Abusive Email From Driving School

anybody123

Hello All,

Last night/a few hours ago I phoned a well-established driving school (A-Class) to ask them if I could pay for their gift vouchers online by PayPal, instead of giving them my card details over the phone. He proceeded to give me a load of nonsense about paying over the phone being more secure than PayPal, and he was extremely pushy about it to the point of trying to get me to give my details out, even when I had already made my mind up 100% that I was not going to pay over the phone. And I didn't even ring up to buy anything.

So I sent an email of complaint to the company that I found their "hard sell" techniques offensive and that I would be shopping elsewhere. I then received an email from the company a little while later (presumably from the same person I spoke to on the phone) saying:

"F**k off pr1ck". (I've intentionally changed the characters so you know what they are because the forum anti-profanity filter won't allow me to spell the actual words).

Now, I don't know anything about the law with regards to trading standards, but this sure as hell counts as abuse in my book. Can I report them for this and get him busted?

Thanks.

shaun_from_Africa

You can report the e-mail to the internet provider that the company uses (this can usually be found from their e-mail address), and although it probably won't be followed up, you could also report it to the police as it is a criminal offence.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/27/section/1

(1)Any person who sends to another person
(a)a letter, electronic communication or article of any
description] which conveys
(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;
(ii)a threat; or
(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or
(b)any article or electronic communication] which is, in
whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.

keyser666

Well the best thing is you have put it here so others can see how excellent their customer service is. Not much you can do other than lodge an official complaint. A-Class are franchise's so you probably spoke to your local franchisee.

shaun_from_Africa

Another thing that you could do is to print out the e-mail and send a copy of it here:

Head Office
A-Class Driving School
Unit 62 First Floor
Pentagon Centre
Chatham, Kent.
ME4 4HY
0845 459 5004

The head office might not be too impressed in how this reflects on the company.

bluenoseam

In the e-mail I'd also suggest copying the relevant authorities (I think it's DSA, might be DVLA) in on it, they are licensed professionals & despite the fact it's an "office bod" it's not exactly good practice. That would be enough for me to remove any & all lessons pre-booked & go with another school.

fluffnutter

Someone's decided to go off-piste and interpret the customer services manual a little loosely. I very much doubt telling potential customers to eff off is company policy.

You should amend your thread title, OP, to include the driving school name so that it's even more visible on a google search. That's the best way to deal with this, IMO: trash their reputation on the interweb. That'll learn 'em.

dacouch

bluenoseam wrote: »

In the e-mail I'd also suggest copying the relevant authorities (I think it's DSA, might be DVLA) in on it, they are licensed professionals & despite the fact it's an "office bod" it's not exactly good practice. That would be enough for me to remove any & all lessons pre-booked & go with another school.

They appear to be a limited company, as such it's a legal requirement that they show their registered company address and company number on the website. They do not show the correct address or a company number, you can complain to companies house here http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk//contact/contactUs.shtml

They're not registered on nominent (Website registration organisation) as a business which they're required to do. You can inform nominet who will correct this http://www.nominet.org.uk/

P.S It looks like on nominet the bosses home address is listed, looks like his name is Darren Pilcher...

halibut2209

Also Facebook and Twitter are good ways to express dissatisfaction over what is quite frankly disgraceful behaviour from a company

bluenoseam

dacouch wrote: »

They appear to be a limited company, as such it's a legal requirement that they show their registered company address and company number on the website. They do not show the correct address or a company number, you can complain to companies house here http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk//contact/contactUs.shtml

They're not registered on nominent (Website registration organisation) as a business which they're required to do. You can inform nominet who will correct this http://www.nominet.org.uk/

P.S It looks like on nominet the bosses home address is listed, looks like his name is Darren Pilcher...

What I meant is that if they're teaching people to drive they must be qualified (licensed) to do so.

McKneff

fluffnutter wrote: »

Someone's decided to go off-piste and interpret the customer services manual a little loosely. I very much doubt telling potential customers to eff off is company policy.

You should amend your thread title, OP, to include the driving school name so that it's even more visible on a google search. That's the best way to deal with this, IMO: trash their reputation on the interweb. That'll learn 'em.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Love the last bit FN, it's the way I say it because that's the way we spoke where I grew up,

But every time I do, I get some clever shoite saying.

It isn't That'll learn 'em, It is That'll teach 'em.

It was nice to see it.....:D

londonTiger

head office is probably run by the same guy.