Rated 2.03 / 5 from 32 reviews
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Agganis Driving School Since January 1970, we are a family-owned business focused on providing quality driving lessons in Reading, MA. Our school was founded by George Agganis, and is now owned and operated by his son, Christopher Agganis. Over the years we have been active in getting local driving laws passed to ensure safe driving for everyone on the road.
Highlights and features
  • Adult Courses, Teen Courses, Defensive Courses, Truck Courses
Services
Intensive Behind-the-wheel Training
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Intensive Behind-the-wheel Training Some people avoid highway driving for years because no one showed them how to enter onto a highway, make lane changes, deal with speeding drivers, or share the road with large trucks. Each student spends 12 Hours hands-on-experience, behind-the-wheel training in real traffic, on real roads combining basic, advanced, & defensive techniques. Plus 6 hours of student observation.
Reviews (32)
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Susan Nardone
Aug 10, 2022
I just wanted to drop you a line, to express how very pleased I am with the entire Agganis experience. I thoroughly enjoyed your parent meeting that I attended in August, and was very impressed with what the program promised. What a nice surprise that you "delivered" on all promises that were made. My son received all that he needed to successfully get his license, and hopefully he'll follow thru and become a defensive, safe driver. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate how much you care about the kids out there learning to drive.
Carmine Santoro
Aug 10, 2022
My son Joseph received his license on Saturday. Without the help of your staff booking driving and observation times this would not have happened. I have spoken to you about the problem of no time available and you assured me that it would be taken care of and it was. I would like to give an especial THANKS to Lauren she excellent to work with. She was always very friendly and polite when she answered the phone.

She was very helpful and accommodating in the scheduling. I know it was frustrating for both of us in scheduling appointment, but she never showed it. I would like to let you know that all your support staff that I dealt with was the same, pleasant and helpful. Kelly who I guess is who is no longer with you was also the same way. Thank again.
Nikki Solar
Oct 22, 2021
I didn't do lessons here, just my road test. When I checked in the front desk woman was so nice (and pretty)! I passed my license and the two guys in the car with me were amazing. Everyone was so nice and made you feel so comfortable! Worth every cent. My bestfriend also scheduled hers the same day and she passed as well! Thank you agganis :)
Amitoj Singh
May 10, 2021
Great experience, even during the pandemic they are working professionally. Quick to respond and Made a difficult process easier. Would recommend anyone going through the application process.
Holly
Apr 24, 2021
I have had three children go through this program. One was a more complicated situation. They have great communication. Very easy to talk to. Scheduling many lessons before the test. Changed the test date for me. Resent password as needed. Other people waiting time was months for their test where Aggainis offers many convenient dates. I have been very pleased with the quality of service and customer care we have received. It has only improved with each child.
Susanne L.
Dec 17, 2020
Took the parent class. terrible. listened to the guy talk about sexist differences in student drivers, how his siblings inherited the school from his dad, how kids talk smack about their parents during lessons, how unfair the world is, and a lot of marketing info about his company. Not sure what the curriculum was to be, but this is as pay-to-play as you can get.

My favorite part was about 30 minutes into the class, guy was still on the second slide talking about his dad and lobbying and newspaper articles or whatever unrelated to my child learning how to drive and he says "Just so you know, I never can get through these classes in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes." Ya don't say. Pro tip - we can talk about how know it all and dumb our kids are, but when it comes from anyone else, it just sounds awful.
Mary Donahue
May 04, 2020
Surprised by the reviews. if you communicate with them your schedules they will be more than happy to help you. I have twin boys that work and play sports and I was able to to get them their license in time. Over the summer when their system was down I was extremely frustrated but after contacting the office they were more than happy to help and accommodate our busy schedule to the best of their ability.
Wendy Proodian
Mar 02, 2020
I have seen a lot of poor reviews and thought they might be just be from people who are not being reasonable so I took a chance and signed my daughter up. Well all of those poor reviews were accurate. It's been 5 months since my daughter completed the classes and we have not been able to schedule ANY lessons. They say that June July and August are the best months and I've been patient. This is basically stealing. I've paid $800 dollars for only 1/2 of the services. DO NOT use this school find another.
L. T.
Feb 20, 2020
Trying for over 12 days to schedule driving lessons. Extremely poor customer service. No response to emails automatically reply, no response to 6+ voicemails. Information that was to be submitted to Registry was *not submitted* 5 months AFTER the class. The classroom portion is very good, it is the customer care, driving lessons, etc that is beyond lacking.
Skye D.
Jan 21, 2020
This place sucks. It's very hard to get your driving lessons because this stupid company either takes to many people in or doesn't have enough people doing lessons. I had to wait an extra 2 months to take the road test because I didn't get enough lessons before my eligible date. I wanted to be able to drive over the summer but I guess I can't now because I have to wait 2 extra months. Go anywhere but here.
Kim U.
Nov 16, 2019
Really wish I'd paid attention to another reviews. I've never posted a review before but feel the need now. I can't review the driving instruction because despite my child completing her classroom course in June and my completing the parent portion and having paid for the certificate, there have been zero driving sessions to date! I have been unable to schedule a single session until the end of October and her first actual time with an instructor behind the wheel will be in the dark.

