Katy Driving School

Negative experience: If I could give this place no stars I would. They’re so bad with scheduling drive time, answering calls, and responding to emails was told from the start that's how you request drive time with instructors. And now they have this rude lady there now that won't even take appts over the phone. Can't even get my daughter scheduled for an extra lesson that the instructor said she needed before doing the driving test. And when telling her you work far away and can't get there in time before closing at 6 Mon-Fri because they won't take appts on Sat she says “Oh well”. Not including when my daughter was there one of the instructors made an inappropriate comment to her. After reporting that he was still there driving other ppl children. I hate I even gave this place a dime of my money now have to spend more money and switch my daughter to another place that has sense and that’s professional. I wouldn't recommend this place to anybody I'm surprised they’re still in business.

Negative experience: This place is horrible. The worst customer service and no appointment availability and wife who works front desk is not helpful at all. They don’t answer the phone and online portal is trash!!! This again all happened after they were brought by another company RAN Driving School don’t let the Katy name fool you folks!!!!

Fantastic experience: I can't thank Narmin enough for working with our tight timeline to schedule my daughter's driving test. Her 16th birthday fell the day before school starts so we needed to schedule the test the same day. I am please with the changes that have happened with Katu Driving school the past 6 months. Being able to access the portal for information as well as see available driving times to schedule. I will definitely refer friends to Katy/Ran Driving school.

Fantastic experience: Friendly guy. Highly recommended.

Negative experience: With my elder son, we had a good experience with the school. Since the school has moved to the location, we have been encountering one issue after another. They don’t respond to emails any more. The hours are strange. If one has a driving time scheduled at 3pm and has a question that morning, there is no way to get the answer because the school does not open until 3pm. Their website portal is better but still lacking information on where the pickup locations are. They share the same building with Ran driving school but their own sign is not up. AND the address maps to the building across the street. I can’t tell you how much work I had to do to find the information to set up the first driving lesson time for my second son. This school has a very strict policy regarding late showing, yet, seems very accommodating to themselves about their own deficiencies. At their old location, they were always busy, but their staff were down to earth and friendly. The lady working at the front desk now is rude. Just bad customer experience overall.

Fantastic experience: Les recomiendo la escuela de manejo lola excelente personal,muy completa l construcción prestada,la instructora Brysa muy amable y excelente al explicar y dar instrucciones

Negative experience: Our disappointing experiences with KDS span from June 2022 to Jan 2024. It is common sense that we engage a driving school expecting them to be prompt, professional and helping us reach our goals, but what we went through touches all aspects of an awful services company. Zero customer service; if you are waiting in their office, you will often see their staff leave the phone ringing and go to VM (die a natural death). Next, when we want to schedule, the customers must guess when KDS opens the slots to schedule. Why is customer's job The only way to keep up is by following up and being the winner of the lucky spot. Unknowingly, you transition from a customer (who wasted $550+) to their support staff. Trainers: We had an aggressive, pushy trainer yelling during the class - The incident was duly notified to the school. There was never a follow up. The unpredictable pattern continued until we said we lost the money and moved on. Examiner: We thought of giving it one last try with the driving test, and they never disappointed; even after a solid test through the busiest Friday afternoon traffic, the examiner failed and was selling a 2-class package to retrain for the test.

Fantastic experience: I’m about 3 weeks late but sending a huge thank you to Katy driving school for getting us in on my daughter bday to take her test. They went above & beyond to ensure we were taken care of. Greatly appreciated & sending all our friends to you

Fantastic experience: I loved driving here! It was a great experience and Christian was definitely a great instructor and made the lessons fun. Scheduling was never an issue either, I just emailed twice a month on the scheduling days and quickly got my place in the schedule- highly reccomend :D

Fantastic experience: Katy Driving School is AMAZING! I was super nervous about the idea of driving and my anxiety was through the roof. Luckily I was assigned to Christian. I have never encountered a better driving instructor than him. He was incredibly accommodating and made me feel at ease. Amber is also SUPER helpful and knowledgeable. I'd strongly advise doing business with them.

Negative experience: I did not want to explain my experience so as not to create inconveniences but I did give the qualification that the establishment deserves because of the predisposition of the gentleman, since they are going to give luxury of public details about how I did in my second exam as a fast driver," in my first exam it was slow "I recommend people to go directly to the Texas department of state to

Fantastic experience: Both my sons did Driver’s Ed with KDS, and both times were a great experience. I especially appreciated their patience when personal issues dragged out the time we needed for my younger son to complete the various requirements. Nice personnel. Convenient location (especially for CRHS students who can easily walk over after school). Highly recommended.

