Official Driving School

Negative experience: Would give this place 0 stars if I could. Do not send your kids here if you want them to ACTUALLY LEARN and be confident drivers. We have spent the last 10 months teaching our daughter what she should have learned last summer. And Mrs Reemsnyder should be fired! From the very first day, she was extremely rude to kids and parents in the classroom as well as during driving sessions. I called the office and was told she was the only instructor available for that time and we could drop, but there would be no refund so my daughter chose to stick it out. We were finally able to change driving instructors for the last couple of drives (after I made TWO complaints) but by then the damage was done.

Negative experience: TERRIBLE.... The response I got from them via messenger was totally rude. Totally unprofessional company.

Negative experience: My son was not taught proper driving he had multiple instructors who were not on the same page teaching the driving instructions. Scheduling drives was always hard the spots was always full. The instructors did not correct wrong driving behaviors. This place is all about getting money and not proper driving education.

Negative experience: I wish i could give this place no stars, I just started segment 1 and i hate it already. My instructor is very rude and goes to fast with the teaching, she tells us to write information down but only keeps the information up for less then 25 seconds, how are we supposed to write down information if you not giving us enough time. and she doesn’t respect boundaries I sent her a private message about me feeling uncomfortable reading in front of people in the class and she still told me that i have to read, if a person doesn’t feel comfortable doing something why make them? and don’t get me started on the cameras she’s constantly telling us to sit up and be in the camera when it’s clear as day that everybody is in the camera and when people are writing down information she tells us to look up and focus how can we look up and write down information at the same time? I wish i could change my instructor IMMEDIATELY i’m not sure how i can keep dealing with this for 2 weeks so I don’t suggest this school at all don’t waste your money find something better .

Negative experience: Extended class to reach 6 hour requirement by having students wait in silence for 2 hours

Negative experience: I was a student and did drivers ed through official driving school and i cannot stress enough: THIS PLACE IS A JOKE. From the very first day of segment 1 this company has made this class a nightmare. My instructor was absolutely horrible and so incredibly rude and made classes miserable to sit through. I found another instructor to do drives with who then proceeded to simply not show up to my schedule drives. I was already in the parking lot and it was 5 minutes after my start time when they finally decided to tell me they weren’t coming. I got stuck with my class instructor for some drives and I left nearly every drive with her in tears because of how demeaning and disrespectful she was to us students, not to mention incredibly unhelpful. She was constantly micromanaging everything we did while driving, grabbing the wheel while we were driving and constantly snapping at us. At one point she went as far as to grab a students face and jank his head the other way while he was driving. I finished segment 1 with them and when it came time to sign up for segment 2 was forced to enroll with official driving school again because they were the only company with openings. On the very first day of class (Zoom classes, mind you) the instructor simply did not show up. It took 15 minutes for him to finally start the meeting and teach the class, after multiple people calling customer service and having managers reach out to him. This same instructor then sat and lectured us on the importance of being on time and how we will be kicked out of the class if we are more then 5 minutes late. Ironic, huh? He also then held us 15 minutes PAST our class time because he didn’t show up to do his job. Now, it’s the day of my test and we’re finally ready to take the written assessment and be done with this place. I’m sitting in the parking lot at 10:45 for my 11:00 test and get a text saying “your test has been cancelled, come back at 3:00 tonight”. Like I said, A JOKE. This place double booked the test, but instead of problem solving, they kicked my class out. They have zero respect for anyone or their time and this is quite literally the worst experience i’ve ever had with a company. Now I have to miss work, my mom has to waste her gas money and all of our time to drive out here, simply because this company is being run by a bunch of incompetent, inconsiderate people who take zero responsibility for their actions. PLEASE if you have other options, DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS PLACE. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR YOUR TIME WITH THEM.

Positive experience: I did my class through zoom and I'll admit it was a little slow, but that's to be expected especially since it's not in a inn class setting, but my teacher,Mrs. Sana Palmer, did her best to make it as fun as possible! I also would say me being a new driver and not knowing any rules and regulations of what it means to be a good driver, Mrs. Palmer helped me understand that driving does require all these things, but also to not be afraid of getting behind the wheel! I ow all my nolige of how to be a good driver to her!Thank you to The Official Driving School for having such great driving instructors like Mrs. Palmer!

