AAA Pinole Branch - Pinole, California

Alysia L.

Very quick service on a Friday late afternoon. We were welcomed immediately and handed a form to fill out then someone was ready within 5 minutes to process the id.

Make sure you bring the correct documents- the person at the front may not know or ask you. The people waiting were taken care of by the time we left so that was nice to see! Very clean- looks like a Chase bank/Hertz interior. I would consider AAA again after this experience.

Rudiel S.

The reason why I'm giving this a five-star is because of the AAA Team member "V." Very respectful. Very thorough. Didn't make me feel rushed. Made me feel like a person, not just some customer. She actually engaged with me when her I asked her questions. Which in the past, I never got that type of interaction. I understand places our business. But businesses are only around. When you make the customer feel like a person.

Nayiba H.

I came in almost closing time on a Tuesday. Every employee there working that day was attentive, understanding of my needs and welcoming. I haven't had customer service like this in a long time. It was a nice feeling after a very long, stressful day to be helped with patience and treated with respect from all the employees even though i was the last customer. I wish I got all of their names. They helped me right away. I had everything I need and was out the door.

Bridget W.

Short Version: Do not register your car here if you purchased it from an out of state dealer and later relocated to California. They overcharged me $2310 and it took almost 2 months to get my refund from the California Department of Tax and Fee Adminstration.

Long Version: I moved here from another state last summer and drove my car. I thought that dealing with my dmv needs would be less painful at a AAA branch, but I may have been better off actually going to the dmv. The first red flag was when they told me to lie on the paperwork and say I purchased my vehicle from a private seller. They shouldn't even be processing sales from dealers. Who knows how many other people have lost money due to their negligence.

When they said I would be charged a use tax fee of $2310, I said that it didn't make any sense because I had already paid tax for the vehicle. If this had happened 5 years ago, I would have had some major financial issues, thankfully I am in a better position these days. I paid the fee and made sure that they were going to give me itemized list so I could do further investigation when I got home.

I go home and use my friend google. Just search for "4.035 Transactions Not Subject to Use Tax" you will conclude that I in fact did not owe any use tax. I called the DMV, which was useless, they returned my call two days later. I called the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. I filed a claim for a refund online. After about 10 phone calls, who knows how much wasted time and approximately two months, I finally received a check for $2310. A simple task that should have been finished in one morning turned into something highly stressful that took almost two months.

Hasan

There was once a AAA Branch across from the Hilltop Mall in Richmond. It was ran well. Now they moved over to Pinole, which is a nice office/experience but unfortunately the staff is extremely incompetent and unhelpful. I haven't been there in a couple of years but I am sure nothing has changed. I remember going here, waiting in line, only to have a rude and unproductive experience doing a very simple transaction.

Mark C.

Very little good to say. I needed to have something notarized. Made an appointment on line. No appointment was available that day. I booked for the next day. I arrived on time. Waited five mins. “Did you get our voice mail. I am getting ready for lunch.” My document would take a notary five to 10 minutes. “ let me see if I can do it” She comes back several minutes later “I don’t have the key.”?A 20 minute waste of time to get there from someone who obviously didn’t want to notarize anything. AAA should make sure that it can offer the services that it commits to offer. She did say that I could come by tomorrow. No thanks.

Rachel T.

If you look at the newest reviews about this particular AAA office, more than half of them are 1 or 2 stars this should tell you something. I have to say this particular office is extremely unhelpful. I have been a AAA member for many years and have received excellent help from other AAA offices. This office gives me the feeling that most of the people who work here do not want to actually do their job. I had moved which is why I was trying to use the Pinole office. When I called to set up an appointment to register my out of state vehicle here, I was told that I could register it at the AAA Pinole office but I had to call the main number to make an appointment. Im thinking 'just make the appointment dude, are you too busy looking at a dumb game?' Anyway, after an hour on hold, I accomplished what the AAA Pinole office worker could have done in minutes. That was just the beginning, A few days later I received a call back from Pinole AAA telling me they had to change the time, we spent about 45 minutes trying to do that and when I told her the type of car, suddenly she could not register it. This is weird because the other AAA office could. Long story even longer, I ended up having to go to the DMV. By the end of my 2 day DMV transaction, I still had my out-of-state license plates. The office that I used to use in Oakland said that there was no problem if I wanted to drop them off there. Unfortunately I'm quite far away from there so I called the Pinole AAA office to ask if I could drop them off there. I was told that I definitely could not. Quite frankly I would say go anywhere else but here. Read the other reviews, I don't know how this office stays in business.

Keri S.

Great service handled my dmv needs properly!