Name: The AA Driving School
Address: Fanum House, Basing View,, RG21 4EA
Rating: 3.97

“I haven't drove in 6 years and passed my test 15 years ago in a rural area. I took my first refresher lesson with Danielle in Birmingham today. Within 10 minutes behind the wheel she was shouting at me for making a mistake, when I'd told her she literally needed to start from scratch with me and treat me like a beginner, and that I had significant anxiety around driving. The mistake was around a gear change - I was trying to change down while on a residential road and she said I needed to slow down more before I did it. I imagine this is a common mistake so her reaction seemed quite disproportionate. Would not recommend for anxious drivers at all.”

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Posted 1 day ago

“I haven't drove in 6 years and passed my test 15 years ago in a rural area. I took my first refresher lesson with Danielle in Birmingham today. Within 10 minutes behind the wheel she was shouting at me for making a mistake, when I'd told her she literally needed to start from scratch with me and treat me like a beginner, and that I had significant anxiety around driving. The mistake was around a gear change - I was trying to change down while on a residential road and she said I needed to slow down more before I did it. I imagine this is a common mistake so her reaction seemed quite disproportionate. Would not recommend for anxious drivers at all.”

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Posted 1 day ago

“Unreliable and unprofessional – do not recommend. Messaged Jordan Lillie two weeks before my test, and he confirmed booking and availability. As the test approached, he stopped replying to calls or texts, and then failed to show on test day, offering no reason or apology. I was left stranded, stressed, and with no support. If you want someone consistent and communicative, look elsewhere.”

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Posted 1 week ago

“I started learning to drive with the AA a few years ago and while I figured out how to control the car at a basic level, I struggled to drive independently due to my instructor lacking in sufficient support. He would often tell me what to do instead of letting me figure things out, and never even considered going through a mock test with me before my test date. I therefore had to change instructors and join a different driving school who could meet my needs. After contacting customer support to find another instructor within the AA to replace them, they didn’t come back to me at all. Unfortunately I haven’t had the best experience learning with the AA as my instructor wasn’t able to teach me the necessary information to drive like my new instructor did and they failed to find me someone who could within the organisation. Needless to say I’ve now thankfully passed my test with another driving school but not sure I’d be able to recommend the AA for learning to drive for me personally - they should probably stick with breakdown recovery service in my opinion.”

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Posted 1 week ago

“I spoke to a lady from AA DRIVING SCHOOL who was putting my 17 year old child down for lessons.. she asked if my daughter has any thing she requires.. my daughter said just for her mum or uncle to sit in the back so she felt safe with a stranger.. the AA worker stated this could only happen on a couple of occasions but driving instructors don’t feel comfortable doing this so maybe no one will offer her any driving lessons. So we asked for a female instructor instead, we were told this wasn’t possible as it’s only 20% driving instructors. The lady spoke to me and my daughter in an aggravated manner because we were adamant for the safety of my child, there will always be a family member in the car. The woman made clear we most likely won’t get any driving instructors offering there service to my child. This will be taken further as that was an appalling service from someone who has to only answer a phone.”

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Posted 3 weeks ago

“The login portal stopped working after my son had had 2 lessons; to set up an account we needed to put in an email to which a verification code would be sent....except the code never arrived. We tried a couple of email addresses time and time again with no luck. Our driving instructor (lovely) could not do anything about login issues and we were directed to the aa online chatbot. This just said repeatedly that it didn't understand, couldn't help etc but did not transfer us to an actual human. I tried phoning a helpline number I found online but all the telephone services have been withdrawn. It seems the aa is fine if the online stuff is working but if there's a problem you have no support whatsoever.”

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Posted 1 month ago

“If I could give zero stars, I would. AA Driving School is not fit for purpose—the quality of instructors is poor and unreliable. They pick and choose students and seem to misunderstand the very idea of teaching. I wouldn’t waste my time or money on them. Look elsewhere”

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Posted 2 months ago

“Cancelled an hour before the lesson on my daughter's birthday! She was so upset 😞”

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Posted 3 months ago

“Summary of Complaint – John David Burbidge vs. AA Driving Instructor Gareth Farrell (ADI No. 102155) Complaint Reference: 2010/00272 On 28 March 2020, John Burbidge had a prepaid driving lesson scheduled with AA Driving School instructor Gareth Farrell, at a cost of £60. A confirmation message from the AA the day before indicated the lesson would proceed as planned. However, no communication was made by the instructor or the AA to cancel or postpone the session in advance. The lesson was later marked as "on hold" due to COVID-19. Following this, John was informed the lesson had been cancelled due to the pandemic, but the instructor had already claimed payment for the undelivered service. Gareth Farrell stated he attempted to contact John to verify whether he was a key worker—a claim refuted by John’s submitted call and text logs, which showed no such contact occurred. When a refund was initially refused, the matter was escalated. John submitted a formal complaint to the DVSA, alleging fraudulent conduct and a breach of the AA’s own terms and conditions, which require instructors to provide 48 hours' notice for cancellations. With John's written permission, the DVSA contacted Gareth Farrell for a response. In reply, Gareth asserted that the responsibility was on the student to provide documentation 48 hours in advance to prove eligibility for lessons during lockdown—despite the legal change only taking effect 24 hours prior to the scheduled lesson, making such advance notice impossible. John’s evidence showed he was not contacted and thus could not comply with this condition. Although Gareth Farrell maintained that retaining the funds was justified, the AA ultimately refunded John’s payment, acknowledging the breach of terms. The DVSA concluded they would not take the matter further but confirmed a record of the complaint would be retained on file for two years. While the payment was eventually returned, the situation raises concerns about the conduct and integrity of the instructor, as well as the handling of such issues at an instructor and company level resulting in distress and several weeks spend in resolution. No compensation was offered by AA for inconvenience.”

