Driving In A New America/ D.I.A.N.A

Review: We contracted service through DIANA for our 16 year old daughter for driving instruction. We have called and attempted scheduling appointments on several attempts without return phone calls until we finally did get a live voice on their phone numbers. The owner had received payment in full long before we were able to even schedule an appointment as they did not return phone calls. Once they were reached, the owner communicated with a strongly worded, insult riddled message and then continues with the same tome with my wife on yet another phone call.

Scheduling with this business is a nightmare. My daughter did have to cancel two appointments, 1 because the school district rescheduled her AP College Course test (she had no control on and was 11 minutes late that the 48 hour time frame given by DIANA. The second was cancled as she was sick and my wife notified them within 8 hours of the scheduled time and she was absent from school for this reason.

The contracted service with the company was for 6 hours of driving instruction. The first one was completed by the daughter of the owner who picked [redacted] up and was smoking and pregnant. She then spent the next three hours in a car with this young woman discussing this lady's divorce, court case of child support, and impending litigation. Not the conversation to be had with an I'm[pressional 16 year old whom is paying several hundred dollars for this service.

I contacted the business owner with a respectable email requesting that he complete the required driving instruction and this issue would be complete. He stated that he wanted another $70 dollars to cover the 11 minute late fee and he would not talk to use until he received that money- extortion.Desired Settlement: We ask for completion of the 3 hours we paid for by an accredited staff member in a profession manner as promised by contracted service.

Business

Response:

First of all, I have never spoken to Mr. [redacted] personally, and he was not involved in anyway with the negotiations or with the scheduling of driving lessons for his daughter, [redacted]. All conversations were between either myself and [redacted], or myself and [redacted]’s mother[redacted]. Mr. [redacted] only became involved when I advised [redacted] of the late cancellation fee,which had been applied their account. Therefore any and all statements and accusations by Mr.[redacted] are second-hand and are therefore hearsay. I do not know if the information wasinaccurately conveyed to Mr. [redacted] by his wife and daughter, or if he has deliberatelyattempted to deceive the Revdex.com himself, but I can say with all certainty that there is virtuallynothing in Mr. [redacted]’s complaint that is accurate, and many of the claims can be construedas outright lies.Because I am the only person in our office, and I am out frequently doing driving lessonsmyself—or am otherwise occupied- callers will frequently get our answering machine. But Ipride myself in the ability to return each and every phone call within 24 hours baringextraordinary circumstances. The statement that I did not return phone calls is a total lie!Saying that we received payment “long before we were able to schedule the appointment” isalso totally false. In fact our account notes show that payment was received March 16, Iphoned them the next day at 6:46 PM, and when no one answered I left a message for them tocall and schedule the lessons. However [redacted] did not return my phone call until March 23,which is almost afull week later. She told me that she already had her test scheduled for thefollowing week, and wanted her driving lessons to be completed before then, but that she wasnot available all weekend! I advised her that we were booked six weeks in advance. We wouldtry to accommodate her sooner than that, but there was no way we could do the lessons in thelimited timeframe that she described. She told me that she would check with her mother andcall back. Another two weeks went by before mother [redacted] called on April 5 and scheduled thelessons. She was extremely adamant that she did not want to wait six weeks and insisted thatwe schedule the lessons ASAP, so I contacted one of our instructors that had been off onmaternity leave and begged her to just do these two lessons.The “insult riddled message” was also a complete lie. I am a professional, and I would not bein business very long if I made a habit of insulting our clients.Mr. [redacted] states that his daughter had to cancel two appointments. We only had twoappointments to schedule, and, in fact, his daughter actually rescheduled them a total of sixilmes, and two of those were short notice. The following notice is given on our website, and onevery appointment confirmation E-mail that they receive (in their case, six of them):Cancellations made less than 48 hours in advance will be subject to a cancellation fee equal tothe cost of 1 hour of behind the wheel training. A “no show” will be subject to a cancellationfee equal to the cost of lesson. NOTE: So that we can be assured of getting your message ina timely fashion, if you are giving less than 48 hours notice to cancel a lesson, and you cannot reach a person in our office, you must both leave a message at out office number andcall follow the directions on our voice mail to call our emergency number as well.When I first spoke with Mr. [redacted]’s wife [redacted] I requested that she noti& [redacted]’s employerthat she would not be available on those two dates. She indicated to me that she did not wish todo so. I advised her that, if she cancelled at the last minute because [redacted] had to go to work thenit would probably be several weeks before we could schedule another appointment, and thatthere would be a late cancellation fee under 48 hours. The first four cancellations were morethan 48 hours notice, and no reason was given. The 5~ was because she was supposedly “sick”(if she was sick in bed and throwing up as Mr. [redacted] told me, then why was [redacted] callingme on the phone instead of her mother, who I could hear in the background telling her what tosay). The wife did not give eight hours notice; she gave us just TWO hours notice. This left anopening in our schedule, which we were unable to fill, resulting a loss of $207 in income forour school. They did not follow directions and call our last-minute cancellation number, butluckily I got the message before the instructor was dispatched otherwise she would have beenliable for the entire price ofthe lesson which is $207 I did NOT bill the late cancellation fee asI customarily wave it the first time, but when [redacted] called to cancel an appointment for the sixthtime and it was under our 48 hour time frame I’d had enough and advised her that the latecancellation fee would not be waved this time.As for the Mr. [redacted]’s claim that our instructor was smoking and pregnant, what does thishave to do with the late payment fee? Perhaps smoking while a person is pregnant is not a wisedecision, but the woman is an adult and Mr. [redacted] has no right applying his judgmentalcomments such as this. The instructor had a pack of cigarettes in the console, but did notsmoke at any time during the instruction! If [redacted] indicated otherwise she is lying. They did not“spend the next three hours discussing the lady’s divorce” etc! She spent the next three hoursgiving driver education to a girl who already had her license, but was still making manydriving mistakes. The subject of the divorce came up when [redacted] commented on the woman’spregnancy and it expanded into the divorce issue, but it was just a “side conversation” thatlasted a matter of minutes, not hours.The inaccuracy of Mr. [redacted]’s statements is also extremely evident in his quoting of theprices involved: “Purchase price” was $414 for the driving lessons, not $550. The “Disputedamount” is our $75 late cancellation fee, not $275. (Unless he’s referring to the price of thelesson, which is $207. A One-hour lesson was $69 prior to May 1, and $75 after May 1).As you can see, Mr. [redacted] is wrong on each end every statement that he made. We havegone above and beyond normal customer service to appease this family —even to the extent ofbringing a woman back from maternity leave- however they seem to be extremelydisorganized, demanding and judgmental. If Mr. [redacted] is so concerned about his“impressionable 16 year old” then perhaps he should consider the impression that he is giving.He is teaching her that it is totally all right to inconvenience and disrespect other people, and toignore rules, because “daddy will be there to bully them into shape for you”. Well, I will notsuccumb to bullying.We are perfectly willing to provide the final lesson to his daughter upon payment of the latecancellation fee. The $75 late cancellation fee will stand and there is no possibility of it beingrevoked.Sincerely,President,Driving In A New America, Inc