Premier School of Driving

Negative experience: Just received a email from them saying they are no longer in business

Negative experience: Fraudulent company. My teenager went through driver’s education during Christmas break 2023. Part of the package was supposed to be instructor led drive time. We are now 12 months out from driver’s education and have consistently struggled scheduling drive time. I recently received notice that the company is closing due to personal reasons with the owner. The school is closing without fulfilling our contract or providing any resolution. Premier refuse to allow my son to schedule his final hour of drive time which is his test. I was threatened that Premier will likely fail my son if we were to try to schedule the road test. A failed road test would prevent a certificate of completion to be issued and no way to move forward without taking driver’s education all over again. I have so many texts and emails trying to get anything scheduled and final questions answered. I contacted several other drive school, the MVD and TSD due to Premier’s inability to answer my questions about how to move forward when Premier’s doors close. During the course of my many calls, I learned that they are not closing their doors due to personal reasons. The TSD is shutting the school down partly due to unfulfilled contracts. Several schools told me that Premier has a history of doing really shady things to students. My issue is one of so many similar problems. I’m so glad Premier is being closed down. I hope the TSD is able to further investigate this company. I am currently working with TSD on some potential solutions. I’m also exploring possibilities to move forward with a civil lawsuit, which may or may not be possible due to TDS regulations and bonds.

Negative experience: For the insane price you pay to go here you would expect some half decent service but that’s not what you get here. They will never answer the phone the email on the website is wrong and won’t be answered for weeks. Drive time is hard to schedule and they charge an outrageous $45 for every missed or late drive time however they have blatantly missed my drive times with no notice and would do nothing to write that wrong. They entered me incorrectly into the system and tried to blame me for it. I would recommend you go anywhere else this is not the right pick just go best price at least it’ll be much better than here.

Negative experience: Don’t waste your time here One of my older kids went here and it was a hassle trying to schedule drive time for them. I didn’t want to deal with them again for the second kiddo but figured maybe a different location would be better. It wasn’t You can never get ahold of this business when you call and they don’t call back Email is even worst despite they’re voicemail stating you’ll get a faster response. A week before the class is supposed to start for my second child I can still never get in contact with anyone I finally Said forget this hassle and went to McGinnis

Negative experience: Worst School Ever!!! It's a waste of time and money. Firstly, they never answer their phone or emails. The phone rings and rings there's no way to leave a voicemail. It takes them about 2 weeks or more to reply to your email. If you need to get in contact you need to go into the office. Even when you go in most of the time they are closed. So they make it impossible for you to reach them. When you schedule online on the website it always gives you problems. It can never find students, and/or it states you enter the wrong information. Second, the pricing and scheduling. They charge you an arm and leg for them to have to charge you all over again. Yes, you will be charged the original price you paid if your child does not get all their hours in before the time they give them. The only problem is they never have time and give you about 2 hours a month (total hours 10 hours) of driving time that you have to do with an instructor before they let you do the test. If you miss any time they charge you $45 per missed time. Keep in mind that they don't answer their phone or reply to you by email. Also, the instructor will have students drive them to their homes because they forgot to turn on a light at home. That is very unprofessional and inappropriate to be doing. Thirdly, you do not do drive time at the same location you paid at. They have you driving to their location on Montano. Their service is terrible. This school only wants to make a quick buck out of you. The state needs to close it down!

Negative experience: Don’t answer calls or emails

Negative experience: Absolutely waste of your money and time. For months I have been trying to get my son scheduled for his driving hours. When I tried to do it online it says they can't find the student. When I tried to call no one answers. The voicemail is full. When I go by there's nobody there ever. It doesn't matter what time of day you go by. There is never anybody there. When you email the address on their websites it says address can not be found. At this point I might be better off just waiting until he turns 18. It'll probably take me that long to get a hold of somebody at premiere anyways. Zero stars. Update: I would like to update this for everyone. I did finally speak to someone because I went to the drive school and sat there for 2 hours until an instructor showed up and I left an angry note for them to call me. Finally they did call me and help me get him finished but It has taken 8 months.