Not ideal. At the parent class, they recommend not having your child drive for the first time with a parent; lest they develop bad habits. But how can a child be expected to wait 4 months for a lesson? So, I took her out and she hit a fence. Now she's afraid. And I'm angry. I scheduled the class at the beginning of the summer so that my child would have the summer to practice. I'm getting ready to pay a different driving school for lessons to get her started.
Kendall F.
Sep 10, 2019
If i could give this less than one star I would! Worst experience EVER! They are obviously in the pockets of the RMV because i cant for the life of me figure out how these people are in business. Please people spend your money elsewhere DO NOT SUBJECT yourselves to the stress and aggravation of this place. One would think with the money the Agganis family makes of everyone they would hire a larger office staff especially during summer hours. No money is worth the crap service they offer. Buyer beware! Can't wait for some news station to finally do a story on this racket
Amy B.
Sep 07, 2019
Despite all the bad things I'd heard about Agganis Driving School, I sighed my son up for the classroom lessons in Melrose because I needed him to be able to get there on his own. The classes were scheduled for 5 weekend days in the Melrose office, a few blocks away from where we live. Less than 24 hours from the first class, we get an email stating they have moved all of the classes to Reading, which is 15 minutes away by car.

I am furious since the easy accessibility is the ONLY reason we went with them. No one is available by phone on weekends so there was no way to try and reschedule things before the class began.
Daniel C.
Jul 30, 2019
There should be an option lower than 1. This is the worst business I have ever dealt with in my life to this point and I am in my mid-50's. You cannot comment on the customer service as it is non-existent. The Owner must be a real low life to run a business in this fashion. You send an email and they allow themselves 48 hours to return (really!) there is no company or even the CIA that requires that kind of turn around time, and they don't return it anyway.

You will never get anyone to pick up the phone and they don't return phone calls either. They must employ only 1 person that does everything. Wish I had read these reviews rather than listening to my child. I wish nothing but the worst for this company and hope the Owner loses every dime he has. Happy Driving!
Kristina D.
Jul 10, 2019
I regrettably paid for both of my kids at the same time to take lessons here after we moved here from NJ. I barely managed to get my daughter through the program without having to constantly harass them into scheduling driving lessons for her. Now I am trying to get the remaining 6 driving lessons scheduled for my son, and I am getting zero response from them.

It does not matter what you do - constant emails and/or phone calls do not help. I have even copied the owner on the emails - he does not care, so don't fall for his speech during the parent class. We have been keeping track of all our attempts to get what we paid for, so now we are forced to seek legal assistance. We will be leaving negative reviews everywhere, putting in a complaint with the BBB, and hiring a lawyer to get our money back. Never do business with these people - by far the worst experience I have ever had with a company. I would give zero stars if I could.
Janet O.
Jul 02, 2019
It's incredibly difficult to schedule driving lessons with them. They take on too many clients (for the money) and don't offer enough available slots for lessons - just horrible. Customer service is also completely unacceptable.
Sean M.
May 18, 2019
I only wish i could not just give no stars but also delete this experience from my memory. This place is simply incredibly unprofessional. It's almost impossible to schedule a lesson. Great sales pitch but horrendous service. Place is basically a huge scam.
Carlos B.
Mar 21, 2019
Just the worst experience ever. they are great at the time of sign up and during the classroom time, but they have NO DRIVING HOURS available. I finally quit and signed up with another school because it will be months and months before my kid would ever get in a car. I am asking for a refund and if they don't give me that, I am will have to take them to court. Stay away!
BusyMom M.
Sep 02, 2018
Can we give zero stars? However the road lesson instructors are excellent and I would give them a higher rating. They always came on time. This school is terrible mainly because of the inability to schedule road lessons. I can't believe so many people go there. The websites states they book 2 months in advance but it is practically impossible to find any openings.

