Complaintsfor1st Rate Driving School LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/13/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I enrolled my daughter in classes with 1st Rate Driving School in the spring of 2022. She completed the online class, received her temps, and was doing the behind-the-wheel training which she started in October 2022. Since then, my daughter has not been responsible and I was having discipline problems with her. I decided she was not anywhere near ready to get her license and asked the instructor ***, to drop her upcoming classes. She immediately contacted the **** saying my daughter dropped the course, which also cancelled my daughter's temps with the state.The next day, I found out that I could have had my daughter finish up the 2 or 3 classes remaining, and put on hold indefinitely taking her to receive her license, when she was more responsible. The instructor did not inform me that I could do this. I thought that after completing the course, you had to go and get your license in a certain time frame. I spoke with the *** and they told me to ask the instructor to re-enroll my daughter to finish up her classes. I have asked 1st Rate to re-enroll my daughter because of the misunderstanding and they refuse to do it, even though I have paid them the cost of the full course. They also refuse to release my daughter's proof of completion of the online class and the number of hours of behind-the-wheel she has completed. So the money I paid them is all for nothing and I would have to pay another school the full cost of the driving program and my daughter would have to start over from the beginning.

  Business response

  04/16/2023

  The student in question did complete the online drivers ed ******* with 1st Rate Driving School, the ******* is valid for 12 months (no reason to retake).  The course was completed on July, 2022.  The student received her instructional permit and the behind the wheel ******* did start with the ******s in October, 2022. During October, 2022 through April 10, 2023 there were 5 cancellations and only 2 actual drive times.
  Lessons scheduled were as follows:
                 October 13, 2022 drive ****** completed
                 November 17, 2022 Student cancelled
                 December 8, 2022 driving and observation ****** completed
                 December 17, 2022 Student cancelled
                 January 5, 2023 Student cancelled
                 January 26, 2023 rescheduled by instructor to February 10, 2023 Parent cancelled
                 March 10, 2023 Parent cancelled
  
  Two of the ******s were cancelled in less than 36 hours of the appointment.  The contract clearly states:
  Cancellation of a scheduled road ****** must be called into the 1st Rate Driving School office at least 36 hours prior to the ****** to avoid rescheduling fee.  The first cancellation was not charged to the student/parent. 
  
  On April 10, 2023 the driving school received a text message:
  
  Parent text:        Please remove <student name> from driving school.  She has been too immature and disrespectful towards ** and has not been at our home for the last month.  The same goes for <another student name>.  <Dad> will also be contacting you about her.  They dont deserve to get their license. Thank you
  
  Instructor response:        OK I will remove <student>.  This will also cancel her temps
  
  Parent Response:              Okay
  
  It is not up to the driving school to question the parentsdecisions or actions.  During the messages on April 10, 2023 there were no references to rescheduling or holding off the driving ******s.  In the prior messages from student and/or parent they were clearly identified as need to reschedule . . . or have to cancel . . . . The message on April 10, 2023 clearly stated to remove student from driving school. . .  During the evening,the student in question was dropped from the *******.  As was mentioned in what would happen and the parent responded with okay. Understanding that the student will have their instructional permit cancelled by the state DMV.
  
  The next day instructor spoke with the dad about his daughter and he also brought up the student in question.  The instructor did mention that the student could have been done but there were 5 cancellations which delayed the progress and the student could have been done in March. After this then the tune changed and wanted to keep going since Its not fair for <student> to lose out and <other student> get off free quote from parent.  By this time, the drop of the student was processed and a refund to the parent has already been started.  By the time this was all over, the driving school is no longer willing to complete the agreement and a refund was issued minus the administrative work.  The parent did not ask for a refund, nevertheless one was issued.
  
  On April 12, 2023 at 3:04pm a text was sent by parent to send the hours to their mailing address. On April 13, 2023 at 8:17am, the email came in about the BBB complaint.   There was not enough time to process and provide the parent with everything requested nor the refund check to be processed, particularly when it was getting mailed per the request.
  
  Instructor also had a brief conversation from the step-parent (students stepmother) that called and received a few text messages.  The driving school feels the situation was handled out of haste and rash decisions were made by parent.  As mentioned above, it is not up to the driving school to question a parents decision nor get involved with a familys dispute.
  
  The driving school tried to reschedule all the missed ******s and tried to get the student completed on time, but when there were that many cancellations it was no longer an option. 
  
  A copy of all text messages, from all parties, are available for review.

  Customer response

  04/17/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Dear Sir/*****,
  I am dissatisfied with the refund amount provided by the business, which I just received today, April 17th.
  I paid a total of $265 for 6 Behind-the-Wheel driving lessons, which equates to $44 per ******* Unfortunately, my daughter was only able to receive 2 lessons from the business.
  According to my calculations, I believe that I am owed $176 for the 4 lessons that my daughter did not complete, minus 1 cancellation fee.While I understand the need for administration fees, I am troubled by the lack of transparency regarding the breakdown of these fees. It appears that the administration fees were excessive, resulting in a minuscule refund of only $35, which means that the business kept, at best, $100 for "fees".
  I would like to emphasize that I am not opposed to paying reasonable administration fees; however, the significant amount of these fees,coupled with the lack of explanation, has left me feeling disheartened. It gives the impression that the business is doing this out of prejudice and spite, not in good business practice.
  I would like the business to provide a more appropriate refund amount that reflects the actual cost of the lessons that were not completed, since they refused to complete my daughters lessons with them.
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************************

  Business response

  04/23/2023

  To Whom It May ****************** regard to the customers concern about the refund amount the breakdown is explained below. The contract for the online and behind the wheel package was for $360, signed by parent and is the amount of the check that was received.
  The behind the wheel program has a tiered table for the ****** that is being completed.  We charge $50 per hour for the first three behind the wheel ******s and the pricing goes down from there.   
  
