Fantastic communication from the office, to the instructor, every step along the way. The owner and admin staff took time and care to understand our daughter's needs and assigned the best instructor for her. Steve was patient, kind and clear in his instructions. I wish I would've found this academy before wasting my money on another. read more

My instructor Chip has helped my driving anxiety significantly as an adult still trying to get her license. My confidence has improved and I've learned many useful driving tips! read more

Wanting my daughter to be the safest driver she could be, I decided to send her to Tom's Driving Academy. I was reluctant because of some reviews but read them and figured out they weren't reviews of their teaching, rather people who didn't like how strict the program was. As a parent, I've always taught my daughter to be on time and respect other's time, so was very pleased with this. They did an excellent job. I'm so impressed at the knowledge she got from class time to driving instruction. She has her license now and said she appreciated Sharee teaching her to drive so much! read more

Loree, the owner of this driving "academy", is in desperate need of training relevant to business ethics, among other things. She is unpleasant in general, questionable in her role as an "instructor", and unapologetic as well as unaccountable. After an incident in her class where my high school daughter and I were specifically singled out for harassment, Loree determined that my intention to reach out directly to ODOT was a "threat", and expelled my daughter (who had participated respectfully and had never missed a single class session or driving lesson) from her program. A legal challenge had to be made, and a complaint to ODOT filed. If you prefer to interact with a driving school that is ethical, with a strong customer service orientation and an eye towards treating students fairly above all, this is not the right driving "academy" for your family. read more

Customer service was great and responsive. . Kurt, the instructor, was absolutely essential in helping my daughter become a safer driver. She successfully passed her driving test . Highly recommend their services. read more

Our experience with Tom's Driving Academy was perfect! Cathy took the time to explain how Drivers Ed in Oregon worked and guided us through the entire process! The driving instructors were top notch and our son told us he learned so much and in a fun way. They even made sure he had the experience of a real driving test. If I could give ten stars, I would! Thank you Cathy, Sean, Darrin and Kurt! read more

Unfortunately disappointing; while it did take Loreen (the owner) several days to pick up the phone, that is not the most disappointing part of this review. While she may be an adequate "driving instructor," I don't believe that Loreen is necessarily at her best when she interacts with people. Especially when it involves taking accountability and apologizing. Loreen and I spoke on the telephone twice, for a length of time before coordinating dates/times that would best suit my daughters schedule and hers. After verbally discussing pricing and scheduling, a PayPal invoice was delivered to my email address. 1. The invoice was incorrect. When I telephoned Loreen, I asked her to please send a corrected invoice. She immediately countered with, "No, I didn't make an error. That is how much the driving lesson cost." Needless to say, the invoice was again emailed with the correct pricing. So YES, she did make an error and NO, she did not apologize. 2. An email with dates for the scheduled driving driving dates/times was to be emailed to my daughter. (I had placed them in my calendar as well). It was not emailed, even after calling twice to remind her. 3. Yesterday was suppose to be my daughters first driving lesson. At 10 minutes past the hour, no driving instructor had arrived. I telephoned Loreen, she said that she had no recollection of us speaking and that she certainly would not have scheduled driving instruction without payment. I DID pay, the same day that the invoice arrived, via PayPal. Which she discovered after looking at her payments. Her tone with me was condescending and rude. To finish out an otherwise long review; I understand that we all make mistakes. That life can be stressful and overwhelming. That being said, it would have been professional and humanly kind, for Loreen to apologize and make an attempt to remedy her error. Instead she has overbooked with other clients. After a couple telephone conversations, she is refunding me in cash today (I don't trust her to actually send a refund otherwise). People, integrity and kindness go a long way in this world. You will be pleasantly surprised how people lean into you, and are inspired by your light. Pay it forward here and there, and be kind. Take ownership if you have made a mistake and do your very best to remedy it. :-) read more

Just passed my driving test thanks to my instructor Lynn at Tom's driving academy. I was lucky enough to have Lynn as my driving instructor, she was so pleasant, patient and knowledgeable about all things driving/cars/reference points and tips. Cathy was very responsive and was able to accommodate me for my driving lessons. Thank you! I am so glad I picked your academy. Highly reccomend Tom's Driving Academy. read more

I do not have any experience with company, however when You see an instructor in a car at a stop light and he is texting definitely does not set right as a parent who has a Child with his permit. If this was my employee, he would not have a job after this incident. I could not get a picture of texting however I did get a picture of older man driving the car. read more

