Defensive Driving School of Bellevue (148th/Near Microsoft)

I want to thank Ahmed so much! Hes like a mentor, incredibly patient with me especially because not everyone has the patience for a slow learner like me. Hes always willing to explain things again and again, without ever getting irritated or annoyed. He helped me overcome my driving anxiety. I remember having a class with another instructor (I wont mention his name), but he was very rude and impatient. I felt hopeless because I didnt think anyone else could help. Driving anxiety made me find excuses to avoid it altogether. But reality dawned I need to drive! Ahmed is definitely a great instructor. He pushes you and helps you face your fears. I think its very important for instructors to be patient, just like Ahmed.

I took my Road Test here with Pem. She is very kind and helpful. I highly recommend taking the warm-up package when taking your Road Test. Hope you also pass your test and get your DL successfully.

Its been a very frustrating experience to schedule a knowledge test with defensive. I rescheduled mine and I went to the redmond center to see my name not being there. They didnt even apologize and I had to call support and be scheduled another. People miscommunicate and act like they do favor for the client. This is making me consider 911 or Sams instead of Defensive. Ive not made any threats. Dont hold it against the client please. You can see what happened in your call records and emails. Its been disappointing and super unclear.

I had a warm-up followed by a driving test with instructor Jumma who was extremely helpful throughout. During warm-up, he pinpointed my mistakes and gave guidance to improve on the maneuvers. Post that I was able to pass the test. Would definitely recommend this center to others, especially the warm-up session right before the test. Kudos to Defensive Driving School and instructors Mr. Jumma, and Ms. Maggie for helping me right from my first driving class to knowledge and skill tests.

I took 5 lessons and studied from Kathleen Heaton and Jumma Elmghirbi. They are the best driving teachers! They taught me the essential techniques of driving, especially the backing maneuver and parallel parking. All you need to do is to follow their instructions and repeat several times, then you will definitely master the skills. As a new driver, learning in this school helps me overcome the fear of driving and master all the skills. So I highly recommend this driving school to those who want to learn how to drive as a beginner. Better find Heaton and Elmghirbi!

I hope my review adds value to the discussion here. This school has good trainers and bad ones. The administration is not open to any feedback, they will take action against you for reporting a bad trainer, and they will close your account. Given that they charge exorbitantly highest prices in the area, they do have the lowest standards of business conduct and professionalism. In my personal experience, I got a bad trainer in a driving lesson which was my last one before skills test. All he did...
Read full review during the lesson was to continuously ask me to go beyond the speed limit, shout at me with personal attacks. I was pretty confused on the targeted personal comments, even telling me I will fail the skills test for sure. I did not expect that from a trainer in the US during a lesson, especially when all the other trainers in past lessons had been nothing short of great (I even did some mock tests with couple instructors and they all passed me with above 90). After this horrible experience in the lesson was reported to the school on a call on the same day, they said give it in writing and we will take action. I sent the mail, and a follow up, they did not take action on the incident at all, rather the next weekday they sent me a mail that they dont see any problem with how the instructor conducted the lesson and have closed my account. I would not give the name of the lady who did this as I do not believe in personal attacks, and I am not sure if further upper management was ever involved. I still had one 2 hour workshop remaining on my account when she closed the account. Finally, Ill just say most instructors here are good, but the real spirit of business ethics shows when bad things happen and this school has no business ethics at all.

I scheduled a 30 min warm up + skills test at this location. Pam really helped me in pointing out the silly mistakes I did in my 30 min warm up. I was able to fix those in my test and passed.! It was a nice experience.

I got passed skill test today successfully. My greatest appreciation especially to Ms. Kathleen Heaton. She is best Instructor, calm and polite at telling all the necessary safe driving tips, rules then clearly explained all my mistakes while on each ten driving lessons. For her guidance, I got more confident get drive on road signals and especially on freeway. I would definitely recommend training this center for any one to take first driving journey. Thank you.

I took driving lessons and test at this school and had a great learning experience. Thanks to Pam for being patient with me and guiding me through all maneuvers! Highly recommend Pam and this driving school.

Clay knows what hes talking about, is engaging and fully educated on driving. He knows fun facts and brings a serious energy to class but incorporates humor and interests even the most unmotivated student. He has spoken to people like EMTs and knows all about the blind and such and its really helpful and interesting to hear about these fun tidbits. Not only is Clay friendly and outgoing, he really cares about the success of his students! If I didnt want to get my license, I wouldnt mind repeating this class!! Our other teacher, Paul is very helpful. He answers every question in Q&A promptly and has a great sense of humor. Thank you so much guys!!