Negative experience: Please trust me and don’t go here. The people are not it.

Negative experience: Very rude front desk had problems everything then

Fantastic experience: Katy Driving School did a great job preparing my son to drive and take and pass the driving test. It was comforting to have help making sure he is ready to drive. The schedule was tricky at times but Amber was a huge help in finding open times and coordinating. Amber is awesome!!

Fantastic experience: Every instructor is very patient and understanding when teaching how to drive. Learned so much 10/10.

Fantastic experience: Christian and amber were great to work with. I used Katy driving school for both of my kids. The process was easy and painless. They do a great job making sure your kids are ready for the road!

Fantastic experience: They take forever to get classes scheduled and later when you walk up there to figure out if they are lying, you find out it’s your own child. These guys are super busy and try their best. Teens can’t always be trusted and we would appreciate if this company would just add more teachers and expand. But they do the best they can with what little they have.

Fantastic experience: We had a really great experience with Katy Driving School. Highly recommend for teens who are needing to learn to drive. The instructors and personnel were amazing!

Positive experience: *UPDATE: I really appreciated Ron, an owner, reaching out to me regarding our experience. He wanted to know the details and was very apologetic, explaining how he does things differently when he is instructing and testing, which aligned better with our expectations. It begs the question, why such a difference between testers? Shouldn’t they be trained - and expected - to do things the same way for consistency? Isn’t the test a straightforward checklist rather than subject to the tester’s disposition that day? All I can gather is Mr. Windland is an unhappy, volatile, and/or unpredictable person who I wouldn’t employ unless I had to, so maybe that’s the answer. After talking to Ron, I would consider taking my other children there in future, but only if I knew who the instructor would be. *ORIGINAL REVIEW: We came to Katy Driving School for my daughter’s road test on the recommendation of several friends - they told us it was a much better experience than at the DPS. But it turned out to be a really negative experience for us. She tested with Mr. Windland and he never said anything good or bad on the test, just made audible sighs that were uninterpretable. When they got back and parked he told her one particular thing she had done wrong, and that he could pass her or fail her. His manner was gruff, condescending, and insensitive, which was not what we were expecting based on our friends’ experiences. When they came in the building, he said the same thing to me in the same manner - accusatory, angry, calling her mistake scary and telling me she’s going to get in an accident. I have no argument with his judgment and feedback about the mistake she made, just with the way it was delivered. Although he passed my daughter, she walked away in tears, feeling deflated, scolded, and lacking the confidence one might hope to have after passing your driving test. Instead of celebrating, we were dealing with emotional fallout. There are so many ways to give feedback to a young new driver - he could just as easily have explained the mistake in an even tone, drawn a picture, explained why it mattered, etc. I would rather have had an instructor fail her with kind, respectful constructive criticism than the experience we had with Mr. Windland. Would never recommend this place, or at least not this tester, and we will not be returning with our other children.

Fantastic experience: My daughter had an excellent experience at Katy Driving School. She had her learner's permit for a LONG time, and took a road test prep lesson prior to the actual road test. There were a few weak spots, which she corrected, and she passed the test on the first try! She could not have done it without the help of instructor Jason, who was very kind an patient with her.

Fantastic experience: This driving school is one of a kind. When I first started this driving school back in July 2021, my driver's Ed instructor was Christian and the weeks were great with him teaching and I met great people there. I then took almost a year long break for school work and returned in February 2022 to start off my drive times. My first teacher was Mr. Ron and He was great. However, the next drive time was with Mr. Mooney and boy let me tell you, if you aren't good at driving and have a driving lesson with him, He will yell at you! I had to switch drivers with Ron's son Christian and it was great! I learned alot. Fast forward to June, I began taking the driver's test and my examiner was Ron. I failed the first time, because of a lane position error but Ron explained it to me perfectly and PASSED ON THE SECOND TRY! Ron is one of the best teachers in the driving school. If your here to get driving lessons I encourage you to do them with either Ron or Christian they really explain it well! Katy Driving School is a great place and I will miss it. Thank you to Christian and Ron for making my experience great here. ~ Sebastian.

Negative experience: They need to fix their online scheduling system. New appointments open at a given time every two weeks and the slots are filled almost instantly (that's if/when their web server can actually handle the traffic and you don't end up with multiple time-out errors). So if you cannot get a slot at that time you have to wait two weeks weeks to try again to be subjected to the same frustrating process.

Fantastic experience: I appreciate that someone reached out to me to resolve an issue I had.

