Eoin Butler's Q&A

CLIONA BRENNAN , AA Home Emergency Response


CLIONA BRENNAN, AA Home Emergency Response

What is AA Home Emergency Response? It's a phone number customers can use 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That includes Christmas day and bank holidays. It's similar to the AA motor service, but this is a service that comes to your home.

If a customer has a domestic emergency, how quickly will you get there? An elderly person would be a priority, no matter what the issue. If your heating is out, and it's winter, that would be a priority too. If water is flowing into your bedroom, we would try to be there within the hour. But if there's a mouse in your kitchen, we might be a little longer.

Let me give you a few hypothetical scenarios and you tell me if they qualify as emergencies. My kitchen sink is blocked?That would qualify, yes.

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A dripping tap? That's not an emergency, no.

The toilet won't flush? If it's blocked then, yes.

What if there's a weird smell and I can't figure out where it's coming from? This question has already come up, believe it or not. If it's a burning smell, yes. An unspecified smell could be a rodent infestation so, yes, we would also come out in that case.

What if I want to change the TV channel but I can't reach the remote control?Come on, you're pushing it now.

Am I? Apparently, this policy covers me if there's a wasp in my house? No, we don't come out for single wasp. We come out if there's a wasp nest on your property. Or if you see a mouse running across the kitchen.

I may be wrong about this but, isn't that how the Roman empire fell? The emperor introduced a a 24/7 wasp catching service and, the next day, the Vandals came galloping over the horizon?Well, I suppose in the past, people would have had a man down the road they knew who they could ask to do these things. But people have less time on their hands and society is just not like that any more. We no longer have the time to acquire the skills, or to get to know the people. It's a case of . . .

The fabric of society is coming apart. Chi-ching?No. But if it's 2am on a Friday night and you have a burst pipe, who do you call? Will they come out? What will they charge you? And can you trust their advice? With this service you only have to pick up the phone once and we'll send someone straight over.

Do these people work for you, or do you just happen to have the number of the one plumber who comes out when called?We have plumbers, electricians and drainage people across the country. It's a network. They work for us. It's an AA experience you get.

Is this a completely new service you're offering or are any of your competitors offering anything like this already?Some home insurance products carry a variant on this, but I think those are just advice lines. I'm not sure if they'd send anybody out. With us you could have four call-outs for a home emergency, and four call-outs for your boiler, up to a value of €2,000. As far as I'm aware, that's a unique service.

Does it cover the whole country?Yes.

If I have a creaky window at 3am on Tory Island you'll be there?Again, it's very similar to our motor rescue. There isn't anywhere we won't go. Obviously, it might take us a little longer to get there, depending on where you are.

Finally, would you put the bins out for me? No, we wouldn't put the bins out for you. But an important point to make here is that, although this is very much an emergency service, we ultimately want to get to a place where people are ringing us when they have an issue. It may not be covered in their policy, but we would be able to advise them what to do, and even send someone out to them at their own expense. We see ourselves as a one-stop shop for the home.