Peter Smythe:
Brokers will often delay booking the practical training. After all, that’s the expensive bit. By doing this, they have the use of your money to keep their business afloat. Having booked the training, IME they will then use every possible tactic to pay the trainer as slowly as possible. This also keeps them going.
I’m not at all surprised that they quoted February. I doubt if the trainer would get paid before April. So exactly how long have they been playing with your money?
I will do anything to beat a broker. Maybe you’d do well to email me.
Pete
I paid them £1099 on them 15th of November then a further £199 on the 28th for something they called “direct access” which according to them gave me 14hrs of cpc and some experience which would look good on my cv and they also want another £300 from me for my initial DCPC.
Where are you based Pete?
Hi Sam. I’m based at Mansfield - 15 minutes from junc 28 M1. Many of my customers take advantage of our free accomodation and travel from all over the UK. Some of our past customers are regulars on this forum so if you ask I’m sure you’ll get some feedback.
Reading your post again, I see they quoted you for Initial cpc. That being the case, it’s impossible to gain 14 hours cpc from this course (legally - and I certainly aint breakin’ the rules for anyone). But you could get the quoted 14 hours if you continued to CE having completed your Initial driver cpc.
The “work experience” is dubious. As brokers, I fail to understand how they can offer that. We don’t pretend to. You have been the victim of common broker practice ie sell a decently priced course and then come back for another bite of the cherry.
It would be interesting to hear the description of the work experience from them.
Can you confirm that you passed your car test after 1997?
Peter Smythe:
Hi Sam. I’m based at Mansfield - 15 minutes from junc 28 M1. Many of my customers take advantage of our free accomodation and travel from all over the UK. Some of our past customers are regulars on this forum so if you ask I’m sure you’ll get some feedback.
Reading your post again, I see they quoted you for Initial cpc. That being the case, it’s impossible to gain 14 hours cpc from this course (legally - and I certainly aint breakin’ the rules for anyone). But you could get the quoted 14 hours if you continued to CE having completed your Initial driver cpc.
The “work experience” is dubious. As brokers, I fail to understand how they can offer that. We don’t pretend to. You have been the victim of common broker practice ie sell a decently priced course and then come back for another bite of the cherry.
It would be interesting to hear the description of the work experience from them.
Can you confirm that you passed your car test after 1997?
Pete
2007 I passed, I was unsure about the cpc but I assumed that because they were selling to to me it’s what I needed
You will need the initial driver cpc as you have no acquired rights. So you will need the case studies test (Mod 2) followed by the practical demonstration test (Mod 4).
But it’s impossible to get 14 hours of periodic training until you do training following the driving test pass and the driver cpc passes.
I’ll be making a phone call when I get time tomorrow, I’ve read through the T&C’s and it says that they make a commitment to request and book training dates and test dates to best suit the customers/trainees availability. We’ll February/march doesn’t suit me so I’ll request an earlier date and if they are unable to provide I’ll request a refund minus the theory + hazard test fee’s. Pete, I might be coming your way, I’ll try make time for a phone call tomorrow
Frost89:
I’ll be making a phone call when I get time tomorrow, I’ve read through the T&C’s and it says that they make a commitment to request and book training dates and test dates to best suit the customers/trainees availability. We’ll February/march doesn’t suit me so I’ll request an earlier date and if they are unable to provide I’ll request a refund minus the theory + hazard test fee’s. Pete, I might be coming your way, I’ll try make time for a phone call tomorrow
If you paid by CREDIT CARD then tell the CC company that the broker has not fulfilled their obligation to you
If you did not pay by CC … good luck in getting anything back …
Youre gonna have to be water on a stone when dealing with these bull****ters. Dont part with another red cent. NO to their CPC and NO to a pass protection scheme - which they`ll try the hard sell on you.
Believe in your own ability to pass first time.
They are parasitic by nature and cannot really justify their own existence.
