If I could give 0 stars I would. The instructor Joe R. kicked kids out of class for no reason causing them to have to make up classes. Then he also baited other students to agree with him or get kicked out too. He skipped material because he didn't feel like presenting it and didn't teach basic pertinent info saying they should already know it. Escalated to a manager and she said it's too bad. read more

worst driving school I never recommend Their are lots of driving school availability for teen read more

Okay so both me and my younger sister took driving classes at Joyce's and we both had a infuriating bad experience, to put it lightly. For me the teachers where unnecessarily rude. I was belittled in the classroom and yelled at once during a behind the wheel session. These where grown adults bullying me and I couldn't even figure out why as I was a shy quiet kid. But what really made upset enough for me to come on yelp to give a review was their lack of communication and follow through that has prevented both me and my sister from getting our license in a timely matter. I tend to avoid conflict, so I decided to just suck it up and deal with the rudness back then. But the one thing, the thing I'm paying them for, they couldn't deliver. That's what pisses me off the most. If you do not know, once you complete your driving course the driving school, Joyce, is supposed to send your information to the government. the government will in turn send you a certificate that you need to present in order to even take a drivers test. Joyce did NOT do this for neither me nor my sister. We spent maybe 2 months total calling them with no reasponse, emailing them with no response, even showing up multiple times in person at their office. All to be met with what I can only describe as purposeful indifference. Mind you we took these classes about 4 years apart, so this is clearly a on going issue. As of now we are still struggling to get my sister's certificate. TLDR: Rude teachers, poor communication, a lot of unneeded head ache. Don't go here. read more

I was driving down a street in Palatine and the driver was going 35 in a 55 the entire way. The instructor had his window down and gave me a vulgar expression as I passed them. This is not how you teach students to drive - going 20 miles under the speed limit and road rage. I do not recommend this driving school to anyone. read more

My kiddo is currently taking classes here. He says they are very informative and interesting. He goes to the Sunday only class. This will take several mnths to complete. The online system is easy to use and they send out info regularly to keep parents informed. Beware thou when it comes time to schedule the "behind the wheel " time you need to sign up early and a pro tip here they open the next mnths calendar mid mnth. So check early and regularly otherwise you will be stuck like me with a couple mnth wait to get my kiddo behind the wheel. They would be 5 star if they didn't have BTW scheduling difficulties. read more

This entire company ran by a bunch of unprofessional people and their affiliation with Barrington High school is what keeps them in business which lowers new people into the nonsense I am about to explain. First my kid failed written test after taking the classes so I had to coach him and the kid passed the test the 2nd time. If you prepaid for behind the wheel session, good luck getting a freaking instructor available for months. They do not have enough instructors so the kids can take weekly driving lessons and off course weekends are the best time as kids have classes till 4:00 PM and then after school activities. In the fine print of their contract when you are paying for the services, they put a time restriction in their contract, so if you don't schedule behind the wheel classes within X number of months after the class room training, they will eat up your 100's of your dollars even you never used the service!!! What the hell. Then they force you to pay more money to activate or extend behind the wheel sessions if it expired (A service you prepaid but not even once used it)...what an unethical bunch of of people. There is $50 dollar fee if you cancel session less than 48 hours of schedule date, another gotcha. My Doctors even don't charge such fees. To avoid the BS, I paid some extra dollars, then again after two sessions which were two weeks apart, they had no slots available for the entire month. Not a single slot. In their online system they will provide available slots like in the middle of the school day while the kid is in school. What a nonsense. You can try calling them and no one returns phone calls, no one responds to emails. I think its time I throw few lawyers at their faces and get all my money back and all the time they have wasted so far. read more

Do NOT even consider this place. Terrible customer service, overwhelmed with scheduling and when yuh talk to them they do not care. I called and gave them my feedback and the personal response I received over the phone was - "I can't do anything." That says it all - there are other options which my older kids used. I never would have gone here except they purchased the Driving 4 Teens we used previously. This business can be run better - I have seen it done. Never had these issues with Driving4Teens. Take this as a warning - nothing to like about this place. read more

Took son to get his license but the clerk said the required document wasn't filed with the state. I emailed Joyce and was pleasantly surprised when I got a prompt response even on the weekend. Diana listed the exact reason why the clerk was wrong. Another gentleman from Joyce called and gave his number so DMV can talk to him if necessary. It turned out Joyce was right and my son was able to successfully get his license. Not only are they responsive over the duration of my son's course but 8-months after the completion. Thank you Joyce for your prompt and accurate statement. We are relieved that we can finish getting DS's license today. read more

Shit was horrible. I went to go get my license but have to wait another month cuz they didnt even put my certification even though I graduated months ago. Don't go here unless you want to get scammed out of your money. If there was a zero star I would give one. read more

