Booked their 2 for 1 deal. I booked the lesson three times, but instructor did not show up . They wont refund me saying their administration charge is 10 quids !!! What a waste of time, I should have looked up reviews online before booking. I would not recommend this school to any one . Avoid.

Absolutely awful. Impossible to get through to call centre to book lessons for weeks on end and refusal to return money in spite of this. Eventually switched to another driving school but BSM still have around 300£ belonging to me as I paid for quite a few lessons in advance. AVOID.

I thought that I would go with a well-known school and I was willing to pay a little bit more for quality. So I went to BSM in Haringey.

I went to the office to book, and I should have walked straight out. The young girls looked bored and were very unhelpful giving the minimum amount of info, the driving instructors were lounging around chatting up the poor girls.

I booked an afternoon off for my first lesson only for the instructor to turn up. I phoned the office and complained, and they said that they will reschedule my lesson. Next day, he still didn't turn up, again I complained and rebooked. The third time, again he didn't turn up. I phoned and they siad that he was on his way, although he would be 30 mins late, so I cancelled and complained to the head office.

They repaid my money and would investigate and get back to me, but I have not heard a word since. They are an unprofessional organisation. Don't go there.

Whatever you do, do NOT go with BSM. My experience has been awful.
To begin with, when I started my lessons with BSM it was very much about the money. My first instructor spoke to me about how he preferred it if we didn't drive around to much because it uses a lot of petrol that he has to pay for because BSM don't pay him enough. So, for the majority of the time we'd practise the three point turn over and over. I had no control over the clutch by my fifteenth lesson with him, despite asking him for advice on the subject. He often arrived early and stood outside his car smoking and drinking out of a flask. The one time when I went out in time, he spilt his drink of the chair I then had to sit in. He was unprofessional, and spoke about how he liked to swerve around in the car in the snow and ice. He cancelled lessons without consulting me, and even charged me for one that he cancelled. He was unprofessional, and had no real experience because he had a file that he'd show me when he wanted me to attempt a manoeuvre. We did hardly any driving, and he just presumed I could do roundabouts what I told him I'd never driven before. When we contacted BSM they apologised and got me a new instructor. I have a new instructor now but I've had 40 lessons now and I'm nowhere near ready for my test. I just feel let down by BSM and we are trying to get our money back. I was taught things wrong, and many of the errors I was told to do would have gotten me a fail on my test. BSM's customer service is appalling, they are incredibly hard to get hold of - even their instructors struggle to get help with their issues. I get the feeling from BSM that it is very much about money and not the safety or experience of the pupil. DO NOT GO WITH BSM. Their best instructors are now leaving them for different firms and we will not be continuing with them. I'm VERY angry.

I'm writing about my experience to warn ALL other potential learner drivers about BSM's intensive driving course.

My boyfriend paid £670 for a course with BSM, however the instructor was texting during the lesson, unreliable, neurotic and generally making my boyf very nervous in the car. After 3 or 4 lessons, he phoned to request a different driver, however they could not offer him one in the area.

BSM then offered us a full refund which they said would take 7 days.

That was at the start of November. We have experience the worst customer service i have EVER experienced, and we still dont have our money back!!!

After ignoring our phonecalls, not returning our messages, we had to get a newpaper involved to print a story about it to try and get our cash back, and they are now only refunding us £430 of the £670 we paid!



I would warn anyone even considering single lessons with this company to be careful, they are terrible and i would not wish anyone to have to go through what we have been going through. BSM are the worst company i have ever dealt with and i hope none of you experience the stress they have put us through.

I got this really bad instructor.He forced me to book the road test at a specific test centre only because he lived in that area.He said that if I book test in any other test centre, he will not be able to tell me anything about the test route because he doesnt know other areas. He used to talk so loudly and some times shout if I do the mistake while learning.
I failed the road test and he wanted me book another test right away, but I didnt. Because I wanted to go through my mistakes and do few more lessons before I go for the second road test. He never told me that BSM does mock test, almost like a real test. I found that out myself while searching BSM web site, I asked him to book a mock test for me but he never did. BSM is just a money making business so please dont go for this school. They dont care how many times you fail, they will just keep booking the lessons and pulling out money.