Negative experience: Don't! We started our drive time in September and finished in April. They are unorganized, never respond, and don't follow through. When you do reach someone, they make an excuse and pass you to another person with a call back that never happens. Every drive was last minute and I had to beg to get an appt through text bc the online scheduling never has openings. I have hundreds of communications trying to resolve a missed drive time charge that I NEVER scheduled and I even had text evidence backing it up. Once they removed the "hold" for the erroneous charge at the DMV, we waited 3 weeks and tried to go get her license. No one followed through with the release. Now the voice-mail is full and no one responding. I would not recommend to my worst enemy. By far the worst experience I've had in a decade with any business. I have a feeling we are going to be stuck having her take the test at the DMV. AVOID at all costs!!!! Update 5/30: The completion test still not able to accessed by the DMV.

Negative experience: Bed service

Negative experience: I give 1 star only because a half star isn’t possible. This “driving school” is more like driving profits for their pockets. They are absolutely the worst business when it comes to providing services and communication. Besides cutting corners with students and their much needed classroom time, their communication after they’ve received your money is horrible. It’s funny how they answer the phone and return emails when you’re ready to sign up and pay, but once they’ve got your money all communication halts. This school has to be approved by the State of NM in order for MVD to recognize their certificate for a license. Perhaps after a phone call to NM Tax & Revenue, the BBB and/or other outlets we’ll get returned calls and our kids can move forward in being safe and legal drivers.

Negative experience: So how do we get ahold of someone to schedule drive time? I've been emailing back and forth and have been "offered" days but no times then when I respond that I will take ANY days, just let me know times, I get no reply. Now my emails are being rejected by you. My son took classes LAST SUMMER and still not one hour of drive time - we need to finish his drive time so he can get his license! We have been very patient and understanding but at this point it seems you are selling a service that you can't deliver.

Fantastic experience: Awesome experience! All staff were friendly and helpful when signing my teenager up. My daughter felt confident throughout the learning process and ultimately obtained her license. Thank you all Premier staff!!! Will be back with my next kiddo!

Positive experience: Definitely worth the money if you are under 18, good instructors and great learning environment. John and Mercy are the best!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic instructor. Made me feel extremely comfortable

Negative experience: Used to be ok, now they are terrible. All 3 of my kids went there. First child, it wasn't too bad; good customer service, got all her drive times with no problem; worth the higher cost. Second child it took almost a year to get drive times, and one of the drive instructors was a creep. Now, they are awful. Unable to get any drive times (no drive instructors employed there, maybe 1 or 2). Out of the 20-30 times I've called, I've ctual reached someone less than 5 times. I'll leave voice-mail with no return calls. Twice we showed up when we finally got a drive time, the instructor was a no-show. Waited at least 30-40min each time. Then we've had 2 drive times cancelled on us. Apparently there is no manager or owner to talk to, because I have requested to speak to one, and no return call. NOT WORTH THE HIGHER COST! You definitely don't get what you pay for! Go somewhere cheaper, that way if you get this same kind of service, at least you didn't lose out on an extra $100 or so. The owner/manager should step up and help out with the drive times. That's what a good owner does.

Fantastic experience: Awesome and great

Fantastic experience: Fantastic experience getting my driving,written test,I was super nervous and the instructor was very professional and was very helpful,I would recommend Premier to anyone.

Positive experience: Nice place and the staff are really helpful when it comes to working this u.

Negative experience: My name is Renee Baca and this driving school is the best. The instructors are really friendly. Thank you

Negative experience: Right now we are unhappy. First it took 3 weeks to get paperwork back for learners permit and they blamed the state but our friend's son, who took a class 2 weeks later at a different school, was driving with a permit before my son. Then we had to wait weeks to begin scheduling driving classes and they only allow it once a month so weeks go by again because of the first delay. Then their scheduling system breaks down and you cannot log in for days. Then some people can log in but we cannot because their system is still broken and all the good times are gone to schedule driving practice. I'm waiting for a call from the owner to see how things go. Maybe they will make this right and I can change my review. We shall see. My account still does not work to log into the scheduling site.

Negative experience: Don't know

Fantastic experience: Very polite and caring people

Fantastic experience: They were great.

