Letter Review please? Refund of Pre-Booked Driving Lessons?

gemnomnom

EDIT: For general info, was comfortable with clutch, bite, brake, and speed up to 30mph before first lesson due to private practice. This is not about whether I should have been on the roads or not...

Hi all,

On 3rd Feb I paid upfront in cash for 10 hours worth of driving lessons at the cost of £99. I was told I could have 6 hours worth now, and had to save 4 for the week of the test.

My plan was to learn with this school, but because of the precedent set by those first 5 lessons, I no longer want to waste more money with them. This precedent was basically a lot of wasted time: for three of those five lessons, I was driven 15 minutes away from my home before I got into the drivers seat or we even spoke one relevant word about learning to drive!

I've spoken to Consumer Direct and they say I'm within my rights to ask for damages for loss of time and those 4 hours worth of lessons back. I asked why so and the man replied that consumers' rights outweigh a company's individual terms and conditions, and I have paid for a service that I have not received. Does anybody have a second opinion to back this up/prove to the contrary, particularly with driving instructors and block booked lessons?

Anyway, I have written a letter but have a few questions about it:

Dear *instructor manager*,
I recently texted *instructor* asking for the refund of four lessons that I have paid for but never received. After speaking with Consumer Direct on this matter, I am writing to once again request this refund, to the value of £39.60.

On 3rd February 2014, I purchased ten hours’ worth of lessons, at the cost of £99, The whole sum was paid upfront as I intended to learn to drive with AB Driving School. However, the precedent set during my first five lessons, where I was disappointed at the length of time I actually spent learning, has caused me to no longer wish to learn to drive with AB Driving School.

During my first, third and fourth lessons, I was driven at least 15 minutes away before the lesson began. On my fifth lesson, despite driving for the majority of the hour, I was still driven home in the passenger seat and we arrived home early. I would thus like to also request a refund for the lost time incurred that I was paying for, which I calculate to be one and a half hours’ worth in total, £14.85.

It is for these reasons that I believe you to be in breach of the contract I signed and would once again like to request a refund for the amounts above. I have been advised to allow a time-frame of 7 days for your response on this matter.

Regards,
Gemma

[*]Should I mention the advice CD gave me e.g. "According to Consumer Direct, should it have been necessary to drive me 15 minutes away to have the lessons, the instructor should have arranged to pick me up 15 minutes early."
[*]Anything I need to add/subtract from the letter?
[*]Is there a better way of asking for damages for the lost time, as I do genuinely want to be fair and see what she thinks of how much time was spent with her in the driving seat (15 minutes each way is an average estimate in my opinion).
[*]I've perused the letter template, but which does this situation come under - a service not being carried out with reasonable care or skill or within a reasonable time or for a reasonable price?


Thanks in advance everyone!

shaun_from_Africa

gemnomnom wrote: »

In the letter I have referred to Consumer Direct as Trading Standards to make it have more 'oomph'... But would this have the opposite effect and give the impression I don't even know who I'm on the phone to?

Quite possibly.
If the person who reads your letter is aware of the fact that Trading Standards no longer deal with the general public then they may feel that you are lying about all of what you stated.
It's best to stick to the facts in cases like this.

At any point before contacting CD did you voice your concerns to anyone at the driving school? and if so, what did they say?
Before asking for any sort of refund you should really give the school ample opportunity to come good and give you what you paid for.

Did you get any sort of written contract? and if so, what did this state about the duration of the lessons?
If you have this, does it specifically state that 1 full hour will be spent with you in the driving seat?

gemnomnom

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Quite possibly.
If the person who reads your letter is aware of the fact that Trading Standards no longer deal with the general public then they may feel that you are lying about all of what you stated.
It's best to stick to the facts in cases like this.

At any point before contacting CD did you voice your concerns to anyone at the driving school? and if so, what did they say?
Before asking for any sort of refund you should really give the school ample opportunity to come good and give you what you paid for.

Did you get any sort of written contract? and if so, what did this state about the duration of the lessons?
If you have this, does it specifically state that 1 full hour will be spent with you in the driving seat?

Hi, thanks for the speedy reply! I have changed it to CD.

I did not voice my concerns on being shortchanged for the first six hours. I know this is my fault. She was quite an overbearing woman and was very aggressive at one point, pressuring me into having 1.5 hour lessons when I wanted 1 hour lessons. I don't know if this is petty but gives an idea as to how she was...

Also on several occasions (once on the phone when initially booking lessons and twice in the car) I asked about the further price of ten lessons, to which she kept agreeing to £180, but then 'selectively forgetting' that the next time I asked and saying the price was £190. :S Quite misleading...

I don't know if these two above points are worth mentioning in the letter (doubt it) but should rather be saved for my 'case' if it progresses further?

Anyway I did however text her to say I wanted a refund of the four hours worth of lessons, to which she replied no because 'a normal lesson is charged at £21/hour'...

