SUCCESS! (Or How I Took On The Establishment And Won)

So, remember the issues I was having with that craptacular CDL school I was attending? I sat down last week and wrote out a LONG email to the office administrator. I started with explaining how the "classes" were conducted from the time I started until the date of my email (which was basically me explaining how much time I spent standing around after going over the pretrip inspection several times.) I then took their Policies and Procedures manual and quoted each discrepancy I found between what they stated was their operational policies and what I experienced/observed at the school. I then ended the email (which was about 3 or 4 pages long, depending on your printer settings) with 2 proposals. Either I basically get 100% undivided attention from my instructor and first priority in the trucks for as many hours as I needed each day, or they release me from the student loan and I can go to Prime company trained student starting from square one.

Well, after a generally positive discussion with the office administrator this past Saturday, I got a call today from the owner of the school stating he had read my email. He thanked me for bringing all the issues to light that he was unaware of. (He's in another state and runs 3 schools.) He had been told for quite some time that everything was running smoothly when they obviously weren't, and I was the first person to really take a stand. Every other student just does whatever they want because there was no limitation on when they were showing up, regardless of who it impacted. So he said that there are several instructors and office staff that are going to be terminated as a result of this, and he was going to come down and personally oversee the retraining of currently personnel and the hiring of new instructors and office staff, as well as tighten up the lax way that students who shouldn't be at the school anymore are monopolizing the facility and resources.

He then went on to tell me that not only were they going to completely release me from the student loan obligation, they were also going to refund my $500 deposit, since he felt that since I did not receive any of the education promised to me it would be "completely and utterly wrong" to keep any of my money whatsoever. He also told me to keep all the materials I received on the first day of class.

Needless to day, I'm very happy about the outcome, even if I had been wasting the last 6 weeks or so of weekends on this. Now I'm going to get some information in order for my application to Prime and start that ball rolling, and hopefully I can be there sometime in March.

Times like these make me very thankful I was a litigation paralegal at one time. Nothing like a clearly articulated email full of references and cross checked examples to set someone straight.

Awesome news. Congratulations!

Great stuff there.

From your earlier messages, I was concerned of what you were spending at an (obvious) CDL mill, and not getting the training to really prepare or qualify you to move forward.

Prime seems like the #1 favorite to start out with, and by the number of folks here who have stayed on with them past their training obligation, doesn't seem all that bad to stay with and get some years under your belt.

Keep us posted!

Rick

Awesome news, glad it worked out so well in your favour without having to go "legal". Good luck on your next endeavour.

P.S. Love the word 'craptacular' :)

Thanks everyone! Now that I'm free from that sucknado of fail I'll enjoy some weekends at home before hopefully getting my ticket to Springfield, MO. (I'm not looking forward to that bus ride, however. It's 15 hours if I drive my car. I have no idea how long it will be with Greyhound.)

Thanks everyone! Now that I'm free from that sucknado of fail I'll enjoy some weekends at home before hopefully getting my ticket to Springfield, MO. (I'm not looking forward to that bus ride, however. It's 15 hours if I drive my car. I have no idea how long it will be with Greyhound.)

15hrs by personal conveyance = 36 hrs by the Grey Dog, give or take a day.

Good for you! In a way you now have a head start for your Prime classes!

Don't mess with an ex paralegal!

15hrs by personal conveyance = 36 hrs by the Grey Dog, give or take a day.

That idea can the right off. If I pay for my own airfare there, do you think they would at least pay for my transport from the airport to their training facility? I might go that route.

Often your company will pay you the value of your bus ticket, and you pay the rest for the plane ticket. Check with your recruiter.

Cool. I'll check that out with him. It's about $100 for the Greyhound ticket, so that will offset 1/3 of the cost of the airline ticket.