Negative experience: Clearly this place doesn't teach you to drive well, they just had a line of almost 13 vehicles backed up behind their vehicle because the instructor was allowing the student to go 20mph in a 35mph zone. Here's a fun fact obstructing traffic is both a traffic and safety violation.

Fantastic experience: A good class! Had Mrs. Reemsnyder!

Negative experience: very rude and uninterested service by the person who make the calls. Terrible

Negative experience: Tell customer service. This company advertised a driving school over winter break for st John's. Mind you this was in Sept it's now middle of Dec and still no class scheduled. I've called many times and each time I am greeted with rude unhelpful employees. This company is so unorganized and sloppy I can't imagine how awful the instructors are. Will be going ng elsewhere 1week later update since review. I was asked to email them from there reply to my review. So I did. That was over a week ago and true to there fashion on everything else zero responses back. Again the service is the absolute worst I've ever seen.

Fantastic experience: Rick taught my mom to drive! He was awesome, very patient, and very confident. I was in the car interpreting for them and experienced it myself. It is worth it. Recommended.

Negative experience: Canceled the class times we originally signed up for then when my daughter tried to login to her new date it wouldn't let her. When she finally got in she couldn't unmute and tried to message the instructor who was rude and told her to get out of the class and have your mom call the office. She came to me crying telling me this, I then called the office to only be told there is nothing they can do, no solution at all, and that I have to fill out a form just to request my money back once I had to ask for a refund since they weren't giving me anything on what to do next. The request email says a manager will review your refund request on FRIDAY, it is MONDAY. That's absolutely insane when we were given no other options or solutions, just a "nothing I can do!" with a long pause. She's a responsible kid getting all A's in school that had tech issues and was treated like garbage and now I have to wait almost a week just to get a response on whether they'll give me a refund for a service we never received and was treated poorly all around. Terrible.

Positive experience: My experience with this class was great but not perfect. I wish I could give it 4.5 stars and not just 4 because I don’t think it deserves only 4 stars, as it wasn’t an only 4 star experience. I’d like to start with the lows of my experience. -The scheduling >The scheduling for drives was difficult. There were often times where drives were not available at all, making it very difficult to get the 3 drives you need before the exam nearly impossible to get -Class experience >The classes often felt long and really boring. They were slow and hard to stay focused on. >There were a few times that the class ended way sooner, so just to fill the time we had left of the required 2 hours per class, we’d sit and watch a video that was between 20-30 minutes long and then get questioned on it at the end. -Drive experience [Depending On Instructor] >The instructor would give directions a long time in advance. Which made it harder to focus on driving as we were trying to remember the directions given to us. >The instructor more told us what to do instead of apply the knowledge we had to our drive and coach us on mistakes and prevent critical driving errors. >The instructor sometimes didn’t let us get the full experience of driving on certain roads. {Instructors are very different, you will see in the next half of the review} Now that the bad is out of the way, I’d like to shine some light on the good parts of these classes. -Workability >They Are really easy to speak too. Like what I said earlier, the scheduling was horrible but once we said something, we were able to work out drives that worked with our schedule. -Class Experience >The classes taught us a lot of valuable driving tips that were useful. >The classes were really convenient as the virtual classes run over the weekend from 10:00 to 12:00. I also know there were classes from 12:00 to 14:00, which are also pretty convenient if you don’t want to wake up early. >They gave out printable study guides that proved to be very useful. They gave information and stuff to study before our final exam and it also gives us answers to stuff we may need help on in the future. The study guide was always filled out at the end of the class by the students and answered with the help of the instructor. >The classes were consistent and was never late except for once when there was a problem with the internet connection of the instructor after a rainstorm. -Drive experience [Depending on instructor] >The instructor would let the driver make decisions on their own and correct errors as they drove. >Made driving feel natural and less stressful. >The instructor is very easy to talk too, starting a normal conversation was easy and always helpful to help the driver feel more relaxed. >The instructor made sure to coach methods that would be important and why they were important. >Overall an amazing instructor and really knows how to teach students how to drive without making it stressful, he also understands mistakes as nobody’s perfect, especially not a new driver. They just make sure it is corrected and how to correct it. -Vehicles >The vehicles were well maintained other than bumps and dents caused by students that drove the car before. >The vehicles were smooth and nice drives and weren’t too cramped for the passengers in the cars. -Location >The area the actual school is located is a good place to learn driving. The area has multiple environments that make it easier to learn different areas of driving. This including urban environments, by and in college campus areas, expressways, Suburban, and store areas. Only thing really missing is rural environments. >You encounter tons of different drivers. There’s good drivers and poor drivers. It helps you get used to sharing the road with more than just yourself and builds tolerance to the shock factor of running into poor drivers. Overall I had a great experience with Official Driving School. Of course it wasn’t perfect, yet it is hard for anything to be perfect. This school still needs some work but right now, it’s great!

