“His manner may seem rude, and his accent is thick but neither of these things are intentional or malicious in any way, rather he simply can't speak english as well as most of us can and he was raised in a foreign country in a different time with different”
“Overall I had terrible experience with this school and wasted a lot of money and time.”
A Feeling of Being Disrespected.
I need to write this review, because many of the reviews here are so positive. I was seriously mislead. My experience with this school was extremely disappointing and exceedingly frustrating. I don't
know why I was PAYING someone to aggravate me every week. That someone being Paul H.
Let me start off by saying: ok, Paul came on time, he does seem to sincerely be trying to teach. Those are my 2 good points about him. I am trying my best to be fair, and I don’t think he has bad intentions.
What he does have however, is way too much attitude for a driving instructor and not enough flexibility/ability to customize to each student. We could not communicate well, because he tends to go off on long spiels by himself when we come across a driving issue I may (or may not) be having difficulty with. Problem being, he just starts saying a ton of stuff to explain things he thinks I have problems with, and he doesn’t let me get a word in otherwise. So sometimes I am listening to him explain things I already know, and God forbid, should I try to say yes, he feels interrupted. Then when I do have a problem, he also will not let me talk, and insists that he has to take 5 or 10 minutes to say everything in HIS way first before I can ask about my question. A lot of things would have been MUCH MUCH easier had I been allowed to just ask what is on my mind first, and then, if he could have responded with some simple, concise answers. I gave him some pushback on this, and he basically responds in a kind of arrogant way, that he’s the teacher, he’s the one with the experience, so basically—be quiet, just do whatever he says, and he can only explain it one way. He doesn’t want to answer your question in a different way if you cannot understand what he is saying the first time around.
When he did listen to my questions finally, he would do so in a very pissed off way, and I felt disrespected as if I am SO SO stupid for asking. Seriously? Is that how you want to treat your students, who by the way, are basically your customers? I felt like we were in some sort of back and forth attitude battle, and normally, I don’t give people attitude ever… I aim to be appreciative of good customer service and understanding of poor customer service (as I am sure it is very difficult), but Paul just really rubbed me the wrong way. To give him some attitude back seemed like the only way to get a little respect, which was just a sad and frustrating experience for me.
For example, on a 2nd class, I was taking a previous student back to wherever she lived. As we neared a highway, I was getting nervous, since I wasn’t sure, are we getting on the highway? I wanted a yes/no, because I was definitely not prepared to go on the highway, and should that be where we were headed, I would refuse to do it, because I wasn’t ready yet. He went into his little rant of “Do you think I don’t care about my life? Or about (student in the back)’s life?? Or about my kids???” etc. OK PAUL—just tell me, am I going on the highway YES or NO?? Please.. I can’t believe I have to put up with his sarcasm and indirect answers, I don’t have time for this when we are driving—just need clear answers from you.
Another example is: multiple times when I was turning left, he said, “YOU NEED TO LOOK LEFT. I DIDN’T SEE YOU LOOK LEFT.” I said, “I did look left, I am looking left, THERE ARE NO CARS.” I look left, but apparently I don’t turn my head enough so that he sees, and then he yells at me after the fact in his distrust. It’s one thing to remind me, but it’s another to keep trying to give me a hard time after. It really causes unnecessary aggravation.
End of story is I discontinued my lessons after my 3rd class. I’m sorry, but sincere intentions are not good enough if you are unwilling to teach to the student and very willing to dish out attitude. I didn’t pay for attitude-- I paid to be taught in a respectful manner. Bottom line is that I felt disrespected. Everything else I can forgive.…
Driving Lessons. Jean is very greedy person and very immature is teaching. He made me cry while driving.He wants his students to take atleast 10 classes.I learnt parallel parking, 3 point turns in second lesson itself so he got frustrated and started scolding me that I am not doing good. He is not genuine teacher, he scared me and made me to loose my confidence in driving even though I was learning fast. I left him after 3rd lesson and directly gave driving test and passed not from Jean's driving techniques but by my own I learnt…
Five Star Status!! Friendship Auto School (ASK FOR DOMINIC).
