Friendship Auto School

I hired Friendship Auto School to sponsor my road test. Initially Paul was not very responsive, but he reached out to me when he had an opening for his Saturday road tests. This school costs considerably more than other schools in the area, but being tested sooner was worth the expense to me.
Although he technically offers in car instruction, it is very cursory on the ride to the testing location. It is definitely not enough to refresh your technique before the test, so the sponsorship charge is purely the car rental, and sponsor. As long as you know what you are getting though, Friendship Auto School is a good deal, and I encourage others to get out there, and get licensed.

I was so mad to let my wife to go to this school to take the road. Before signing up for this, I asked them that my wife needs an hour practice before the road test. Paul, the sponsor who takes my wife to test said yes yes. I will do that. When it comes to the test day, he took 2 more people with him and my wife to take the test and he did not give anyone any practices. The first thing he asked was you guys need to give me 120 dollars for the fee and took all of them straight to rmv to take the road test. Too bad, my wife failed. I was so disappointed. Please people avoid going to this school, unless you are willing to spend a lot of money on this guy, Paul.

I called to book a road test for my mother. I was dry pleased with their customer service. I definitely recommend them for diving classes or road test. Good job! Keep it up

Was driving behind one of these cars today. I was shocked to see the driver talking and looking at his phone and ended up making a dangerous right turn. Safe driving isn’t something you decide only to switch on when a student is in the car. There was a passenger, I hope to God it wasn’t a student.

I probably would have gone two more decades terrified of driving if it weren’t for Paul! I had had bad experiences both on my own and with other schools, so I started my block of ten lessons feeling very apprehensive. However, Paul immediately put me at ease, and I feel like I truly learned how to drive properly at the same time.
I can see why some people call Friendship Auto School unprofessional; it IS more «casual» than some of the other schools like Brookline and Bay State. However, this casualness can work to your advantage when it comes to scheduling lessons and the test; they will work with you instead of hindering you with arbitrary rules.
Paul does talk on the phone during lessons, so if that’s going to bother you, then I would encourage you to find a different driving school. Somehow, I didn’t mind, even though I was a nervous wreck – he will NOT leave you in doubt of where you’re going, and, after all, he has a business to run! Pick ups and drop offs were always relatively timely (i.e. +/​-​5 minutes), and exam day went smoothly as well. Thank you, Friendship Auto School!

I was happy with the lessons but the conduct on the day of my exam left me really not wanting to ever come back. I had a good time at my lessons and really felt that I mastered parallel parking, the only think I was struggling with.
On the day of the exam, Dominique was nice and got me to the place of the exam. I was there moved to a different car, which was VERY different than the one I had practiced in (now, I get that you should be able to drive any car at all, but there is something to be said about taking a super stressful exam in a car that you know). I failed the parallel parking on the grounds of parking «too far» once and «too close» the other time, which I thought was idiotic, but the instructor didn’t say anything. After I left the exam, the school never followed up and I ended up feeling really ripped off and used just for the $ 120 I gave for the Saturday exam.
I would not book with them again — it is clear that they cannot guarantee anything, but following up after I paid over $ 200 for 2 hours and an exam would have been the least decency expected.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking a while about writing this review.
This thing is, Dominic does seem to want to be helpful, and I did get comfortable behind the wheel after 10 hours with him.
But. I think Dominc’s wanting to be helpful does not translate into actually being helpful. He would go off on long tirades when I was driving which often didn’t have to do with any mistakes I was making at the time. For example, he was on the phone once when I passed a stop sign, after duly stopping of course. When he got off the phone, he turned to me and said ‘Why didn’t you stop at the stop sign?’. To which I replied, ‘But I did stop. I waited till the speedometer went to zero.’ He then said ‘Oh, you stopped? I must’ve not noticed then. Because you often forget to stop at stop signs. You’re very careless and never watch where you’re going…’ Do you get the drift? He has a way of turning even a simple conversation into a long tirade attacking the student for characteritics they may or may not display. For what its worth, stopping at stop signs is something I *never* missed doing. I would turn into the wrong lane, back up crooked and make other mistakes, but always, always stopped at stop signs. After a while, I started giving him feedback (‘I’d prefer it if you could keep your comments to anything I’m currently doing wrong or right’) but that would lead to another diatribe.
I think it has something to do with my being a woman, and also my being a different race. I noticed Dominic was a lot friendlier with the male students.

