Terrible, been talk front and bank. Saw the Royal Mail end up wrong address. Never refunded and ask me to pay again and I assume that scam moved. I lost money. They never resolved
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See what reviewers are saying
**Otimo are closely related to 'Driving School TV', try contacting them for information** Avoid this company. Probably started with good intentions but they have now stopped engaging with their cu... See more
Paid a deposit beginning of March. Taken 2 months to find me an instructor. Turns out the instructor they found doesn't even work in my area after a lapse of miscommunication. Edit: Changed to 3 st... See more
Company replied
This company lives off scaming people, they make promises, fake promises 😒 😑 🙄, I even went to their address in Manchester, no where to be found,my email address has been blocked, no one is respond... See more
Company details
Written by the company
Reducing the time it takes for people to get their drivers license
Contact info
Department Bonded Warehouse, M3 4AP, Manchester, United Kingdom
- +44 7451 288967
- support@weareotimo.com
- weareotimo.com
2.0
Poor
131 reviews
Hasn’t replied to negative reviews
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Rip off Scheme!
Rip off Scheme!
This company is an absolute rip off. They will ask you to pay £100 in advance for booking and then after few days ask you for the entire payment of lessons in advance. Match you with an instructor and if you try to change your driving test date they will just refund the lessons fee and nick those £100.
I had my test date booked at 21st Dec. The only mistake I did was to change it to 26th September without asking my instructor. The instructor cancelled the lessons and asked me to contact otimo. I emailed them about the whole situation and instead of matching me with a new instructor or help me out in this situation, they straight away refunded my £300 of lessons and said we can't give you back £100 as it was non refundable.
I did not ask for a refund. I just asked them to match me to a new instructor. They said your availability is an issue. I changed that too but nothing. So make sure you book your lessons from a proper company who are in this business. Not from these cheapskates!!
Update: I am amazed to see how calmly you have written everything in reply where as your attitude was completely opposite in the emails. Let me make a correction for you, you were not refunding my £100 until I said that I am going to make sure no one in my close list uses your services. You then agreed to refund £50 as if you were doing a favour to me. Upon our further emails you then decided to refund £89 and said we will deduct £10 for administrative fees.
You cancelled my lessons and refunded lesson fees in the 2nd email. I never realised that you confirmed from all your instructors in 5 mins even before I sent you my updated availability. Own your mistakes.
Update 2: wow! You guys really updated your entire reply and are acting as if you did nothing wrong. My job was to let people know about your practices, it’s up to them now.
Update 3: You guys have literally updated your reply 4 times since the day I posted my review. Changing facts every single time. I never threatened you guys, I said I’ll let other people know about how unprofessional this company is and that is what I have done.
I never asked you for money except for the my own money which you guys ripped me off in the name of booking fees.
August 17, 2022
Reply from Otimo
Hi Hassan,
Sorry you feel this way. However, we feel this is not fair as the unfortunate situation you find yourself in is of your own doing.
We do also take issue with being labelled as a "rip off scheme". You had a very positive experience with and benefited from our service up until the point you decided to move your test to an unmanageable date for ourselves and your instructor, not to mention yourself. Furthermore, we have gone against our own Ts and Cs to offer you a full refund even though you were not eligible for one.
As mentioned, we managed to get you paired with an instructor within 5 days that suited your availability and could take you for your test. However, you decided to bring your test date forward by 3 months, with no prior experience of driving in the UK, and without consulting your instructor. You did all of this before you had even had your first lesson with the instructor. Understandably, this made the instructor feel uncomfortable as 1 month is not enough time to train, assess and get a learner test-ready. Furthermore, you would be using the instructors' car for the test, which adds an extra layer of discomfort from where the instructor is sitting. So please understand that.
Once you emailed us saying that you had brought your test forward by three months, we raised our concerns that there is such little time to get you booked in with a new instructor. Firstly, there are waiting lists and backlogs still as a result of COVID and, secondly, your availability was only after 5pm on weekdays and on Sundays - slots that are extremely difficult to find availability for as you can imagine. After you sent us your renewed availability, however, we did confer with our other instructors in your area that might be able to take you on.
As previously stated, taking you on as a completely new learner with your test in only a month creates a lot of risk to an instructor - its their car, their business and their reputation at the end of the day. Due to this, no other instructor could accommodate your demands. Nor would they be willing to scrap their waiting lists and clear their diaries just to fit you in because you decided last minute to change your test on a whim. That wouldn't be fair would it? A simple look at an instructors' diary is how we can confer with our partner instructors and see that there was no availability for you, by the way...
