Joyce’s Driving School

I will give this Joyce’s 1 star for the classroom portion of this driving school. For the Behind The Wheel portion, I would give a negative 1 star if I could. After about 4 hours of behind the wheel training with her mother and father, it was time for my daughter’s first official BTW training with Joyce’s «instructor». I will not go into all of the gory details, but let me just say that this first experience left my 15 year old daughter standing in our driveway alone, in tears, as the driving instructor drove off.
The instructor could not find my house to pick her up on time. When he did finally find the house, my daughter did not emerge immediately to jump into the car and go. This did not sit well with the instructor. He started by berating her for not watching for him to pull up and telling her that they were now running late. (He was late, NOT my daughter) The instructor then told her, «just drive, we need to get to Crystal Lake now!» Trying to break the tension, she asked him «how have you been?» to which he replied, «just back up the car and go, you do know how to get to Crystal Lake, don’t you?» Of course she had a general idea, but no real instruction on which way to go. He did not allow her time to adjust mirrors, etc. The training car he showed up in has the gearshift selector on the floor and our family car has the gearshift on the steering column. My daughter then asked, «Where is the gear shift?» he then retorted «you have got to be kidding me, you don’t even know where reverse is?!» Needless to say she found it, backed the car out and began to drive down the street. At this point she (being a nervous driver) was wholly unsure of what to do next. The instructor then told her to just stop the car. They had driven about a city block at this point. The instructor said that she needs to learn how to drive before taking a behind the wheel course with him, he does not feel safe. (apparently 4 hours with her mom and dad is not sufficient) She turned the car around and drove the 1 block back to our home, at this point on the verge of tears, feeling that she had let him down somehow. The gentleman instructor then told her that he cannot train her how to drive today because she is not a good enough driver. Isn’t that HIS job?! I have driven with her for hours, she is fine. He then left her in the driveway, alone, crying. He did not even wait for her to be sure she could get back in the house, this is NOT cool. Needless to say, I am furious. After sending Joyce an e-​mail laying out these issues, she refunded our tuition and said my daughter should find another driving school. No apology, no reason for the most unprofessional behavior by the instructor that I have ever heard of. Their website clearly states that after students complete the classroom portion of the school, they should sign up right away for the BTW instruction. They also say they are good with nervous or anxious drivers… this is absolutely not the case. Do yourselves a favor and find a proper driving school, with caring and patient instructors. After writing this, I’m going to go ahead and give it a negative 5 stars.