Positive experience: Would rather just wait till 18 to get a driver's license than go through this stuff. Don't pay 400 dollars to sit for two hours and listen to these people read of redundant, tedious, poorly written slides. 3 stars because I recognize that some of the problems are results state mandated rules. However, the behavior of the teachers is horrid. The following is a list of examples: -Constantly critiqued student posture -Yelled when camera shaked briefly -Absolutely butchered some students' names even after 5+ times the students explained how to pronounce their rather simple names -Yelled at students for coming back from their break and not putting it in the chat - but they weren't the student that left, they had been there the whole time -Yelled at students for sitting on a couch (in an engaged, upright position, face in focus, not just laying there) -Yelled at specific students to keep their camera on, while their camera was on. (I recognize the camera has to be on to follow state laws-the teacher was yelling at people who's cameras WERE ON) -Yelled at students for briefly covering their mouth for eating And a variety of other things. There are many regulations that have to be followed, so it would be understandable if the teachers kindly explained these and corrected a student when they failed to follow these rules. They do not do this-they are incredibly rude and yell at students. They treat the students without any basic respect. I only experienced 3 teachers - one of which was perfectly respectful and enforced the rules without being cruel. (I believe her name was Miss Emily? She was substituting, and a great example of the correct way to teach.) The biggest problems were Mrs. Reemsnyder and Mr. Spagnolo. Mrs Reemsnyder is crueler, but Mr. Spagnolo spends half the time repeating what the slides say, reading the slide, repeating it again, and acting like the students are stupid.

Fantastic experience: Mr Spags taught my son to drive. This was great because I couldn't. Thank you so much...

Fantastic experience: Very impressed by Official Driving School. Their instructors in Lansing show that they will go above and beyond to make sure the entire experience is positive! Keep up the great work!!

Negative experience: Steer clear of this company. They don’t hire enough instructors to fulfill their requirements in the agreement that you pay for. They have cancelled 5 drives for my kid. 2 with no explanation. When I call and email to talk to a manager they won’t let me talk to them. They just say they will put him on the priority list with the other 80 kids that still need to do their drives. All they are is a money grab. Zero customer service. Zero integrity.

Fantastic experience: Isaac B. Mrs. Reemsnyder was a great instructor. She was very detailed and helped prepare you for the test. Also the online availability was very nice too. Would definitely recommend this to anyone.

Negative experience: The driving class was fine. My issue was in the paperwork that you fill out for the classes, it asked for preferred name and pronouns. I am non binary and use a different name and pronouns from my legal name. I understand for legal reasons my given name needs to be used but it would have been nicer if instructors could use my preferred name when speaking to me and asking me questions. If your paperwork askes for pronouns and preferred names I'd expect instructors and faculty to be respectful of them.

Fantastic experience: Ms.Amie is a great driver instructor!

Fantastic experience: Ms. Amie is a great instructor

Fantastic experience: Abbey Sobleskey, My driving intructor Priyank was amazing. great & clear instructions, kind & understanding. He treated me with respect & he always comforted me.

Fantastic experience: Passed my Test in one try. Thanks to Pat. Very patient and really good instructor.

Fantastic experience: Nevaeh W, Mr Spag is very understanding and shares his honest situations with his experience driving, I was pretty nervous to start drivers Ed but this class is not as difficult as i thought it would be and I’m excited to get my permit! 10/10 would recommend. 04/10/23

Fantastic experience: I loved my driving lessons and I really enjoyed the company from my teacher miss Amy and mr Rick 10/10 favorite teachers :)

Fantastic experience: we signed up for seg 1 threw here because it was virtual an was helpful since i dont get out of work til 5pm. my son was able to get all 6 drives in with in the first 2 weekends an even had a student not show for a drive but the instructor still took him out for his hour drive. my son really like the driving instructors. he only has 3 more days til he done with seg 1

Fantastic experience: Attended Seg 2 here, it was quick and painless. Mr. S was awesome and made things interesting as he could. Would recommend.

