Struck Me as Generally Incompetent (AA The Driving School)

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	AA The Driving School
Date:	01/07/02 (5226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Special offers sometimes

Disadvantages: Franchised operations can be difficult to achieve uniform service quality, No chance of a windfall now !

In the Easter of 1998, our younger daughter at the age of 18 decided that she wanted to learn to drive. She thus sat and passed her Theory exam with no problems.

She decided that she did not want to enrol with the small local driving school that her sister had used. This was mainly because this school then used a Fiat Tipo as their instruction car (Too Big!) and her sister had felt 'uncomfortable' on one or two occasions with the (male) Instructor/School owner?.

Two of her friends had used BSM and were unhappy about their instructors changing without warning and also the 'cockiness' of some of the guys used. Thus, after reviewing local availability, she enrolled with a Driving Schools run "By Women for Women" (by two women) for an 'Introductory Four Lessons package'.

Cost her a very reasonable £35, I recall, but she hated it!

A major problem was that the Instructor she got (one of the two 'partners') was dreadfully unreliable - making original appointments for the second, third and fourth lessons - and then telephoning at (literally) the last minute and 're-arranging' the lesson.

Furthermore, this partner was also a 'stroppy' control freak type of individual - pushing hard from the start of the first lesson for our (then timid) daughter to register for a "full program of lessons" (naturally, at a substantially higher cost-per-lesson than the advertised Introductory Offer). She was also in the habit of making frequent throw-away adverse comments, usually about men in general and male-drivers in particular. Some who sign up with such a firm may have found this approach attractive - but our daughter didn't, feeling most uncomfortable with the man-hating attitude displayed. Indeed some of the comments of this instructor could have been considered as sexual harassment and our daughter confirmed that if they had been made in an employment situation,
they would have warranted a formal complaint of sexual harassment.

It will come as no surprise that our daughter chose not to take any further lessons with this firm (and also that the firm has since closed down). I can only hope that there are no other 'By Women For Women' Driving Schools run by such individuals displaying an (arguably) predatory attitude.


When the summer university vacation came along she decided to enrol with the AA School of Motoring. She paid £168 for a package of 12 hours of lessons, which then included 'free' basic AA membership.

The Automobile Association operates its driving school operations as a franchise, where deals like the one that my daughter enrolled for are paid to the AA, who then pass the payment on to the franchisee.

Her instructor seemed to be a great guy - similar age to me (but with far more patience, she told me!). Unfortunately, after 3 lessons (totalling 4 hours), she received a telephone call two days before her fourth lesson to tell her that the guy had just died from a heart attack. We learned that it was just after one of his long-term pupils had passed her test (at the 9th attempt). I am not joking about that aspect .... it was 'featured' in the press at the time ....

An administrator from the AA told my daughter in a letter two days later that she would be contacted " ... within the next few days ..." with news of allocation of another instructor. Ten days later she had heard nothing so she telephoned the Basingstoke office number to ask what was happening, to be told that she would "soon hear" of who they would allocate to provide the outstanding TWO hours of instruction !!!!!.

This guy (a real 'Nasty Nick', according to daughter) was adamant that " ... our records show that 10 hours instruction have been supplied ...". A response was duly sent, with a photocopy of the Appointments card show
ing the four hours taken, together with my daughter's demand for a refund of the FULL £168 paid. By this time, it would not be possible for her to take the remaining instruction in time to arrange her practical Test before the October term start.

A cheque for £28 (!!) - the two lessons referred to by 'Nasty Nick', duly arrived. It was sent back and, eventually, I 'dealt' with Nick via his 'superior' on the telephone. I did not have to make any threats ... just explained the situation and our suggested remedy - the re-booking of 12 hours of instruction for our daughter's Xmas vacation time, with a practical test booked for the very beginning of January. We had a Vauxhall Corsa at the time, so our daughter was able to practice under supervision (only breaking the door mirror in the process!), using the same model as she received lessons in.

Eventually, this compromise was agreed. My own theory is that the late instructor must have claimed early payment for 6 hours of the instruction that had been paid for. Another piece of the 'creative accountancy' of the type reportedly practised by such as Kwik-Fit/Rank Xerox/WorldCom/Enron etc., perhaps?

So, the Xmas holiday arrived, and a new young guy appeared as the Instructor. A program of hours was arranged and the test booked for the first week of January. So far so good. The fee was paid for the test, the use of the car and the booking of the car for a 'final' couple of hours before the test and for during the test. She then practised every day for at least an hour in our Corsa (with some detrimental effect on my nerves, and those of Heather lol).