They tried the pass protection scheme with me, I told them if I failed I’d pay for the re-test as I wasn’t going go pay them 300+ for something I shouldn’t need. Spoke to them today and told them march was too far away and that it says in their terms and conditions that the date is to suit me not them, so my training is now early February and I’ve told them to let me know if any closer dates become available, the direct access scheme thing is 14hrs cpc which covers tachograph usage and all that stuff and it counts towards my 35hrs periodic cpc, I’ve had a think about it today and I’m going to give the a call tomorrow and see if they’ll drop that and put the money towards my initial DCPC and do it at a discounted rate because I have to wait so long for my training, prob won’t get a discount but it’s worth a shot
So… after cust services completely ignoring my e-mail i very carefully worded an email to them outlining my problems, the face i was miss sold a direct access course giving me 14 hours CPC the phrase he used “this will count as 14 hours towards your cpc” and wasnt told that i would have to do an initial cpc first, that on 3 separate occasions when i had rung the center to have the money that i’d spend on the direct cpc put towards the initial cpc training i was promised someone would ring me back and on 3 occasions i hadn’t heard from them, and that i had emailed cust services on the recommendation of one of their sales agents to request the money be moved around and after 20 days had not received any communications back, i also stated that i was unhappy that they were keen to ring me on a monthly basis when i was interested in using the company but after i paid all service standards dropped, along with i was told when the course was sold to me that there would be a quick test date to get me on the road and training and i didnt consider feb-march to be be quick, i politely asked for these issues to be resolved as i was a member on a few truck forums and subscribed to several truck magazines and would have to write to them to inform them of my personal opinion of the services i had received.
a few days later i received a phonecall from someone who was more then happy to move the money around for me and was polite as can be, and today received a phone call to say that i can start my training on monday but would need to travel 15 mins more to a different test station RESULT! so monday to thursday i’ll be in some place called chobham doing my training, just need to find a cheap B&B or hotel now
Ah yes! I spoke to those lot before I went with EP, I talked to Craig, he seemed like he has his head on straight. You’ll be training round Guildford like me I reckon. Unless he was lying Craig said their pass rates there are pretty good. I just didn’t pick them as couldn’t be sure they weren’t a broker. He still says they’re not but see who’s sign is over the door when you get there. The head office was in Camberley (where the call centre is) if I recall correctly. Dunno what your area is like but you might get a few more narrow lanes than you’re used to during training. Overall Guildford is not too bad a place to train, the one-way system in the town is a bit of a drag but at least when going slowly you have more time to observe and hopefully not miss anything. I work in Guildford Mon/Thur/Fri. I’ll wave if I see ya!
TheMissus:
Ah yes! I spoke to those lot before I went with EP, I talked to Craig, he seemed like he has his head on straight. You’ll be training round Guildford like me I reckon. Unless he was lying Craig said their pass rates there are pretty good. I just didn’t pick them as couldn’t be sure they weren’t a broker. He still says they’re not but see who’s sign is over the door when you get there. The head office was in Camberley (where the call centre is) if I recall correctly. Dunno what your area is like but you might get a few more narrow lanes than you’re used to during training. Overall Guildford is not too bad a place to train, the one-way system in the town is a bit of a drag but at least when going slowly you have more time to observe and hopefully not miss anything. I work in Guildford Mon/Thur/Fri. I’ll wave if I see ya!
My area is quite narrow as it’s a lot of countryside, the company I’m with their head office is Camberley too so it sounds like the same people, but if they we using their own fleet are they really a broaker?
I dunno really. I liked the guy when I spoke to him. The thing which put me off in the end was I also spoke to his colleague in their ‘sister’ co Easy HGV and he tried to put me off the location that Craig had recommended by telling me they had really low pass rates there. The fact that I hadn’t been told already that Easy HGV and HGV Training were related irritated me. I think HGV training were bought by the co which owns Easy. They do use some third party trainers but the site you are going to I was assured is definitely owned and run by HGVT/Easy.
TheMissus:
I dunno really. I liked the guy when I spoke to him. The thing which put me off in the end was I also spoke to his colleague in their ‘sister’ co Easy HGV and he tried to put me off the location that Craig had recommended by telling me they had really low pass rates there. The fact that I hadn’t been told already that Easy HGV and HGV Training were related irritated me. I think HGV training were bought by the co which owns Easy. They do use some third party trainers but the site you are going to I was assured is definitely owned and run by HGVT/Easy.
We’ll we shall see, i shall give an honest review, are LGV instructors like Car instructors where they have to have an instructor licence and have it on display?
They will def need to have a valid instructor’s licence but not sure whether they have to display. I shall be asking for my trainers credentials on day one though you can be sure of that!
TheMissus:
They will def need to have a valid instructor’s licence but not sure whether they have to display. I shall be asking for my trainers credentials on day one though you can be sure of that!
Same here, I need to make sure he is actually an instructor and that I’m actually insured to drive, going by the companies offerings so far I’m expecting to get there and either not be insured or there be no lorry
