Spokane Motorschool

Review: I was currently taking all my test at Spokane Motor School when on July 22, 2013 at 8:45am I was taking my skills test and was told it was $40 and I could get a reciept at the end of the test. when there was an issue with a part of the test... [redacted] was the instructor at the time and when I was asking questions about the part of the test that I did wrong I clearly explained why this happend and is was because the intructor had given an error and left out a part of the test.... [redacted] then started to swear at me calling me an it.... at this time [redacted] started to walk out to the course; I decided that being cursed at and yelled at was not an option for me I began to explain things to him. After 15 minutes of talking to him he bribed me with $100 saying I couldnt even finsih the test if I wanted to and that I am a horrible rider. I then contacted who I beileve is the owner of the company [redacted] and told her what was going on when she told me that the instrustors did not have time for me and that I needed to leave.Desired Settlement: I would like a refund of $40 and recommend no person back to this business

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern,

We offer knowledge and skills testing for motorcycles, sidecars and trikes as well as training

classes. This customer had come to us for testing twice before. He made an appointment

for skills testing for 7/21/13 at 9am. The customer showed up at 12:08pm and demanded

that he be tested from the instructors who were in the middle of teaching a 3 wheel class on

the parking lot. It was explained to him that his appointment was at 9am and they were not

able to test him right now because they were busy teaching a class.

In the interest of providing excellent customer service, one of the instructors offered to come

in early the next day if he would like to come back. (This happened to be her day off.)

When the customer arrived he did not have his testing fee. The instructor offered to wait for

him should he want to locate an ATM and come back. There is an ATM right across the

street, but the customer was gone for more than 45 minutes before he returned with the

testing fee and was ready to begin his test.

The customer is given a form to complete, date and sign as our record of his test with us.

The statement on the form reads, “I understand that the test fee must be paid in advance

and in full and that there are no refunds and no guarantee of passing.” Right below this

statement is where the customer signs to acknowledge.

There are very specific procedures for administering the skills test, per our contract with the

Dept of Licensing and our instructors have been DOL trained and certified. The following

statement is read to each testee prior to beginning the test: “Your test may be ended for

point accumulation, falling or crashing the cycle, stalling four times, unsafe acts, or failure to

understand or follow instructions. You must complete the entire test to pass it. Do you

understand these instructions?”

During the test the customer did not follow the instructions and rode through the swerve

barrier. This (in addition to points from the previous 2 runs) ended his test. This customer

was very angry and became argumentative when told that he had accumulated too many

points and his test was ended.

We frequently see customers disappointed or discouraged when they do not pass on their

first attempt, and have heard every excuse from “I had indigestion” to “I couldn’t see without

my glasses”. The excuses or reasons that a testee comes up with do not negate the fact

that they failed the test.

This customer does not realize that my costs are more than $40 to conduct his “solo” test by

the time we pay for insurance for him to test at our facility, rental of the parking lot, the

instructor, etc. We went above and beyond to accommodate him.

Had he controlled his anger and conducted himself in a polite and respectful manner with

me and my instructors I would have been happy to make an accommodation for him, if he

felt there was some sort of discrepancy. I will not be offering this customer a refund in any

amount. He was aware of our policies and he was given a test in exchange for the fee that

he paid. We have trained/tested over 5,000 students in the past 7 years and have never

had a customer behave in this manner.

If you have any questions, or require any additional information, please feel free to contact

me.

Regards,

Owner / Instructor

Spokane MotorSchool

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