I had a very unpleasant and honestly shocking experience at this driving school today.
I was greeted by an older male staff member with white hair. From the very beginning, his attitude towards me was dismissive and condescending. I walked in politely and asked, “Hello, are you open?” He looked at me as if I had asked something ridiculous, held up his hands in a confused gesture and told me to simply state my business. I then politely said, “Okay, I’m sorry in advance, I only speak English. Is that okay? And do you speak English?” Instead of simply answering, he responded in a very condescending way: “What language do you think we are speaking?” I decided to ignore it and continued the conversation normally.
I had some questions about the M18 training, including what happens if the 20 hours are not enough to be considered ready to drive independently. At one point, I interrupted him because I genuinely thought he had finished speaking. His response was: “If you would let me finish, you would understand.” I continued trying to clarify my question. I wanted to know something very simple: if the 20 hours are not enough, do I have to purchase another 20-hour package, or can I simply take additional individual lessons? Instead of answering the question directly, he repeated himself very slowly while making a gesture towards his head that came across as extremely insulting and condescending, as if I was stupid and incapable of understanding him. I eventually told him directly that repeating the same thing more slowly was not answering my question and asked him why he had been so unfriendly towards me from the moment I walked in. At that point, he became angry, raised his voice and told me to leave.
What shocked me most was that I came into the driving school respectfully, apologized beforehand for only speaking English and genuinely tried to communicate and understand the Belgian system, as I am new here. I asked completely normal questions about a service I was considering paying a significant amount of money for. Misunderstandings can happen. Language barriers can happen. What is not acceptable, in my opinion, is treating a customer as if they are stupid simply because they need clarification. I sincerely hope the management takes this kind of behaviour seriously and that appropriate consequences follow. Customers should be treated with basic respect, regardless of their language or whether they need something explained more than once.
Based on my experience today, I absolutely cannot recommend this driving school.
