“I found this company through google, i was looking for a no nonsense intensive driving course that i would complete within a reasonable time frame, after all thats why im paying over the odds for this specific service.
This cost me £1379, £379 payable to the company via their website and as soon as you pay the deposit you are then instructed to pay the instructor they allocate you either cash or a bank transfer for the remaining amount, in my case £1000, I instantly had a bad feeling but i decided to proceed given that i had just paid the deposit and never imagined it would blow up in my face.
i was allocated a driving instructor (Nicholas Jackson based in Holmes Chapel - ADI - 320104) who rang me the next day after being allocated to me by OWD, we arranged to start on 05/05/2019 and he asked for the money to be paid on that day which i did. From the 05/05/19 to 03/06/19 i had 4 hours over 3 sessions which i had to chase for, i have a string of unanswered texts and calls from the 22/05/19 and began thinking the worst so i contacted OWD and they informed me that Nicholas had stopped teaching and that this affected 6 other pupils being owed their money back. OWD then offered to refund me my deposit to "alleviate my financial loss"
I have had to file reports with the police and ActionFraud who are pursuing this matter as fraud.
To sum up, the way this company operates is basically as an agency that pass work onto self employed instructors that arent known to them or vetted appropriately, the system of you paying the company an extortionate amount to basically give you the name of an instructor local to you and then to find you a test date for you is massively flawed as you are essentially having someone thats been picked for you turn up to your house, handing over a large sum of cash to them and then waiting/relying on them to give you the service you purchased, its far too easy to be conned and the company OWD dont want to know and rely on the fact that the instructors arent employed by them which im being told by ActionFraud and the Police isnt true and that they are responsible.
I urge anyone looking into an intensive driving course to find a local company who employ their own instructors and to never pay cash.”
“If you are assigned a driving instructor by the name of George Farrell (Northampton), ADI Number: 161305 I suggest you request another immediately.
I paid £400 cash to him on the first lesson, took an initial assessment, then he failed to show up for the next 5 lessons, giving only frivolous excuses at the last minute. I requested a refund from him following this, and it has now been 2 weeks with no refund in sight. He basically took the money, spent it, then couldn't be bothered to show up for the lessons.
While I was able to get my deposit refunded from oneweekdriving.com, this meant very little as I was unable to afford to pay for a replacement instructor without the money back from the instructor. I believe the company terms and conditions are unfair as it is implied I would be assigned a reliable instructor, and I was given no such service. I am now pursuing legal proceedings, as well as a complaint to the DVSA against this instructor. It may also include a complaint to trading standards as I believe the company is partly liable, and cannot simply wash their hands of the situation.
Absolute daylight robbery - steer well clear of instructor George Farrell.”
“COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONIES.
DO NOT USE, BOOK A MORE COMPETENT COMPANY WITH BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE, ADELE WAS VERY RUDE TALKING OVER ME CONSTANTLY WHEN TRYING TO GET MY MONIES BACK.
UNPROFESSIONAL, POOR ATTITUDE, AND DREADFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE, IF YOU USE THESE.
DO NOT SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED.”
“Beware! This company will not refund even if you’re eligible! I have been fully eligible for a refund for more than 9 months and they won’t give me my money back. £372 down the drain. The administrators are rude and their correspondence is misleading. Avoid!!!”
“What an incredibly disorganised and frustrating experience you have provided. You have already cancelled and changed instructor once, and now have left it until a week before it is due to commence to notify me of a mistake on your part, despite the booking being made over 3 months ago. It will now be too late for me to I put other arrangements in place as I have to work around the school holidays.
I would not recommend them to anyone.”
“AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! Do not deal with this company! I have had nothing but trouble since day one! Since booking my course they disregarded the fact I asked to change area as it was wrong on booking form, they were fine with it at first but still gave me a driver for the wrong area even after agreeing they would change it and insisted I wouldn't be due a refund as it's what was on my booking form and that they allocated a driver but that I REFUSED etc. So to not lose out on money I agreed even though I'd have to travel for it, on the first day of my supposed lesson the instructor cancelled as I was on my way, and was to continue the next day, however later that night he messaged and said he had a test at the same time he had booked with me! I couldn't do any other time as I had already previously booked time off work to do my lessons once it was confirmed the week before...Now they are still refusing a refund and in the process of fighting for it, they do not know what they are talking about at all and didn't even know the instructors last name or anything! They couldn't organise a night out let alone a driving course! They are very quick to try and put all the fault on you so I wouldn't even attempt at booking with OWD! Go with a company that knows what they are talking about!!”
“Most horrendous customer service in the world. I wanted a two week intensive in order to pass quickly for a new job and they told me i could start a particular day. Driver never called. Rang the company, they moved it to the week after. Again the driver couldnt do it. Moved it again...i came to them because i wanted to learn and pass quickly and they were unable to book it for me. Eventually gave me a number for an instructor and told me to sort it out. He was great but then their admin messed up maybe four times creating more problems with booking theory and retests...The lady who answers the phone in the office, Adele, evidently doesnt give a toss about anything and wasnt interested in helping as well as being rude. TERRIBLE COMPANY.”
“Don’t go anywhere near this company. I booked an intensive course for my son months in advance and days before the start date I got an email to say no instructor was available but they were confident they could get one for the following week. The same thing happened the following week so I got a refund. Unfortunately we are now unable to get an intensive course with another school until August. Such a waste of time, I really wish I’d read the many terrible reviews before booking with this company.”