  The breakdown for this situation is as follows:
  
                 $360      Package price for online and behind the wheel
                 -100       Online program
                 - 50        Setup, registration, etc.
                 -100       2 driving ******s
                  -50        Cancellation fee
                  -25        Research,data collection, rescheduling multiple ******s, etc.
                 $35        Refund Amount
  
  
  There were two cancellations that could have been charged but one was forgiven and not charged. 
  None of the actions were done out of prejudice or spite.  The fees are reasonable, and the amount of time put into the research, data collection and rescheduling were actually more than what was charged.  Schedules were rearranged to fit the ******s in to accommodate the planned once a month ******s. Unfortunately, the monthly ******s did not occur for various reasons/cancellations. 
  
  We did apologize that we could not meet the customers'expectations and the refund was given. 
  
  1st Rate Driving School LLC

  Customer response

  05/04/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  

  While I do not accept this businesss attempt to explain their so-called fees she has charged, I have decided not to continue with complaint ID ********, since the business insists on making up things to benefit herself.
  Obviously she insists on holding on to my money, going to great lengths to come up with research and data collection, etc. charges.  Seriously? Clearly the only research and data collecting that she did was calculating bogus charges to offset the $35 refund. The explanation of behind-the-wheel driving fees are also suspect, claiming a tiered table.  Her explanation makes absolutely no sense and is laughable. They advertise as a package, and nowhere on their website do they claim anything about a decreasing scale.

  It is obvious that the instructor made up these fees as a last ditch effort to dignify the $35 refund given to me. This business is unprofessional,uncaring, deceitful, and unwilling to work with their customers or provide them with relevant information to help them out and let them know their options (which they are fully aware of). I have talked with another driving school, who said it was absolutely wrong of 1st Rate to not inform me that I could have put the ******s on hold.
  If only I could charge her for unexpectedly cutting our very first driving ****** short by an hour, with minutes notice. It is plain to see that she wants to keep the money without completing her job. I truly believe that I wouldnt even have gotten $35 back if not for my complaint. This business shows no concern for their clients circumstances and I am just glad to be rid of them.

  Regards,
  
  *********************************

  Business response

  05/16/2023

  There is nothing more for us to do then to close the case.  
  
  There were many false accusations presented.  There was nothing made up about anything that happened.  It takes time to correlate all of the text messages between the parent and the student.  As mentioned prior, all messages are available for review.  Our time is worth something and it took time to gather, record, and to keep reporting back.  Even if we returned $60 the parent would still not be happy.  As the saying goes You cannot please all the people all of the time.  We do our best to accommodate requests.  
  
  To readdress the concerns/comments: 
  When a business does their pricing, packages, etc.  they are not required to disclose on how they come up with pricing.  As explained in prior response.  Just the same with other businesses. Does any business breakdown every fee and how it is calculated. Do you ever go into a business and ask how they come up with their price for a product or service? Where is it disclosed? 
  
  The refund was in process well before this false complaint.  As mentioned in initial response, a parent has their right to pull a child from a program, it is not up to us to question the parents decision. There were never any questions or phone calls to review or discuss options.  She clearly stated Please remove <student name> from driving school.  She has been too immature and disrespectful towards us and has not been at our home for the last month.  The same goes for <another student name>.  <Dad> will also be contacting you about her.  They dont deserve to get their license. Thank you  she was aware of the consequences  and she concurred.     There was no question or request to reschedule or cancel ******s (as they were done in prior requests), but instead it was to clearly pull her from the program due to the fact she was upset with her daughter/situation.  The driving school feels the situation was handled out of haste and rash decisions were made by parent.  As mentioned above, it is not up to the driving school to question a parents decision nor get involved with a familys quarrels or situations between a parent/child. Could things have been handled differently, absolutely on both ends.
  
  In regards to the first ******* it was explained to the daughter and parent with the first driving ****** that the driving partner (that her daughter was going to observe) cancelled right before the driving ****** due to illness.  That was out of our control, we are not allowed to have a student drive for two hours.  Just like when her daughter cancelled right before her ******s, the driving partner was also affected.  Her daughter cancelled twice; everyone gets affected by these late cancellations.
  
  If we did not have all the cancellations, she would have been done with her monthly ******s and had her license.  We take pride in what we do and do care about our students and work with them to complete on time.  But with the exorbitant number of cancellations there was no way possible to complete the student on time.  
  
  We are sorry it came down to this but there is nothing more to do except to move on.  We are to a point that it will not matter what is said or done to satisfy the situation.

  Thank You

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