My BSM driving school nightmare

mumOf2wonderfulkids

whilst i never have been with bsm, (i have been with about 5 different instructors)

i had a similar situation with a local company. i eventually got so p'd off with him turning up late, picking up other students, dropping me off early etc etc i kicked up a huge fuss with his office and got a full refund.
went with a couple of others after that (this was over 7 years, i would do a couple of lessons and for some reason or another stop) went with someone at the beginning of last year because he had more hours for less ££'s and regretted it totally, he would tell me off like a little child if i made a mistake, at the end of the block booking i gave him my test fee so he could book my test but i felt no where near ready, so as soon as i got confirmation of my test date through i ditched him like a hot potato
i then went with a company called Cats eyes. they are a pretty big company around here (not sure if they are in london) a friend had recommended a specific instructor to me. And she was fantastic! cannot praise her highly enough, booked 10 lessons with her, told her when my test was and asked her if i should change it, she said no, and that i would only need 10 lessons with her which was great as i never felt pushed to buy more lessons (i did get a few more though around my test date ) she was a tall lady who had a very small figure, i was completely shocked when she told me she used to be a stuntwoman! and i passed 1st time, and put it all down to her, fantastic fantastic fantastic. (fiona moon in plymouth if anyone wants to know)

anyway gassing on again.
ask around, word of mouth is always better when it comes to driving instructors,

good luck !

Dizzy_Ditzy

(please excuse any typo's, my hands very cold!)

When i first started having lessons, i went with an independent cos i wasnt earning much money and i liked her rate.

After a few lessons, I learned why she was so cheap- time was coming off my lessons for "being late for another pick up" and on my last lesson with her- she asked me to pick up her next lesson!!

Needless to say I switched and went with the AA who were fabulous and went through everything I could have needed, including stopping for petrol and phoning me for a lesson when it was snowing "because I would need the experience one day"

realised

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

(please excuse any typo's, my hands very cold!)

When i first started having lessons, i went with an independent cos i wasnt earning much money and i liked her rate.

After a few lessons, I learned why she was so cheap- time was coming off my lessons for "being late for another pick up" and on my last lesson with her- she asked me to pick up her next lesson!!

Needless to say I switched and went with the AA who were fabulous and went through everything I could have needed, including stopping for petrol and phoning me for a lesson when it was snowing "because I would need the experience one day"

I only ever had one driving instructor (Self employed) and he would always make me pick up his next lessons (To be honest I thought that was common practice with driving instructors) but he'd always teach me the manouvers (sp?) on the way to the next persons house. i.e he'd plan the lesson so at the end of the lesson, we'd end up near the next persons house. I didn't mind so much, it was nice seeing that I wasn't the only one making all the mistakes!

kimmi_b

I went with an independent - he was dire. First few lessons he was great, really patient and understanding - from that point on he got worse and worse. Each lesson involved an 'errand' back to his house - even my Saturday morning ones at 8am when surely he had only just left home??!! I was left sat in the car reading the HIghway Code for 5/10 minutes while he 'did his jobs'. About 20 lessons in I realised what those jobs were when he was caught short one day - made me drive into a supermarket car park and park up while he ran in to 'offload'. If that wasn't bad enough when he came back out he proceeded to tell me in great about his delicate constitution :P

bigjohn000

After reading everyones "horror stories" i feel so lucky, i went with a local driving instructor who did lessons as a hobbie/2nd business. All my lessons ran over and he was always on time, infact early to pick me up (only stays at the top of my street) ha ha. Thanks to his teaching i only took 23 lessons in 6 months to pass my test and also his calming influence stopped me from giving the DVLA driving examinor a good slap for being cheeky, but thats another story ha ha...

CrazyClum

I'm very happy so far with mine. I'm about 16 hours in with the AA and have limited ground left to cover.

Humphrey10

I didn't have any problems with BSM, I thought my instructor was great.

phead

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I didn't have any problems with BSM, I thought my instructor was great.

Same here, big Nigerian guy, teaching was spot on.

Only thing he got wrong was that he didn't know there was other "routes" used by the test center(this was pre them having to declare their routes). about 10 cars turn up for the test, 9 turn left onto the normal route, examiner tells me to turn right down roads I've never been on, the heart was beating just a little! No problem though, passed first time.

I'm not sure I would use BSM now though, those new cars they use are butt ugly.

mookiandco

I had the misfortune of using BSM before I changed to an independent who was fantastic. Amongst other things, my BSM instructor used to sing hymns ( amazing grace was his favourite) throughout the lessons. He also refused to get out of the car and would slide from the driving seat to the passenger seat when I went to get in (he was seriously creepy). The final straw came when he asked me to bang my head against the windscreen (he demonstrated this on the outside of the car windscreen). When I asked why, he told me he was showing how much it would hurt me if I had a crash!!!!

baza52

you could say he had taught you well. If you were able to take him to and thro like a cab driver he must have done his job.
Did you fail your test because of this instructor ?
Did you pass?