I just had yet another very pleasant experience at the Arcadia office on Huntington Drive of the AAA Automobile Club of Southern California.

It was on a Friday afternoon, no less.

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AAA Deserves a AAA Rating

 by Scott Hettrick

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It was just a couple of simple things I needed to do, but often those little errands can wind up ruining your day when you run into long lines and poor service. That has, gratefully, never been the case for me on infrequent visits to the AAA office.

I was afraid I might have my inevitable first bad experience Friday afternoon when delays in my day prevented me from getting there before lunchtime but instead about 2 p.m. when I expected the office to be much more crowded. Indeed, it was nearly impossible to find a parking spot within nearly 100 yards of the entrance. But I was pleasantly surprised to see no line when I walked in.

The woman at the desk greeted me with the usual smile as I handed her my AAA membership card and told her I just needed to get a passport renewal photo taken. But I was still expecting a snag when I told her that I had another request and was not sure they could accomodate me. I told her my daughter just sold her 12-year-old car in Missouri as a trade-in for a new car and I was hoping AAA could provide me guidance about what to do with the title I had in my hand for the car.

"Sure, we can do that too," she said.

I was instructed to wait anywhere I wanted until my name was called. The wait lasted about two minutes and the woman who called me could not have been more friendly and accomodating. She took my passport photo in seconds and handed me two copies in an envelope. She then quickly told me what part of the car title I needed to fill out and waited patiently as I did so and even called the Missouri dealership on my cell phone to get their name and address.

She told me AAA would take it from there, making a copy of a tear-off portion of the document for the seller and promising to send it to the DMV for me.

Done. In about 5-10 minutes total. And all with very pleasant service and smiles along the way.

Just as it has always been with us at AAA, whether it is picking up travel guides or maps, planning vacations, making emergency key cards, or many other things. It's sad that good service is so rare these days that it is noteworthy when one stumbles across it. But since that is unfortunately the case, it is my pleasure to point it out in regards to AAA.