Well i've read the reviews and I disagree with all the negative reviews. I had a
wonderful experience with
friendship Auto School. I suggest you contact Dominic, he's a fantastic instructor! Everything I know I learned from him, and i practiced with him for about 1 Month. Parallel parking, three point turns, driving in general, rules of the road, parking on hills, hand signals, components of the car, EVERYTHING I learned, DOMINIC has taught me, I wont lie he did get on the phone a couple of times but the conversations were really short, and mostly consisted of other students calling and canceling lessons or setting up a date and time for a lesson. IT'S BUSINESS PEOPLE, THESE INSTRUCTORS MAKE THEIR LIVING TEACH PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW TO BE SAFE DRIVERS, IF U DONT PASS UR ROAD TEST DONT GET ANGRY AT UR INSTRUCTOR, ALL HE CAN DO IS TEACH U WHAT U NEED TO KNOW, UR IN CONTROL OF THE CAR, NOT HIM/HER. I FAILED MY ROAD TEST THE FIRST TIME DUE TO MY OWN FAULTS, I WAS A TERRIBLE PARALLEL PARKER AND DOMINIC KEPT IT REAL WITH ME AND TOLD ME I NEEDED TO PRACTICE MY PARKING MORE I IGNORED HIS SUGGESTION AND CONTINUED WITH THE ROAD TEST DATE I MADE AND FAILED, SO DOMINIC RESCHEDULED ME AND TWO WEEKS LATER I HAD ANOTHER ROAD TEST, AND DURING THE TWO WEEK WAITING PERIOD I PRACTICED WITH DOMINIC ONCE MORE, MY PLAN WAS TO PRACTICE AGAIN AN HOUR BEFORE THE TEST BUT I DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH CASH FOR THE EXTRA HOUR. GUESS WHAT DOMINIC DID? HE STILL CAME AND PICKED ME UP EARLY BEFORE THE TEST AND LET ME PRACTICE FOR ABOUT 45 MINUTES FOR FREE! IN SHORT I PASSED, MY INSTRUCTOR DOMINIC IS A VERY KIND HEARTED AND HELPFUL MAN AND I WILL TELL EVEYONE I KNOW ABOUT HIM!! DOMINIC YOU ARE THE BEST AND THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP!!! I WILL DEFINITELY KEEP IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDSHIP AUTO SCHOOL AND RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE WHO IS LOOKING TO PASS THEIR ROAD TEST. IM TELLING YOU, CALL FRIENDSHIP AUTO SCHOOL NOW AND ASK FOR DOMINIC!! TRUST ME U WONT REGRET IT. HE WILL TEACH U EVERYTHING U NEED TO KNOW FROM DAY 1!! i SEE PEOPLE SAYING THAT THEIR INSTRUCTOR WAS RUDE OR AGGRESIVE OR JUST PLAIN OLE MEAN AND I CANT SPEAK ON THAT, ALL I CAN TELL U IS IF U WANT SOMEONE WHO IS PATIENT, KIND HEARTED, HELPFUL IN EVERY WAY, GENTLE, FUNNY, HONEST, AND MAKES U COMFORTABLE, THEN ASK FOR DOMINIC. OMG I GOT MY DRIVERS LICENSE!!!!! LOL! IT JUST HONESTLY FEELS LIKE A BIG WEIGHT HAS BEEN LIFTED OFF MY SHOULDERS, THE FEELING IS WONDERFUL!!!!
PROS: LESSON/ROAD TEST COST ARE THE CHEAPEST, AND THEY ARE VERY FLEXIBLE
CONS: NONE…
Excellent driving school. I had a great experience with Friendship Auto School. I took lessons with Paul, who was patient, courteous and extremely helpful. I passed my driving test on the first go, and he helped me not to be nervous, he identified my weak spots and we practised them several times before the test. He was punctual and reliable. I also took some lessons before finding Friendship School with Love Driving School, which I found very unsatisfactory. Although the online reviews for Love school are much better, I found the instructor - although friendly and pleasant - to be distracted, constantly on the phone, apparently uninterested in whether I was learning or not; forgetting from one lesson to the next what he had told me to practice etc. Most of the lessons were spent dropping back the previous client to their home and then driving to the home of the next client, rather than doing the kind of practice I needed. Friendship driving school, and Paul in particular, is much better in my experience.…
TERRIBLE school ever.
I am still generous to give this school 1 star, because the system doesn't allow zero star. I read the reviews before I contact this school and sb says Paul Honore is good. ok, I took 3 lessons with
him. He didn't teach me anything except for driving around. He says very bad things like "if you die...", "they're going to hit you..." Don't ever pay money for people who say things like that to you. When was tired with just driving around, I asked him to help me the U turn, he said he would instruct me whenever he wanted, not when I required. After 3 lessons, I didn't want to take any more lessons, then he began to call me... He REALLY WANT MONEY.
One true thing is he is very funny, he laugh about family things, and even about you. So CONSIDER whether you want a funny person to laugh or a good instructor.…
