I applied to be a student at the TULSA, OKLAHOMA location of this school in November. They said they would help find an institution to give me a loan. The first place they allegedly tried would not finance the loan of $6495. So, they financed the cost of the schooling themselves (?) with to what is my understand their own in house financing company called Pathfinder Credit Services. I received the bill payable IN FULL in the mail on about February 26. The address on the bill was 11300 4th Street North, Suite 200, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, with the phone number 813-831-4490. First I would like to say that when I was "sold" this truck driver training course they assured me that I would be placed with a reputable trucking company upon my graduation and that the trucking company would usually pay most or all of the bill for my schooling on a month to month basis, not all at once. While I was at this school training, most of the instructors and the director continually made sexist, racist and degrading gender specific remarks. They were constantly yelling and demeaning to all the students, not just myself. I was promised 160 hours of behind the wheel time both driving and backing a tractor trailer. We attended school from 7am til 6pm. From 7am until 12pm was generally spent driving around the streets of Tulsa. However, there were at least 4 students in the semi and so each student really only received about 45 mins of REAL DRIVE TIME. And from 1pm to 6pm was called pad time or time spent backing. With the number of students to trucks ratio, the real time spent by each student backing the semi each day only amounted to about 15 minutes. So after a three week program, which is how long this school was supposed to be... Several people including myself did not pass their CDL test with the Dept of Public Safety. I was allowed to return the school after failing my first attempt to pass my CDL driving test for one week. However, I still failed my second test. At this point, I was told that I would not be allowed to return to the school for further training unless it was at the school's convenience. So, I felt it would be in my best interest to simply rent a truck so I could actually get some practice time in because 15 minutes a day of backing at the school just wasn't doing it for me. So I rented a truck from another source. When I was at DPS practicing with this rental truck some of the instructors saw me and apparently reported me to the school. I wasn't doing anything wrong by renting the truck from another source. However, after one month I thought I would arrange with the school to return for more training, as I still did not have my cdl and I no longer had any more money to rent a truck to practice with. I called the school and the director said I could come back and train. I returned as scheduled, but was called into an office and told I had to pay an additional 200 dollars for the additional week's worth of training. I could not afford this so I left. This school did NOT give me the 160 hrs of behind the wheel time as promised when I signed up. They did NOT successfully train me well enough to pass my CDL driving test. I have visual depth perception problems, that THEY acknowledged and my eye doctor confirmed, that make it more difficult for me to back a truck than perhaps other students. I did NOT get what I am being billed for and that is successful training to get my CDL. They failed to provide the time behind the wheel that I need.in addition, I did call the 813-831-4490 number on the bill to discuss this and they had no record of my name, social security number, or any account number in my name. I asked them why I was receiving a bill from them if they had no record of me and they gave me no answer. They FAILED in providing successful training and the actual l60 hours of behind the wheel driving time they promised.
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