Halfords BSM Driving Lessons

grpbp

Hi,
I went into Halfords today and they had learner driver starter packs reduced. I bought one with:
vouchers for four hours of driving lessons with BSM
voucher for one hour in the driving simulator
voucher for £1.50 off each of the next 16 hours of lessons
Highway Code
all the forms etc needed to get started
This lot cost £34.95, lessons near here are around £25 per hour so an absolute bargain. They had quite a few and others with one or two hours of lessons.
Hope this is of use to someone.

mdbs

BSM is a franchise, as are a lot of driving schools. But with BSM the weekly cost is AFAIK somewhere in the £350.00 region. This is BEFORE the instructor earns a penny for himself.

As you can imagine this puts alot of presure on the instructor just to earn money, the progress of the pupil MIGHT not be the first priority. I am sure there a lots of good BSM instructors out there struggling to make ends meet.

Some people say that BSM, (and for legal reasons I have no view), are more interested in having lots of instructors than lots of pupils pass, as its the instructors franchise fee that makes BSM their money.

fesdufun

Does anyone know if this is national? grpbp which Halfords did you find it in?

molerat

Halfords are discontinuing the BSM packs so it is a clearence offer and is available nationaly.

LEE69_2

Is there a use by date on the vouchers?

gjchester

mdbs wrote:

BSM is a franchise, as are a lot of driving schools. But with BSM the weekly cost is AFAIK somewhere in the £350.00 region. This is BEFORE the instructor earns a penny for himself.

As you can imagine this puts alot of presure on the instructor just to earn money, the progress of the pupil MIGHT not be the first priority. I am sure there a lots of good BSM instructors out there struggling to make ends meet.

Some people say that BSM, (and for legal reasons I have no view), are more interested in having lots of instructors than lots of pupils pass, as its the instructors franchise fee that makes BSM their money.

From experience (when my wife was learning) She chose BSM as they were a national name and she thought they culd be relied on.

They insist on 2 hour lessions, and charged £19 an hour (she got that rate by buying 10 or 20 hours in advance).

Of the 15 lessons she had booked they failed to turn up 7 times, and the office works 9-5 so if anything happens to the instructor outside those hours you will not know until they don't arrive. They expect you to pay for any cancellations if you give less than 24 hours notice but that doesn't apply to them.

My wife was nervous about driving and them not turning up did absolutly nothing to help, The instructor was usually the same person but not always so that wasn't too good, plus the fact you just didn't know if they'd turn up later or not and if they didn't the office was closed really was bad for a national company. I know there a franchise but there should be some backup. Add to that when I phoned to complain the third (and final time before I cancelled everything and got a refund) they insisted she didn't have a lession, despite me having their booking printout in front of me.

My honest opinion, Get someone local on recommendations, BSM may be better elsewhere, (we used Chelmsford) but I'd never recommend them to anyone. We ended up with someone who used the same model of car as I have so that it was easier for my wife to learn.

And yes she passed..

^!£$&

I had a great experience with Bsm!!

My instructor was fab, although he did leave Bsm just after I passed my test because its so costly to work for them!!
You dont have to have 2hr blocksl essons you can just ask for one hour lessons!!! Although personally I think 2hrs a week is better cause you learn quicker!!

And yes I passed!!

Sparky67

Unfortunately its out of stock on line - and I also need to know the T&Cs (it says to refer to the pack). Its my daughters 17th birthday later this year and this would be a great buy, if the expiry date (if there is one) was long enough - has anyone got one or read them and can confirm how long you get to use them??

Megalomaniac

Completely recommend going with a private company. Even a one man band like I did - don't charge as much and are much more keen on getting you passed than the big guys. One of my mates had taken 20 lessons and hadn't even left his estate with a big company. Buy 20 lessons with my instructor, he was telling me to book my test! I would avoid BSM and major companies... they are just after your money.

ben500

Sparky67 wrote:

Unfortunately its out of stock on line - and I also need to know the T&Cs (it says to refer to the pack). Its my daughters 17th birthday later this year and this would be a great buy, if the expiry date (if there is one) was long enough - has anyone got one or read them and can confirm how long you get to use them??

Word of warning on this one! I haven't read the t&c's fully but have already noticed none of the vouchers are valid unless stamped by Halfords who of course made no attempt to do so with my pack and I will have to return and get the cert's stamped, they mentioned that had I not kept the receipt they would have refused to stamp them so beware there may be other conditions I have not noticed yet..

greyster

Yeah BSM is a franchise but unlike the AA they offer a load of options to instructors to suit their work load. The downside with them is that they let "pink badge" instructors train pupils - these people arent actually fully trained yet. Just to note they do have green badge holders as well.

The AA although the most expensive option (both instructors I have known have both left the AA because they're too expensive) only allow green badge holders. Infact they print something like "The only national school that uses fully trained instructors) on the side of their car".

My personal recommendation is the AA but to ask for an instructor who has been with the AA for at least 3 years - then perhaps you won't get the one year wonders which I think is growing in BSM/AA (from what I heard). Both schools can provide instructors with all the pupils they need but they also take a heft % off them.

It sucks to have to swap instructors but it sucks even more to get a duff instructor.

Oh yeh ... i highly recommend intensive courses if anyone is considering them. Cheaper in the long run and more effective learning in my opinion. Edit - and I guess it reduces the risk of swapping instructors :P