It even took me 5 phone calls and 1 month to get any texts for available lessons once I signed up. You get priority texts if you sign up for the road lessons but then the lessons get crammed into a two week period 3 weeks before the scheduled road test. All lessons have to be completed by one week prior to the lesson. I've heard scheduling road lessons is also challenging at other places. The good thing is that my 16 3/4 year old passed on her first time in Woburn. It was scheduled with their sister company, Tri-town.
Candy M.
Jul 20, 2018
Worst driving school ever. They never have lessons available and the staff is super rude. I would go anywhere else.
Cory M.
Jun 29, 2018
This school does a great job with the classes - my daughter learned a lot, and the full-day weekend option was a great way to get it done. The big advantage of using a driving school, is that your kid can get a license at 17 rather than 18. And that requires driving lessons. Unfortunately, scheduling the lessons with Agganis is a nightmare. They have an online schedule that is fully booked up thru mid-September as of today (10 weeks out).

The only way you can book lessons is to get on a list to receive text messages with open appointment slots. So it's a race to respond to texts to get a lesson for 1 or 2 days hence. No predictability, and it puts real pressure on us, as the lessons must be completed 12 days before the driving test. There's got to be a better way.
Julie C.
Apr 08, 2018
Nightmare trying to get driving lessons, they over book way more than they have instructors and cars. They just keep asking for more money! They suck!
Lori Z.
Mar 16, 2018
Very disappointed! The absolute worst scheduling system. Grey area means unavailable time. Well, pretty much the WHOLE schedule for months is greyed out, with the exception of one or two days at 12:30.well my daughter is in school at that time. You call the office for assistance and what you get is rude and unprofessional assistance. You pay a lot for the program and get the great sales pitch; then no road appointments. Save your money and aggravation and go to another driving school.
Katie Helene
Feb 17, 2018
I went to Aggainis in Wilmington 13 years ago and to this day haven't had an accident or a ticket. In my opinion a very good driving school with extremely effective techniques.
Dyce
Dec 22, 2017
Worst Experience ever! do not waste your time with them. Its a take the money and chase me scenario. You chase them for lessons, and for information. The owner loves to sell his company at the parent class. An old time snake oil saesman
Rob D.
Nov 09, 2017
I wish I could give no stats to be honest. You get these random texts about openings and if your son or daughter doesn't answer right then, its gone. When You call and ask about it, you get crass, rude, and nasty answers. I'm stuck here now with my son, but ill be looking elsewhere for my next two children. #anywhere buthere
Karen S.
Oct 23, 2017
Really the offer no guidance if you have a problem. They also charge you for taking test permits test. Per test. Rip off. Update: spoke with really nice woman at registry regarding permit. I did this while I was updating plates on another car btw. She told me to take verbal test w appointment. So we did. Had appointment so no waiting and took test and passed.

Unfortunately Agganis should of told me about this option when I called looking for advice and they didn't. They were just about the pre paid permit testing on their site.
Mitchell Plourde
Jun 23, 2017
I don't know how you can call yourself a driving school when your cars have headlights and taillights out that's very unprofessional and unsafe. I have also seen cars being driven by the instructors and no one else in the car take illegal right turns with no blinker and have had multiple people cut me off. I understand it is a driving school and they are going to be mistakes but when instructors are driving dangerously with cars that are not up to road standards how can you teach other people how to drive.

I have not taken any classes with these people but I do deliver pizza in the town of Wilmington and see these cars all the time. And I have seen countless headlights tail lights and brake lights out.
Cheryl C.
Mar 14, 2016
My daughter just got her license Saturday. Very happy with program. A little pricey but very convenient for Reading residents. Picked up at the high school for driving lessons a huge plus. And we got then end result we desired she got her driver's license and we had to deal very little with the registry which was great. She took her test at Agganis in Wilmington and it went very smooth. Customer Service was good.
Andy Blahnik
Feb 06, 2016
Scam, stay away! Took a 90 min driving practice with them, and was only maybe 50 min of actual driving without any direction or help. Then scheduled the road test and everyone I was with FAILED, for any little thing. The person with me failed because he "accelerated" too fast and me for getting on the road but the person giving it said I cut someone off when I was way away from it. DON'T GO HERE, THEY JUST TAKE YOUR MONEY BUT DON'T HELP.
Mark Oshen
Apr 16, 2015
We have three kids, and our third had the best experience for driving lessons at Agganis. They are professional and caring. Her drivers were helpful and supportive. They were a little more expensive but worth it. The Wilmington location is new and clean, bright and comfortable, even for the parents class. By the way, you only have to take the parents class once. I wish we had gone with Agganis for our older two. But price oftentimes dictates.
Mohammad R.
Oct 16, 2014
Worst customer service ever! Driver called in sick with less than 24 hours notice, but when i wake up sick and can't drive i'm charged $60 for cancellation! This place is not worth the price and customer experience!