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Horrible customer service. Horrible teachers. Stay as far away as you can. My son was excited to drive. After a few weeks in this class we have to force him to drive. They teach their interpretation of things as law. They tell you they need documentation and then belittle you for trying to provide it. They are disorganized and everything was chaotic. The driving instructor even made my son look at a drawing while he was driving. read more

The information that the student's learn is great. Four stars for that. However, make sure your child doesn't have any games, tournaments, recitals, etc. The program coordinator will not be accommodating. She has no scheduling software so she picks the driving days and times and you just need to cross your fingers that one of the sessions works for you. It's a lottery system. So, if you get stuck with times that don't work and your child needs to miss their championship tournament, she doesn't really care. She will not assist those people who have multiple children in multiple activities. If you have only one child and that child does not have any other things going on besides Driver's Ed, then this will be great for you. Their customer service sucks. Oh, and don't ever turn paper work in late. She will reprimand you on the parent zoom call because her time is the most important thing there is. 1 star for the program coordinator. read more

Don't go here! Loree is rude and disrespectful to her students and parents alike. Learning to drive is stressful enough without adding scare tactics and insults. My daughter was so distraught after the first class that she withdrew and Loree refused to refund any part of her tuition (paid in full in advance for DMV course and in-car lessons). Loree then represented to me that my daughter wouldn't be able to find anyone else to get her licensed for at least 4 months. There ARE other options. I recommend you seek them out and avoid this place. read more

Had such high hopes for their class after having great drives with Wade. However, the owner treated me with such disrespect that I can't give TDA the review that Wade deserves. She was rude and had no customer service, the class shows online videos and if you utter one word you will be kicked out. Honestly in my 15 years in Oregon I don't think I've ever been treated the way she treated me. Be aware of that before you sign up. My older son had better luck with ODEC. read more

I decided to purchase two 6-h driving lesson packages after I failed miserably my driving test in Gresham with a private party drive test examiner. Wade was my driving instructor and I was able to regain my confidence thanks to his lessons and patience that my husband never had. He was always on time for our lessons and was open to reschedule when he was available. He gave me good tips and the lessons were worth to take. I had my driving test this time at the DMV and got a 100% pass! read more

Ya so um there was a fight in class and a kid got kicked out. Made it the best drivers ed class ever

I went to this place a long awhile ago to learn how to drive. It's only after around 3 years later, did I realize just how wrong things were which they were teaching us. For example, I was taught that the very left lane on the highway had no speed limit whatsoever. I'm of course, a slower driver, and always drive the speed limit, but when this information was brought up one day, my parents were shocked that I was taught that information. Another thing is that when I was being taught behind the wheel, my driving instructor always told me I was going too slow, and how the speed limits for roundabouts and sharp turns in the roads are just "The recommended speed, but you can go faster since those speed limits are just for extra precaution." I was even told that if I were to ever be rear-ended in an accident, that I would have to pay for the person in front of me if I rear-ended them as a result of being rear-ended myself. I was told if I didn't speed up, I'd never get my license, so I engrained my driving to go fast in the roundabouts. It was until a certain speed that she was finally satisfied, and told me my speed in the roundabout is perfect. Skip to a couple years later, I am driving in the roundabout, and my parents start screaming because they think I'm going too fast. They told me how I was driving in there was extremely dangerous and I was going too fast. I always felt unsafe driving at that speed, but that was what I was told to drive like, and the instructor even would've thought that was too slow. All this information that this woman told us just happened to not be in the packets we had to fill out. She did mention that she moved to Oregon recently, or something of that sort, so maybe she used to live somewhere where things are different. She has told us that she has been pulled over at least 10 times because of her bad driving, and I do not doubt it for a second. If you are teaching drivers-ed in Oregon, you should be teaching the laws of Oregon, not your own agenda. You should also have your driving teachers teach students to drive safely, not aggressively. There is no reason why I had to be told to go above the speed limit in a sharp turn. I even remember having to drive vehicles which weren't very safe to drive. In the middle of my driving, my power steering stopped working, so I have to turn my car without the help of power steering. My instructor didn't believe me until I tried telling her the 7th time. Another time, the brake got stuck and my car wouldn't go above 20. I guess it turned out that my brake got stuck due to the fact that the instructor also had one. I was told to lift the brake from underneath to get it unstuck. Nobody should be driving with cars with these types of issues, because something really bad can happen if these things happen on a highway or a curvy road. read more

Tom's Driving Academy gets no stars in my book! The owner of the company talks down to the students as well as the parents. She's very rude and doesn't respond to email in a timely manner. Our daughter dreaded the class each week because "she was so mean". She was very short with people when answering questions and half the time never did answer the question directly. This lady has no business running a business IMO. Horrible customer service. She's a bad representation to kids on how to be a role model and be respectful. Don't waste your time or your money!! read more