I need to write this review, because many of the reviews here are so positive. I was seriously mislead. My experience with this school was extremely disappointing and exceedingly frustrating. I don’t know why I was PAYING someone to aggravate me every week. That someone being Paul H.
Let me start off by saying: ok, Paul came on time, he does seem to sincerely be trying to teach. Those are my 2 good points about him. I am trying my best to be fair, and I don’t think he has bad intentions.
What he does have however, is way too much attitude for a driving instructor and not enough flexibility/​ability to customize to each student. We could not communicate well, because he tends to go off on long spiels by himself when we come across a driving issue I may (or may not) be having difficulty with. Problem being, he just starts saying a ton of stuff to explain things he thinks I have problems with, and he doesn’t let me get a word in otherwise. So sometimes I am listening to him explain things I already know, and God forbid, should I try to say yes, he feels interrupted. Then when I do have a problem, he also will not let me talk, and insists that he has to take 5 or 10 minutes to say everything in HIS way first before I can ask about my question. A lot of things would have been MUCH MUCH easier had I been allowed to just ask what is on my mind first, and then, if he could have responded with some simple, concise answers. I gave him some pushback on this, and he basically responds in a kind of arrogant way, that he’s the teacher, he’s the one with the experience, so basically – be quiet, just do whatever he says, and he can only explain it one way. He doesn’t want to answer your question in a different way if you cannot understand what he is saying the first time around.
When he did listen to my questions finally, he would do so in a very pissed off way, and I felt disrespected as if I am SO SO stupid for asking. Seriously? Is that how you want to treat your students, who by the way, are basically your customers? I felt like we were in some sort of back and forth attitude battle, and normally, I don’t give people attitude ever… I aim to be appreciative of good customer service and understanding of poor customer service (as I am sure it is very difficult), but Paul just really rubbed me the wrong way. To give him some attitude back seemed like the only way to get a little respect, which was just a sad and frustrating experience for me.
For example, on a 2^nd class, I was taking a previous student back to wherever she lived. As we neared a highway, I was getting nervous, since I wasn’t sure, are we getting on the highway? I wanted a yes/​no, because I was definitely not prepared to go on the highway, and should that be where we were headed, I would refuse to do it, because I wasn’t ready yet. He went into his little rant of «Do you think I don’t care about my life? Or about (student in the back)‘s life? Or about my kids???» etc. OK PAUL – just tell me, am I going on the highway YES or NO? Please. I can’t believe I have to put up with his sarcasm and indirect answers, I don’t have time for this when we are driving – just need clear answers from you.
Another example is: multiple times when I was turning left, he said, «YOU NEED TO LOOK LEFT. I DIDN’T SEE YOU LOOK LEFT.» I said, «I did look left, I am looking left, THERE ARE NO CARS.» I look left, but apparently I don’t turn my head enough so that he sees, and then he yells at me after the fact in his distrust. It’s one thing to remind me, but it’s another to keep trying to give me a hard time after. It really causes unnecessary aggravation.
End of story is I discontinued my lessons after my 3^rd class today. I’m sorry, but sincere intentions are not good enough if you are unwilling to teach to the student and very willing to dish out attitude. I didn’t pay for attitude– I paid to be taught in a respectful manner.
Bottom line is that I felt disrespected. Everything else I can forgive– it might just be that we couldn’t communicate well, and hey, it’s hard to teach different people. But it’s not hard to treat your customers with respect. Even when I told Paul, hey, today’s my last time then, he just kind of brushed me off with some more attitude of «yea, that’s fine with me too» line. no pretensions of apology that he didn’t meet my expectations, no inquiry of what was wrong. I understand you might not really feel badly that I don’t want to continue at all with you anymore, BUT again, it’s customer service isn’t it? Good customer service people know, you apologize even when it’s not your fault maybe, just even for the inconvenience or frustration people may experience. I hope that the owners of Friendship Driving School may read this, and please instruct your instructors, that regardless of all else that goes on, number 1 might be safety, but closely following that should be number 2: respect your students please.

