Is my driving instructor scamming me?

It took me 60 lessons to pass my test ( first time!). I needed a firm but strong driving instructor and after many weak ones this helps.

Is much different these days..probably more expensive, seen more as a business with prolonging obstacles, than a lucrative enough way to teach a vital skill.

IME most instructors are polar opposites. Either determined to keep students as long as possible for more £££, or they're busy and confident enough not to timewaste, the way they see it, the faster you pass, the faster you'll recommend them to others..

The pricing and chopped up lessons is a major deterrent for probably everyone who doesn't drive. I'm still just a Learner. 2020 resolution is to officially get licensed but shopping for schools and seeing reviews about nightmare instructors and terrifying exams is discouraging.

@Oxford Mum ur on prsom x

Go and look at other driving instructors on the website and look for their terms and conditions. She sounds a bit aggressive, swearing etc . Most learners are nervous and you need someone calm.

If she has a 48 hour cancellation policy and you try to cancel at the last minute you will lose the money. Yes she does have to drive there and back and cannot get a pupil at such short notice.

I can understand this from both sides of the fence.

It took me 60 lessons to pass my test ( first time!). I needed a firm but strong driving instructor and after many weak ones this helps.

Thanks for reply! But I don't understand how exactly she is losing 30 pounds income - she implies she has a short notice cancellation period, "the night before" which to me indicates that she isn't necessarily losing income. Even if I let her know well before, reschedule our lesson and say she found another pupil she hasn't lost any income from the payers in that respect.

In some respects she has actually gained profit from my absence, as I mention in my thread starter 'I pay her approx 30 pounds for a lesson, that goes to the fuel that she puts in to drive to my house, and drive during the lesson and drive back home, right?. She has driven much less miles by not even doing a driving lesson in that booking so in effect I've just given her a profit of more fuel'.

What makes me more dubious is the fact when I said she could cut a lesson back to compensate for the price which she agreed to, she quickly changed her mind and said she would only charge me half of the price of an actual lesson - does that scream losing income to you?

I think you may be confused . It's interesting, you intially said she would be losing total income, now you agree she's gaining lol. Then you say [she] " wouldn’t have made any money if you hadn’t paid anyway" - so she had actually gained income is basically what you're communicating. I trusted you read my thread starter properly because think you're not understanding my main point -->. It's not childish when I've already pre paid - thats my whole argument, and now she's effectively charging me double. Had she this policy for students who pay as they go, this I understand would be totally accepatable and without reason I should pay her the lesson, but I've already paid her - facts.
So now it's actually a discriminating policy- students who do pay as you go pay the normal fee, and pre paid students have to pay double in effect for missing the same time.

Not to mention she never even made clear what her policies were until after the event- as I've said in my thread starter. You do realise by law, any company/ vendor must state applying terms and conditions to the customer before the purchase, otherwise they don't have a legal right to apply after a purchase, as it is without the known consent of a customer. She failed to do this.

Also, as I said at the end of my thread starter lol, she was being purposefully evasive in actually explaining her policy - which makes me dubious of the fact she is just being 'kind' and lenient in her own terms, as opposed to just trying to rip me off in plain. As oxford mum said if she does have a certain hour policy then its fairer grounds to charge. But even in person she failed to inform me what her exact hour policy was when explaining about her conditions. She just kept saying she's 'very good' with cancellations with no actual figures - which to me just screams scam artist.

I'm surprised you hadn't picked up on these things?!

I think you're not seeing both sides clearly, as in that case, I'm also a human being lol, and her coming late to my lessons means I'm due a refund of that time too - by the same logic, what else do I pay her for?

I don’t think you understand me and I cba arguing when u clearly believe you’re in the right

Nope, I think you understand less of what you wrote compared to someone reading it! Otherwise you wouldn't have contradicted yourself on two occasions

I made this thread - to see if I'm actually justified or if I'm going mad. There's no need to call others childish on here lol.

Since you wholly disgareed and gave an explanation why, I was interested in seeing the validity of that explanation lol!

I just want to make sure I'm being as reasonable as poss as a student. Yet you've explicitly contradicted yourself in your second reply - it makes me wonder if I am actually being selfish lol! or if your argument as a whole doesn't make sense and you just want to disagree for the sake of it lmao.

But I understand your point its a wasted hour of both parties time. But since thats your only point - which as I've said due to her cancellation policy wouldn't make a strong case - then I really don't see how I'm being childish lol. Pretty sure you wouldn't have paid either .

Hi! Thanks for the response!

I've had a look at other driving comapnies near me and it seems the norm that most driving companies have the 48 hour cancellation policy.
Can I ask what your opinion would be if she hadn't explained what her cancellation policy is beforehand?

I tried searching the intenert for her school of motoring and it appears she doesn't have a website to explain her policies. It seems just to be based on her word in person which she didn't inform me about when I first started driving with her.

Also do you think I am more entitled not to give her double's worth of a lesson as a charge, if she hadn't clearly explained what her policy was either, she didn't give an any time frame for cancellation when informing me after I missed a lesson, all she said was her's was not 48 hours and that shes 'very good' with cancellations.

Surely you would just pay for the missed lesson under a cancellation policy and you’ve already done that. The swearing and aggression is absolutely horrendous given that patience is the number one attribute that an instructor should have.

If she and the other instructors have a 48 hour cancellation rule and this is the norm, I would just let her keep the money.

You are free to shop around if you wish.

As I said, when it comes down to driving instructors, I always go on personality.

My final ( and best) instructor didn’t suffer fools gladly. She would put me in tricky situations and trill “you’ve just failed” when I walked into them. In those days instructors could smoke in cars. Mine used to, and although I have never ever smoked, sometimes I would be so stressed up I felt like asking for a drag on her ciggie!

When the day of the test came, there were many potential obstacles ( including stalling at the junction of the test centre), but she had taught me so well I dealt with them confidently.

Hi
I have a driving instructor, who has been at times had quite poor behaviour nearly cursing me (what the F) and punching her front mirror when I made a driving mistake.