Tucked away in the events of last Friday is a small event that has soured my image of the AA. Given the events of my journey I stopped off at a service station to refresh myself and take a better peek at my car. As I wandered past the back of a stand for the AA one of the women working there jumped in front of me and fired some quick demographic questions at me. When it became clear I fitted the bill she asked me to fill out a form and in return she would give me a free road atlas. Now although I was hoping to make up some time I actually quite enjoy surveys, almost as much as I enjoy free gifts so I didn't object to the idea.

As we went to the front of the stand she handed me a pen and pointed me at the form, and I noticed it was a credit card application form. To be fair she hadn't said it wasn't a credit application, she just called it a form. The implication of such a statement is that it's very non-committal; a survey, a form asking them to send me details about all their services or maybe even some insurance type details for them send me quotes. A credit card application form is not non-committal.

So I'd been deceived by this fuzziness but wasn't overly bothered. These credit card women are always pushy and although this one had been more underhand than any I'd encountered before I had other things on my mind. I wasn't interested in the card but I was interested in getting to Cathy's so I politely declined actually filling out the form. Now like many of these pushy credit card women I then got the tale of no fees and I could just leave it in a drawer etc. but I still wasn't interested. Had she left it there I would have still been content, but not this sales expert.

Upon my polite refusal this woman gave me the filthiest look imaginable. You would have imagined I'd just told her I killed her entire family and then mixed their rotting bodies with poison before feeding them to her pets, finally punching and kicking her whilst laughing at her tears. The last person who had looked at me in that way to tell you just how lowly and pathetic you are was a football hooligan trying to upset everyone he met and start trouble. That look which says someone thinks you're the lowest piece of scum alive. Just because I didn't want a credit card.

I know that these people make their money based on people filling out forms but that's all the more reason why they should be polite. I was running late and I'd just been involved in a car accident, it doesn't matter how minor. I still managed to be polite and clear. I don't even care if she was having a bad day, I excuse a lot on those grounds but if your day is that bad you go home. There's a probability she was just some bod hired in for a few days to pimp these wares but I'm happy to hold a grudge based on that. The AA aren't the forth emergency service, they're the last resort in my book now.