BSM

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.