This review is not about the instructor, but it is about BSM. The instructor who came for me for the initial assessment was really good and gave me good advice (reason for 1 star). I have really good experience in driving (as I'm not from UK and have been driving in my home country for almost 10 years now), so i decided to go for the offer for discounted 10 hours lessons. No where in the website its mentioned that I cannot book it cause i already did my assessment class there and I had also called the customer care people and they had confirmed i can book online to get a discounted rate. I also paid for booking my practical test through the customer care and had mentioned that i needed the test before a particular date ( i had checked online in DVLA website, and there were slots available). I decided to book my test through BSM so that I could get the same instructor, who took my assessment, to accompany me for the test. Once all the payment was done i got a call in the evening stating i cant get the 10 hours discount offer since I was already a student. When I told them the procedures I did to book online, the website customer care guy(LUKE was his name) told the website is not opening in his system. Why is he the customer care for website bookings if the website crashes in his system? Then he offered me 8 hours for the same amount. I agreed, but then he told me that i cant get practical test dates before the date i mentioned. This i couldn't agree because my job is in stake. I have to get a UK driving license to get a job. So i asked them to pay my money back. He agreed but i lost 10 pounds on refund charge and 4 pounds of the practical test booking. I am a person who makes web pages, and if there is an error in the website its not the end user who should suffer, but the owner of the website. The company has to take responsibility for misleading the end user and giving them wrong ideas. The website never blocked me from booking this offer and even the customer care didn't tell me it was wrong. Mr. Luke started arguing with me on this factor as well. So you can guess how much respect they have for customers especially Non-British customers. And it take 28 days for them to refund the money. :) One day to take the money, but 28 to pay back..I will not suggest BSM to anyone who has good driving experience. I am going to take the test on my own and maybe ask one of my friends who already has a license to accompany me.

Very poor indeed. Unreliable and use lower grade ADI instructors without telling you.

I booked a lesson session online. nobody ever came or called - never got back my money - had to call 10 times - and spent half a day on hold.

I failed 4 tests with BSM. I was absolutely devastated but thought it was something wrong with ME! BSM kept encouraging me to book extra lessons while stringing me long and not covering things at the right pace. I lost a lot of confidence with them and am now retaking my driving test many years later with another driving school.

Everything to do with BSM is a complete DISASTROUS NIGHTMARE! AVOID AVOID AVOID! I needed to change my lesson, so I called a week before it was scheduled to change it, but could not get through to anyone during their phone line opening hours. I had to request THREE callbacks, only to never be called back by a BSM agent. Finally, two days later, I call BSM again (spending lots of money from my mobile on their stupid expensive 0845 phone number), only to be told that I cannot switch my lesson or get a refund for it because it is now too soon to my upcoming lesson (even though I politely explained that I had tried calling days before without any luck).

I'm thereby obligated to either lose out on the money I already paid for to have my lesson, or to keep my original lesson that is now very inconvenient for me. I therefore have to change my plans around so I can have my lesson. Time for the lesson comes and after 15 minutes of waiting outside for my instructor who has not yet showed, I have to pay a lot of money from my phone again to call BSM since no one even tried contacting me. I get through to someone, who then has to call my no-show instructor and puts me on hold. Then I'm told that the instructor "has had a puncture and is not in a good mood because of it" and that he would not be making it to my lesson that was supposed to start 25 minutes prior at this point.

Again, I'm not offered a refund for BSM's negligence, and my 2 hours, which I switched plans around to make available, are wasted. I reschedule another lesson to make up for this one for a few days later, at a very inconvenient, very early time because this was all that was available for me by now.

Time for this rescheduled lesson. After yet another 15 minutes of standing around outside in the cold, I have to call BSM yet again to find out why my instructor has again, not showed up. The lady on the phone at BSM says she will call the instructor to find out what's going on, and puts me on hold (wasting my money for the phone call, yet again). After about 5 minutes of being on hold, the instructor comes on the phone and seems very confused and keeps asking me who I am, what my name is, who he is talking to, etc. He explains that BSM has recently been bought out by a bigger company and that there have been "communication" problems as a result, and that he apologised that I would now be "sitting around for two hours" since he wouldn't be able to make my lesson, AGAIN! He went on to say that BSM schedules lessons for him and doesn't let him know, so that he didn't have my lesson down in his schedule and that "he didn't know what should even be in his diary".

The instructor then tries to get me to reschedule again for the THIRD time, which I refuse to do, not to mention I don't have much time left at this point before my scheduled practical exam (along with BSM's limited availability of "lessons"). The instructor keeps telling me how the practical exam is getting much more difficult all the time, and that I was "making it seem much more straight forward than it actually is", etc., as if he wanted to make me feel unconfident about it so that I would actually reconsider rebooking. I told him I didn't have much time left before my practical exam and that I would just get a refund, which he said I should definitely be able to get, and then says to me "I'll leave that to you then" before hanging up.

I just messaged BSM to explain my horrific experience with them, demanding my refund (not to mention all the time and expensive phone calls wasted by their complete lack of customer service and unbelievable negligence).

Stay with the smaller driving school companies (such as Holborn School of Motoring, in Central London, etc.). I saw about three of their cars go by with pupils inside (who were actually receiving the lessons they scheduled and paid for!) each time I was waiting for my non-existent BSM lessons.

Review of Lesson Experience:

I went with BSM as they had the only automatic instructor in my area, not for any other reason.

