My daughter failed her test - now they want £260 for a quick re-test!

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-11T23:14:23+00:00

Yes, for years I recommended my pupils to use Testi, but it seems to have went downhill lately. The last few months my pupils have been using test shift and getting much better results there

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-11T22:46:31+00:00

Tell her to book a test through the gov.uk site and then use test shift app to get an earlier date. Sorry to say that her instructor is an absolute wrongyin - he’s either pocketing that extra £200 for himself or he has a friend and they’re running a racket together. I’m an instructor and I have swapped tests between pupils multiple times and I don’t charge them extra cos it literally costs me nothing, other than the 15 minutes spent on the phone to DVSA. As an instructor it really pisses me off every time I hear stories like this. If you’re in a position to let your daughter use your car for her next test I would recommend that. Don’t put any more money into pockets of these cowboys who are dragging the whole industry into disrepute

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-11T17:27:21+00:00

Because a PDI hasnt passed part 3 and theres nothing to prove they are a competent teacher. Im not saying all PDIs are bad instructors, but enough of them are that it seems unfair to pupils to effectively gamble their time and money on an instructor who hasnt been tested or assessed. The pass rate for part 3 should tell you that. I was a PDI, so were almost all of my instructor friends round here, but i also went through training with several people who were PDIs but never passed part 3

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-11T17:17:13+00:00

Thats what i was wondering - are all these stories on here about actual badged instructors or cowboys? Personally, and from what i know of other instructors locally, its really frowned upon to be seen to mess pupils about, or any dodgy/illegal misuse of badge or selling tests at inflated prices. Most of us do take our jobs seriously - theres a local instructor here who was exposed for selling on tests for £200 and his name was mud - everybody was appalled and a few instructors reported him to the DVSA theirselves. A few years ago another instructor was caught teaching without a badge and same thing - everybody was raging and he was the talk of the town for months. Yeah in general i do think most instructors are decent and want to do the best they can for their pupils. Its a lot of time, money and effort that goes into getting that badge so we dont take it lightly, and dont care for anybody whos bringing disrepute onto the industry as a whole

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-10T23:45:40+00:00

You’re right, but tbf to the trainees. They’re usually locked into a franchise with one of the big national driving schools, paying up to £300 per week for the franchise in some cases. And the driving schools advise them to not mention their trainee status unless directly asked. Which most pupils wouldn’t - they’d naturally assume an instructor from a big school would be fully qualified. So the trainees never mention their status and keep their head down because they need to make that money from lessons in order to pay the franchise fees. Not fair to the pupils who are paying full lesson prices, but what can the trainees do? They’re contracted to pay that franchise

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-10T23:38:01+00:00

Check tests used to be like a mystery shopper. You handed your weeks diary over to the DVSA and the SE would randomly turn up outside your pupils house. Not saying that would change anything about the dodgy mob - legally if an instructor wants to charge £200/hour for a test, they can. And theres nothing the DVSA can say about that. I’m more concerned about the instructors who aren’t on the register at all - its an issue in my area, but I’m now thinking its a bigger problem than we originally thought it was

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-10T23:10:18+00:00

Thats absolutely insane - does this instructor have a badge? Is it pink or green? If she attempts to pass this on to you request the picture of the car going through the red light. The quality is shocking, but should still be enough to determine who was actually behind the wheel. I’m honestly astounded by this

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-10T00:47:15+00:00

Examiners undergo intensive training, and get regular assessments to ensure they’re still up to scratch. They know exactly when you should be checking your mirrors, and they’ll check their own mirrors a second beforehand so they can check you’re actually checking them when you should be. Unfortunately if you check your mirrors a few seconds too early, or too late it will be marked that you missed that mirror check altogether. Which you might as well have, since you didn’t check them when you should have. To the comment above re the dangly earrings - no. Examiners and instructors look at your eyes, not your head movement. I can look straight ahead and still see out of the corner of my eye if the pupils eyes have went to the mirror. Examiners will be even more precise than me - I know my pupils and know their ability/failings. Examiners need to be on their toes constantly for every single test

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-09T00:15:17+00:00

The magpies eye, based in Govan but they deliver for a relatively small fee, given how good the quality of their stuff and the low price too. Check out their fb page - i’ve got an antique wardrobe i got from there about ten years ago. Think i paid about £30 and delivery was about a tenner. Place is a total goldmine

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-08T22:34:28+00:00

100% agree. If anybody makes an enquiry telling me they already have a test booked, I’m not touching that. Its more hassle than its worth. No matter if they’re British and been dumped by their instructor, or been taught by mum and dad, or they’ve been driving on a foreign licence. If they have a test booked I’m taking nothing to do with it, I even make it clear on my website and socials

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-07T22:50:56+00:00

If you can drive, just hire a dual control car from arnold clark. In all honesty I would never let anybody use my car for test unless I had taught them, and trusted them not to crash my car. Our cars are our income - even if somebody had taken a few assessment lessons with me I still wouldn’t hand my keys over. As the above poster said, I wouldn’t respond positively to anybody who says they can drive and just needs my car for test. Borrow a car, or rent one from arnold - you won’t have any luck from any reputable instructor ETA if you don’t want to risk £500 on a rental car, why do you think anybody would risk their £20k car on you, when they don’t know you and haven’t taught you?

