This was not what I expected for driving school. my son has had his permit for more than 6 months and I was expecting him to learn more rules of the road while taking drivers ed. The teacher for his class-who it was very obvious was there just to collect a paycheck- did nothing but fly through slideshows and read scripts. She didn't engage with students and took 30-45 min breaks during the two hour class instruction. This is not worth the money you pay at all! Don't waste your time or money! read more

I would like to start off by saying.....if I could give this business a higher star rating, I would! I highly recommend 1st Learn to Drive for any teen who is learning to drive. The instructors are patient, professional, and truly dedicated to helping new drivers feel safe and confident on the road. They take the time to explain not just the rules of the road, but also priactical tips for real-world situations. Scheduling lessons was always easy, and the staff was always friendly and accommodating. The owner, Mike, really cares about the new teen driver. He even takes time out on evenings or weekends to answer my text messages. The online zoom classroom was amazing as well as the instructor teaching it! I think his name was Christian. It was twice a week and very well organized class setting. The zoom class provided a strong foundation of knowledge. My teen felt comfortable right away, and I noticed a big improvement in his driving skills. Thanks to 1st Learn to Drive, my teen passed the driving test on the first try! If you're looking for driving school that balances professionalism with a supportive learing environment, 1st Learn to Drive is an excellent choice. Thank you, Kim Ellingson read more

Please do not take this course. My online instructor, Benji, was totally fine. Same with my first driving instructor who was some sort of "substitute" I believe. But when I finally got my first experience with my actual instructor, who I believe the name of was Derrick, I was disgusted. He would have his phone out, looking at it with an earbud in, WHILE WE WERE DRIVING. This was completely unprofessional. You want to know what else was unprofessional? When he reached into my friends' pocket to take his phone out to turn off his alarm. He was also extremely rude to us and made us do many more small things that were not necessary. His way of teaching was terrible and completely unhelpful. And he also hated belts or something because every time he stood up his pants would fall almost all the way down. Which is probably why he put a mat under where he sat, that was absolutely disgusting and would shake it out. He shouted at my friend for no reason, he was terrible. I could go on. But you know what else? My friend's parents and mine both called the owner, Mike, to complain about this TWICE. And after Mike said he would give us a new instructor, me and my friend arrived the next day to find that untrue. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was extremely anxious and in danger of crashing when driving with him, and temporarily had driving PTSD after my lessons. This man should be fired. read more

Communication is horrendous. Had a multiple teachers simply never show up. Please either teach your own kid to drive or go somewhere else.

In response the the reply by the owner of my review: I didn't once say that I am against the concept of drivers ed, I just think your company isn't run well. The employees all had different training, the teaching was inconsistent, and communication was so bad it was unacceptable. read more

Mr. Smith was an excellent teacher and I got a good grasp of the curriculum. You can tell he's invested in the well-being of his students and imparted some stories and valuable wisdom. I had one last minute cancellation from an instructor and I had to send several emails to get a response back to reschedule. It is a bit of a roll of the dice depending on which instructor you get, I had some challenging drives with a particular instructor who was often on their phone and didn't give constructive feedback. On the other hand I had a great drive with Christian, I felt very relaxed and confident behind the wheel. At the end of the I came out of the course a confident driver and I'm excited to get my license. read more

Absolutely terrible experience. At the end of our son's second drive, he was very upset following an experience with a neurotic driving instructor named Barbara who overcorrected him throughout the drive, unnecessarily manipulating the wheel and excessively using the brake to the extent that our son became extremely nervous. He said he would never drive with that person again and would rather "drop out of the program than go through that again". We have driven over 20 hours with our son and never had to manipulate the wheel. Upon reporting this to the owner, Mike, and simply requesting that our son not be matched with that driver again, we endured multiple back and forth text messages from him throughout an entire workday and a deluge of poorly constructed "gotcha" moments in a mandatory Zoom meeting held the next day in which he and Liz attempted to argue every concern we expressed, even going so far as to say "if your son has panic attacks, that means private lessons". Ableism anyone? Discrimination? Gross. Bizarrely, this guy had a PowerPoint that he accidentally screen shared instead of the first video which showed that he had taken each line of my email, separated it into slides and had some absurd interpretation with notes. What the actual f#*@???? This guy must be used to angry customers or frequent litigation to have that severe of a response. Think about that for a minute! Then we had Liz, who literally began the entire meeting with an angry face and rude demeanor, like she only came to fight. All this from us requesting to change the instructor because of our son's anxiety disorder. Mike prefaced one of the video excerpts with "and here is an example of sleep deprivation", in which our son said "yeah, I only got 4 hours of sleep last night"....anxiety disorder aside, after multiple criticisms from this neurotic instructor for nearly an hour in front of another student, is it possible that he may have been trying to save face?! Good grief! Mike refused to simply change the driving instructor and instead created an elaborate interrogation during which Liz defended her apparent friend Barbara while Mike struggled to drive home whatever convoluted point he was trying to make ...an infuriating and bizarre waste of time. Extremely unprofessional, ridiculous conclusions, shaming rhetoric. Stay away from this business. read more

