We have an Au Pair that just arrived from Columbia that doesn't speak English and were looking to get her driving lessons. We reached out to this business and specifically asked if they had someone fluent in Spanish, which they said they did. We bought three 2-hour lessons and paid extra for them to come out to our area. The first lesson was performed by someone who did speak some Spanish but wasn't fluent. When I expressed concern about this before the lesson he told me it was fine and he spoke sufficient Spanish. Turns out they had to use Google Translate which we weren't aware of until after the lesson was over. When I called to address this later I was told that the fluent Spanish speaker was out sick that day and they didn't want to cancel on us last minute. I can appreciate that but should've been given a heads up and a chance to reschedule as the fluent Spanish speaking instructor was the most important part of these lessons. The next two lessons were performed by the correct instructor who was great, hence the 2 stars otherwise it would've been less. At the start of the third lesson, the instructor herself said I should ask the business to re-do the first lesson as she's the only Spanish speaker and the lesson wasn't done correctly. When I called and asked, on her advice, I was met with "the lesson was completed satisfactorily, we're not going to redo it and any concerns should've been raised before the lesson". I did raise concerns before the lesson but was told it was fine. The fact that they are using Google translate during a driving lesson is not only inappropriate but unsafe, and we weren't told that until after the lesson was completed. They also tried to say that because we are farther outside their normal service area that it's costs more for them to come out here (gas etc). We paid extra for those exact reasons so it was definitely not ok to make it seem like they were doing anything extra without being compensated accordingly. They also said that if I asked the Au Pair, she would corroborate that the lesson was fine and that she had her questions answered. I'm sure she did, but the fact that she had to have them answered through Google Translate is not ok, especially while operating a motor vehicle on highways and Fresno streets. For safety, things need to be communicated quickly and translating via Google is not fast enough. Expressing our concerns and being repeatedly met with the same hard line of basically "no" is not acceptable. I mentioned that we'd been thinking of doing more lessons but wouldn't after an experience like this and that id be reviewing it as so, I was reluctantly met with an offer of half off one additional lesson. I appreciate that for sure and had that been offered sooner and in a different manner, like trying to make things right for a mistake they made rather than placate someone to save business, I'd certainly consider going back. Unfortunately, that's not what happened so I'll be looking elsewhere. read more
