Alamo Driving School

Negative experience: Do not waste your money here unless you want to be berated the entire time. First off, you are paying a pricier amount just for your own driving time to be cut off by other students who are also in the car. Me and my mother were under the impression that it was just going to be me and Mr. G, but to our surprise there was 2 other students. I barely had any time. When he had gone outside to check a students parking, the other student who was in the car warned me that he was mean, and I found that out the hard way. Mr. G was extremely cruel to me once I was finally able to get my time behind the wheel. This was the very first time I had operated a car, and before I could even get a chance to start, he slammed on the break and berated me for not using the proper order for leaving a parallel parking space. I understand if I did it wrong, but the way he went about it felt very dehumanizing, and I was on the verge of tears before I even got to start driving. There was a time where he also yanked the wheel the opposite direction when my hands were still on it when I froze up, after the overwhelming instructions he was giving me. He was practically barking orders at me the entire time, making me very anxious and distracted. Not to mention, he was also very disrespectful to the 2 other students in the car. From what I saw, he has a very short temper, and I was afraid to ask questions or clarify anything because I was worried I was going to get yelled at again. I felt extremely unsafe and anxious and I was ready to leave and be over with it the second the lesson started. I decided that I didn’t want to take another lesson, so my mother and I called the school to complain. We didn’t even have to say his name for the person on the phone to question if it was about Mr. G, as we were the third people to complain that week about him. All in all, I found a much safer experience elsewhere. Such a total waste of time and money, not to mention we didn't even receive a full refund.

Negative experience: My daughter never started here, this business has poor communication. We looked into this school only cuz my daughter’s friend recommended but did say the instructor was really rude. I thought maybe he was exaggerating. So i enrolled her but first communication with this guy, was so rude and not welcoming. After I paid registration, no next steps of any kind were given, no follow-up call, nothing. I called twice and he was rude and again no instructions given. Finally, i asked for a refund and he said he didnt even know who i was. So he refunded my registration all but $50 which he claims “paperwork fee”. What paperwork, he never even sent a receipt or email. Do not send your kid here

Negative experience: I took lessons at 16 from A+ Driving Academy, stalled until I was about to go to college, and decided I needed a license before leaving. A+ couldn't schedule me on such short notice, so I wound up here despite the horrible reviews. My biggest issue isn't the aggressiveness (though it is a problem. If you're going to be aggressive at least be competent), it's the false advertisement. I paid for 14 hours of driving lessons AKA what's on the website. What I got was 9 hours of lessons and 5 hours of sitting in a car and watching others drive, because Mr. G packs multiple students into one car and hopes you won’t notice half your paid time is being siphoned into someone else’s practice. No other well-respected driving school will do this because it’s lazy and dishonest to charge full price for half the service. As Americans, we spend 18 years sitting behind our parents and watching them drive. For free. Mr. G tries to say $520 is a great price to sit in a car, but for $489 I can get my permit education, private driving lessons, and road test all at A+ Driving Academy, just 12 minutes away. On day 5, I expected to work on my weaknesses. Instead, I spent 2 hours driving in a neighborhood at 20 mph with a beginner who didn’t know the gas from the brake. On day 6, I drove with a day 2 driver and an extremely anxious kid. All I did that day was parallel parking (unsuccessfully for all 3 of us) and a loop around the road. On my final day, I thought that there was no way I was sharing a lesson because my road test was the same day. What happened? I had to share my last lesson with two other people. We all unsuccessfully parallel parked and then drove on the highway for the rest of the time, something that's not even on the test and I was already good at. I kept asking to practice on intersections because they were my weakness, Mr. G agreed they were my weakness, and yet we had 0 intersection practice because his priority is squeezing the maximum cash from each session. Mr. G also insists on teaching parallel parking in an incredibly, incredibly variable way that creates different results every time. Even on my 7th day, I couldn't park perfectly, and the other day 7 driver couldn't either. On my 6th day, no one could park perfectly. On my 3rd day, the other student couldn't. When so many people can’t, the problem IS the method. At my other driving school, I nailed parallel parking on day 1. I watched some videos from my old driving school, relearned their method, succeeded, but Mr. G got upset and told me to not use that method in his car, even though I kept parking either too close or too far with his. (I couldn't practice parallel parking on my own because we have a huge SUV that barely fits in the cones + it's totally different from driving a short, small car.) What kind of teacher refuses to let you use the method that works for you, just because it bruises their ego? When I asked if I could practice parallel parking for a few minutes before our road test, he said I’d have to pay extra to do that, even though I was never given my 14 hours. With a normal driving school, my teacher would've worked on my weaknesses. Here, for $520, you can sit in a car and watch other people drive. Mr. G will also not teach you, a beginner, how to do things, and will get mad at you when you don’t do it right and still won't explain the correct way. I understand some parents might want a strict teacher, but there’s a difference between strict and impatient. YouTube was the only reason why I was able to learn at all. If you’re considering this school, know this: you're paying to subsidize other students’ lessons and your weak points will stay weak. Instruction time is swallowed up by other students’ needs or wasted on exercises for beginners. Either way, your actual concerns never get worked on. Cut your losses, go to A+ Driving Academy. This isn’t any sort of ad, I’m just in awe of how incompetent this school is. It might be a bit of a longer drive but you get patient instructors, a cheaper price, and will actually learn how to drive.

Fantastic experience: I had an excellent experience with Mr. G; he was a fantastic driving instructor. He is firm, which is essential for learning to drive. He provided me with all the tools I needed to become a safe and defensive driver. He is a great teacher!

Negative experience: Do not waste your time or money dealing with this headache of a man. His attitude is terrible and he acts like he has better things to do than the job he offers, very unprofessional. Parent led, you can get the program done faster and spend time with your kid. Ultimately, resorted to parent led after the terrible communication on instructor’s end. Please save yourself the hassle of trying to communicate with Mr. “G”, you will be on his timeline for your kids future driving, while you still try to figure out the puzzle called Mr. “G”.