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Posted 3 months ago

“The driver never showed up and it took almost 2 weeks to get a refund +5 working days for it to actually end up in my bank.”

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Posted 3 months ago

“Driving instructor (Wayne Heery) was always late anywhere from 45mins to an hour and half late every time. Lied to me saying it was AAs fault but turns out AA have nothing to do with time. Was always making me take unwanted breaks so he could go on his phone and making inappropriate comments”

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Posted 3 months ago

“Booked a set of lessons and 3 out of 4 been cancelled by AA. It's hard enough to get an instructor these days and this isn't good enough from a supposed reputable company!”

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Posted 3 months ago

“AA instructor Luke Morgan is such an unprofessional creature ! Avoid him if u can !”

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Posted 4 months ago

“DO NOT use Jian Chen. He’s a trainee instructor and I booked with him just to get a feel of 2 hour lessons as I’m getting closer to doing a test. Everything was fine until I got into the car and he couldn’t speak English. The language barrier and broken english made it very difficult to concentrate and to actually follow his instructions. He didn’t understand me at times when I asked for confirmation on where we going because I didn’t understand his directions, which led to dangerous situations on the road. Despite my telling him I had done 30 lessons with another instructor, he frequently tried to grab the steering wheel from me even when everything was fine. He would take over using the dual controls when there was no need (for example at a closed T-junction, I was rolling in gear 1 ready to stop because I couldn’t see and he took the steering wheel from me and forcefully braked).”

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Posted 4 months ago

“Terrible service. The instructor is passive aggressive, never responds to messages. if the student is running late due to train cancellation he waits 5 Mins, cancels the lesson and expects a full Charge. Contacting the AA is unhelpful And relies on a chat bot. Meanwhile it seems the instructor Is only interested in charging as much as possible. Terrible school”

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Posted 4 months ago

“I had been having lessons for a number of months all going well getting ready for my test, then unexplained three weeks before my test my driving instructor cancelled all his lessons with me and blocked off his availability for me, leaving me with no instructor for my test. The AA were unable to give any reason and were very unhelpful on finding a replacement.”

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Posted 4 months ago

“I passed my driving test and did it with another driving school. The first instructor I had was from RED, named Ali Hasson Mohamed, who dropped out from the contract at RED and came to AA, because they gave him a better income deal. He did not tell me at the start of our lessons that there might be potential of him leaving instead he just stopped coming to our lessons with my test right around the corner. I was not told at all he might change schools and it came as such a shock. I was told continuously I was gonna fail my test because of my driving but it wasn’t me it was him because he knew he was going to leave me right before my test. By luck I got another incredible instructor and passed on my first attempt. So be careful and be alert of instructors as it was disappointing for the way things were left not to mention constant downgrade and the vaping during our lessons. Instructors should motivate their students not continuously telling them they are going to fail.”

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Posted 4 months ago

“DO NOT use Biniam Micheal through the AA as your driving instructor. Terrible instructor. He cancelled my lesson at the last minute, and left me searching for a refund. He is also incredibly rude.”

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Posted 4 months ago

“I have been taking driving lessons with AA since October. I started taking lessons with AA on the 15th Oct 2024 and my last lesson was January the 31st. Within that time frame, I had done 32 hours of driving lessons. I booked my test in November for March as I'm aware that tests must be booked months in advance and I did not want to have to wait 5/6 months for a test once ready to do the test. When I completed 30 hours we had a conversation about the test and he told me I’m not half way through covering what we need to cover. After 30 hours??? Unfortunately, although completing 32 hours. I did not progress the way I should have for the amount of driving I did. In my lessons we had not covered many areas which I feel we definitely should have covered such as manoeuvres and roundabouts. I did not go on a dual carriageway nor a large roundabout. I barley used gears beyond gear 2 (I used gear 3 maybe twice). I am currently using a new driving instructor but it feels like I'm starting from the first lesson as my new instructor has to correct a lot of bad technique that I had been taught or that wasn't corrected with my instructor from AA. In addition to this, my instructor would arrive on my road and we'd be stationary for 45 mins - 1 hour of my 2-hour lessons just going over the things we'd be covering that lesson. I understand maybe having a 10 min brief of what we'd be going over but 45 minutes to an hour is excessive!! And to pay £34 an hour is too much to spend just talking for an hour. I've done 32 hours so I've spent £1,088 on lessons to still be at a beginner's level. Although my instructor was a lovely person, I'm extremely unhappy and disappointed with the lack of progress I've made and the time wasted on theory during my practical driving lessons. I contacted AA about potential compensation for the money wasted and the lack of progress but they have not responded to rectify this issue. I didn't want to reach out about this as the lessons have already been taken but I've spent over a grand on lessons and I'm having a new instructor correct me on my bad driving techniques and introducing me to new things that I should've definitely covered in my 32 hours of lessons. This was my personal experience with my instructor, I cannot speak for other instructors within the company, however, save yourself the time and money and find an instructor that will prioritise teaching you properly, so you won’t have to book as many lessons, as opposed to learning the bare minimum and having to book multiple lessons and spend a grand on wasted lessons.”

The AA Driving School 1 star review on 27th February 2025

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Posted 4 months ago

“useless, the driving instructor didn’t message me till the same day, 5 mins before my driving lesson and cancelled on me.”

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Posted 4 months ago

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour

The AA Driving School Reviews