AARP sent another couple's membership cards to my address, which means my cards were sent to someone else. I called customer service and got a run-around from a representative and her supervisor. The supervisor finally admitted there had been a "glitch I the system" but when I tried to press for reassurance that my cards had NOT been sent elsewhere, she would not confirm and kept deflecting my concerns. I requested a phone number for corporate so I could voice my concerns regarding identity theft implications and was told no phone numbers were available but I could email their membership department. As far as I'm concerned, this is a security breach and warrants a lot more concern than was shown by their unhelpful staff.

I saw the red insulated bag on wheels, I ran into a couple that had one and it was a nice bag. It is a nice size and good and roomy, the problem is that I have been waiting and they keep sending me a sandwich bag.

I have been waiting for this bag since August,2013..Still have not gotten it ..But from the reviews/comments don't think I am missing anything.

I have called numerous times because I still haven't received my free travel bag ( talk about a bait and switch operation you have going on) how in the hell long doe's it take to get from California to Utah, and every time I call they say it is on the way , not! come on get with it and send them to all the people you promised you would or refund our money , It sure in the hell didn't take 6-8 weeks to cash our checks. I will not renew my aarp card and will tell all my friend you are a bunch of liars!!!!!

I'm amazed at the complaints about this bag. Recently, I received the same promotional piece from AARP, and I noticed the following things about it:

1. Nowhere does it state the dimensions of the bag. To me, that's the first sign that I don't have details I may want to know. Consequently, I need to look further.

2. In the photo, I can see that a car key fob is attached on the right side. Car key fobs tend to be only a couple inches long, so I can easily see that the bag is only two or three times the length of my key fob.

3. I can see a pen in the pocket on the front of the bag. From that, I can easily estimate that the bag is perhaps twice the length of an average pen. To me, that's a clear sign the bag is small.

4. In the top of the bag I can see a banana and one snack bar that I would figure is probably the size of a standard granola bar. From their usual size, I can also likely guess that the bag is not terribly deep.

4. Nowhere does the piece refer to the "insulated travel bag" as anything that gives me the impression that it is what I would consider luggage that I would pack as any sort of bag to roll aboard, use as a sort of suitcase, or even a cooler for holding anything much larger than one bottled beverage.

5. The photo clearly shows the bag won't serve as an insulated carrier for much more than one bottled beverage, so I didn't think of the bag as a cooler. From what is shown in the photo, I'd figure I'd use the bag only for conveniently carrying a few very small items when I travel and don't want to stuff my pockets or carry a large bag.

6. Some complaints say AARP was using false advertising. False advertising applies to the goods, services, or commercial activities a business offers. From my experience, AARP does provide the goods, services, and activities they sell. AARP was not selling you the bag. They were selling their services and they threw in the bag as an incentive to get you to buy the services. The bag itself is not a good, service, or activity of AARP. Even if the bag were a good, service, or activity of AARP, they make no claims about what the bag will or will not do other than that the bag is insulated and can be used for travel. If you read more into that they what they say, you are assuming much that the photo easily gives away.

I would also add to this the following points:

a. A consumer needs to take care to confirm they are getting what they expect. The phrase "Caveat emptor" (Let the buyer beware) goes back a few thousand years.

b. AARP makes no promises or statements about the bag's dimensions. If it may be helpful to you to know the size of the bag, then ask. If you think AARP is being deceitful, you haven't paid attention to how many things are sold. For evidence, look at car ads (print or on TV) that give you the impression that many small cars are large, long, and powerful. For more evidence, look at food ads for things like the size of meal portions and think about how often the item you receive at the restaurant is the same size and has the same eye appeal as what you see in print, online, or on TV. For further evidence, look at the size of your cereal box compared to its contents, the size of your potato chip bag compared to its contents, and so on.

