The worst driving academy I've dealt…
The worst driving academy I've dealt with in London.
After filling in the online form for an intensive driving course, I was contacted by Sam Michaels. We had an introductory lesson during which he assessed my driving skills. Immediately afterwards, I was charged £882.50, which covered the initial 1.5-hour lesson, 15 additional hours of tuition, and car hire for the driving test (£45 per lesson hour and £140 for the test car hire).
We agreed to spread the remaining lessons over the following nine days. However, Sam failed to attend five of those days (a total of eight hours of lessons) without giving any prior notice. On several occasions, I travelled all the way to Stratford only to find that he wasn't coming, wasting both my time and money.
The excuses varied, including having to take his children to school, needing the car for another driving test, and traffic. On some occasions, he didn't respond to my calls or messages at all.
To make matters worse, two of the remaining three lessons were covered by a different instructor from the academy. One of those lessons was the day before my driving test, leaving me uncertain whether Sam would even turn up on the day of the exam.
Because of how unreliable the service was, I decided to book lessons with another driving academy. They were far more professional, more reliable, and even charged less (£40 per hour).
At the time of writing, I still have not received a refund for the lessons that never took place.