The short version: Extremely unprofessional drivers given what you pay. The long version: The class itself was fine and my daughter had a good time. Then came the driving day where my daughter drove six hours with one of their instructors. The instructor was on his phone the entire time (not for only short calls) and had completely inappropriate conversations. He went on for some time about politics (Trump vs Clinton) and he talked about the man who took his own life in jail recently, cracking jokes about suicide and even discussing different methods the guy could have used to kill himself. Based on his freely voiced political opinion, I assume he was trying to say it was a hit was taken out on the guy not a suicide. Yet, what the instructor didn't know is my daughter lost her aunt only 3 days prior to suicide, as well as has a young brother who battles suicidal thoughts. My daughter was very upset and said all she could think about was her aunt instead of focusing on the driving test (despite this she did pass with no problems). I tried emailing the school twice asking someone to call me to discuss. After a week of no response, I called and spoke to the owner. He appeared unbothered by what I shared and tried to explain how the driver was only talking about how he didn't think it was a suicide. His position was my daughter should have spoken up because the driver couldn't have known she lost an aunt to suicide. It doesn't matter - either way it's not an appropriate conversation for someone to be having when I'm paying them money to teach my daughter to drive. Plus my daughter was raised to be respectful to adults so she didn't think she could say anything to him. He was her instructor, a preacher and the one administering her test - I don't know many 15 years old who would speak up in that scenario. Plus, she didn't want to talk about her aunt's death as that's very private. The owner said if we wanted to bring back the envelope and all the stuff he would refund our money. I said we had already turned in the envelope to the DMV and then asked if he would refund some of the course money. He became very angry and started going off about how this was just about money for me. That is not the case at all - he's the one who brought up a refund, not me. What I was looking for was him as the owner to take some responsibility for his employee, apologize and maybe even get my information to call me back and let me know once the situation had been addressed. My goal was to ensure other kids don't have to sit through these types of conversations. While he said he would address it with the driver, the main focus of his response was to place blame on my daughter for not speaking up and to justify the driver's actions. He also indicated I should have called sooner. I explained I emailed twice, and he said they don't monitor or answer their emails at all because they aren't tech savvy. I'm not sure why you have an email address on your website then if you aren't going to us it. Overall, I paid a lot of money to have my daughter drive around a guy who treated it as his personal time to vent, chat and crack jokes about suicide and politics. When I told the owner, I would be sure to share my experience, his response was to be sure I tell everyone that she got what she paid for, which is she completed the driving requirements and passed her test on the first try. So yes, I'm sharing that she passed her test. If that's the only thing you care about, then sure use this school. However, I feel the money I paid should also have gotten me the driver's attention during the majority of his drive time with my daughter without the personal commentary. So no, we did not get what we paid for, and my next child will not be using this school for his test. read more
