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Don't get ripped off

Don't get ripped off !!!!!
My wife decided to learn to drive with this company and booked the lessons 2 hour lesson which was taken on a industrial estate near us which involved her driving round in first gear?
After another 3 lessons she was still driving round the same industrial estate only to get to 2nd gear.
She questioned this the driving instructor hes response was rude and quite unreasonable in his account of why she had not progressed.
She also found out that the driving instructor was not even qualified? We contacted bill plant but they were unable to help in the matter and said that all the instructors were self employed and we would have to deal with him direct which we did.
He now refused to teach my wife and threatened to call the police because he did not want to repond to his lack of teaching ability.
So the lesson is bill plant are agents to instructors and are useless at sorting things when they go wrong?
And when your paying considerable sums of money you would expect at the very last to get a experienced qualified instructor.

Reply 1

nevershear

So you had one bad experience, Bill Plant vetted him and he was likely an ADI when he joined and if he is no longer registered, then he was struck off - it's in his agreement that he's obliged to tell BP if he's no longer an ADI the same way it's our obligation to tell our insurers if we get points on our licenses. This does not by any means make BP as a whole a "rip off". My first BP instructor sucked, my second was excellent and passed me first time with him (second time of me taking tests) in an unfamiliar area down roads I absolutely hated in our early days. He also passed my best friend's sister before me, and an ADI he trained now teaches aforementioned best friend. He brought 35 years experience to the table, the last one brought 10, but seemed uninterested in his job. Like all instructors, who you get is always going to be pot luck, driving schools are no different. This is why people generally prefer to have instructors referred to them through word of mouth than approach schools; because then you know what to expect.

Judging by your aggressive angry tone, I can only imagine what he had to put up with on the phone from you and if I had aggressive students, I'd refuse to teach them too. For both our sakes. He has the right to call the police if he feels he's being harassed. Bill Plant are a franchise, not an agent. If you're still this upset, inbox Bill Plant on facebook, you'll find they're very helpful if you construct a decent complaint instead of "muh instructor sucked". Without us being in the car with both of them, it's hard to take sides, on one hand maybe the instructor really was poor, on the other - your wife was still driving in circles in second because her clutch control and overall confidence were both bad, progress differs from person to person. We have another thread on here from someone who's been on roundabouts on their 6th lesson - by my 6th I still hadn't seen a roundabout and was still practicing the basics of turning left and right.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

Paulmaria1uk

Not at all he was on a red card and as for aggressive not true he was just a really bad instructor that didn't like feed back.
When your paying £25 per hour i think your entitled to ask for a fully qualified instructor.
And bill plant should be more diligent and insist that certain standard's are up held.
And i think you have ready taken sides?

Reply 3

EvilShubunkin

I was on a PDI badge (pink badge) when I first started out through the driving school that I trained through. I charged the same rate as qualified instructors (£32/hour). Why - because I was up to date in training methods and felt I was more conscientious than some longer standing ADIs and I gained a good reputation with examiners. I did often overrun some lessons especially at the start so that I felt I was giving more value for money, but if I couldn't do that I wouldn't and it certainly wasn't expected by the driving school or pupils.

As a PDI, I passed my theory, Part 2 driving test and Part 3 instructional ability test all first time - the 1st time pass rate for Part 3 is something ridiculously low in single figure percentage. Then 8 months after qualifying, passed my first Standards Check with 51/51.

Yet, by your statement, I shouldn't have been charging the same as qualified instructors?

Whilst instructors are self-employed, a PDI is sponsored by the driving school so in this case Bill Plant should have taken more of an interest in resolving any issues - after all the trainers working with the instructor should be hearing feedback like this so that issues with the way training is being provided can be ironed out. PDIs are often left to their own devices with little support from the sponsoring school, although I can't say whether this is the case with BP.

Never good to hear of bad experiences, but always two sides to every story.