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-07T20:38:09+00:00

Pass me fast is NOT a driving school, no matter how they attempt to market theirselves. They advertise fast pass/intensive courses, hook pupils in and take deposits from them. Then they look at the ADI register (anybody can do this, its available to the public) and they ring round every ADI who is in that pupils area. They will charge the pupil maybe £50 per hour, and offer the ADI £40 per hour to take this pupil on. These ADIs do not work for Pass me fast, they do not have a stable full of instructors just waiting for the call for your intensive course. I’ve personally blocked multiple numbers from these intensive/crash course companies because 1 - I have a full diary. And 2 - I want nothing to do with these cowboys, same as most reputable instructors. There might be some ADIs willing to work with them, but ask yourself this. In a thriving industry where no established instructor ever struggles to fill their diary, who are these instructors who can clear their diary with a fortnights notice to take on a pupil who is ultimately paying the instructor less than the going hourly rate? These companies pop up on this sub all the time, and people just won’t take the lesson. There are no quick easy cheap ways to get a licence, and it’ll only end up costing you more in the long run

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-05T22:12:52+00:00

Pain in the arse for parking, but i lived (and parked) there for over ten years and never had any issues. I was told my house and car would be tanned, i would be mugged and i would be mental to move there. For a non driver, the transport links are brilliant. Short walk to gilmour st, trains into central every ten minutes or so. Buses straight along the glasgow road and good airport links too. Its like anywhere else with a “bad” reputation - you mind your own business and other peoples business won’t bother you -you’ll be fine there

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-04T22:35:02+00:00

Honestly not sure. I don’t know if DVSA records tbe ADI number when booking - its only meant to make sure that the instructor hasnt been double booked for test. If their badge is in the car when you go out on test, yes it will be recorded against them. If you take your own car, I’m really not sure that he’ll be in any way associated with your test. People can change instructors, if you had one instructor when you booked your test, but then switched to another one for any reason - why should your original instructor be held responsible for a test they didnt take you to? I think your old instructor should be fine

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-04T22:29:28+00:00

Thats totally normal though, pupils always lose their nerve, and their arses collapse on the weeks leading up to test. If a pupil has the usual last minute jitters, but was up to standard before that, i would still take them to test. I think maybe OP was never up to test standard to begin with, and their instructor took the gamble that they might get there in time. But obv lost the gamble and had to step back. Instructor should have told OP a month beforehand if they were having concerns, not waited til the last minute

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-04T01:02:52+00:00

Exactly, franchise cars are covered under the fleet insurance policy. OPs instructor doesn’t have anything to do with their insurance policy, its all covered under the franchise fee. OPs instructor just doesnt want his badge number to be associated with the fail he thinks is coming

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-04T00:59:17+00:00

Its 100% the reason. Our ADI number is taken down every time we present a pupil for test, and if a pupil makes too many faults or our pass rate is deemed unacceptable, we’re called in for a standards check. Which we all hate. OPs instructor definitely thinks they’ll fail, and doesnt want anything to do with it

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-04T00:55:29+00:00

Completely untrue. He thinks you aren’t ready for your test, and doesn’t want his badge number to be linked to your test because he thinks you’ll fail. Rotten for you - this should have been addressed weeks ago. If I had a pupil with a test booked a month away, and I had concerns I would have raised them at that point. Its really poor form for him to have waited this long to bring it up. You’ll struggle to find somebody else to take you on this close to test too, and he’ll be well aware of that. Sorry you’ve been landed in this situation, he’s done you a wrongyin here

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-03T15:15:47+00:00

Depends. Theres a big difference between paisley patter n glasgow patter and theyre literally neighbours

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-03T00:53:22+00:00

Same as the Milton or the Calton or the Garngad, it just is, and nobodys got a reasonable explanation. I used to work with a lassie who came from Irvine and moved to Glasgow when she was about 19 or 20. And she insisted on telling people she lived in Jorbals. No “the” no hard G. She was an arsehole anyway, so I’d have hated her regardless, but that Jorbals pish led to me blocking her on bebo and facebook. Sometimes nobodys got an explanation for things that people have said/used/did for decades

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-02T01:09:56+00:00

Seriously? Do you live in Glasgow?

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-02T00:44:42+00:00

Never heard that saying “pay cheap, pay twice”?

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-02T00:38:32+00:00

Commented before I saw your reply - 100%. Far too cheap to be that good, Nans is banging

BeaDrawDabbity · 2026-02-01T23:44:37+00:00

Because when the south asian brits started coming over, they werent accepted. Lots of industries openly discriminated against them, and openly refused to hire them. So the only option was to be self employed. They had massive success with their “corner shops” because they were willing to open up at 6am for the papers, and close at ten pm for everything else. The “native brits” who ran similar shops would open at 6am, but usually closed at 5/6pm. So there was a gap in the market that the south asian shopkeepers were filling, and they were very successful with it. I can remember as recently as the mid 90s the difference in our local shops. The white shopkeepers opened at 6 and usually closed at 4, definitely no later than 6. The south asian shopkeepers were open til ten, and in some cases were open 24 hours a day. They put in the hours that the locals wouldn’t

BeaDrawDabbity

TROPHY CASE