Bsm

rocksteadyeddy

Hi I'm looking for a bit of advice for my son. He started taking driving lessons with BSM. I say started taking lessons because they hardly turned up or they turned up late. After paying £110 up front for another 3 lessons they once again failed to turn up. When he asked for his money back they said it would take 28 days? I personally couldn't understand why, but they said it was their policy. The 28 days is up and still no money back. Can someone advise what steps to take next? Thanks in anticipation.

adamc260

They charged you £110 for 3 lessons? Holy !!!! thats a lot of money! When I was learning to drive a few years ago it was about £15 a lesson? (1 hour)

Inactive

rocksteadyeddy wrote: »

Hi I'm looking for a bit of advice for my son. He started taking driving lessons with BSM. I say started taking lessons because they hardly turned up or they turned up late. After paying £110 up front for another 3 lessons they once again failed to turn up. When he asked for his money back they said it would take 28 days? I personally couldn't understand why, but they said it was their policy. The 28 days is up and still no money back. Can someone advise what steps to take next? Thanks in anticipation.

Take the matter up with the DSA, they oversee Driving Instructors in the UK.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/dsa/category.asp?cat=75

[Deleted User]

Find a good local independent instructor and pay for each lesson at a time. If they don't turn up, they don't get paid. So it is in their best interest to stick to agreed times. Simple.

This is how I did it when I was learning to drive.

jase1

BSM guys are franchises aren't they? As such they're no more or less reliable than any other independent, so as LeeUK says just go for the instructor with the reputation.

Wh05apk

As BSM are franchise, complain to BSM direct, they will not take kindly to one of their franchisees giving poor service like this.

rocksteadyeddy

Thank you all so much for posting. The advice I wanted is what action he should take to get his money back? Should he write to BSM at their Head Office? He tried phoning, and visiting the local office, but he felt he was being fobbed off. I don't want to personally interfere as I feel he needs to do this himself. However I would like to say to him, you need to do A,B,C to get your cash back.

eslick

problem you may have is that BSM went into administration and was bought by the AA for £1 probably taking them a while to sort it, but since they may not be the same company who you booked with you might have to start again.

flyingscotno1

Didn't realise they went into admin. Just read up on that and saw this-

Last year BSM was forced to replace its entire fleet of 3,250 Fiat 500 super-minis after Government examiners - who put driving instructors though their paces - complained it was too tight squeeze in the back for their 'physical stature

Really. That is incredible! 1. That they didn't check that and 2. that the government could complain about that in a car classed as a 4 seater! Mind you the Corsa they propose isn't a great car and still a squeeze from the last time I was in the back. I think I'd prefer to learn in the 500 and that would be more of an attractive car for me! My old driving instructor uses a mini which is small too.

[Deleted User]

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

Didn't realise they went into admin. Just read up on that and saw this-

Last year BSM was forced to replace its entire fleet of 3,250 Fiat 500 super-minis after Government examiners - who put driving instructors though their paces - complained it was too tight squeeze in the back for their 'physical stature

Really. That is incredible! 1. That they didn't check that and 2. that the government could complain about that in a car classed as a 4 seater! Mind you the Corsa they propose isn't a great car and still a squeeze from the last time I was in the back. I think I'd prefer to learn in the 500 and that would be more of an attractive car for me! My old driving instructor uses a mini which is small too.

The current shape Corsa is a lot roomier. More and more people are taking their tests with thie instructor in the back seat these days. So it makes sense to have a slightly bigger car with maybe 5 doors as well.

lucylucky

I would threaten them with small claims court. Give them no more than 2 working days to get your money back, they have after all had 28 already.