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.
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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.… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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%… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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 Article ToolsFont size: [A] [A] [A] 0 Our Social Networks FacebookSign Up Text Alerts | newsletter 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,… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
Paul, shoot me an email. We should talk. [email protected]
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 [email protected]. 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.
To whom it may concern: Hi my name is RAVI i am the owner of a auto repair and body shop locate at 124-06 rockaway blvd south ozone park queens ny 11420,tel phone number 718-322-3397 i would like to work for your company to fix all your company vichiles auto repair and body work we specializing in foreign and domestic cars we offer best quality jobs and service to your company Thank You.
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… Read more »
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We offer a flat rate of $35.00 for lockouts, jumpstart’s, tire changes in Richmond, Hanover, Henrico or Chesterfield, most vehicles, most hours, no add on extra charges, no gimmicks or coupons, just easy, plain and simple.
I to have lost a lot by aaa cheating me and giving a lot of sh– and are about to start a law suit in New Jersey I know I can win.
I know of a towing company in South Florida who recently was replaced by a company who some say paid to get the area back. They had it previously and when they wanted it back, their friends in the AAA offices had went higher in the ranks. They made this other guy get more trucks and then pulled the carpet from under him. They suck.