Negative experience: I would like to bring up some concerns about Mr. Windland. He was the instructor for my brother's test and failed him because of "the way he backed out of the parking lot" and that he was slightly on the left side than the right side which my brother fixed naturally like anyone would. He literally only took my brother once around the building just to tell him he failed for when he backed out of the parking lot. He only took him on the street so he didn't seem like he was being unreasonable to stop in the parking lot but he may as well have told him he was in a bad mood and wanted him to fail. I'm being straightforward here because of the guts Mr. Windland had to fail my brother like that. We weren't given any other reason than the parking lot which I guess was the only reason he could give in the ridiculous 3 minute test. We reached out to other staff and Mr. Roy gladly took my brother driving for his second attempt less than a week later and said he was excellent. He would be the only reason I would give this place 5 stars

Positive experience: Based on what I heard from my teen, the classroom lessons seemed very good. He came home talking about lots of good topics regarding driving strategies. After the pandemic, the company had some problems scheduling drives. I believe this emphasized some minor flaws in their scheduling procedures. It looks like they have since addressed these, as we never never had issues after we aired our concerns. One great thing about their behind-the wheel instruction is that they also have the student sit-in the back seat during another student's session. This really allows students to pinpoint driving errors, and it also shows them what incorrect driving looks & feels like for the passenger. Our child learned a lot here. With his classroom & behind-the-wheel lessons, plus some additional practice with us, we were confident to have him take the road alone, once he was fully licensed.

Fantastic experience: I loved attending Katy Driving School. I recently got my drivers license with the help from my driver instructor, Christian, he was the best. He made me feel comfortable and confident behind the wheel. I would recommend anyone learning to drive to attend classes here!!

Negative experience: Do not expect to get any drives scheduled using their web site. I have not been able to schedule drives for months. In fact in the spring I took to pulling my son from school mid day to pick up the one "available" time slot if I found one at 6am in the morning and was able to register. 95% of the time their website says "This is our busy season. We do not have any available times..." (I have received this message in all seasons of 2021) and you are out of luck. We are still owed 4 hours of drive and 4 hours of observation time. After over two months of checking the website repeatedly for times they are now saying that we have passed our course completion date. I definitely would use a different driving school in Katy. I hope they make it right, but it definitely is a huge issue if you expect to pay for minimal classroom time and the drive time associated with the fees.

Negative experience: I am experiencing the same as mentioned in last post. Have been tried 2 months since completion in room class and spent much time from hour to hour before computer monitoring new behind wheel schedule available on line, but rarely succeeded. Contact phone number was never connected, do not know how to handle it.

Fantastic experience: Hello God bless you, today was my driving test and thank God first and then to the best driving school Katy and Jemi I passed my test. Katy's Driving School is a 100% Recommended School

Negative experience: Impossible to get an appointment for driving lessons. They have way too many kids for the number of appointments they have available. They open lessons online twice a month and the appointments are gone in ten minutes. Way too much of a pain.

Fantastic experience: I came to Katy Driving School after failing my test at the DPS. I was super nervous that I would fail again, but luckily they offered lessons before you take your road exam and it helped me so much! The staff immediately made me super comfortable. My experience was so great here I recommend it 100% to everyone.

Fantastic experience: I didn't take classes here, but this is where I took my drivers test a couple years ago. My proctor could see I was a bit nervous, and let me talk to him for a couple minutes before I started to help my nerves relax. A great place for those who get nervous easily by tests.

Fantastic experience: I called the school on Monday and got My daughter road test prep lesson today(Wednesday) and the actual road test right after the lesson with instructor Ron. Ron is very detailed instructor. Pleasant communication. Great instruction on parallel parking. Best driving school in Katy!

Fantastic experience: Did the parent taught, but came in to take the road test. They were so accommodating and had a great attitude. Kept it fun and stress free. Highly recommend!!

Fantastic experience: Very helpful in organizing needed paperwork. Made driving test less stressful.

Fantastic experience: Did a parent taught class but sent my daughter here for additional in car driving and road test. Would recommend to anyone. Everyone was very helpful.

Fantastic experience: If you need driving lessons or a test, Katy Driving School is the way to go. I had Christian for my lessons and not only is he a good teacher but he's very chill. I passed my driving test today thanks to him. ^^

Fantastic experience: I really valued the feedback that the instructor gave to my daughter!

Fantastic experience: I had a very great experience, the instructor was very calm which helped a lot while taking my drivers test, and the staff are really nice.

Fantastic experience: I was able to take the test with ease despite me being nervous for the test. The 1 hour review was very helpful and focused and I had a great experience.

Negative experience: Instructor who performed driving test was very, very rude. He should be reprimanded for the way he treated my daughter. Would recommend that the owner remove him. I would not recommend this establishment!

