Refunding from a driving school

Flashboi1234

Hello I am wondering if anyone is able to help me out.

I book a intensive driving course though national intensive back last may, the course had an estimated time of completion date around June the same year.

Shortly after I was match with an instructor and paid him the rest of the outstanding owe £1700 in total to both parties. 

I have to the time of writing this only revived 9.5/30 hours paid for. This is due to the instructor cancelling 2/4 of my driving lessons on the first week with my test booked for the following Wednesday. My instructor adviced I wasn’t ready for my for me test on the 30th October. I was told that a test would come up again around December /January and that he’ll let me know so I can book the time of work again.

from then I heard nothing and had become quite annoyed by how long it was taking.

i have been back into contact with National intensive and they have reached out to my instructor as now I just want a rerun for the hours reminding and we can go our separate ways.

I have now received this text: “Hi as I said please give me a text or call to arrange last lessons.

I have informed national intensives that we won't be refunding as you request the postponement of lessons until a test came up.

I would have no choice but to charge for the weeks lessons I had left free for you.

But on the understanding you wanted to postpone i didn't charge them.”

just want to know if I was to go have to go down the court route is I have a leg to stand on now. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated im a young person with no support who worked hard to save enough to pay for this and now it’s turnt to a nightmare just wanted the money back for the hours not used nothing else.

Aylesbury_Duck

It's difficult to follow exactly what's happened but essentially you are entitled to what you paid for, which is presumably 30 hours of tuition and a test?

If the company can't or won't provide that, then they've breached their contract and should refund you for unused hours and any test fee you've paid them.  If it's you just choosing to go elsewhere, then it's possibly you that's breaching the contract first, and that makes it less certain you're entitled to a refund.

Flashboi1234

This is what I sent to national intensive hopefully is easier to follow and could give a better understanding, thank you for your reply 

“I booked a 30 hour intensive course on the 2nd of may 2024 and paid £886.99 with an estimated completion date of 19/06/2024, on 08/05/24 i paid the driving instructor £960 and had a 1.5 hour induction lesson the day after. I then had an issue with a test date booked in September however this issue was resolved and you refunded me the test finder add on. A later test was then booked for the 30/10/24, i contacted the driving instructor asking when lessons would start, he advised me he would arrange this shortly, however i had to send a follow up message 8 days later, he then contacted me and we arranged for the course to begin on the 21st of oct it was agreed 3 and a half hour sessions a day, am starts the first week and pm starts for second week. 11/10/24 he messaged to inform me that we would be starting the lessons a day late due to his car needing a MOT. The driving instructor then changed it from am to pm starts. We had a 4 hour lesson on the 22nd and then on the 23rd he said a pupil busted his tyre so cancelled the lesson. We had a lesson on the 24th which is when he advised me to rearrange my test as he did not feel i would be test ready, this was my last lesson as he said we will start again once another test is booked, he advised that test would likely come up in dec/jan. Since then shaun booked me a test in Darlington (300 miles from my address)  in march as a holding test so it is on the system, he then said the test would be moved closer when a slot becomes available in a local test centre. I then had no contact from the driving instructor from 07/11/2024 to  03/02/2025 when i contacted him questioning hours and availability, the driving instructor informed me he is booked up at present and is away until 18/02/25 and to message once he has returned, i replied asking if it would be possible to have a refund on my remaining hours or  if i could find another instructor however he said no. Due to it being 8 months over my expected pass date i feel as though i should only have to pay for the hours and lessons i have actually completed and would like a refund to be able to cancel and start again with a new instructor and company that is not intensive. I have all email and messages confirming what i have written today.”

PHK

I am afraid it’s still not completely clear. The best way to write a complaint is one or two short paragraphs and a short timeline. 

I think what you are saying is that you weren’t ready for the test in October, so the intensive course was postponed with a view to taking it in January/February. It’s not clear why this didn’t happen but you want a refund. 

pinkshoes

Flashboi1234 said:

This is what I sent to national intensive hopefully is easier to follow and could give a better understanding, thank you for your reply 

“I booked a 30 hour intensive course on the 2nd of may 2024 and paid £886.99 with an estimated completion date of 19/06/2024, on 08/05/24 i paid the driving instructor £960 and had a 1.5 hour induction lesson the day after. I then had an issue with a test date booked in September however this issue was resolved and you refunded me the test finder add on. A later test was then booked for the 30/10/24, i contacted the driving instructor asking when lessons would start, he advised me he would arrange this shortly, however i had to send a follow up message 8 days later, he then contacted me and we arranged for the course to begin on the 21st of oct it was agreed 3 and a half hour sessions a day, am starts the first week and pm starts for second week. 11/10/24 he messaged to inform me that we would be starting the lessons a day late due to his car needing a MOT. The driving instructor then changed it from am to pm starts. We had a 4 hour lesson on the 22nd and then on the 23rd he said a pupil busted his tyre so cancelled the lesson. We had a lesson on the 24th which is when he advised me to rearrange my test as he did not feel i would be test ready, this was my last lesson as he said we will start again once another test is booked, he advised that test would likely come up in dec/jan. Since then shaun booked me a test in Darlington (300 miles from my address)  in march as a holding test so it is on the system, he then said the test would be moved closer when a slot becomes available in a local test centre. I then had no contact from the driving instructor from 07/11/2024 to  03/02/2025 when i contacted him questioning hours and availability, the driving instructor informed me he is booked up at present and is away until 18/02/25 and to message once he has returned, i replied asking if it would be possible to have a refund on my remaining hours or  if i could find another instructor however he said no. Due to it being 8 months over my expected pass date i feel as though i should only have to pay for the hours and lessons i have actually completed and would like a refund to be able to cancel and start again with a new instructor and company that is not intensive. I have all email and messages confirming what i have written today.”

You need to be far more concise and use paragraphs as that's very difficult to read and decipher.

How about:

Dear <driving people>.


On 2nd May I paid £886.99 for 30 hours of intensive driving lessons and a test, with an estimated completion of June 2024.

On 8th May I paid £960 to Shaun (my allocated instructor) and had a 1.5 hour induction lesson.

Shaun booked me a test on 30th October and it was arranged that lessons would begin on 21st October 2024, with 3.5 hour lessons each day across 8 days. 

On 11th October Shaun delayed the lesson start date to 22nd October due to the car needing an MOT.

On 22nd October I had a 4 hour lesson.

On 23rd October Shaun cancelled the lesson.

On 24th October we had a lesson (was it 3.5 hours??) where Shaun said I would not be ready for my test in time. 

Shaun then cancelled my remaining lessons and said he would rearrange them when he had a new test date and would let me know, likely in December/January.

On 03 February, I contacted Shaun about the lessons and test, as I had still not heard from him, and he is fully booked and away until 18th February. 

I am requesting a partial refund of £1,292.89 as I have only received 9 (??) of the 30 hours that I have paid for, and it is now 8 months since the expected pass date, which is certainly not the prescribed intensive course I paid for, and the cancellations were by yourself and not by me.

Alternatively, I will accept a different and more reliable instructor for at least 21 hours of lessons, and I would like my block of intensive lessons and test to be booked in before the end of April 2025. 

or...

I expect a refund of £1292.89 within 14 days, and if no refund is received, then I will take this to the small claims court for a refund of the unused hours due to your instructor cancelling.