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Anorak News | Expiry Date

Expiry Date

by | 4th, January 2006

‘WHAT’S the expiry date on your AA membership? Clue: it’s the same expiry date as on all your cards. That’s right. It is the day you die.

But since not everyone knows the month and year of their demise, the people at AA headquarters need to stamp something on members’ cards. And if that date exceeds your lifespan, then so be it.

And it was hard luck on 58-year-old David Baker. As the Sun reports, Baker was a card-carrying member of the AA.

Equipped with said card he hopped into his Renault Scenic and intended to drive to a football match. But he was never to see Sheffield Wednesday play again. Baker suffered a massive heart attack and died at the wheel.

Wet with grief, Baker’s brother Leonard made the journey to pick up the deceased’s car. But when he got there it wouldn’t start. So reaching into the glove box, Leonard retrieved his brother’s AA card and phoned for help.

Leonard explains: “I rang the AA and they told me I would have to join as David had died. Then the operator said she was going to speak to a manager – and hung up on me.”

It’s hard not to pity Leonard, who in the throes of loss was forced by cruel circumstance to dial into the very pits of Hell that is a call centre. How much greater the pain to be affronted so?

The AA has since apologised for such crass and inhumane profiteering – Leonard eventually managed to get the car home without their help.

And we can only hope that’s the end of the matter. And that Baker’s hearse doesn’t break down…’



Posted: 4th, January 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink