“Think twice before booking with Ziaul. He is perhaps the worst of the entire team. A panicky guy who will give you instructions and then as you attempt to follow through takes the wheel and causes you to not only be a danger to others on the road but to yourself and him as well. I have requested a new instructor let's see if they come through with it. I believe with all the poor reviews I have seen, it all boils down to a lack of professional development/ redefining teaching methods for the instructors or even simple assessment to check whether instructors' input and instructions to students meet the criteria. I also must emphasize that his weak use of English has also played a major role in the overall negative experience. For example, when he constantly formulates poor, incorrect instructions at the last minute then blames it on the student or admits he's at fault but then does the same thing again! This is someone who requires quite a bit of instructor training or clearly doesn't care about his work and is merely there for the money. If that's the case then Acclaim I can assure you that these types of instructors will be your downfall. I have never been so cross with an instructor as I have been today. I tend to be a soft, calm, and patient person because as a teacher, I am aware of the challenges he faces as an instructor. But obviously, he needs to learn not to mistake students' patience for stupidity. It won't end well in most cases. I can testify to that. This was a case of Ziaul being overly comfortable and trying to push outdated traditional teaching methods on a full-grown adult. I can't imagine anyone taking that sitting down. Furthermore, trying to only teach soft skills good for driving to pick up the kids or shop at a supermarket. Mind you he told me he never allows his wife to drive their family car on the motorway! I can only imagine why! Watch out because he even answers calls and texts clients for his business during lessons. Super unprofessional. Then he arrives late and ends classes early. I truly cannot understand why I put up with this level of unprofessionalism for so long.”
“So lucky you can’t do a one star. What a joke!!!! My wife took an intensive driving lesson and test with them. The driving instructor was on his phone taking calls and texting all time. Phoned up acclaim to complain they want to know nothing and this driving instructor gets away with it. Will be in touch with the dvsa over this!”
“Awful company, maybe if they want to be decent they should scale back on their locations. Driver was aggressive, constantly on his phone, at one point on my second lesson had a 10 minute phone call in anther language whilst I was just driving round a housing estate I'm circle's. Confidence was rocked and its taken some months to break the bad tuition. Even the basics were not taught such as setting the car up and even keeping eyes upward etc. It seems obvious when you know how to drive. There is so much more but a 14 year old who had just stolen a car could teach someone better. It was in my gut not to use this company, I should've followed it not wasted over £1100, they didn't even bother to reply to q complaint. lazy and incompetent.”
“My instructor was a guy called Greame, who from the moment I sat in his car he put me at ease an made me feel comfortable. He took me round the test route every week, showed me the 6 manoeuvre’s, always reliable an on time. I achieved what I set out to do an that was a big PASS 😎 Greame thanx very much, an I wish you all the best for the future. I would recommend anyone to acclaim, especially Greame thank you 👍”
“Money Grabbers !!!, Hidden Refund Fees, Lazy and Rude Instructors (Mirwaise H) only wanting to teach Automatic cars. Will cancel your account after you ask for a refund. Nowhere to leave review on website and clearly, AI generated 5 stars reviews.”
“HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING experience! AVOID at all costs! I had 8 lessons left after passing my test. I asked for a refund straight after. SAM KHALIQ my instructor advised me not to get a refund as I could do motorway lessons. He advised me to contact him ‘any time’ to arrange these. He did not honour these, they are dishonest and wanted to keep the money. No refund was given by the company either.
DO NOT TRUST this company.”
“My Daughter did 20 lessons with this acclaim driving school and the instructor chatted more than teaching. 20 lessons and he did not teach my daughter all the 4 manoeuver, this is called a rip-off. Taking money and not doing the job properly is a disgrace. My daughter even paid for a mock test and this instructor did not even ask her to do a maneuver...how could he? He knew he did not teach her the most important information for the practical test.... Shame”
“SORRY I don't think so.
I paid £64 for a 2 hour back to back lesson for Friday 1st October 2021 2-4pm. Received a telephone call to say aunt is seriously ill in Luton, I am in Leicester. Halfway to Luton got the call she had deteriorated rapidly and passed. DEVASTATED. With all this going on family grieving people coming round these lessons were not at the forefront of my mind, grieving was. Going through my diary the following afternoon saw the appt and called. i was told too late no re-imbursement, no contingencies in place. Asked if someone went into a coma would it be the same outcome repeatedly being told all through the call YES its in the TERMS AND CONDITIONS regarding cancellations, 48 hour window. so I should have predicted my aunt was going to suddenly die then I could have given them 48 hours notice. I'm not even asking for the money back just the missed lesson I was told NO it's in the terms and conditions 48 HOURS NOTICE HAS TO BE GIVEN this applies to death and coma's. Well thank you very much acclaim for your m "PATHETIC" consideration.
WARNING PLEASE ALL THOSE WISHING TO BRING THEIR BUSINESS TO ACCLAIM, BE WARNED. IF A LOVED ONE DIES OR YOU FALL INTO A COMA YOU HAVE TO GIVE 48 HOURS PRIOR NOTICE TO FALLING IN THE COMA THAT YOU ARE GOING TO FALL INTO A COMA OTHERWISE YOU WILL LOSE YOUR £ SPENT PAYING FOR THE LESSON.
NB Telephone calls or texts not used as a reminder. JUST LIE TO SAY THEY WERE TRYING TO MAKE CONTACT. Lies nothing on the phone by way of missed calls texts or voice mail. There's a name for these type people. CON-ARTISTS.
Angel”
“booked a 5-day intensive course after reading reviews of how good they were on their website, the instructor turned out to be a right pice of sxxt on the very first day he was quiet he wasn't helpful didn't teach and became aggressive when I made a mistake. just imagine the rest of the 4 days I had to spend with the clown, avoid this company at all costs”
“We used acclaim driving for our daughter and had Andrew Newton. He was a very nice man and always punctual however that is as far as I can say with the pros. As far as what he taught my daughter skill wise in 29 hours worth of lessons it was a complete and utter waste of money. They went around the same housing estate every week didn't even go on the test routes or cover all the maneuvers now after this many hours she should have been doing this. We hired another instructor to assess her to see what was the case and he took her out on the test route and said she was capable but just needed to polish up all the loose ends. To sum up acclaim driving and Andrew Newton are a rip off. You pay a fortune and don't get a good service. And when you try to speak to sue in customer service who deals with complaints she is also useless. My advise is go with someone who is a individual not a big company because they don't care. They are only after your money. This was obvious as all they were trying to do with my daughter was make her have more lessons than she actually needed. Avoid this company at all costs!!!!!!”
“Sadly, this company is not as we believed and we have subsequently learned that local opinion of the instructor, Peter Granger, is very poor. You need to formulate your own opinion but we cannot recommend this instructor or company.”
“I have passed my test so this is not sour grapes, just an honest opinion. All I can say is avoid this company - they have no interest in the person and my instructor, peter Granger, was, in my opinion, totally unscrupulous and without integrity. My advice is to go for an independent instructor.”
“This company is awful. I paid for the 10 hour bundle but did 7 hours or less. The instructor I got put with arrived 10 minutes late for every lesson and was very aggressive and unhelpful every time I made a mistake. On one instance I asked him if I was able to reschedule a lesson, I was told it would be fine and I wouldn't get charged, 3 days later £40 of credit is gone from my account. I tried to appeal to acclaim even presenting evidence (a screenshot of the texts saying I won't be charged) and was told I would not be able to get my money back.
My final lesson with my instructor I hit the curb with his car trying to park and he becomes aggressive again by the end of the ordeal I was told "if I wasn't your instructor I would have put hands on you by now". The lesson ended earlier than the 2 hour session promised (and charged). when I tried appealing for a refund I was told its not possible as the instructor reported the lesson ended due to unsafe driving conditions inside the car.
Overall I am very upset with my experience, and I would not recommend this company to any new or inexperienced drivers.”
“This company is awful. I paid for the 10 hour bundle but did 7 hours or less. The instructor I got put with arrived 10 minutes late for every lesson and was very aggressive and unhelpful every time I made a mistake. On one instance I asked him if I was able to reschedule a lesson, I was told it would be fine and I wouldn't get charged, 3 days later £40 of credit is gone from my account. I tried to appeal to acclaim even presenting evidence (a screenshot of the texts saying I won't be charged) and was told I would not be able to get my money back.
My final lesson with my instructor I hit the curb with his car trying to park and he becomes aggressive again by the end of the ordeal I was told "if I wasn't your instructor I would have put hands on you by now". The lesson ended earlier than the 2 hour session promised (and charged). when I tried appealing for a refund I was told its not possible as the instructor reported the lesson ended due to unsafe driving conditions inside the car.
Overall I am very upset with my experience, and I would not recommend this company to any new or inexperienced drivers.”
“Acclaim Driving are a joke. They booked a course of lessons for my wife. Theere was supposed to be one lesson every few days for 2 weeks. 5 lessons of 2 hours each. We waited a month for these dates but it all seemed very professional and friendly. The driver who turned up is self employed. He knew nothing of the dates my wife had booked and told her, after the lesson had started that he was unable to do any of them except that one. He could do one in 2 weeks and another one a month after that. After the lesson we tried to contact them. My wife was furious and wanted to demand a full refund straight away. I said to calm down and we wrote an email asking what they could do. They got back to us and offered some more dates in a months time. We said no thanks and after a bit of backwards and forwards we eventually we were promised a full refund. I didn't think to get that in writing as they offered it quite readily. I even asked if it would be a full refund and after putting me on hold the lady said "yes, a full refund. We won't charge you for the lesson you had."
I replied that that seemed fair as we would not have had that lesson if we had been told before hand that none of the proceeding dates would be met.
A week later my wife checked her bank account and only some of the money had been refunded. We called them up and a lady called Sue said, yes, we have sent the money back. I said that we had been promised a full refund. She then said that they would never do that and that anyway, they were doing us a favour not to charge us a cancellation fee. Also she said that the driver did not work for Acclaim but was a self employed driving instructor. I said that we did not book with him but with Acclaim.
The phone was then handed to Steven Turnbull. Very quickly he began using legal terms such as 'vicarious liability' and saying we should have read the small print and that any contract we had was with the self employed driver and not with Acclaim.
He refused to give us the full refund as he said that he could not have known about the problem before it happened.
Why are they making bookings which their 'self employed driving instructors' cannot do?
Our main problem is that we booked with Acclaim for an intensive 5 lessons. We did receive one but would not have done so if we had been told that instead of finishing all 10 hours in a 2 week period, we would instead get one lesson, then another 2 weeks after that, then another a month after that and then would have to see how it goes to get any more.
These people are a joke. Give them a wide berth.”
