In September 2021 this company had a driver engage in inappropriate behavior with my teen permit driver. The owner of the company did absolutely nothing to correct the incident or take any accountability towards it. So moms of teens, if you use this place- request to not have the driver Rick!
My daughter did 2 sessions. The first went good. On the second session she went out driving, she had a male driver (Rick) who began taking pictures of her with his iPhone while she was driving. As a permit driver, in a vulnerable and powerless state- she asked him to stop, and he denied that he was doing it. He then did it again and my daughter asked for him to take her home. She explained to us she could see him do it from the corner of her eye and also heard the sound of an iPhone camera multiple times. This same driver also asked her personal questions which made her feel uneasy.
When she got home- my husband called the police. When the police arrived, the instructor had two phones on him and refused to show the deleted pictures on one of them.
I called the academy asking them to call me immediately. The following day, I called them again when no one had contacted me. The "manager" was completely ill mannered and nasty. She told me she refused to talk to me until they reviewed the camera footage in the car.
That afternoon the owner of the company (Jerry) called me. His behavior was appalling. He continuously referred to his driver as a "nice guy". He took zero accountability for the situation And was trying to belittle me (unsuccessfully) every chance he could.
He was insinuating my daughter shared inappropriate personal details about herself. He also tried to spin it that his driver was a victim after my husband had yelled at him. He went on to explain that he's in a golf league that sends around jokes and also wouldn't be comfortable sharing his deleted pictures with a police officer. That should tell you enough.
When they reviewed the video footage from that drive- it was chest high (my daughter told me he was leaning the phone on his knee when taking the pics) and you couldn't see what had happened. However you could hear the conversation, and the driver claimed he was texting and not taking pictures. My daughters story to us and the police lined up exactly to everything reviewed in the video.
At the close of the call, I pointed out that whether this man was taking pictures of my 16 year old or texting while a permit driver was on the road, we had a problem.
We decided not to pursue this legally for personal reasons. At our request and legal threat, the company issued a refund and agreed to let her complete the course with a women driver. The staff was unhelpful for the remaining process and we did not complete the additional lesson after all.
I waited to post this because she was still technically enrolled in the program until we decided to drop it. read more