“Everything. They take your money and don't give a monkeys. Worst company I've ever dealt with. Unprofessional, stupid as their emails are full of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Just shocking and shouldn't be able to remain in businee”
“Owner refused to hold the week I'd booked and before then sent me aggressive emails when I tried to figure out a resolution. Obviously a very sad old man. He's now refusing to refund me so I'm raising a chargeback! Avoid”
“Waste of money gave me an instructor who couldn't be bothered teaching me didn't want to do sat nav, local routes , even stopping to the side of the road and then when I had a test at 8 in the morning she was late I rang her and she was still in bed so yeh waste of money”
“DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY. I was sold a course that was supposed to be 4 days with a test at the end, and it turns out they can't actually book a test for me. They've opened up bookings when they don't know whether they can actually provide you with the course as advertised, and like seems to be the case with a lot of these reviews, the company's director is point blank refusing to give me a refund. He literally hung up on me when I called to request it. When I left a review on Twitter he deleted it, and when I left a review on TrustPilot he just insulted me. This is a semi-legitimate company. The owner is a conman and a thief.”
“Do not use!
Do not use!
I booked a one week driving course the 1st day my instructor was late he insisted i paid all the money up front he was so rude, we could barely communicate he sat and ate food next to me the whole time i was driving and he didnt turn up at all after that one day! I had paid all my money. This was the 1st time i had ever drove and it has put me off for life to say the least. I contacted the company they said they would refund me then i recieved another email stating they were going to re book my course with someone else i simply said no i still want my refund they then send another email saying that i have a different course booked with someone else and nothing was said about my refund. I called the man who was due to do my course with me to explain it and he said its not the 1st time hes heard of this and i should push to get my money back but i never did. I had just turned 17 and had worked for months to save up for this course its really upsetting something so easy has been so difficult for me. So sad i never even got a reply or my money back 5 years later and im still worried to have any more lesson. THEY HAVE NOT MENTIONED A REFUND SINCE! I GOT NO MONEY BACK AND SPENT OVER £500 AT 17 YEARS OF AGE THIS COMPANY IS DISGUSTING!!!!!!”
“Please read the reviews before booking.
Awful company to deal with. They are now going on trust pilot and reporting all the negative reviews!
Absolute con artists the owner and the instructor”
“I signed up for this course a while ago, at first they were accommodating of my change in circumstances i.e. university/study commitments. Although they rarely answer the phone and always emailed back with 'from customer service' so you never felt like you were speaking to one person who understood your situation. However, I had one lesson with my most recent instructor, who I thought I could trust because he was affiliated with the company and he told me if I paid him a lump sum he would charge me less for the lessons. I paid him (Nick Jackson) £400 and I never heard from him since, the company have washed their hands of the issue stating that my problem is with him. They told me that many other learners have had similar issues with him and long story short I'm taking him to small claims court which could take years. The company gave me a partial refund but would not give me the full amount due to the length of time between when I purchased the course and eventually was able to take my test. Absolutely shocking, they obviously don't screen the people they employ. This also isn't value for money! They just want to take your money and fob you off to an instructor they aren't even in regular contact with.”
“I am absolutely devastated I did not see these reviews before I paid this shambles of a company, I would give them -5 stars if possible. I’ve paid for 32.5 hours Mohammed my instructor, he says we will have it done in one week books me in for 5 full days of driving, the first day was only 4.5 hours in that time had me drive through car wash because his car was dirty, take him to sort his divorce papers out, take his daughter in Manchester while she meets friends for lunch, he has me driving on the motorway when his words “my clutch control is really not good”, surely that can’t be legal or safe. He spends about 80% of time on the phone to his friends/family in his own language which is very rude as he is supposed to be concentrating on my driving. He doesn’t teach me anything just asks me to drive constantly he’s always changing my hours around, he failed to turn upto a 10 am lesson and didn’t let me know until after 3pm, if I didn’t turn up I would of lost the whole day, I spoke to one week intensive driving they said it’s upto the instructor whether he wants to refund or not. I have asked for a refund and he doesn’t do refunds, he also says I need a further 15-20 lessons. I URGE ANYONE TO STAY CLEAR OF THIS SHAMBLES OF A COMPANY WHO RECRUIT A JOKE OF INSTRUCTOR.”
“I have never known such bad customer service, but from reading the reviews below, I consider myself very lucky!
Firstly we did get assigned a driving instructor, however, they cancelled 2 days before the lessons were due to start, and as they were unable to provide a replacement, I did receive a full refund. We then found our own instructor. However, they offered to continue with booking the test for me (which I paid for) - we subsequently receive a text offering us a date, which I accepted, and received a confirmation text. We turned up for the test only to find they had cancelled the test and not notified us! Luckily, I did receive another full refund for the test but nothing for my out of pocket expenses I incurred for turning up to a test that they had already cancelled.”
“Signed my daughter up for an intensive driving course with oneweekdrivingcourse.com 2 weeks in advance of start date and were told we would receive details of her instructor before the date she was due to start. After 2 emails to chase them, Literally 3 days before her start date we are informed by oneweekdrivingcourse.com that there are no instructors available and we could hang on until following week for an update. The reason we booked intensive is because we needed it for a certain date!! We are now unable to find anyone else at short notice and we leave the UK so now unable to take course or test!! We have one upset daughter who was having lessons for her birthday. No apologies, no nothing!! Steer clear! They shouldn’t be advertising that they can find someone if they are not 100% sure they can find them. False advertising as I see it. Isn’t that illegal?”
“For 380 quid they booked my theory. Soon as I passed it, nothing. Been waiting close to 3 months to do this intense course. 10 hours worth of lessons and the practical. BIG SCAM. You ring the company who'll keep putting you to a dead line, when you do get hold of them it's your job apparently to sort it all out. But with a driving instructor that you've never met who's phone always seems to be off. DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY MONEY”
“Terrible service! Waste of money, quicker and easier to arrange everything yourself. Very slow at everything and the instructors are unprofessional and rude.”