This driving school is a joke and makes it more understandable now that so many people in America can't drive correctly and don't get a good drivers education. The behind the wheels at Joyces were extremely unhelpful, and my instructor has us go get something from the store during my driving lesson!? So unprofessional! The classroom curriculum was also basic and didn't cover everything. The service here as well is very unprofessional with scheduling and making appointments. read more

We enrolled in Joyce's driving school pre-pandemic. There has not been one single in classroom session, with all learning being online. We received notification that we will have to pay an extra $175 to continue our course because it wasn't completed by the deadline. We received zero notifications and now parents are being forced to pay a penalty when no one has even been in the classroom the entire year. There has been no zoom learning, just online courses so why is there an extra fee being tacked on to an already expensive program? If your children are to attend driving school, I would recommend you look for other options. read more

Horrible service. I paid for a 2-hour driving class and called to see when I could schedule. I requested weekend classes due to me working for a living. I was told that it would not be a problem. After I was put on hold for 25 minutes and then was told an instructor would call me the following day. A little frustrated I agreed and waited for the phone call. At 10:38 am I got a call, and the instructor asked when I was free. Again I told them that I was only available on the weekends. They put me on hold and then said that they save those days specifically for teens. And unfortunately could not schedule an adult during those times. I am a paying customer, and they are going to say that time and money is prioritized less due to age. I asked for my money back becasue this is unacceptable. read more

Same as review below. Used previous driving school which was taken over byJoyce. Very unprofessional phone and driver scheduling and online calendar. 0 to no openings and calendar does not get updated from what I can see. Already paid for the driving classes but cannot find any slots for the entire next month. Got some confusing information about how many lessons can be taken in a month. Never had this problem with previous owners. Would never recommend this place to anybody! read more

I will start with the one and only positive experience we had with Joyce's Driving School in Palatine. That was with the btw teacher Mr. Bentel. My daughter had him for 4 out of the 6 lessons and he was wonderful. Nice, friendly, actually got out of the car to introduce himself to me (unlike any of the other teachers) and taught my daughter a lot during her drives. That's where the good ends!! My son took classes at this driving school when it was under the previous owner (Driving 4 Teens). Had a great experience with them. When I registered my daughter for classes, I specifically called since I new it was under different owners and spoke with Joyce. She assured me that everything was run the same way as it was under the other owners. She couldn't have been more wrong. From a week before classes were to begin, she sends an email changing the time of the class, which was a problem over the summer, since my daughter (and I'm assuming many other kids) had either summer school or camps they were already signed up for. After some back and forth, she adjusted the time, then when my daughter took her first classroom test, I find out the kids have to take it on their cell phones. She doesn't give paper tests and all the tests are taken from the students cell phones. Called to complain, she said she would get back to me after a couple of days....never heard back from her. Then, after my daughter got her permit and we went to schedule her btw sessions, she only allows you to schedule 2 drives at a time, and good luck trying to schedule anything past those 2 drives before the entire month books up!! When I called to talk to them about it, one person told me they changed that rule and you could schedule 3 drives at a time, then spoke with another person on the phone and she said "NO", they changed the rule again and you could only schedule 2 drives. No one knows what the rules are I guess!! The way she schedules the drives for the students is ridiculous. Instead of your child having a 2-3 hour uninterrupted session, your child is like an Uber driver. They spend their entire btw session dropping off and picking up students from their houses. You also have no information on who these instructors are because Joyce refuses to put any kind of profile information up on her drivers. Don't you think if you are running a driving school where kids have to get in the car with someone, you would have at least their pictures and a short profile about that person up on your website for parents?? When I told her I would really like to know who my daughter is getting in the car with, since the majority of her teachers are men, she said she would have to work on that. Well a lot of good that does us now!! For one of my daughters btw sessions, she had Joyce's husband as a teacher. He decided to take a phone call from Joyce during the drive and instead of him supervising my daughter and directing her where to drive, he was talking to Joyce on the phone! Real professional!! Just one problem after another!! Certainly glad I don't have any more children that need btw lessons.....because I would never enroll them at her school!! read more

We currently have one daughter attending Joyce's driving School and another that completed the course two years ago. They have done a great job preparing our daughters to be safe attentive drivers. From the class room to behind the wheel driving I trust Joyce's is doing a great job preparing young drivers. read more