c. If you still feel cheated, consider that AARP does not state or imply a value for the bag. They say it is free as a bonus gift. I checked online for similar bags and found they range in cost from about $9 on up to nearly $20 in retail price. Even if you assume that it costs AARP $1 or $2 per bag from whoever their fulfillment item provider is, the bag is still worth about 6% to 12% of the cost of annual membership.

d. When you get a gift for free, try to have the graciousness not to complain. If you bought AARP membership thinking the bag was worth more than the $16 membership fee, you clearly didn't do your homework. Also, you probably weren't joining AARP to get the benefits of membership but to get the free gift. Why join or buy something you don't intend to use? Sandiegoliving and a few other respondents understand this, but the complainers haven't figured that out.

Last point: I joined AARP in July and have already used my membership to save over $80 in a few hotel stays. When I joined, there was no free gift offer of any kind. While it may have been nice for me to get a free gift, I'm not lodging a complaint with AARP asking or demanding "Where's mine?" Instead, I'm appreciative of the services they do offer, and I weighed whether I thought membership was going to yield me more than $16 in savings. To me, membership is a bargain, with or without a low-value gift throw in at no cost.

Well, after a couple of weeks of waiting for a response, I did finally receive an apology email from AARP regarding the incorrect travel bag. The email said they would send it in the next four weeks. The email I received is below. (I suggest to anyone who received the incorrect bag that you send an email to the email address below.

Thank you for contacting AARP. We appreciate hearing from you.

We have mailed the AARP Travel Pack you requested. You will receive
it within the next four weeks.

Thank you again for contacting us. Please accept our apologies for
the delay in getting back to you. It has been our pleasure to assist
you.

Jaimie
Member Communications
[email protected]

I was going to subscribe to AARP but I will NOT now because of what was written about the insulated travel bag. I guess it should be called an insult travel bag. AARP should know that you can only make one first impression and they messed up with this offer.

I was going to subscribe to AARP but I will NOT now because of what was written about the insulated travel bag. I guess it should be called an "insult travel bag". AARP should know that you can only make one first impression and they messed up with this offer.

It appears to me that there have been different bags represented in different media, i.e., TV, print and on-line.
Everything from a small wheeled carry-on type bag, back-pack type bag, grocery tote bag and two different bags called travel bags (small insulated red bag with draw string & black passport/cell phone/wallet bag).
I actually connected via phone with customer service to make my request for a bag and still was confused by what I was going to receive. Descriptions and dimensions of the items offered were not clear. I must admit that I should not complain that the item I received was not what I expected. After all, it was FREE. For those of us who may have thought about joining AARP and finally decided to join because we thought there was a freebee bonus to do so, a valuable lesson has been learned or relearned. I only joined for one year and will have that time to see if there will be any tangible benefit to continue membership beyond that.

Apparently AARP has been sending this crappy little good for nothing bag for a long time (looks like the complaints started in 2009 on here). The bag in the photo shows a bag with 3 zippered pockets and a large AARP logo on the bottom pocket. I renewed my membership only to receive an insulated miniature bag that as others have said, isn't good for much of anything, and they had the balls to send me my membership card with ANOTHER offer for the zippered bag when you give a gift membership. I emailed them a nice email asking for a replacement as I'd thought they'd shipped out the wrong one. Never heard back from them. They sent me renewal notices I don't know how many times per year when I was only a member for one year several years ago. I shouldn't have fallen for the ad, but I did because nowhere on it did it say anything about them having the option to replace the bag with a similar item at their discretion. I like their magazine, but I'm not happy with the way they communicate things to their CUSTOMERS.

I don't understand all of the complaints about this bag -- the promotional leaflet clearly shows its size. There are car keys, a banana, a pen, etc. clearly pictured. It's a small bag intended to carry small things, and it hasn't been misrepresented.. "Insulated Travel Bag" hardly means a 21 inch rollaboard!! And it's free, so to call it "false advertising" or intended to "dupe" people or to expect a "3 foot high" bag doesn't make sense.