Refund from AA- driving school

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Hi
I originally booked 20 driving lessons on the AA block deals. I was assured that I would get my money refunded if I was not satisfied.

Their service has been appalling thus far. I used only 4 of the 20 lessons. Their instructors were late and one did not even turn up for one 2 hour lesson on the day. We had to argue with them to get the 2 hours put back on the account. I am thoroughly dissatisfied with their service.

I have written a recorded delivery letter to ask for a refund of the remainder of my lessons but 1 month later I have yet to hear from them.

Does anyone regulate them? Does anyone know?
I was wondering if the next step would be to go to small claims court?

pinkshoes

The next step would be to write them ANOTHER recorded delivery letter, with a list of all the times they were late or didn't turn up etc... and say that if you do not receive a refund for the other 16 lessons you paid for in the next 7 days from receipt of letter, you will be taking them to the small claims court.

If they don't reply in 7 days, then start small claims court proceedings.

scullster

RSC wrote: »

Hi
I was assured that I would get my money refunded if I was not satisfied.

How were you assured - is it in their T's&C's?
How did you pay for lessons? - credit card?

mc33033

RSC wrote: »

I was wondering if the next step would be to go to small claims court?

Court should be seen as the last step really, with an organisation like the AA you need to write to the head office with a brief explanation of the issues to date, the lack of correspondance received back from your earlier efforts and outlining what you want and the timescale you want it. Head offices normally have teams who are employed to sort out individual departments quality issues....

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scullster wrote: »

How were you assured - is it in their T's&C's?
How did you pay for lessons? - credit card?

I was assured verbally by their customer services before I pre-paid for the lessons that I could cancel anytime I found the service unsatisfactory. It was as a result of being told this that I booked with the AA driving school. Otherwise I would have booked elsewhere and paid for lessons as and when I was taking them.

I paid using my credit card via their customer service.
They promised to post me their terms and conditions together with their booklet. 4 months later I still have not received it.

I looked up their terms and conditions online but they have not written anything down with regard to refunds for pre-paid unused driving lessons. They are extremely vague.

RSC_2

Also

Their terms and conditions are listed under this site:


theaa dot com/driving-school/terms-conditions.html

They don't actually refer to Refunds but state that the T &C's are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
I am not sure what it means if Refunds are not mentioned in their T&C's but I will try and find out. Thank you all of you who answered my query.

maggie111

Not legal help but having driving lessons it's really important to find one instructor and be really happy with them. I've had two and it makes a massive difference to have the same instructor and one that you get on with personally. It's like being at school and an excellent teacher will make all the difference to the lesson.

Sorry that's slightly off topic, but a bit of advice for what you next look for.

(And if you're that way inclined, get a driving instructor who doesn't mind swearing!!! )

I hope you get your money back. Going to the AA head office is great advice, sure you'll get there in the end.

scullster

I'd still avoid going to court over it - I'd be surprised if this couldn't be processed peacefully.

I'd call their sales line, speak to a manager and discuss the problems. One lovely little snippet I like to throw in is the reference to phone calls being recorded for customer service training. Listen out to see if you hear that whilst being connected, and refer back to the conversation which they could pull from their records. 9 times out of 10, companies cannot retrieve the message and in my experience are more likely to take your word for it.

Failing that, resort to the letter (recorded delivery) but stating that you've sought legal advice (a phone call to consumerdirect http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ will suffice rather than just taking my word for it), and you are writing to cancel in accordance with your statutory rights under the Distance Selling Regs - the DSR applies to both goods and services. They have 30d to refund you - to keep it simple, just claim for the unused lessons and specify the amount.

If they haven't refunded you in 30d, contact your credit card company informing them of your intention to pursue them for the unused balance as they are equally liable.