The day of the test arrived. I drove over to the Test Centre (Saughton, Edinburgh) to greet my daughter and either celebrate with her or provide comfort.

She really was in tears!.. I tried to say the 'right words' (after all both myself and Heather had failed their first time
- as had our elder daughter), but they weren't tears of failure but tears of FURY!!!. The test had been going well, but then it had started to rain - the typical Edinburgh fine drizzle - and she had switched on the windscreen wipers - then tried the washers, since the screen started to smear. BIG mistake! The screen washer spluttered out just a few drops - the reservoir was empty. The Examiner then terminated the Test on this basis, issuing a notice to this effect.

I was also FURIOUS! The BL**DY incompetence! Apologies from the Instructor could not console daughter, and I drove her back home. We wrote a 'stiff' letter of complaint to the AA, claiming back the money spent on the test/use of car/ lesson before the test, and the next morning I telephoned the Test centre to find out if there was a vacant slot the following week, in the 10 days before she started back to University. There was just one vacant slot, 6 days later, BUT at a different Test Centre (Joppa), so I booked it over the telephone.

Big Snag.

Unfortunately, when the AA Driving School were telephoned, they were totally unable to provide an instructor/car for the time of this test.

OK, perhaps I should have checked with the driving school first, but as far as I was concerned, time was of the essence. We booked 4 lessons to be taken in the Joppa test area (to be funded by the refund of the costs associated with the aborted Test). We thus turned up on the appointed day and time, with our own trusty Corsa Breeze, equipped with leaner plates and the extra mirror for the examiner (oh, and a full screen washer bottle !).

The smile on her face 40 minutes later after she passed will remain with me for a long time.

Those of you who were members of the AA at this time will know what is coming next.

With her membership of the AA, our daughter 'qualified' for the payment (£240?) when the AA was 'sold'. I seem to recall
that she had to 'renew' her membership just the once to qualify for this payment, but she did not renew membership after her windfall. Instead, she joins the RAC with her elder sister using their periodic offers.

So, more by accident than design, she did almost make a profit from her 'learning to drive' experience.

Conclusions
1. Remember that the AA Driving School is a franchised organisation, so that just because 'Cousin Sibyl' in Chester was satisfied with them, you may have a different experience with them in Corstorphine. Surely they cannot be universally as incompetent?

2 In the case of the Edinburgh side of the franchise, even the quality of the instruction itself was not of the very highest. For example, no information was given to our daughter about the correct use of gears, and the young guy who provided the lessons had to be questioned closely about the Joppa Test area where the test was taken successfully. No information about the 'idiosyncrasies' of the area was offered. In contrast the original (late) instructor had provided useful hints on those associated with the Saughton area.

3 Ensure that you have formal recording of each time you have a lesson booked. Keep your Appointments Card safe, because you may need it to prove when you had, or did not have, a lesson booked.

4. Make any complaints in writing, and note the time and date of any telephone calls, together with the name of the person(s) you spoke to. In case of any dispute or likely dispute on the telephone, ask the name of the person who the miscreant is responsible to.

5 Question the 'value' of any part of a service that you have been given. The 4 hours of instruction that our daughter received initially out if the 12 she had paid for, were in effect worthless. Now, I know that the AA were not responsible for that poor fellow 'keeling over', but they DID write to say that someone wo
uld be in contact "within the next few days". If this had happened then a 'seamless' transfer might have resulted. But, after
10 days had elapsed, that was too much to enable the completion of the program within the summer vacation. Thus there was a good case to request the provision of a full refund or a full set of 12 hours instruction at the Xmas vacation.

6 If you are 'Compensation driven', it is arguable that the AA should have provided more than just the substitution of 4 hours of instruction for the money paid for the hire of the car/test fee/lesson before the test (to account for the upset and distress). We decided not to push this aspect. Daughter was back at college and her time was completely taken up, and I was off on a trip to Argentina, so we had to be satisfied with the straight replacement of the abortive test with lessons.

7 Ensure (as far as possible) that you have similar 'values' to those displayed by the instructor. I would not wish anyone's daughter (or wife) to have had the experience that our daughter had with that 'By Women-For Women' Driving School.

So, ultimately (with the AA windfall) our daughter came out of it 'on top'.

Overall, (at least in Edinburgh) I reckon you are probably better off with trying to find a local Driving School recommended by friends than to chance suffering the incompetence that we experienced with the way the AA organise their "School of Motoring".

It is not often that I give just a single 'star' for a service organisation, but if any service required the attention of a Universal Quality-Approval scheme, the case of Driving Schools is a prime example.

© Sidneygee 2002

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