Universal Driving School Ottawa Inc.

Negative experience: One of your instructors whipped into the Tim Hortons parking lot and hit my car door when getting out and walked away, on a Saturday morning, with a driving school marked car. I guess your motto must be do as I say not as I do

Negative experience: It was a satisfactory experience having my lessons here. I wasn't properly taught how to operate a car with 0 prior driving experience. I wasted half of one of my sessions waiting at a Costco lot having to refill gas. Was told 7 sessions in that there was supposed to be a test, when it should be halfway in (5 hours). Didn't teach me enough within the minimum time required. They told me to use a parking brake when I had never been taught or used it my entire life. Tried to communicate with an instructor that I was confused about how to merge into a lane safely, yet he responded that he was confused. After finishing the Drivers ED at 10 hours I didn't pass the test receiving a 65%, The Instructor said that I needed an 80% to pass, but after talking with other certified instructors on this topic, they said the ministry required 70%. Despite my not passing, I think the grading is fraudulent and improper. I was told to do an additional 5 hours, however, I tried to negotiate to understand why I needed to do 5 hours more, instead of trying to practice 1 hour to see my progress, they impeded I must pay for the 5-hour additional package. I decided to not continue with their course. I took this driving school at the same time as a peer of mine recommended it and they had a negative experience as well and dropped out of this Drivers ED school. My advice is to work on manners and how you respectfully talk to people as you are providing a service to a client. Although most people here are young students, does not give you the right to belittle them or infringe any kind of animosity as they are trying to learn because it is a new concept they are trying to learn. Another thing is to be understanding when things arise like this experience, otherwise you'll have bad customer review experiences just like this.

Negative experience: Bad customer service

Negative experience: Really bad!! I would put 0 stars! I signed up for drivers ed in December. I and a few others waited 30 minutes for someone to show up and no one ever did. We then called them and they said classes were cancelled but they never posted an update on their website, they never contacted us to let us know and at the place they had a paper which indicated the schedule for classes and nothing saying ours was cancelled was written on there. When we asked to speak to the manager he kept telling us that he was busy and to call him later but then, he would say the exact same thing. He lied to us several times saying he had called us multiple times and left us a voicemail but no one ever got a call. We then asked for a refund but he wouldn't give us all of it back. He would only give us the amount we paid (676,87$) minus 40$ because we payed with paypal, though they forced us to use that. He didn't want to give our money back. We had to call him several times as well as raise our tone of voice to finally get our refund. Only 2 weeks after requesting our refund we got our money back.

Fantastic experience: Amazing driving school in Ottawa! Thank you so much Hess and Ivan for your excellent guidance and training during driving lessons. You both are great guys and have a positive attitude to extend your help during lessons. I will recommend universal driving school to everyone.

Negative experience: Poor driving instructors: My mother needed a couple senior's refresher courses before her exam this Thursday. I called on Saturday and explained her situation and the owner told me to call this number and speak to "Charlie". I call Charlie and the guy can barely speak English. He agrees to take my mother driving on Sunday (exam on Thursday). He shows up on time (that's good), but then insists on using his car instead of my mother's car (which A. she's used to, and B. is customary in the industry for obvious reasons). So he calls me and in his very broken English, conveys this vehicle issue. I explain the reason why she wants to use hers, and he reluctantly agrees. We say goodbye, and I think it's solved. Ten minutes later, I get another call from him: the instructor is cancelling the appointment because he doesn't think his English was good enough (it really wasn't - he should not be teaching anyone that doesn't speak good his language). So the next morning I call the owner up, and he offers Sonia: Sonia is another immigrant, but she speaks better English: Great! I book an appointment for Tuesday afternoon, and think this is the last I'll hear about this. The appointment was for 12:30, and I get a phone call from my mother at 12:45 wondering where the instructor was (no phone call from the instructor saying she was late). The instructor shows, they hop on my mom's car, and off they go to drive in Kanata. The "lesson": So they do various driving exercises, and then the inevitable language issue: although the instructor's English was better than the previous guy, Sonia was still difficult to understand at times. So when she instructed my mother to do a 3 point turn, my mother understood U-turn. Then the instructor tells my mother to drive here and there in the suburbs of Kanata, and they eventually get LOST! Sonia didn't have a GPS on her phone, not a city map. So she instructs my mother to "get us out of here". My mother was busy following the instructor's directions, so she didn't quite know where they were to begin with. After trying to find their way out, the instructor tells my mother to pull over, and let her drive! What? She drives my mother back home half an hour early on a 2 hour lesson, only charges her for an hour, says goodbye, then calls me to tell me to book another instructor with the owner. I call the owner (now Wednesday morning) and he says they instructor said my mother was an unsafe driver and they decline to offer any further services.... The thing is, the instructor (Sonia) never mentioned any of this to me in the phone call nor to my mother during the "lesson". They need to hire instructors with better English and that are more professional and show up on time or call. I called the owner back after talking to my mother to get her side of the story, and tried to tell him what my mother said: he literally said he wasn't interested in what I had to say and hung up on me! Nice customer service: stick head in sand.... Edit: So the owner called me while I was working on a ladder, so I let the machine take a message: he left a message saying he was going to sue me, then followed it up with this text message: Mr Lauren Blanchet Will send you our lawyer It's our right to refuse clients to serve them We're going to make a claim against you ***** He is 100% correct: you can refuse what you want, as long as it's not discrimination (and I'm not implying this). I didn't lie, and I didn't misrepresent him, his employees, or his company. I only repeated what he, his employees, and what my mother said to me. We shall see smar happens. Probably nothing...

Fantastic experience: My experience with Universal Driving School was very good. My in-car instructor Balvir who was very efficient in giving me instructions, and bringing his positive attitude throughout the lessons. He's flexible to book lessons if you have school or work. I would definitely recommend this driving school to anyone who lives in Barrhaven or College Square. Thank you very much to Balvir and Hess.

Fantastic experience: Thank you Hess and Balvir for being so efficient in giving me instructions, while instilling confidence and positive attitude throughout the lessons. I wouldn’t have made it without your support. Thank you very much. Jay.

Fantastic experience: Amazing driving school! Hess was a great driving instructor and was very nice and helpful. He had an awesome approach and gave so many good tips. I defenitely recomend it to anyone.