Fantastic experience: Theodore R.B Mr. Spagnuolo makes everything really interesting 11/21

Fantastic experience: Great Tutor. For those who want to learn driving and need someone to practice driving with. This is a great place to consider.

Positive experience: Im Justin L and i had a good experience with my instuctor Mr. Spagnuolo. I would recommend this to my friends.

Fantastic experience: I loved my experience, Mr.Spagnuolo was such a good teacher and helped me understand everything so easily !

Fantastic experience: This class is amazing so far, Gaytha G. Pri is a great teacher and makes everything easier. 7/11/22

Negative experience: I paid for my granddaughter to do Segment 1 here and the driving experience has been awful. The people my son has talked to have been rude and driving times have been changed without our knowledge. I have myself taken my granddaughter to a drive time that was scheduled to have no one show up. Very very disappointed!!! Oh and my son was told to figure it out himself....not a good way to run a business. I understand that the owner is very pleasant at all times but he really needs some good employees!!!

Negative experience: I scheduled my daughter here for Segment 1 because they offered online classes. I would not recommend this place to others. Some of the online instructors were very threatening via the Zoom class and it is not okay how they speak to them. The in-car instructor for my nervous teens first drive made her feel like she was doing everything wrong. This very first experience with a driving instructor was extremely negative which does not foster a good learning environment or make her want to go back for more. It is also virtually impossible to schedule the in-car drives in the portal online because they are never available. When I called about this I was told to “just keep checking” and the person I spoke to was short with me and not very helpful. I do not have time for this. I thought I was paying more at Official Driving School than my local driving school for the convenience but I was mistaken.

Fantastic experience: Easy to follow classes, yet effective. Awesome teachers who are informative and understanding, Especially Mr Spaguolo. -Jayden E

Positive experience: I would not spend my money here again if I could do it over. It's almost impossible to get a time scheduled to drive with an instructor and then when you do they don't show up or notify you that nobody will be available to drive with your child. Then after 6 months of playing this game they say you have to start all over and re-enroll. Seems like a scam to me. I am not spending 1 more dollar with this company. Stay Away!! I’m changing my stars to 3. The owner of the company reached out and made things right for my family and I appreciate that. Dealing with some of the drivers that work for this company was frustrating and in all fairness I don’t know if other companies are having a similar issue but it’s still not an experience I’d want to go through again.

Fantastic experience: This is a great school shout out ms Duncan for making it a fun and a great learning experience !! Was super worried at first but she got me through it

Fantastic experience: Ms Duncan was amazing and made my experience so much less stressful than I thought it would be !

Negative experience: I'm speaking for the Sears in Lansing, MI and I must say that this class was the most worthless waste of time my family has ever put money into. Sure, they teach you the basics of driving and safety of the roads but they only give you the answers for some of the test questions and that's it. I am a graduated student from this program and I am about to earn my level 2 license. But the thing they failed to tell every student before graduating from the level 2 program is that you have to take a driving test by a third party school. I check around the different schools to see what the features of test are. But guess what? HALF, yes, that's right, HALF of the test they NEVER taught me in driving school. Not to mention that we only spent a short amount of time on the essentials where my instructor thought it would be alright to yell and scream into our ears whenever we missed even the slightest mark on her little clipboard. Our instructor was telling us about how passengers are the most distracting and I have to say she was the worst distraction EVER. Honestly, just go to another driving school because if you're taking a level 1 driving class here, it would be a waste of your $300 as well as the level 2 segment which is $50. (Oh yeah, apparently their website had an error in prices so instead of my family paying $45, they just upped it to $50 to make it even. Really, all they want is money for this program and I encourage you to not waste your hard-earned money.)

Fantastic experience: Instructors were great for part 1 and 2

Positive experience: The in classroom teacher was very kind and interactive. I could tell he was a very organized teacher for his students & getting all their driving hours in. As for my drivers instructor, he was very demanding & was not mindful at all. He had problems making sure I was comfortable with the things before he did it. I loved the school, just wish I had a better instructor. One that is more understanding and organized.

Fantastic experience: I took Driver's Ed in the winter so I had a very small class. We really bonded because classes were at night so a lot more chill and the teacher Frank Washington was hilarious and really brought us close. Frank made the classes so fun and while I heard my other friends complaining about how boring their classes were, I was always excited to go. He was a great instructor, very patient with a hyper driver like me and made parallel parking systematic and easy. Passed my exam on the first try. I actually miss Driver's Ed sometimes.