified technicians and repairs are guaranteed
for two years or 24,000 miles. AAA members get an additional 10 percent
discount on labor. Still, 40 percent of customers are not AAA members,
Parsons said.
Parson said AAA Carolinas asks only that the AutoMark shops break even,
because they are seen as adding value to club members. The shops make
less than 5 percent profit, he said.
Without profit as
the measuring stick, store managers are judged primarily on customer satisfaction,
as measured in mail-in surveys, he said.
"We want to make
sure we do it one time, the first time, the right way," Parsons said.
"If we're referring you to somebody else, we don't have that same
level of control."
The AAA shops seem
to have fewer consumer complaints, but haven't satisfied everybody.
The Better Business
Bureau lists nine complaints from two Charlotte AutoMark shops in the
past three years. Seven were resolved and the BBB said the company made
every reasonable effort to resolve the remaining two. The state attorney
general's office lists two complaints against the AutoMark shops listed
by its consumer protection section.
AAA does not believe
that allowing local chapters to run repair shops undermines its long-standing
practice of certifying stores for technical competence and customer service,
and arbitrating disputes between members and 4,600 AAA-approved repair
shops nationwide, spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said.
"Our sense is
that many of the auto repair shops we certify have got about all the business
they can handle," he said.
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