I'd like to preface this review by saying thank you to Greg's management for immediately offering to let me redo an in-car driving lesson free of charge when I called to tell them about my experience, and instructor Marc for being so helpful.
I had an in-car driving "lesson" with Ms. Gretchen. It started off rocky when I approached the door to the office at the same time as her, 5 minutes before the lesson start time. She asked for my name and I handed her my permit, she looks it over and comments on how recently I got my permit. I am 25 and just now have the privilege to learn how to drive that I didn't have as a teenager. She asks me how many hours of driving I have logged, I low-ball it and say 8 hours (it was more like 12 at the time). She snaps at me, saying that isn't enough time, and that the other instructors need to "stop sending her kids for lessons that aren't ready". I made a comment about it being the parking lesson, but she ignored me. She then asks me who my instructor was for my first in-car driving lesson, which was Marc. She snaps again, saying the last student she was sent after having Marc wasn't ready either.
As we walked out the door, I asked her if there was a problem, and she said "No, we'll see how you do. I'm taking you on the road first so I can see how you drive." The moment we got into the car, she started telling me how to adjust my seat and had me sitting extremely close to the wheel. I tried to tell her I couldn't move my ankle enough to switch between the brake and the accelerator, but she kept snapping at me. She then has me driving on the road for an entire HOUR of the lesson. The first 3 minutes in the car, the speedometer isn't on the digital display, and she starts messing with the buttons on the wheel as I am ACTIVELY driving to get the speedometer up.
After taking a few turns that she didn't like, she had me pull into a parking lot to show me how I "should" be turning the wheel. She swaps into the drivers seat to show me how to turn by letting the wheel slide in my hands, always keeping them at 9 and 3, so that your arms never cross in front of the airbag. She says she invented this method and gave it to Greg's. She even showed me that if she's driving with one hand and looping her thumb under the wheel, that it's still safer because her arms wouldn't get smashed by the airbag. I should note, her arm was crossing over the airbag while doing this.
When we finally got back to Greg's to start the parking portion of the parking lesson, she complained about how neither me nor another student were willing to move their lesson slot. I replied with the fact that I have a full-time job and can't move my schedule around on short notice. She ignored me. At one point during the parking, I said that I was having a hard time focusing with the talking and the driving and she said "Well, I guess you wouldn't be any fun on long road trips then." I said with 'At least I won't be a distracted driver.' She ignored this comment.
The worst thing this woman did was multiple times during the lesson. I have a parasympathetic response to being yelled at that I can't control, and I tear up and/or cry (not sob, just leaky). This never happened during my first lesson. During the parking part, she told me multiple times "You gotta stop doing that," to which I would ask, stop what? She said "Stop with the crying." She proceeded to tell me that she texted someone at the start of our lesson to tell them that she "had a cry-er" for her lesson. Not only is that disrespectful, but why would anyone think that's okay to admit? By the end, she was exclusively staring at her phone, just mumbling instructions at me that I didn't understand.
Gretchen is an ineffective, disrespectful instructor that completely lacks equity training. She refused to rephrase anything when I said I didn't understand what she was telling me to do and didn't like when I asked genuine questions to clarify what I was supposed to do. Her behavior was unacceptable. read more