Negative experience: Same story as the other reviews for this school, could not get driving time schedule for my teen. After 7 months, finally had to go with another school. The other driving school had no problem with getting her schedule with a driving instructor and completing her driving time in a reasonable time.

Negative experience: Very difficult to get drive time scheduled. Told they don't have enough drivers to have more slots available. Its a very stressful process! Staff is nice but this place is very unorganized! I would recommend going somewhere else.

Negative experience: This place is extremely unorganized. The 7 hours of driving is extremely hard to schedule. The scheduling site always states to try back later. When you call the office they refer you to the site. They don't document important info like fee waivers. You're charged a fee if you cancel less than 24 hours in advance but if the driver cancels they have "no control over it!" The device sucks! Over priced. Spend you money elsewhere.

Negative experience: If your looking for a driver's education course that is going to prepare your child to actually drive dont send them to Premiere. My daughter attended the course in June and now 3 months later she has only gotten 2 of her 7 driving hours. The online schedule to book drive time says N/A on every single day. We called and emailed the office and finally got the 3rd hour scheduled but when we showed up there was another child scheduled so she was unable to drive. I called the office on Monday (theres no way to get ahold of them if there is a problem over the weekend) and I was told they have no more drive time for the rest of September. Its Sept 17th. We have to wait for October schedule to open. My daughter has already driven over 30 hours with me since she attended driving school but with Premiere she drove in a parking lot for one hour and residential area the second hour. If she doesn't get the required 7 hours with the school she cant get her provisional liscense. I thought the point of a driver's education course was to educate and teach the student how to drive which Premiere did not do. Adding into my review. It is Oct 2nd and Premier said we could schedule 4 hours. We did that and they cancelled one of her hours. My daughter will also have had her permit for 6 months in December. So they are still pushing us off. It's nice that some student finish in a few months but that is not the case for us. I have contacted the office during business hours and there is no answer.

Fantastic experience: WHOOO! PASSED! Besides that the atmosphere here is wonderful and exremly welcoming. BUT THATS NOT ALL! The PRICES are exreamly reasonable and the FASTEST SERVICE (way faster than mvd express). I TOOK MY ROAD TEST & WRITTEN the SAME DAY! I CALLED ( outta desperation ).... IF I COULD GET MY PLASTIC LICENCE HERE. (ID RECOMMEND A TIP JAR) BEST PLACE IN ALBUQUERQUE!

Negative experience: BEWARE of their prices! They claim a “buddy” discount of $20, which they say will bring the price down to $295. What they DON’T tell you is that they will charge you for the road test, the computer test, and tax on top of it all. It will end up costing you $380 even with the “buddy” discount! They are also the same owners of all the “MVD NOW”s. Need I say more? All they care about is making $$$$. Think twice!

Fantastic experience: Took my road test here and had a very good experience. Kim, who administered my test was friendly and down to earth. I had to no reason to be nervous about it.

Positive experience: Good school taught me everything

Fantastic experience: Took my driving class June 1st through June 10th and I had a great experience. Ron taught my class and he was a great instructor. Taught me everything I needed to know and I passed my MVD written and road test. I would suggest taking a notebook to class so that you can take notes. I did my all of my 7 hours of drive time and just finished yesterday. All of the instructors I drove with made me comfortable and I was able to do a good job. Everyone is very friendly, the lady working the front desk is kinda rude but I would highly recommend this driving school and it's not too expensive.

Negative experience: Went in there for some information and sign up process, the lady in the front desk was rude, condescending, and obviously in a bad mood. I came in and she and who I'm guessing was the instructor ignored me for like a minute instead of jumping up and asking "how may I help you?" Like any other place would. If this is how they treat you when you come in, I don't want to see how they teach. Horrible experience.

Fantastic experience: The BEST driving school in Albuquerque.You will never regret for the last penny you spend in this place. Trust me I've been to mostly all the places in Albuquerque I've choose this place over I'm happy for my decision. If you going here see Kim at the front desk she's always helping if you going for road PAT is the best of best he is old school but best teacher if you have to wait to get him teach it's worth waiting