We then offered you a refund for the money you had paid for the lessons. The booking fee is not usually refundable after a learner has used and benefited from our service. As mentioned, we got you matched within 5 days and your first lesson was booked. You then booked a new test slot which ruined all prior arrangements which was not our doing. As you started threatening our start up, we thought it would be best to refund £50 of the booking fee as we can understand your frustration but it is out of our control. As you continued to further threaten us, we explained we will offer a refund of £89 - the £10 can cover the administrative costs for our service. After further aggression and threats, we then decided to refund all monies just to stop you from harrasing our team.
If anyone does read this, they will see who has behaved irrationally and irresponsibly and I don't think it will be our booking agents.
Good luck in your test and please next time think before you book a new test slot. We would advise you tell your close list that as well.
Thanks and all the best,
Otimo Team
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Trustworthy and responsive
I was very nervous about booking with Otimo - it seemed like it could be a scam. I passed on my requirements and paid the booking fee as I was desperate! As it turned out, they couldn't find an instructor that met my requirements within the time window before my test. But as promised, they gave me a full refund of the booking fee. So I would encourage you to give them a go. If they can't help, you can trust them to behave honourably.
July 26, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Caroline, thank you for the positive review and apologies that we could not help you out more with getting an instructor. I hope the test went well!
7 weeks later, still no instructor
I booked an available instructor for my area on the 25th May, and paid the £99 deposit after seeing good reviews and assuming this fee is for how fast you are given an instructor. I was told they could not get confirmation from an instructor yet, and I still have not been found one, despite having chosen one advertised as available.
I have been offered to be refunded the booking fee whilst I look for another instructor, when I have already paid £526 towards the intensive course. The last instalment is due to come out shortly but I've still not been allocated anybody. Customer service are friendly but aren't really doing anything to help. What's more annoying is that people are posting recent reviews saying that they have been allocated someone within days. Can understand the delays due to Covid in certain areas where there is high demand but low supply, but is surely theft to take a booking "fee" and not provide that service anywhere near the specified time (maximum 2-3 weeks).
July 12, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Emma,
I hope you are well.
I can only apologise for the delays in getting you started. You're right that in some areas we can get people started straight away, but in some rarer instances it does take longer for us to get people started if a learner has specific requirements and we have limited availability to match those requirements in the area - I can fully appreciate it is frustarting.
In regard to the payment installments, we aim to give learners as much freedom and flexibility as possible when it comes to booking driving lessons. This is why we offer payment options. Unfortunately, though, once a learner has agreed to pay in installments, we cannot pause payments whilst we work on matching them to an instructor. The transactions is paid for infull from our partner payment providers and the installments will still need to be paid whilst you wait. However, you will still benefit from spreading the payments out irrespective of when you get booked in. Some learners decide to pay the booking fee and then only pay in full once we have matched them. In which case, we do not have the same issue.
The reason we offered a refund on the booking fee is because you have been waiting for a little while and we do pride ourselves on giving an efficient and quick service and in this case we could not meet our high standards, but we would still continue our work free of charge. When we do find you an instructor, you will have already paid for the lessons, through the installments you agreed, so I don't believe it is fair to call it theft? We offered a refund on the booking fee as a gesture of good will but if you had asked for a refund, we would have refunded all payments made. I am very sorry if this was not made very clear, though, as that is our fault entirely.
Please contact us on support@weareotimo.com if you wish to not proceed with the booking.
Thanks and sorry again for the inconvenience,
Team Otimo
Great service
Great website, brilliant customer service too whenever I had an queries.
May 29, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Sarah, thank you very much! All the best on your driving journey and if we can help you out at all again in the future, please feel fee to get in touch :)
Got booked in after 3 days
Got booked in after 3 days. Really happy with the quick service. Lookin forward to starting lessons
May 23, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Omari, thank you very much for the review and apologies for the delay in responding to you. I hope your lessons are going well. All the best
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Great instructor
Great instructor who helped me pass my driving test. Thanks very much to Dipak
May 13, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Mohammad, thanks for the review and congratulations on passing your test! Enjoy the open roads. All the best
Worth the money
I had been struggling to find an instructor for a few weeks until I signed up for Otimo. The £99 booking fee does seem like a lot at first but it is worth it for the customer service and how quickly I got booked in. Thank you Brooke! :)
May 10, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Makaela, thank you for your kind words and I'm glad we could be of help. I hope you're lessons are going well
Brooke was extremely helpful with the…
Brooke was extremely helpful with the whole booking process, she advised which course would be best suited for me given that I had prior experience and explained how the whole process would work. She is a credit to the company! :)
May 10, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Dan, thank you for leaving a review and its great to hear that Brooke is doing a great job from one of our learners. All the best :)
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Brilliant business - straightforward and efficient
Such a convenient and simple booking process, would recommend to anyone trying to find a driving instructor :)
May 3, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Beth, thank you for the review and its great to hear that you found the process simple and useful. All the best :)
Good tech but unprofessional business and waste of time/money
The technology behind the website is great and the tech support team is helpful. However, the way this website works is unfair. I ran a search on the website for an instructor, found an available one and then I did a research on his car and reviews and everything. He seemed to be suitable for me, so I selected him and booked 10 hours for £420. Then Otimo asked me to pay a £99 deposit to proceed, I did that. After almost 2 weeks, they contacted me and said the instructor you chose is not available and here is another one for £470 (£50 more than the inital agreement) the available instructure paid the £99 deposit. That's where I came to the conclusion that this business is kind of unprofessional, why would you waste my time (2 weeks of wait) and take my money and then change our deal and the instructor. This to me is a lie, you should have stated from the beginning the right amount you require and reveal who is available and who is not. I asked for refund and give me the next day
April 21, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Eslam, thanks very much for your review and apologies for the confusion that you experienced on our website when booking through Otimo. Due to the delays caused by Covid it can be difficult to get learners booked in with the instructor that they select on our website. We try our hardest to get you booked in with your selected instructor but due to how busy they are and their availability then we will sometimes book you in with a diffrent instructor who has immediate availability. In this case, your instructor was not availability but we did manage to find you an instructor who could get you started within two weeks.
