Unfortunately the battery in my girlfriend's 2013 RDX just died while she was going to work. I'm not terribly concerned about this as the battery was original and is now almost 5 years old. Would have liked longer...but whatever. I was going to jump it, but she had already called AAA and they were on the way so I let him do it. While the AAA guy was there, he mentioned that he could just replace the battery now and mentioned a price of $142.27. I thought "This is not too bad" (their batteries have pretty good warrantee, saves me trip to Walmart to buy and install a new battery) so I say "ok, let's do it." At this point, it looks like there's nothing more to do, so I leave to go to work myself. Then AAA guy starts mentioning to my girlfriend a "system reset" fee of $55. Not knowing anything about this she just pays. Also, he had her pay via some 3rd party app (Square) to his personal email account with a mandatory $29 tip. Total now up to $226.86...after I left. I guess I'm ok with a tip, but never like the mandatory thing. I'm more concerned about what this system reset fee was. According to my girlfriend it sounds like he hooked something up to the OBD port. I've never done this during a battery change. I've done battery replacements on other Acuras and only had to reset the radio with the security code.

Was I being scammed?

I contacted AAA customer service and they are looking into it.

 

Sounds like he was skimming off the top...

 

Yeah...you were scammed. You shouldn't have been charged for anything other than the battery.

 

Sounds like your follow up call to AAA was the right thing to do. That sounds very shady. The system reset could have been just rekeying of the radio code and nav code (if equipped). And since when is a tip mandatory???

 

AAA contracts out drivers. This guy was also a contractor and decided to scam your girl out of some money for himself. You were definitely in the right to contact AAA

 

I forgot to mention that whatever he did, it didn't reset the radio. My girlfriend told me today "the radio won't play music" and I went out to see this:


So, I reset it. I didn't even charge her $55.

 

Fraud written all over it. If AAA doesn't oblige. A credit card charge back is fully entitled to at this point IMO

 

The only thing the AAA guy could have done was insert power into the 12v plug to maintain power to the navi and radio so you would not need to input your codes or re-do radio presets after the install.

You should be able to start the car if you can jump it. Most places like Sears, interstate, Costco, etc.. will test electrical system and install the battery for free. I keep a set of jumper cables in the trunk in all my vehicles and used them for me and others over the years.

 

Has OP torn AAA or the independent contractor a new one yet

 

When I called AAA the other week, they gave me a number and told me to call during the week. So, today I called and got what I think was the guy's supervisor and I explained what happened. He said "I'll look into it and get back to you before the end of the day." Well...it's 7 pm. No call back yet.

I'll call AAA customer support again tomorrow.

 

Maybe the supervisor wasn't able to catch up with the guy who hosed your gf? Maybe he wasn't working today? Or maybe the guy who answered the phone was the one who hosed your gf?

 

Update: Got a call back from the guy's boss yesterday. The $55 "system reset fee" and $29 mandatory tip have been refunded.

 

Sweet.


I hope this has been reported to AAA and their reconsider their contract with that company. If you know the contractors company name , a yelp review will help future people from getting scammed as well.


Thanks for sharing with us!