My instructor was an arogant ex boy racer with a terrible attitude to other road users, nervous drivers, and I suspect an underlying attitude about female drivers, and a neighbour of mine had to take evasive action as he was driving away from dropping me off after a lesson. The lessons were expensive, he did not increase my familiarity with the local test routes, and I came out of the lessons feeling deskilled and nervous about my driving - an instructor's job is to increase your confidence in your abilities as a driver, not to undermine you ahead of your test.

Other people I have spoken to report a corporate practice of telling you you need more lessons than you do in order to get more money, and one driving instructor locally has left BSM as he was so unhappy with their corporate ethics.

Customer Service.

I booked a pack of 5 lessons and paid up front, decided with two remaining that the instructor was doing more harm than good, and asked for my money back for the remaining lessons.

I phoned the local BSM (who had happily taken my card details when I booked and charged me). They said it was not "company policy" for them to issue refunds and that I would have to call head office in Bristol. I did. I won't bore you with the details, but my guess is that as the average age of their students is 17-18 years they are adept at fobbing people off with the "we don't give refunds" routine.

I got my refund (I always do), after six phone calls, quoting the Unfair Commercial Practice Regulations 2008, threatening them with the Small Claims Court. They eventually decided there was no other instrutor who could take me for the lesson slots and gave me my refund. If you want a refund, do not get fobbed off with their "company policy" rubbish - if the service you got was rubbish, you are entitled.

I had a very positive experience with Benson School of Motoring in the East of England, only changed because there were no other automatic instructors where I had moved to. Stay away from BSM - they will not get you though your test in the fastest possible time.

It is a cheat driving school, they coaxed me into booking 30 driving lessons in one go and they promised they would continue the same instructor at the new place where I was moving.

Now, they refuse to do that and have already changed 2 driving instructors for me. As a result I have wasted 10 hours in trying to get used to a new instructor every time.

They have now even refused to refund my money for the remaining lessons I booked. It is a cheat driving school and I would not recommend them to anyone.

I am now going to pursue a case in consumer court against these guys. I would not recommend this cheat BSM driving school to anyone. Please guys do not trust them as they are very likely to renege on their committments. They have no work ethics at all and are a cheat company.

After failing my test twice I booked the Fast Pass course with BSM (which cost £710) as I thought that being such a well known company they must be ok. I couldn't have been more wrong!! I did pass my test but even so I would NOT recommend them to anyone.

My instructor was at least half an hour late for every single lesson, including the one before the test, just a tad unprofessional I thought. In addition, I was not taught the bay park or the parallel park until the lesson before the test! Included in my £710 was a mock test, which I did not get, and a book and cd rom set which again I did not get. In total, along with the unused lessons BSM owe me almost £70 (as it states on their website they refund any unused lessons). However trying to get the money back from them is ridiculously difficult. I have been ringing them for over a month now and am always told there was some sort of problem and the money will be refunded in a few days, so far I am still waiting....

In addition, my instructor was not even a qualified driving instructor, something that I didn't even realise was legal! Apparently BSM use trainee intructors a lot but I was very disappointed that I was not told this in the first place.

Driving lessons are so expensive that it is not worth wasting the money on BSM, please please go elsewhere!!

I just called BSM to validate the voucher for my son's simulator and lessons. Despite what the website says, there is NO SIMULATOR AT THE LUTON SCHOOL so my choices are Watford or Bedford. Miles away!! And it has to be during the day Mon-Fri so I'll have to take a half-day off work. I wouldn't have bought the voucher if I'd known. And they refuse to exchange the 2-hour simulator for a 1-hour driving lesson. Not happy.

BSM are over priced, do not care if you pass or fail and their driving instructors are inadequately trained. My impression of them was that they wanted as much money out of me as possible and provided a very poor service in return. I drove very little throughout my lesson, spending most of the time sitting in a parked car learning nothing.My driving instructor only took me to the same housing estate for the 4 months I took lessons with BSM. Consequently I made very little progress and my confidence has been knocked. I have since moved onto another driving school and wish I had earlier. I would strongly NOT recommend BSM to anyone.

Poor service, they do not care if you pass. Do not pay for lessons up front they will not teach you within the cost and you will end up paying more and at such a high price. Do not be fooled by their Pass Promise, read the small print it means nothing.

I started taking lessons with bsm, most of the time i was parked at the side of the road and almost fell a sleep, they are a complete waist of money. and they do use trainee driving instructor my cousin was one a few months back.

I had a BSM driving instructor some years back. He was crazy. He smoked in the car even though I was a non-smoker. He would drive into petrol stations with me to fill up the tank; he would wave his fists at other drivers if they annoyed him and he never took me on any test routes. It was always round quiet residential streets.
I never learned anything with him. Eventually he asked me out for a meal. My partner advised me to give him up. Needless to say, I did. What a complete waste of my time and money.