to not pay my driving instructor

[vanillanice]

Third lesson today with new instructor. Lesson booked at 3.30pm. DH working, no-one else available to babysit the dc's. Ended up persuading begging my 18 year old cousin to babysit, agreed to pay her £10 to babysit.

Anyway, cousin turns up at 3.25pm. We sit and wait for my instructor, eventually it gets to 4pm. Instructor hasn't texted or phoned. Cousin says she has to go at 4.30pm so I tell her she might as well go. Instructor pulls up at 4.05pm. I explain to her that there's no way I can have a lesson now as she is so late and babysitter had to leave.

Instructor tries first of all to say lesson was booked for 4pm, but I whip out my card that clearly says 3.30pm. She then says she had to 'move' my lesson to 4pm but didn't have my number to ring and tell me. Total crap as we exchanged contact details first lesson.

She then said I had to pay her for lesson even if I don't go out with her. Told her absolutely no way.

Absolutely furming. Driving lessons are stressful enough especially coupled with trying to arrange childcare. AIBU not to pay?

What did she say when you refused to pay?

BTW - I agree with everyone else, YADNBU and you should find a different instructor.

Ds1 has been having driving lessons since he was 17 - we booked them with the AA, and can highly recommend them. His instructor has been on time, every time, and seems to have done a good job of teaching ds1. Plus, I felt that getting the lessons from a big organisation like the AA gave us some comeback if there were problems.

I second the AA recommendation, they may be pricey but you get what you pay for.
When my instructor had to cancel at short notice because another learner crashed the car he gave me a free lesson to make up for it.

I would never go with the AA (sorry!). They are far too structured on the whole, and they certainly get their money out of you. IME they get you to spend a set amount of time on certain parts of driving, no matter how quickly you pick it up, and you end up paying for more than you need. Not to mention that the lessons are more expensive in the first place.

Get a recommendation from someone you know and trust, much better than going with a big organisation.

...refuse to pay and change Driving Schools now...

When I first started having driving lessons - I went out a couple of times with this guy from a local "Driving School"

All was fine except but he was erratic on turning up on time for the first two lessons - but on the third time.... I noticed several duvets and bedding on the back seat and he asked me stop at a particular address. He got out of the car and was gone for about 20 minutes... and then resumed the lesson as though nothing had happened - I paid in full but felt a little .

I cancelled my further lessons and a few weeks later I read in the paper that he had been done for running several unsavoury activities (Brothels) within the town....

My next Instructor was fab - shame my driving wasn' still up to scratch as I didn't pass first time - second time lucky....

YANBU. Why should you pay for that?

No doubt if YOU were late or cancelled with half an hour's notice, you would still have to pay. So instructor's side of the bargain is definitely that she turns up on time, or she doesn't get paid! Am v happy for you that you don't seem to have paid in advance (I usually do).. If she hasn't got any of your unused money, find someone else straight away!

Don't pay. I always got weird drive instructors - I had one who used to always insist on coming in and using my loo BEFORE and AFTER our lesson...It was like I was providing her with a public toilet or something. Never re-booked with her again.