Our first class was fine although it was only 45 minutes as our instructor showed up late and returned early (we had paid for an hour). Our second class had to be canceled due the snow/ice that came up the last week in December. We canceled 24 hours before the class, but they kept all of our money because it was not the 48 hours stated on their website. I called and left a voice mail and a snotty woman called me back and told me I had to cancel 72 hours before the class to get a refund and if I didn't like it, I could contact the owner, "Mike". I sent "Mike" an e-mail, but he didn't respond. You can't call the company directly, all calls go to voice mail. We are planning on at 6 more driving sessions, but it won't be with this company. read more

I love 1st Learn to Drive! It has helped me gain confidence in driving. I've had a class with Amber and 2 classes with Rose Bray. They are both amazing but especially with Rose. She was so relaxed and taught me lots of things and tips about driving. She also is very patient with me and made sure I have all the things I need before my driver's test. I will be taking 1 more class with her before my actual driver's test. But I am very confident because of her. Thank you Rose! read more

Booked a lesson with this company at may for may 29th got canceled the day before and then I rescheduled for June 25th and they canceled ONE HOUR before the lesson time.Due to these I asked for a full refund right away on text and they said they would submit it but they didn't. So I have been trying to get in contact with them these past weeks still no response, I have emailed them couple of times and they still haven't answered.Also when you call the company's number it goes straight to voicemail so you can't really get an answer from calling them. This is highly unprofessional and needs to be fixed,hopefully I can get in contact with them and get my full refund but overall 0/5 stars.This company can't be trusted. read more

This place sucks it. Can't get through to anyone on the phone EVER, emails and messages aren't returned. The website is completely confusing. It's expensive and if you miss a class they charge a hefty fee. Reading all the reviews I see it's not just me. We're already signed up and have paid and it seems doubtful we'd ever get a refund so just have to bite the bullet now and suffer through. But if you are shopping around, steer clear. Anyplace would be better than this. read more

While the teachers seem OK, the company failed to respond to months of emailing to get the DMV waiver which is what the student needs in order to get the license. They do not answer their phone. All phone messages go straight to email. I had to file a BBB complaint to get them to respond. I would avoid this company. What a frustrating disappointment and waste of a lot of money. Take your class through Portland Community College. read more

Instructor online did a great job. However, the actual driving instructor was on his phone while students drove, cut the driving lesson short and left them outside the Milwaukie Center in the dark and pouring down rain. They failed to teach highway driving and parking. What a shame for $575. I am now looking into another program. I chose this one because the schedule was great, but the actual driving experience was limited. read more

First let me start by saying Vince La Blue was an awesome driving instructor. This one star review in no way dictates his behavior or insinuates that he didn't do a great job. However the actual company as far as customer service is concerned is lackluster and hard to interface with on any level including customer service being that I'm 21 years old I work part time and a full-time student. I didn't expect for the price to be so high, yet I paid it expecting that the service would exceed my expectations. I needed to reschedule my last Driving Lesson because my mom who has an immune deficiency called "Wagner" syndrome is very sick and needed for me to be there for her and my brother. they told me that I could reschedule I called, I emailed, and no response. I called email again no response and now I'm asking for a full refund. if not a partial refund of my last scheduled driving lesson that I missed. I think it's unfair especially during times of Covid when the DMV is so slow. I'm a student I'm working very hard to support myself and help my family that I would be have to pay for a full service that I never received and no one ever called me back. please if you're dealing with this company be aware that customer service is non-exemplary one and I like to add this is my first yelp review ever. I've never felt in any way compelled to report or admonish anyway in the customer service people who were customer service or exemplary folks and needs to be held up in the case of this business. I am not impressed I will do my best to work hard and customer service not to give the same bad customer service that I have received from this company star review in no way read more

My kid took the teen drivers course here. I would not recommend it. They ended up passing my kid, but they are in no way ready to drive. I'm not sure how the driver instructor could not tell that they are not ready. They come to an intersection and freak out. I was hoping that my kid would learn more, but feel even more concerned that they passed and feel like they are ready to get their license, but in now way are they going to be safe. Super disappointing. read more

Worst drivers school ever. Never call or email you back. Took our money and ran. STAY AWAY. Read BBB complaints. Read google reviews! I'm not the only one. read more