I saw this in my newsfeeds. It’s the story of someone who wanted to be a driving instructor, handed over £2,000 for his training to Pass N Go, and then couldn’t get his money back when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (the severe type, which meant he could no longer drive).
Chris James, from Newcastle, had spent a lot of his working life travelling abroad and wanted to settle back in the UK as an instructor. There was a clause in the contract he signed with Pass N Go which said he only had 14 days during which he could cancel the deal. He says he had had “some issues which delayed… starting training”, but then he was diagnosed and it came as a shock.
On the strength of this, you immediately take sides against Pass N Go… until you hear their side of the story.
Simon Kernohan from Pass N Go says that Mr James initially postponed the commencement of his training because he said his house in Taiwan had been flooded. As a result, his allocated trainer was sitting around “twiddling his thumbs”, and when Mr Kernohan tried to contact Mr James, he was unsuccessful. He added:
He’s a nice enough fella and I feel sorry for him but we have already bent over backwards to help him out.
You can see it from both sides. If Mr James had simply been diagnosed with diabetes then you’d hope that Pass N Go would have been more sympathetic. Of course, the usual cynics out there would disagree – all training companies are bad as far as they’re concerned! However, most instructors will have experienced the pupil who misses ten times more lessons than anyone else, and yet always has a plausible excuse. One of mine some years ago had so many ailing grandparents that I’m sure her father must have been a polygamist, and she cost me a fortune in lost lessons until I told her I couldn’t afford not to teach her anymore.
So you can’t simply rule out the possibility that Mr James had already burnt his bridges somewhat with the flooded Taiwan home story.