I will give this Joyce's 1 star for the classroom portion of this driving school. For the Behind The Wheel portion, I would give a negative 1 star if I could. After about 4 hours of behind the wheel training with her mother and father, it was time for my daughter's first official BTW training with Joyce's "instructor". I will not go into all of the gory details, but let me just say that this first experience left my 15 year old daughter standing in our driveway alone, in tears, as the driving instructor drove off. The instructor could not find my house to pick her up on time. When he did finally find the house, my daughter did not emerge immediately to jump into the car and go. This did not sit well with the instructor. He started by berating her for not watching for him to pull up and telling her that they were now running late. (He was late, NOT my daughter) The instructor then told her, "just drive, we need to get to Crystal Lake now!" Trying to break the tension, she asked him "how have you been?" to which he replied, "just back up the car and go, you do know how to get to Crystal Lake, don't you?" Of course she had a general idea, but no real instruction on which way to go. He did not allow her time to adjust mirrors, etc. The training car he showed up in has the gearshift selector on the floor and our family car has the gearshift on the steering column. My daughter then asked, "Where is the gear shift?" he then retorted "you have got to be kidding me, you don't even know where reverse is?!" Needless to say she found it, backed the car out and began to drive down the street. At this point she (being a nervous driver) was wholly unsure of what to do next. The instructor then told her to just stop the car. They had driven about a city block at this point. The instructor said that she needs to learn how to drive before taking a behind the wheel course with him, he does not feel safe. (apparently 4 hours with her mom and dad is not sufficient) She turned the car around and drove the 1 block back to our home, at this point on the verge of tears, feeling that she had let him down somehow. The gentleman instructor then told her that he cannot train her how to drive today because she is not a good enough driver. Isn't that HIS job?! I have driven with her for hours, she is fine. He then left her in the driveway, alone, crying. He did not even wait for her to be sure she could get back in the house, this is NOT cool. Needless to say, I am furious. After sending Joyce an e-mail laying out these issues, she refunded our tuition and said my daughter should find another driving school. No apology, no reason for the most unprofessional behavior by the instructor that I have ever heard of. Their website clearly states that after students complete the classroom portion of the school, they should sign up right away for the BTW instruction. They also say they are good with nervous or anxious drivers... this is absolutely not the case. Do yourselves a favor and find a proper driving school, with caring and patient instructors. After writing this, I'm going to go ahead and give it a negative 5 stars. read more

My third child, my third driving school. Third times a charm with Joyce's Driving School. First two driving schools I felt like my wife and I did all the teaching. Joyce's driving school lets the instructors do the teaching. Our instructor, Bill , was very patient and calm at all times. My daughter say she felt no pressure. Big thing for a fifteen year old to say. With a little planning ahead getting driving time was never a problem. Website was easy to use and office people were always pleasant. If I had a forth child they would be using Joyce's Driving School. Thanks to everybody involved. Larry S. Barrington. read more

We are sending our second student driver to Joyce's Driving School! Sign up is a snap and the instructors are top notch. Joyce's made getting your driver's license a great experience. read more

Our experience at Joyce's Driving School was outstanding! I found them to be incredibly helpful and responsive when I had questions. The behind the wheel instructors were patient and supportive. I was fretting about my daughter taking her first behind the wheel. I wasn't sure she was ready. Joyce took the time to "talk me through it" and advised it was the right time for her to get behind the wheel. She was so right! My daughter came back from that first behind the wheel excited and more confident! I am so glad that we chose Joyce's Driving school for driver's education. It was a great experience for my daughter! read more

I took my driving course at Joyce's Driving School during the end of my Freshman year and it was great! I learned a lot about different driving skills throughout the time in Joyce's class. The classes were really interesting and included a bunch of great advice for driving safely. On certain days, Joyce would have guess speakers come in and talk to the students. When I did my Behind-The-Wheels, I was scared at first but over time I adjusted to driving on busy streets. I was guided through what to do on the road and in the car. At the end of my BTW's, I felt very comfortable in the car when I drove. The information that was given to us helped me become successful later on when I got my permit and license. I remember when I went to get my licenses, the driving instructor told me, "Of all the people I have driven with, by far you were one of the best". If it wasn't for taking this course over at Joyce's, I would have not been successful in retrieving my drivers license and learning how to drive safe on the roads. Overall, I had a great time at Joyce's Driving School. It was very informational and interesting. read more

My 3rd driver just completed her classroom and Btw at Joyce's and we would not use anyone else for our next driver. Her communication is great and she is very good emailing back. I know they are busy right now scheduling btw but she has gotten creative to help with that by adding btw in morning before school, limiting how many to sign up for etc. One tip for scheduling btw, the calendar goes live on the 15th of month prior so just log in on the 15th and you will have no problem scheduling 2 for the next month. As for the bad review about saying the instructor said the driver wasn't ready to drive I had the opposite happen. I was way too nervous to drive with my daughter and called Sue to let her know my daughter had not been out besides once and it didn't go good. She said no problem she was patient and eventually my daughter with Joyce's staff finished her btw, got her license and is a confident driver!! Thank you to all the staff at Joyce's Driving School for helping with such an important milestone in our kids lives!!!!! read more