First, the driving instructors are GREAT! But, if you have a son, especially one who is not white, I wouldn't send them here. Loree does not seem to have great classroom management when it comes to boys and she often targets the kids of color in class. She also doesn't seem to really like this age group. She should probably try to find someone else to run the classroom portion. Both of my boys and their friends dreaded going to class (but did look forward to the driving lessons once they started). read more

Purchased 3 sessions 2h each.First session I could drive only for 45mins as instructor took me to a place far away from my neighborhood. They have badly maintained cars.Extremely rude managers!! Bad experience :( :( read more

Useless. Took them 4 weeks to even send an auto response to me. 1st Learn To Drive in Portland is who I went with and they were great. In particular, my instructor Vince was an excellent attentive instructor. Don't waste your time with this company because you'll literally be waiting for a month even for a response. Get it together. read more

Worst business I have ever worked with. They told me the fee for classroom and driving was $375 if you use their car and $325 if you use your own car. I told them I was not sure which one we would choose. Vance said that is okay, we will charge you $375 and if you use your own car, we will give you a refund of $50. So I trusted Vance and gave him my credit card number for the $375. A month before the driving portion, I told Vance that we would use our own car and asked for a refund. He told me that their fee changed and it was $375, whether or not you use your car or theirs. They sent me a document on 9-11-17 that shows the two fees, then later when I asked for a refund, he told me their document pricing was wrong. I explained that Vance verbally committed to refund my $50 if we used our car. We know of another student in the same class and they were charged $325. WHAT A CROOKED & DISHONEST BUSINESS. BOTH LOREE AND VANCE WERE TERRIBLE TO WORK WITH AND LANCE OUT AND OUT LIED TO ME ABOUT GIVING ME A REFUND. Loree is saying the written information they gave me was wrong. HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN VANCE VERBALLY GIVING ME THAT SAME INFORMATION? LIAR, LIAR PANTS ON FIRE...Loree and Vance! read more

Loree instilled a ton of confidence in my daughter and explained things clearly. The private driving lessons went by very quickly and made my daughter want to practice more of the skills more often. Thank you Loree for connecting so well with my daughter!! Also you insights on how to best prep for the driving test are invaluable. Looking forward to passing!!! read more

Tom's Driving Academy is one of the worst run and dysfunctional company's I have ever encountered. We signed up our son for driver's ed and he had attended over a week of classes. We actually reached out to them because they had not processed the payment on our credit cards, and they literally could not even handle the single administrative duties of a single student. They have part time help from home, they do not return phone calls, and when they do they are not prepared to communicate expectations clearly. There is zero to no communication between instructors, parents, and students. I would not recommend you even waist your time attempting to send your teen student to this program. In the end they didn't process the payment (although requested multiple times), and they then said that my son could take the next class that was not even schedule, and to future annoy the situation, they refused to acknowledge the class and work time he had already completed. read more

I recently had the most WONDERFUL experience with Tom's Driving Academy and I wanted to share it. Oregon has recently begun allowing for third party driving tests to be given, as opposed to having to wait months for a test date with the DMV. Yes you have to pay for the test, but it's a reasonable price ($30 for weekday tests and $40 for weekend tests). Tom's Driving Academy will also allow you to use their car for the test and for driving lessons. This is extremely helpful if you either don't own your own car or the car you do own is not "acceptable" for driving tests. I found myself in a bit of a predicament recently. I work for an adoption agency and I am not often in the country. I was told rather last minute that a new regulation requires all agents to hold a valid drivers license in your home state. As someone who has an international license but only a drivers permit in the states...that was about to expire...I had to get a drivers test QUICK. The DMV wait was three months?! they had no availability at all and didn't seem too concerned about the length of the wait. Thankfully Tom's Driving Academy was able to deliver me from this time crunch. Vance in the office was very helpful and friendly. I scheduled a lesson and then the drivers test on the same day. Both took place in McMinnville. Nate was my instructor for the lesson. He was phenomenal. We met at the high school parking lot. He was very prompt. I was so nervous and he put me right at ease. He let me know right away that I was doing well and I just needed to remember to BREATHE! :) The lesson was an hour long and in that time he took me through all the scenarios I may run into not only on the drivers test but in every day driving. He gave me good tips and when I made mistakes he'd take me through it again until he was satisfied I'd be fine on the test. When the hour was up he predicted I'd pass with no problem! I appreciated the vote of confidence. Loree is the person who administered my drivers test. I was even more nervous this time! Again i was put right at ease. Loree was friendly and encouraging and told me right away that she was not going to try to trip me up and that all I needed to do was drive confidently and I'd do great. So I took a deep breath and the test was on! I am happy to report that I passed! Loree took me through the test and told me the things I did well and that other than turning on my signal too early (NERVES!) I'd done great! If it hadn't been for Tom's Driving Academy I'd have been in trouble. Adoptions would have been delayed and I'd have been stuck waiting for the DMV to finally have a spot for the test. I highly recommend Tom's Driving Academy for lessons and license testing. They are professional, accommodating and ultimately very good at what they do. Working with nervous drivers, teens and adults, is not easy and they never for a moment make you feel anything but safe and capable. Thank you to Nate and Loree for a great experience. I appreciate you both immensely and will continue to recommend your school!!! read more

