Akademia Driving School NYC — Local services in New York

Yes, this the same review I put on Yelp-I'm too angry to have to write this again. I just want people to know that they should not waste their money on this business. What a waste of money! Let me start off by saying that I hate to criticize a neighborhood business, but I can't help it. This place is a joke. Lured in by proximity and price, and I signed up for lessons, since I need to drive for work. The first time I walked in should've told me something-the guy behind the desk (who I later found out was the owner) didn't even bother to get up and answer any of my questions-he seemed to bored to be bothered. Once I started taking lessons, I got several different teachers, who all gave me different advice. When I asked one teacher how far the cars in the side mirror really were to reality, I was told that there wasn't really a difference! Even I know better than that. Another told me I had no common sense, to which I replied "No, I just don't know how to drive". When I complained to the owner, he shrugged it off, and didn't even inquire as to the behavior. The five hour class was a joke, and I wasn't the only one thinking it. The owner pontificated for 20 minutes about philosophy, and got into an argument with one of the students between the difference between causation vs. correlation. Then, we watched Mythbusters, so we would know how to get out of a car in the water. Really? 20 minutes of Mythbusters? Needless to say, I didn't pass my test, and all of the mistakes I made on the test were never, ever taught to me in the lessons. I was so anxious to to take the test again, that I signed up for them to schedule the next road test, but went elsewhere for a few additional classes. Just sitting in the office for 10 minutes listening to the other five hour class taught me more than I had learned at Akedemia! I was livid. So, I went for my second road test, and lo and behold the parents following their daughter in the road test car informed us that the brake and right light weren't working. The mother called the school, asking them to bring out another car, but they said that they hadn't had a complaint about the lights, so it wasn't a problem! Plus, the gentleman driving the car didn't speak any English, so there was no way for us to communicate the problem to him. I feel really sorry for him-a bunch of angry women, and there was nothing he could do. All of the other students were complaining about the classes, and the teachers, and how the owner is rude and arrogant, and obviously couldn't be bothered to care. We all got worked up and anxious over the car not working, when we were already nervous about the test. Completely unprofessional, and the owner is self-important and rude. If I could get my money back, I would. Do...

Well I got a lot to say! I'll be glad for you to read my review! To start off I did not pass my driver's test because of various reasons:

1. The cars were always in maintenance.So I always used different cars. Making it harder to get used to anything. (I had about one year prior to enrolling here of driving). Always being repaired because steering wheel did not steer well etc. Nonsense stuff is always happening.

2. I had a 90 minute class and they had the audacity to use 35 minutes of my time to put gasoline in the piece of crap car so my class was shorten.

3. On one of my 45 minute class was delayed by over an hour. My class was scheduled for 5:00 PM and i did not get in the car 'till 6:00 PM, and they again had the audacity to shorten my class to about 28 minutes because they were running late as if it was my problem that there running late. The manager did say sorry and said I would be granted an extra class. I NEVER GOT IT!

4. NOT ALL THE INSTRUCTORS ARE GOOD!!! The new instructor was acting like a teenager. Seriously he was showing me how to drive while he was texting on his phone for almost the full 45 minute class. I barely got instruction or constructive criticism.

5. THE DAY OF THE ROAD TEST EXAM - I got a couple of things to say about this:

a) I had to take the test on a car i never used. WHICH IS UNLIKELY AND THE STUPIDEST THING EVER!

b) The car i used for the road test was awful. The brakes were so off. I had to stomp on the brakes to make the car stop and therefore, failed because the DMV person said I was abruptly stopping for no reason. It was not me it was the car.

c) The car took wide turns! IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO PASS WITH A CAR THAT HAS BAD STEERING.

d) TO TOP IT ALL OFF! The wheels had no air in the car so the car was not perfectly fit for the test.

e) The car had turned off in the middle of the test! Can you believe that? and everyone (there was four of us the day of the exam) had failed. How likely?

To end this: I do have experience in driving. Here's a little about me:

1. I have drove all over New York City, all five boroughs (at all hours). Also driven in New Jersey, Westchester and surrounding counties.

2. I have reached 70 mph on a SUV (I have driven the following : a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero XLS, a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox, and now I drive a 2013 Nissan Rogue SV all within the past two years) and never had any accidents or problems!

I do not know about you (the reader) but this does not sound convincing to me and I would not want it to happen to anyone else! Good luck choosing the correct driving school. DO NOT LET PRICE...

I already know how to drive but let my license expire. I was trying to buy 2 lessons and a car rental for my road test here and was told I must come in to pay in person, and the lessons would not be scheduled until they were paid for. I'm busy at work all day and have a young child to care for in the evenings, so that hour or hour and a half back and forth means I have to either give up my nonexistent lunch break, or have the babysitter stay late AND leave work early (Akademia is open until 7). Akademia's website says they accept Mastercard and Visa, so I asked if they could charge my credit card, and I could email them a scan of the front and back of the credit card, my learners permit, my 5 hour course completion certificate, other photo ID such as passport, whatever they needed so I didn't have to go pretty far out of my way just to make appointments for lessons.

Nope, whoever picked up the phone told me if it was too inconvenient to come in person and pay in cash I should go to a different driving school, and hung up on me. So I did! I did my lessons and test with another school that actually pays their taxes, and didn't have to waste my lunch break or neglect my child.

I initially called Akademia because I took the 5 hour course there and it went fine. I was trying to give them my repeat business, because anyone in business knows it's great to have loyal customers and be a loyal customer, so you can throw each other referrals down the line. I'm a real estate agent, so I could recommend a ton of people new to the city and needing a New York license. Too bad it didn't work out and another school is getting those referrals.

I see that there are some pretty defensive responses to reviews here from Akademia's owner, so I will just say this if you are reading: please take this as a constructive criticism of your business, and see it as an opportunity for you to make more money without doing any extra work. Turning away everyone who wants to book and pay over the phone is a waste. If you want to get really fancy, have people book themselves and prepay online. Setting that up would be a much better use of your desk time than responding to the poor reviews here, that's not the place to find profitable new relationships. I won't even address the required improvements in the simple etiquette of not hanging up on a customer mid-sentence, there's enough basic feedback about that...