Santro driving School Sucks! (Koramangala). Review on Learning to Drive

Today, just after getting hold of my DL in my hands I get relieved from the biggest trap I have ever fallen in my life! I would never recommend this driving school to anyone for sure.

When I went for the first time to their branch(Airport Road), they told me that everything would be covered within 3000 bucks for an LMV DL. I confirmed with that guy many times that I wouldn't be spending a single paise after that. So he collected INR 2500 from me as advance and he said I can start my driving lesson right away. I was so happy with the initial commitment.

I never knew that it would just last for few moments because of that advance money thirst they had for such an overwhelming commitment. I applied for the weekday classes from morning 7 to 8, so that I can ply to my hometown on weekends and I dont have to ruin my weekend plans. But next day, the instructor did not turn up nor did he attend my call for the next 1 week. I called the owner of the institute and asked for an alternate arrangement. But he started bullshitting!

Finally after a lot of call tries for a week, the instructor picked up my call and told that my classes have been shifted to weekends. What crap?! He said all the weekday slots were busy and cant work it out. I had to agree otherwise I'd lose my money. So he came as decided after lots of calling and reminding. After the second day of the class he asked me for gurudakshina(~money). OMG! I have not even learned how to pull the gears and he is asking me money?

I said I'll give him after my successful completion. But, he started irritating me in the consequent classes and I pulled out INR 200 and gave it to him on the third class itself. After this incident, he would always try to postpone the class saying he is either busy or some other reasons. With great difficulty I tried to bug him and finish the class of 8 hours by adding up multiple classes together on the same day. Again he started irritating saying that the money I gave him didnt last for more time since he smoke a lot. He asked me to give him more money or some other things like shirts or t-shirts. Holy crap! I had no issues helping him that way, but this is not the right way! He hasn't made my driving lessons enjoyable at all!

The next story starts when I go for the hand signal test. Before going to the institute(Koramangala - main branch), I had asked for what all documents are to taken. They just told me address proof, id proof and 2 photographs. I went to the RTO from their institute and had to wait in long que. Paid INR 40 for their test charge. When I went for verification, the officer asked me for my original passport, and I said I haven't taken it along with me. But he said, he cannot sign without the original passport.

Then I showed him alternate proofs for my address and id(My California licence and Kerala 2 wheerler licence) and finally agreed for signing the address verification form. Then I went for the hand signal test and cleared it. Later, after the test was over, one guy from the institute came to me saying that the officer need an extra 150 bucks for signing the address verification form since I did not get my original passport. I'm sure that the institute and the traffic authority had hands in this bribing issue and not sure if it went completely to the RTO.

The day for my'behind the wheels' have finally arrived. When I went to the institute they asked me for an additional 400 bucks saying that the RTO nowadays issues on smart cards and not in the form of books. I thought maybe this is what that excess 500 remaining for me to give over. He asked me to come for the test after 3 days. I went for the test on that very crowded tuesday morning.

They asked me for remaining 500. What the hell?! I told that they told me that everything will be covered within 3000 bucks and now its going nowhere. He was not ready for the argument. He said if you want to go for the test give me the remaining 500 bucks. I thought anyways I'm going to loose this war so I had to accept defeat. Went to RTO for computerized snapshot and they charged me 20 bucks.

Then headed towards the test location and finally cleared the test around afternoon. Then, I had to submit my result form to the driving institute; again he asked me for stamp charges Rs. 100. I dont know what he meant by this. I presumed that this is never going to end. Then he told me to collect my DL after 2 days, which I did and I went with my wallet with some extra money. You never know what next they are going to ask for. But thank God! they did not ask me money anymore and handed over to me the DL.

Please dont go or refer your friends to this Driving school. Few more other things which I left to mention: They said it would be home pickup; but most often they would ask to go to a different location. And last but not the least, the owner of the institute is money oriented and never reputation oriented; he would never pick up a call if he thinks he is not going to get a deal!

I'm writing this review after I got my licence in my hands, you know why? Who knows! They might cancel the issuing of my licence if they see this review about them in this site! lol~ But the TRUTH is always the TRUTH!