In April of 2014 I enrolled my daughter Sarah at the Safety First Driving School located in Oak Creek, WI, at a total price of $279 which was to include the required classroom , behind the wheel and o... Read More
In April of 2014 I enrolled my daughter Sarah at the Safety First Driving School located in Oak Creek, WI, at a total price of $279 which was to include the required classroom , behind the wheel and observation. I enrolled her there only after researching their website and talking with Janet (owner's mother) who explained to me the services Safety First offered such as picking up/dropping off my daughter at home for behind the wheel lessons and so on.Sarah completed her required 30 hours of classroom on April 25th, 2014. From this point on it has been a struggle to get appointments for her required 6 hours of behind the wheel and 6 hours of observation. I called Safety First repeatedly for weeks to setup an appointment for her first driving lesson, I did not hear from them until I received a text on June 8th from Mike one of the driving instructors. He picked Sarah up at 11:05 am on June 12th, 2014, at our home and drove her to the old American Furniture Store parking lot on 13th and College, where she practiced going back and forth and then was dropped back home at before noon. She only received approximately 45 minutes of driving that day with no observation. I did find out later that Mike had marked her paperwork as having the observation completed on June 12th, even though she did not have any observation on that day.Getting her second behind the wheel scheduled was another struggle and again after repeated calls and text messages, I was finally contacted on July 21st, 2014 from Mike. We scheduled Sarah's appointment for July 23rd however this time he requested that I drop her off at the American Parking lot because picking her up and dropping her off at our home was now out of his way. We live in Caledonia and I confirmed with Janet, as well as it being posted on their website that they do in fact pickup and drop off in Caledonia up to Hwy G which we are located before Hwy G. I would not have chosen Safety First, if they did not agree to pick Sarah up and drop her off at our home (please see attached A). After being told (via text) several times that he would not pick Sarah up at home I finally agreed to drop her off at the American parking lot only because I was desperate for Sarah to get her driving lessons in since it had been 3 months since she completed classroom and had only 1 driving lesson to this point (for appox 45 minutes). Again, on July 23rd Mike was late picking Sarah up and dropped her off early with no observation again. When Sarah and I had both questioned Mike, but at different times, about the observation he told us both that it was not really necessary and that all the kids do in the back seat is text anyway.I was not comfortable with Mike telling me there was no need for observation and that he was just marking it on the paperwork as being completed so on August 4th 2014, I contacted the DMV to inquire on what the requirements for observation are, I spoke with Amber and was information that observation is a state law unless the student has 9 hours of behind the wheel. That same day, Amber (DMV) contacted Janet at Safety First to investigate my concern and shortly thereafter I received a voice message from Janet at Safety First informing me that she would be sending me a check for $79 and a certificate of completion. I was not asking for a refund from Safety First I was merely trying to make sure that my daughter was receiving the requirements of the Wisconsin state driving laws. How this inquiry translated into kicking my daughter out of driving school I do not know. Furthermore this means that according to Safety First it cost $200 for classroom and 2 driving lessons and the remaining 4 driving lessons and the 6 behind the wheel lesson on cost 79? When I called Janet to question this she simply said if you are so unhappy here we will mail you a certificate of completion and a check for $79 and hung up on me.I called several other driving school such as Easy Method, Sears, L&B and Arcade and was told by all of them that the majority of the cost is in the actual driving not the classroom which contradicts what Safety First. In order for Sarah to get her 6 hours of driving and 6 hours of observation at either of these other schools it would cost me a minimum of $240 plus I would need to get the certificate of classroom completion from Safety First, which I still do not have.As of today October 8th, 2014 I still have not received the $79 check or the certificate of completion Janet said she was mailing me back on Aug 4th, and let's keep in mind that I asked for a full refund not just $79. I did try to call on September 15th to find out the status of the refund and left a message on their voice machine but have not heard back from them yet. Read Less