I do have a copy of the written T&Cs that I signed, but feeling quite pressured to do so as it was within my first hour and we had already driven away 15 minutes somewhere... (Again not sure if this is relevant to mention now or later?)

Nothing was stated but could it be assumed that this is implied as I bought lessons to learn to drive... How would I mention this in the letter? i.e. I don't mind that I didn't spend every minute in the driver's seat, but the time spent in the passenger seat should still be spent learning IMO. I took a 2 hour lesson with BSM early this morning and this is exactly what he did!

arcon5

So during the time you wasn't driving what was happening? Wouldn't it be reasonable for a degree of demonstrating by her?

frugal_mike

It may well depend on where you live. When I was learning to drive I seem to remember that for the first few lessons I was taken to some very quiet backroads where it didn't matter how badly I drove. I was taught the basics of road rules on these quiet roads (signaling, turning into side roads etc), as well as clutch control and how to control the car at the most basic level.

After this the lessons moved on to more normal roads with heavier traffic, pedestrians and more complicated situations, and I was behind the wheel for the whole lesson.

InsideInsurance

Different people have different styles of teaching and different people have different preferred ways to be taught. Its always sensible to have a couple of lessons at full price to ensure you get on with the instructor before locking yourself into any block booking.

It is getting fairly close to just chalking it up to experience. If you cancel the block booking then you lose the volume discounting. You've had 6 hours at £21 per hour and so £126 but to date so far have only paid £99

Faith177

Whenever I have had a lesson with various different schools I have always been driven off to a suitable place to carry out the lesson. This has sometimes been 15-20 mins away.

After a few lessons and when they felt I was ready I would start to drive this journey myself this was on average normal the 5th or 6th lesson.

My housemate also found the same when he was learning to drive so I think this is a pretty standard practice

Exile_geordie

Faith177 wrote: »

Whenever I have had a lesson with various different schools I have always been driven off to a suitable place to carry out the lesson. This has sometimes been 15-20 mins away.

After a few lessons and when they felt I was ready I would start to drive this journey myself this was on average normal the 5th or 6th lesson.

My housemate also found the same when he was learning to drive so I think this is a pretty standard practice

Seems to be as my wife had the same happen to her. No point getting a learner to jump in the driving seat at their door then crashing into every car on the street is there.

gemnomnom

frugal_mike wrote: »

It may well depend on where you live. When I was learning to drive I seem to remember that for the first few lessons I was taken to some very quiet backroads where it didn't matter how badly I drove. I was taught the basics of road rules on these quiet roads (signaling, turning into side roads etc), as well as clutch control and how to control the car at the most basic level.

After this the lessons moved on to more normal roads with heavier traffic, pedestrians and more complicated situations, and I was behind the wheel for the whole lesson.

Exile_geordie wrote: »

Seems to be as my wife had the same happen to her. No point getting a learner to jump in the driving seat at their door then crashing into every car on the street is there.

Faith177 wrote: »

Whenever I have had a lesson with various different schools I have always been driven off to a suitable place to carry out the lesson. This has sometimes been 15-20 mins away.

After a few lessons and when they felt I was ready I would start to drive this journey myself this was on average normal the 5th or 6th lesson.

My housemate also found the same when he was learning to drive so I think this is a pretty standard practice

Hi, thanks for your replies. It's a shame that this is standard practice. It doesn't make it right in my opinion. There is a quiet estate 5 minutes down the road from me. And with my new BSM instructor, we just drove there. I do not expect to go straightaway on the big roads, but I paid for an hour's driving, not 30 mins...

But what do you think about the letter then?

gemnomnom

arcon5 wrote: »

So during the time you wasn't driving what was happening? Wouldn't it be reasonable for a degree of demonstrating by her?

Hi,
It was not. It was all filled with complete banal chatter not relevant to driving at all.

Gosh I know I sound like I'm promoting for this new school I'm with, but from the very first minute to the very last (I was exhausted by the end) he was explaining what he was doing, potential hazards, good/bad practice etc. This to me is still learning, though I'm not in the driver's seat

Cheers

InsideInsurance

gemnomnom wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your replies. It's a shame that this is standard practice. It doesn't make it right in my opinion. There is a quiet estate 5 minutes down the road from me. And with my new BSM instructor, we just drove there. I do not expect to go straightaway on the big roads, but I paid for an hour's driving, not 30 mins...

Each teacher has their own preferred patch and knowledge. It may be you are on the edge of your former teachers area hence the longer driver to her preferred area.

We are fortunate in that bar the one way system all of our area is quiet and fairly simple. Even still, for the very first two lessons the Mrs was taken a 10 minute drive away before being put behind the wheels. Both times she was allowed to drive back because the one way system can be avoided and she had previous overseas driving experience so not a complete noob. In 10 minutes you can drive from end to end of out town and half way through our neighbouring one so relatively speaking she was taken a fair way away.

As per my previous post, the issue you potentially have is if you dont have the block you dont get the block rates.

Who is the driving school? Is it just the instructor or a wider company? If its wider then why not escalate the complaint above the instructor?