The reason for the change in price is because the instructors set their own prices on the platform so prices can vary depending on instructor and location.
I am happy to see that this is now resolved and we have refunded your deposit at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks again for your feedback, the team will take this onboard and we will work to improve moving forward.
David was a great instructor and helped…
David was a great instructor and helped me pass!
April 17, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Stacy, thank you for the review and I'm glad you got on so well with daqvid. All the best :)
Great communication and booked in…
Great communication and booked in quick. Thanks 👍👍
April 15, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much for your review Ryan!
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Worth it
I was hesitant in signing up because of a couple of reviews but I spoke with someone over text message who alleviated my concerns. I paid £99 to use the service and was told I would be matched within a matter of weeks. I was actually contacted the same day as an instructor who matched my preferences had the availability to take me on. I'm really enjoying my lessons and would recommend Otimo (I actually have to a few friends). Thanks Otimo
April 7, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much Bee! Best of luck with your lessons
very helpful and quick with…
Team were very helpful and quick with getting me booked in. Thanks
April 5, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much Harry! Best of luck with your lessons
My son had previously failed his…
My son had previously failed his driving test so booked a 10 hour course for him through Otimo. Really helpful staff and passed. thanks
April 1, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much John! Best of luck with your lessons
The service does work but not without a few bumps in the road!
I paid the £99 deposit, and they did manage to find me an instructor, despite me living in a very rural/remote area. Although, I was shocked when I was served with an invoice despite not being offered any information about the instructor. I complained about this to 'Stephen' via text and he was not helpful at all. I then emailed Otimo and Lindsey wrote back with a few details and was extremely helpful and understanding. She was the only reason I decided to go ahead with it and I'm glad I did.
The instructor they found is fantastic, an absolute professional, I couldn't be happier. Though I did mention on the initial form that I could only do lessons on the weekends as I work full time, my instructor said he doesn't work on weekends, and this was not mentioned to him, but he agreed to do it anyway, a genuinely nice guy. I think Otimo should offer some details when they have found an instructor, I understand it is to protect the intstructor as well but to send an invoice without offering details is just odd and doesn't feel trustworthy. Thanks to Lindsey this was turned around and I'm glad I went for it in the end.
March 31, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks so much for your feedback. I'm glad we were able to alleviate your issues and pleased to hear you have started your lessons with one of our instructors. Good luck :)
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fantastic
fantastic, incredible amazing communication such a positive experience would recommend highly ☺️☺️
March 9, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much Syed - glad we could help!
Dont really understand the £99 deposit…
Dont really understand the high £99 deposit and i wont use the app either, they ask for block bookings before arranging instructor, no option to pay per lesson, so if you fail then you lose alot of money but if your paying per lesson then even after failing can still continue lessons and pay, still saying that though services was good and informative got instructor straight away
March 5, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Hi Nikhil - hope you’re well and thanks very much for the review!
The £99 deposit confirms your booking and is a guarantee that you’ll be booked in with an instructor within a 4 week time frame through our fast track service. I can see in this case we got you booked in with an instructor in less than a week. The Otimo app is an optional addition that our learners use to help them increase their skill, confidence and enjoyment while learning to drive.
We ask for payments upfront to create some consistency and as a guarantee for both you and the instructor. I can see now you’ve started your lessons and best of luck with your test!
Got started quickly and so helpful
I was really struggling to find an instrucotr but signed up to otimo and got booked in after a few days with a great instructor. Stephen really helpful as well
March 4, 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Otimo
Thanks very much George - glad we could help!
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