10/18/19 this is at the Hillsboro,Oregon Tom's academy, I'm writing this review to stand up for my rights as well as the other parents that called in 10/15/19 to enroll our kids in this Driver's ed program I don't know where to start first of all I have been talking to a man at the academy for several months and he instructed me to call on 10/15/19 at 9 am Sharp not a minute early to enroll my daughter and if I didn't get a live person leave a detailed message which I did first x calling I got a busy signal then I redialed I got the voicemail so I know she got in I haven't heard anything from this agency until 10/18/19 a lady had called me saying we didn't make it that they lost all calls from 9-12 that day no record of it so she eccepted kids that called after 12 I told her that I have called several times even after my 9 am call I just wanted updates she told me there's nothing she can do the class is full I told her I would go to my phone company and get a print out of my account she said no that wouldn't be necessary she already had her 30 kids payments I told her this isn't fair she said to me I could argue with you all day and nothing in life is fair I was literally Heartbroken because my daughter and I have looked forward to this since summer and I know in my heart we got in, now it's not about I want her in I want Justice and people rights and fairness I may be the only one that has come forward on this matter but I don't take this lightly I have a friend who also tried to get her teen in and she told me she called and the voicemail was full I told her she was too late I never got that recording I called at 9 am and I have records showing this but I still get this rudeness unfairness and this isn't right I hope the higher boss of this lady that's answers the phone gets spoken to because lady you hurt me with your actions and the unkindness attitude read more

In general I am happy with this place. Although it took my husband twice to pass the driving test, I think the examiner Jonathan was very fair and the lesson my hubby learned from his first exam will benefit him from long run. We also had one hour driving class with the instructor called Wade. Wade was very patient. He has many good experiences and tips to share, and I feel he will be especially helpful to the teen drivers. read more

The non-traditional "Classroom & Private Driving Lessons" are NOT "DMV Certified and ODOT Approved". This was not made clear to me either on the website or on the phone when I signed up my daughter. read more

I recently signed my daughter up for private driving lessons. One the day of the lesson, the instructor didn't show up. When I called, I was told that the instructor was in the hospital and would not be able to continue with my daughter's lessons. Why they couldn't have called me to let me know, I have no idea. My daughter was disappointed and now I can't get a refund. I've called several times. read more

I really wish I would have read the reviews before I signed my son up for this academy. While I'm sure the information he learned will be useful, this business has the WORST customer service I have ever experienced. My son completed the class back in November 2015. It is now 1/13/16 and he has still not received the certificate. I have called countless times and emailed and I cannot get a response. Sadly, there is no one else in this area (St Helens) to provide driving instructions. My daughter has gotten her permit and I am taking her to a competitor vs putting up with this BS any more. I am reporting them to the BBB as they have taken my money and not delivered as advertised. read more

Unprofessional and rude behavior (especially the examiner named Jonathan). Very discouraging for new drivers who are trying their best to get qualified as drivers. Would not recommend for taking driver's test with them at all. Any of the DMV's would be better choice since they charge you way less and are particular with their scheduling. read more

This is the worst company I have ever dealt with in terms of customer service. The instruction class is fantastic from what my son says. On the business end, the front office is terrible. My son completed this course in Aug.2015, and was suppose to recieve a certificate so that he would not have to take the drivers test at the DMV. It is not Nov2015 and still not certificate. We have emailed, called, offered to pick it up personally, ect. All with no closure. The only constant is the 'Run Around' of 'The Cert is in the Mail'. For a 300 dollar class, you as a customer should expect better service from the front office. If there are other driving academy's out there use them, or take the shortened course that does not include the driving test. Either way Tom's should be more diligent in getting you this certification. After all it is the only reason that you take this course is to help with insurance. read more