Brown’s Auto Driving School

I went to Brown’s driving school almost a decade ago to learn how to drive and to pass my driver’s exam. While my instructor was nice I thought the owner of Brown’s driving school was a bit rude and so was the woman who is related to the owner who sometimes fills in to lecture about driving.

I signed up with Brown’s when they had their $ 600 package. I had a very good and relaxed instructor who worked with me driving many places including over the bridge on my 2^nd or 3^rd lesson. He gave me a B+ at the end of the lessons.
However, the whole operation within Brown’s was horrendous.
The office assistant who filled my appointments kept putting me into the 6pm and later slots so that I was always driving in the evenings, even though my instructor was available well before those time slots. This happened for the duration of my lessons and we were never given an explanation.
The day of the exam, the same office assistant set me up with a different instructor and a DIFFERENT school car, one that I was unaccustomed to. Once I got to the testing area, I ran into my original instructor who wondered why I wasn’t assigned to him and the school car I had been practicing on (!!) Imagine my stress. It also turned out the school car I was in – was not filled with gas prior to the test by Brown’s, so I had to make do on a practically empty tank of gas.
When I called Brown’s to complain, the office manager turned it around and lectured me instead, which made no sense. She was just throwing a lot of hot air just to get rid of me. No apology about all the scheduling mix-​ups, the empty gas tank, etc. And no offer for some more lessons and a better experience… just took the $ 600 and *poof* (I see since my road test, they have raised their prices $ 300). So, if Brown is your only option, I would recommend you DEMAND that they provide actual customer service. Especially as it is nearly $ 1K of your money they are taking.
5 stars for my actual instructor.
1 star for the school operation itself.
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Incidentally, once at the actual test site (Fishkill), I was met by an unbelievably rude examiner — and I kid you not — I was observing him before and well after my test and he had a pronounced bias against certain types of students. Without fail, every one I noticed did not pass and it was a very obvious bias.
While he is not affiliated with Brown’s, they DO send all the students to this location (Fishkill).
Once I got in behind the wheel, instead of just getting on with the exam, he went on a verbal tirade while I was driving. He had me do some really impossible moves for a novice (i.e. parking parallel against a BEND). So please beware of this examiner. And voice your displeasure if you are subjected to this. I wish I was prepared for his insanity. When we got out of the car and it couldn’t be fast enough, he was as quiet as a pussy cat, go figure.
I had a much better examination (AND PASSED) with the examiner at the Newburgh testing location.

I needed some help with my parallel parking so i called Brown’s to help me practice for a few hours. We agreed to a price of $ 70/​hr (CASH) after they tried convincing me to buy some $ 900 dollar package where they take me to my driving test and practice a few hours before. My driving instructor showed up to my house late, called my phone, and waited in my driveway. I did not hear my phone ring and he just waited in my driveway. You’d think that he would get OUT of the car and knock on my door? Nope. We start driving 20 min after we’re supposed to start. You would also think in my two hours it would be nothing but driving? I was also wrong, part of that time he will make you pump HIS gas on HIS dime. I did get a little bit of practice time but after jumping through hoops. I wish this driving school had reviews that i could have read before choosing Brown’s