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Claiming money from a driving school....
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Not sure if that's the best title, but me and my cousin need a bit of advice, everyones telling us different. We're going to go to the CAB when we've both got a chance but til then....
Basically, we had the same driving instructor, I started with him in August 2006, her in September 2006 roughly. We went through a driving school (A+) rather than with an indiviual, but we both ended up with the same guy (Nick). At the end of January he quit teaching, so we needed to find new instructors. My cousin (along with most of his other pupils) went on to another A+ employee, whereas I've gone with an independent teacher.
It turns out that we have been taught completely wrong, and that all of the things Nick has taught us have no resemblence to the actual driving scheme. I'm at a bit of an advantage that I had an instructor previous to him, so some of my basics are in place, but my cousin has had to completely start from scratch. Overall, between the both of us, we've estimated at spending at least £600 on intensive courses and lessons that were of no use to us, not to add the £600 I've spent on tests and pretest lessons that I was supposedly ready for.
It has also come to light today that a "test" he kept mentioning he was waiting to do was his actual test to become a driving instructor - and that he had already failed it twice. So in all fairness, we were being taught unknowingly by someone who didn't know what they were doing and wasn't qualfied to teach us.
Following these events, do we have any way or chance of getting any of our money back? We're not expecting them to easily fork over everything, and I'm not expecting them to pay for my tests as they can claim I shouldn't of entered ymself if I didn't agree with his decision etcetc... but we are severely out of pocket and if there's any leg to stand on, we're willing to fight for our money.
Basically, we had the same driving instructor, I started with him in August 2006, her in September 2006 roughly. We went through a driving school (A+) rather than with an indiviual, but we both ended up with the same guy (Nick). At the end of January he quit teaching, so we needed to find new instructors. My cousin (along with most of his other pupils) went on to another A+ employee, whereas I've gone with an independent teacher.
It turns out that we have been taught completely wrong, and that all of the things Nick has taught us have no resemblence to the actual driving scheme. I'm at a bit of an advantage that I had an instructor previous to him, so some of my basics are in place, but my cousin has had to completely start from scratch. Overall, between the both of us, we've estimated at spending at least £600 on intensive courses and lessons that were of no use to us, not to add the £600 I've spent on tests and pretest lessons that I was supposedly ready for.
It has also come to light today that a "test" he kept mentioning he was waiting to do was his actual test to become a driving instructor - and that he had already failed it twice. So in all fairness, we were being taught unknowingly by someone who didn't know what they were doing and wasn't qualfied to teach us.
Following these events, do we have any way or chance of getting any of our money back? We're not expecting them to easily fork over everything, and I'm not expecting them to pay for my tests as they can claim I shouldn't of entered ymself if I didn't agree with his decision etcetc... but we are severely out of pocket and if there's any leg to stand on, we're willing to fight for our money.
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Comments
Some driving teachers are trainees and they should tell you as much.
We weren't told.
In my lessons, I did an intensive course to reenforce what I already knew, and supposedly get me to "test standard" within a week. I failed the test at the end of it, and thereafter I had weekly lessons - normally covering areas where I was going "wrong" in his words. I took various tests that he told me I was fully ready for. I've only had one lesson though, so my new instructor hasn't told me everything thats wrong yet, but the majority of my manouveures, which I elarnt with him, are completely wrong.
My cousin learnt from scratch, all her basic driving skills and knowledge is wrong, and the manouveures she has started as well have been taught wrong.
The only person who can charge you money for driving lessons is a registered and qualified driving instructor. That can be qualified either as a full instructor OR as a trainee instructor. A surprising portion of driving instructors are actually trainees.
If he's not qualified in any shape or form then you've got a leg to stand on, if he is however, which I suspect he is, then all you would be able to do is try and claim he didn't teach you well enough, which would be very unlikely to bring you any success.
Your best hope is probably talking to the driving school and seeing if they will give you a discount on further lessons IF you can get one of their instructors to say that what you've learnt isn't what their school usually teaches.
All the final test does is allow you to advertise yourself for business, as far as I remember. Teachers in training are still fully qualified to teach within a school.
I told you to use my cousin
He was driving around advertising himself with his name and number....
I know you did. Didn't he move?!
Well he will do cos as someone else said he is legally allowed to teach people to drive. Trainee instructors have a short term permit allowing them to teach , but theres a certain time frame in which they have to pass all their exams in order to become fully qualifed. Someone i know is currently doing his training, and a driving school took him on as a trainee. He has his own book of students ad teaches full time....actually doing the job is the only way people can learn in order to qualify...as someone else said like trainee teachers. You could complain to the driving school that you did not think his teaching was very good, but unless a lot of students hve complained they will probably not do anything about it, and they are highly unlikely to compensate you, sorry
http://www.theaa.com/aattitude/start-learning/choose-your-instructor.jsp
That fucking blows though mate. Driving's expensive enough as it is without having to start from scratch again.... Good luck with getting it sorted.