Negative experience: My name is Kenny. I need to got information to register for a road test. I been trying for 2 weeks including messages but no one ever return my call. May be now you read this review you will call.

Fantastic experience: I had my driving test today with Mr. Joel Windland, a decent kind person who made me feel at ease. He gave loads of advice which I'll definitely use for my future road trips. Thank you!

Negative experience: The lady with the accent up at the front desk is pretty rude or she at least was when I called. She said things like “no let me make you understand” and was not considerate at all. It takes sooooo long to plan drive times and when you don’t schedule them within their timeline they make you pay them even more!!! My family invested a lot of money for poor customer service. Most of the staff is rude. Of course there are a few instructors that were nice and helpful but that’s it. DO NOT GO HERE

Negative experience: Very disappointing service. Takes months and multiple phone calls to get your child dates and times to drive. Classwork is fast and simple, but they have too few instructors and the dates are always taken. You must call often or personally walk in to get any support. They do not reply from the online contact messages inside the portal. The website has stated "This is our busy season. Please check back regularly as new appointments become available. We apologize for the inconvenience." for an entire year. I wish I had never signed up for this school because my son is irritated it has taken 4 months to get 5 drive times scheduled. Bait and switch, poorly run business...you pick what to call it, but I call it a horrible experience.

Negative experience: Lacking structure and organization. Poor communication. They purposely delay you. They are understaffed. Don’t tell you that if you pay to reinstate your account you can no longer schedule online. It’s been a headache.

Fantastic experience: I took my drivers license test here and the staff was nice especially Mr. Ron.

Fantastic experience: I took a prep for the test & the road test here, and it was very good experience. The instructers and staff were so nice and friendly. Thank you!

Fantastic experience: It was great I learned a lot from the instructors I had, took my test today from Mr. Ron and he’s the best!

Fantastic experience: We just did the driving test with them for my son and they were great about the test and talking through the areas he needed to concentrate on as he continues to drive. I was very impressed by the instructor. My son Passed.

Fantastic experience: It was super easy to set up driving test. Extremely reasonable price compared to others in the area! Very friendly and really helpful staff!

Negative experience: After waiting for more than one year and a few follow up, we're still waiting on the road drive lesson. The waiting time seems a bit crazy....

Positive experience: Very friendly staff (with the exception of one person but no names will be said)! Ron ,one of the owners, and his wife are genuinely kind!

Fantastic experience: great instructors, the classes are very helpful and the environment is nice and not stressful. I also took the test with them and their classes prepared me well for the test.

Fantastic experience: I took my 2 sons to this school for a driving test after teaching them the parent taught lessons 1 year after the other. Each time I went in to make the driving test appt I was given very clear instructions on what paperwork to bring in with me on test day. Mr. Ron was patient in answering my questions. I had several friends recommend this place to me. I would (and have) recommend Katy Driving School to my friends.

Fantastic experience: I did my driving test today. Went in and even got to do my test the same day. They are super friendly and made me feel totally at ease. I can be a very nervous test taker even though I’ve been driving for years. Mr Ron made it so easy and gave me some great parking tips. Thank you

Fantastic experience: Wasn’t a big fan of the way they teach two people at a time on physical practice, but everything else was great! Great staff!

Fantastic experience: Driving became second nature to me after taking Mr. Frazer's summer course!

Fantastic experience: Really enjoyed it!!

Negative experience: Let start with the positive aspects: Mr. Ron is great. He’s polite and a great teacher. That’s it. On a more negative note, the other instructor I had was a disaster. Joel Windland was sloppy, forgetful, rude, and a person I hope no one has to drive with again. At one point during my test, he nearly fell asleep. I see a lot of complaints about the front staff, but I get the feeling they just have to put up the instructors nonsense and don’t know how to please everybody. Also, don’t be fooled by the number of 5 star ratings. If you look closely, those were given by students while they were in class (for a grade). Don’t waste your time here, just go to the dmv.

Positive experience: Decent place to get tested for your Driver's License.

Negative experience: Lacking structure and organization. Poor communication. No one seems to be in charge. Chose this business for the conveneince but at this point waiting 6 hours at the dmv does not seem so aweful. Maybe the other schools are the same. Maybe it is the nature of the business. Just feel that things can be run better with a little initiative.

Negative experience: Enrolled more than a month back and after one and half month I am getting the first driving lesson. These guys take money first and say everything is online and the schedule never opens. i don't know what to do with this. The staffs are very rude. I am not sure How to trust the other reviews here whether it is real review or the company created reviews.

