Learning to drive, problems with instructor

Dave_®f©

Hey fraz....don't feel foolish. The instructor should be giving you confidence as part of the process. Ditch him and try another and I'm sure with the right instructor you'll crack it soon enough. Go get it girl!!

fraz_babe

Thank you all very much ! Alls i know is hes lost a customer here. There is plenty of decent instructors out there who actually deserve customers. Im excited & nervous about ringing up. But its got be done ! Thanks for the votes of confidence xxx

punkstoner

how much are your lessons? I thought excessive wear and tear a learner gives to certain components would be factored into the price of the lessons.

Does the car have duel controls and does the instructor use them?

pink_princess

He may not be a bad instructor ,just not right for you .You have to find the one that suits your learning type .Please don t wait so long with the next, if it doesn t seem right after 5 lessons move on.Life and money is to short.
Good luck
PP

fraz_babe

They are 19 pounds a lesson but if you block book 10 or more they are 18 pounds a lesson. Im guessing duel controls means the pedals etc sorry. But sometimes he does use them yes.

fraz_babe

Thanks princess. I am calling them today, hopefully they will be open. But i agree life is too short so is money. Its 2009 a new year , new start. And a new instructor all being well ! x

Inactive

sidefx wrote: »

I have to agree 50 lessons is a lot,

50 lessons may sound like a lot, and indeed most people will not require that many, however driving doesn't always come that easy to some people, sadly some people are just not cut out for driving, so 50 lessons would not be a lot for that type of person.

Clearly the OP would benefit from a change of instructor, and hopefully that will happen.

jimmo

I can't believe how many replies you have got since I started writing this so sorry if there is any duplication.


Oh dear! What an awful state to get into.
When I learned to drive, more than 40 years ago it was generally accepted that everyone needed to have one 1 hour lesson for each year of their life. At the tender age of 17 I had 18 lessons before I failed my first test and, to be honest I realised that I was not ready.
Maybe I was a slow learner, maybe my instructor was rubbish or maybe it was a bit of both but the occasions when I fell out with my instructor were pretty awful.
These days the roads are much busier and learning to drive must be much harder and I don‘t know how old you are but if you have had 50 hours of tuition and feel that you are getting nowhere then something really seems to be wrong.
First and foremost you seem to have lost any faith you may have had in your instructor.
Stopping for petrol during your lesson really shouldn’t be a big issue. In fact I think it is a requirement that you know how to do that, as well as pump up your tyres these days. I certainly recall doing this occasionally during my lessons.
Mobile phones didn’t exist in my learning days but I certainly recall being picked up by the person having the lesson before mine and sitting in the back of the car for the final 10 minutes or so of their lesson.
These shouldn‘t be big issues for you and I think the fact that you have brought them up is indicative of the extent to which you have lost faith in your instructor.
Similarly, the incident of you hitting the clutch and the gas at the same time is, quite frankly, pretty stupid for someone who has had 50 hours of instruction. But the fact that your instructor lost it is pretty unforgivable too.
Also the difficulty you are having with lesson times really suggest to me that your instructor is as fed up with you as you are, or should be, of him.
It really is time for a change for both your sakes.
If you have 15 lessons pre-booked then, quite frankly, the relationship between you and your instructor seems to be so bad that you will gain nothing from those lessons and your driving is more likely to deteriorate than improve.
You really need to move on. You certainly should ask for a refund or a different instructor but if they refuse I really think that from a driving point of view you will be wasting a lot more than your money if you continue to take lessons with your current instructor.

angel00079

It is no good if this guy knocks your confidence. You have given him more that a fair chance. With a new instructor you may pick it up just like that or it may take a little longer. The main thing is you need to feel that the instructor is not going to start making you feel small everytime you make a mistake. I am sure that we have all done things similar to you and have not been told off for breaking the car.

It sounds like the guy is taking the michael. I would recommend that you make a list of all the things that you think are inappropiate before you contact the company. Some things may seem trival but added together they are wasting your time. It may be emotional contacting the company and they may try to make out that you are being over sensitive so it may help if you can think of a few examples beforehand. I am all for getting petrol once as a 'learning experience' but not any more than that.

Perhaps the company do not know what he doing. You could not reschedule a lesson at such short notice what should he. Perhaps if you don't feel any better after your next lessons look for another company. I am not sure how it would work because you have already paid. I suppose you need to give the company a chance to restore your faith in them. Sometimes smaller companies can be less professional, not always. I found that I got more driving time with a larger company. My first instructor was a one man band and I seemed to get less time. I also had to pick up other students as part of my lesson. I was a bundle of nerves when I had to pick someone up that I knew from college, we didn't get on so as you can imagine that was the last person I wanted have as a back seat passenger. I think that it was little things added together that made me change.

Good luck

PurpleK8

dd has her test next week, her instuctor asked her if she would have a lesson on a particular day as he has being examined himself as an instuctor. It might be worth finding out what body actually does this as he certainly doesn't sound like hes a competent instuctor to me. then put in a complaint against him or he'll continue to take peoples money just to bully them!