My BSM driving school nightmare

Legacy_user

I started lessons with BSM under the false impression that their instructors must be better, as they are a more well-known company.

I was drawn in by a cheaper introductory deal on 10 hours of lessons so I thought I'd give them a go.

The first 10 hours went very well, my instructor, seemed nice and cheery, a middle-aged bloke who admittedly was new to instructing, but seemed to know his stuff, and taught me at a good speed at the time. I was very happy so paid for another 20 hours.

This is when it started to go wrong.

My instructor started taking phone calls during the lesson. Not just 2 minute calls either, sometimes he would spend 20 minutes on the phone to the BSM offices complaining that he hadn't been paid yet or organizing lessons, whilst I just drove around. On some occasions he asked me to pull over whilst he re-arranged his booking schedule on the phone. :mad:

Enough was enough. I confronted him about the phone calls, his reply? 'Oh I am so sorry BSM are AWFUL' - cue: a 20 minute rant about how horrible BSM are, (during my lesson time). How they have no quality control on their instructors, how he had to re-teach someone who had 50 HOURS of lessons with another 'rubbish' BSM instructor and still didn't know the basics. How he is the only good instructor in my area. How anyone (even me, apparently) can become a BSM instructor, there are no quality controls. How he gets paid only a fraction of the fees, how he doesn't even have time to have lunch, the schedule is so tight. Therefore he can only take phone calls during lessons.

I spent some lessons running his errands, going to the post office, going to pick up his wages from the BSM offices, and even driving him to his house because he forgot his papers. When I complained, he said 'you'd be driving around anyway, what difference does it make?'.

Soon, the cheery, friendly man I once knew turned into the complete opposite. One day, I was driving back home, and he asked me to speed up, because he was late for another lesson. He was trying calmly to tell me to hurry up but I could sense the agitation in his voice, and it made me nervous. I stalled at the traffic lights, and he just exploded. "COME ON, ****!" - just like that. He quickly composed himself and apologised. Then he asked me to pull over and let him drive back.

Gradually, I was taught less and less during the lessons, some lessons consisted of me just driving around. I would ask him to teach me things, like a three point turn, and he would say 'you're not ready' or 'you can't rush these things'. By 30 hours I had been taught only 2 maneuvers.

When all this started happening, my lessons started getting shorter and shorter. At first I didn't notice, as I rarely keep watch over the time. But when a 2 hour lesson became 1 hour 20, (he arrived late and brought me back early), I definitely noticed, and began to wonder how long it had been going on. I started timing lessons, and noticed they were never close to the full 2 hours I'd paid for. When I complained, he said he was late for another lesson and would make it back to me next time. I really wanted to just call BSM and switch to another instructor, but I couldn't, because he owed me time. It got to the point where I had my last booked lesson, and he owed me a grand total of 4 HOURS. Guess what he did? He said he 'had another lesson' and promised to make it back to me over the next lessons. This meant I would have to pay for another block of lessons with him in order to get the missed time back. I told him I was very unhappy that I had to pay for more lessons to get back my owed time, he replied by saying that I was nowhere near ready for the test, and would need to buy another 20+ hours anyway. :mad:

This was the last straw. I called, emailed and snail-mailed BSM, several times, explaining the situation. I tried not to complain too harshly, as I wanted to ensure that I got my time back. The main office reassured me, telling me that they would ensure the instructor gave me back the time he owed me once I booked my next lessons. However, 1 week later I got a call from his BSM office telling me that he refused to teach me. When I asked why, I was told 'he believes you will be better suited to another instructor and no longer wants to teach you'. BSM were washing their hands of me, they made it clear that the time I was owed and the quality of my lessons was an issue between me and the instructor and they were not responsible.

Stay away from BSM. That's all I can say.

voiceofreason

candyflossing wrote: »

Stay away from BSM. That's all I can say.

Name and shame instructor and area, then - let us all know!

Colliefrog

If you let us know what area you are in then maybe someone can recommend a decent instructor.

As for your complaint against BSM, I definately wouldn't go back to them. I would try complaining to the DSA.

Don't lose hope, I've had a few dodgy instructors but finially found a decent one. Ask friends for recommendations.

Pound

I thought I had some bad driving instructors but nothing like that, that's just like something out of a comedy sketch.

Widelats

I remember a 20 lesson block booking of mine, when i had finished i did not even know how to use mirrors and her teachings were very old fashioned, she would call a manouver TCP (Touch as in touch the accelerator, Clutch as in use the clutch, and Point as in point the nose of the car in the right direction) LOL i got a new instructor and when i explained it to him he was laughing saying "Your not with the old dear now, wait till i tell my mate this hes gonna laugh" I have had 24 lessons total and the first 20 lessons were with the useless but polite woman.

kymbogs

That's an absolute disgrace. I've had trouble before with instructors who seemed reluctant to move things on, and one spending a considerable amount of time moaning about his ex-wife then telling me I shouldn't be talking so much as it detracted from concentration on the road...but yours seriously takes the p!ss. If he is unwilling to teach you for the four hours you are owed, if I were you I'd be demanding to be refunded for four hours worth of lessons at the very minimum, unfortunately there's no way of knowing how much time he's wasted by not teaching you anything further when you could have learned loads by now!
Best of luck anyway
Kimberley

Dave101t

its a learning curve, and you have now learned! independants are the best because they rely on positive word of mouth. these schools look shiny and well presented until you pay your money...!

blackribbongirl

I went independently and it was great (well, maybe not independent, but a small local company with only a few instructors)
thats shameful though, ive heard bad things about them too. Really hope you get your time/money back.

Widelats

Yes, go from others experience and word of mouth, i am going for a small company next time, these big companies are just money factories and care little about you learning.

MickMun

I think it depends generally on the teacher. I went with an independent and although he has been well praised by others, I just didnt like his teaching methods and found it more difficult to learn.

Switched to a BSM teacher and he was extremely friendly and I found it much easier!

mrsormrod

I used Bsm and found their customer services very poor! if your not willing to pay for 10+hours in one go they are not intrested.
The driving instructor him self was fantastic.and after 15 hours with him he told me he was moving to AA as he had had enough with bsm.
I moved over with him and after about another 6 hours of lessons i had passed my test