Negative experience: Be prepared to wait a long time to get a lesson scheduled. The place is overbooked and takes all your money in advance. Staff doesn’t even bother to call you back and you will never be able to book a lesson online. Stay away if you can! Update: Never have I or my wife called the instructors directly as we both don’t have their numbers. We have left messages and I left my phone number twice and nobody bothered to call us back.

Negative experience: Be prepared to wait 6 months to just schedule a drive time. Do not enroll with them unless you are willing to wait lifetime ....they just take too many students and are not even bothered to answer or return your calls once they have your money. Horrible service. Never have I ever called any of your staff directly. I dont even have any instructors name. Instead of making such false claims please hire a staff to answer voice messages.

Fantastic experience: They made the grueling process of all the paperwork very easy to follow. Mr. Ron was concise with instructions, and effective in explaining the criteria of the test. He made one feel at ease in order to have a positive test experience. Highly recommend!

Negative experience: Very disorganized, will tell you they have opening classes just so that you pay them in advance, they will leave your child waiting in the meeting room without acknowledging them and they say it’s their fault they didn’t get their class, they will charge you $85 if you want to cancel your contract even when they have not been seen, stay away from this people

Negative experience: I've sent two kids to this school. A couple years ago I sent an older daughter to this school and it was fairly good. I sent my youngest daughter there and she had a bad experience. She took a driving lesson from the new owner, Joel Windland. She came back in tears and didn't want to return. We finished the lessons by avoiding Joel Windland. We have heard from other families with similar experiences. I have my youngest child, a boy, who will be taking driving lessons in a couple years, We will not use this school.

Fantastic experience: My kid & I had a good visit here. The instructor, Mr Ken, was really informative, answered all questions, was approachable, very knowledgeable on the subject. I appreciate him giving the kids as much knowledge as he could. I would definitely recommend this place.

Fantastic experience: This place is best to go to Driveing school but how ever they don’t teach us to drive

Positive experience: Katy driving school was alright in my opinion. BUT the class isn’t actually 2hrs. It should honestly just be an hour to an hour and a half class. Other than that I like how fast it goes by and how quickly the students get their permit.

Fantastic experience: interesting

Fantastic experience: great instructors

Fantastic experience: Good school environment

Positive experience: Fun but a bit boring at times

Positive experience: loved the class since i honestly wouldn’t have been able to do it myself and my family is always busy. i would give it 5 stars but the people in my class were really annoying. try and take it at the same time as your friends! also ms.christina is the best her funny stories are what keep me awake during the class.

Fantastic experience: Ms. Christina was cool.

Fantastic experience: Mrs. Christina was the best driving instructor! Awesome class! & 100% guarantee to pass!

Fantastic experience: Pretty cool. The teachers were nice and helpful, and know how much instruction the kids need. With many instructors that all have different knowledge and stories to give, the two hours I spent here every day was never boring.

Fantastic experience: I loved the instructors and I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

Fantastic experience: Ms. Christina is the best driving instructor.

Fantastic experience: It was great I learned a lot and the instructor was really informative and taught me well.

Fantastic experience: extremely enjoyable class, makes driving safe fun at the same time.

Fantastic experience: my teacher was really funny and got the job done and ron was my favorite

Positive experience: Very informative and great staff....Mrs.Cristina is great....

Positive experience: Mrs. Christina is lit

Fantastic experience: Katy Driving School is kid friendly and helps with anything you don’t understand. They went at a fast pace but it is easy to learn everything easily.

Positive experience: Mrs.Christina was amazing, vibrant and fun, made the learning easy and enjoyable.

Fantastic experience: Uhh. Cool. Don’t go to the subway. And.. DONT DO FREE WAY TIMES FROM 5-7!! SCHOOL IS FUN THOUGHHH!!

Fantastic experience: The classroom experience here was so much fun! It was very immersive and I'll never forget what I learned here. Can't wait to come back to take my DPS test!

Fantastic experience: I had a lot of fun here and the teachers are amazing!

Fantastic experience: Amazing learning and fun

Fantastic experience: I was worried at first about how I'd do in this class, but the staff especially Mrs. C was a great teacher and my experience here was

Fantastic experience: I loved Ms. Christina's class. It was great.

Fantastic experience: Amazing place you genuinely learn and the enviorment is great it’s fun totally recommended

Fantastic experience: You learn many things that you need to know and have amazing teachers

Fantastic experience: Good teachers and cars to learn

Fantastic experience: Please give me a good grade Mrs christina

Fantastic experience: I loved ms Christina!!! We learned so much and she had very interesting stories!!