Paul is fantastic! I booked an hour driving lesson with him before my driving test and he totally was the reason why I passed. I’ve been driving since I was 18(now im 24) but I was just always scared to get my license after failing once.
Since I have been driving so long I deffinatly had an ego and a certian way of driving, aka (stubborn b*$&¿ Syndrome lol) he, in a very nice way made me focus and prepared me for my test (because it is very different from everyday driving.) He had me completly prepared and laughing, which was good because the guy who gave me the test nearly had me in tears… BUT I passed! ;) thanks paul!.. Hes awesome and im sending my bf to him asap. paul totally knows what hes doing so if you dont pass its your own fault lol LISTEN to him: o)

Great for me.
It is true that the instructor talks on the phone but he is absolutely the multitasking guy and never got me without a very good explanation for my questions and very patient. If you are doing something ‘wrong’ he will tell you also and make sure you do the right away.
What I found great is that they pciked me up at home and were vey flexible with the schedule — if you call in advance in need of an extra class or cannot attend it, they find out a way to fit you in so that you will receive proper amount of practice.
They also arranged my test for a Saturday morning and I passed first time.
I do recommend it.

This is many years after I went to Friendship Auto School but I’m a fairly new Unilocaler. They are terrible! During the lesson the «instructor» (and I use that term so loosely that he can barely be counted in that category) was CONSTANTLY on his cell phone scheduling appointments and trying to get new business.
Before Friendship, I had never driven before. Ever. So before I got onto an extremely busy intersection Mystic Valley Parkway (the one next to Ghetto Glen but coming from the other direction where there is the pizza hut) … I requested «Do you think you could stop using the cell phone during the lessons?»
He SCREAMED at me saying he wasn’t a slave and that I couldn’t tell him what to do.
Needless to say, I canceled all future driving appointments with him.
DO NOT USE THEM.

I took over twenty hours of driving lessons with Jean and passed my driving test with flying colors. He’s very patient, reasonable, and good-​natured, and I saw him work well with people of all ages. Definitely recommended.

I had a terrible experience with Friendship Auto School. I wanted to write this review because I picked them based on the one (positive) review I read here. I hope Unilocalers become more active rating driving schools.
For one, I was left stranded at the end of the first lesson and told to take the T home (they had initially promised to drop me off back at my house). This was because the instructor had booked another appointment right at the end of my lesson and proceeded to pick up the next person without notice, in fact, while asking me to vacate the car! Two, I discovered later that I was ripped off (the cost of the RMV test) because I had already paid the fee. They charge $ 35/​hour lesson and $ 100 for the RMV appointment.
On the day of the road test, there was a weird dynamic between the examiner and the Friendship Auto School instructor (they definitely recognized each other and I got the sense that there had been some kind of a problem between them before). The examiner ended up failing me for backing up more than three times while parallel parking. Immediately after the test, and as if nothing had happened, the instructor just wanted to book another road test asking, on the spot, for another $ 100.
If you want to go through them, make sure you discuss costs first and drop off arrangements. My honest assessment — They’re only out for your money (which would be ok if they also delivered a good service) but I think they were extremely unprofessional. Research more schools, or go directly with the RMV –it’s much cheaper and in my case, going through a school was a disadvantage and did not help my chances of passing!

I recently took my licensing road test through Friendship Auto School. Jean took care of the paperwork, scheduled the test site with a MA state trooper, and picked me up at home. They were flexible with scheduling on a weekend, and the test itself was relatively painless; I passed on the first try.
It does cost more to go through a private driving school than to test directly with the RMV, but it saves some hassle. For example, according to records on the RMV website, fewer driving school candidates are failed for vehicle conditions (the school provides a standard test vehicle) and thus avoid repeat tests. Friendship’s rates are competitive with other local schools.