AIT in Phoenix Arizona

I could have gone to school in Florida for $2,000 and stayed home but the schools are 9-14 week courses and don't start till the end of October which puts me graduating in January so I was looking for a shorter time frame to get my license, 4 weeks here. Picture me! 6'0 bald 295lbs long goatee looking for a new career, I sell boats and the industry is very slow so I'm making a career change from sales. I live in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and dealt with a recruiter at A I T for a couple of months and they even had me take an ATB test (Basic Skills Test) and the DOT Physical which they paid for while I was in Florida Then I was told I passed and everything was perfect they set a date for me to start school on Monday August 27th (Yesterday) @ 5:30 am. So I made arrangements to have my 3 dogs watched for a month by my 82 year old mother, I moved her into my house from hers for the month. God Bless her!! on the 23rd I packed up and hit the road. I even threw my Harley in the back of my Pickup cause I knew I was going to be out here more than a month. Gotta ride! It took a lot to prepare for this trip. New tires for the truck $1,500 new tires for the bike $400 oil changes etc...

Everything great so far, gears are turning and excited I passed my tests packed up and ready to roll. I Have a wonderful 2,500 mile 3 day drive with no problems. AMEN! They wouldn't take payment over the phone and said I can pay for the school as I fill out my enrollment paperwork. Great!! So excited! I am going to come back with my CDL!!

I get to the hotel that they provide for me with the cost of the school and find that the hotel is in a very poor part of town, (which I was assured it was a very nice hotel before i decided to leave). When I walk in there is no lobby and man comes out to ask me my business and i said I'm here to check in and that I am With A I T Trucking school. He then proceeds to tell me to wait in the hallway, a minute later a roll up steel door opens up (real safe) and he says this is where you check in. So I check in and proceed to go inside and there is a man with a bag of cans walking down the hallway. Obviously how he pays his rent in this establishment. Then 2 guys filthy dirty #### faced drunk get in the elevator and the guy with the cans stops the elevator by putting his arm in front of the door so he could bum a cigarette off the drunk guys. OK so I keep going and then I open the room and It was filthy, smelled like it was smoked in as long as its been there. The beds were nothing but springs covered with cloth. Ok so I go back down and ask the man who checked me in if the area was safe for my rig and he replied...... Aw Man, this is Phoenix there's no good areas in Phoenix. NICE ANSWER!! At this point I felt I needed to get to a better hotel and I did find a better area to go to in Glendale by the stadium at my expense. Not a problem. I will clear this up Monday.

Monday I show up for school Excited and I go to class from 5:30 until about 12:00 and I get called out of class to speak to JULIE WIRTH, Picture her! 5' 5' straight dirty blond hair dressed in cream slacks, flowing blouse, high heels, manicure and looks like she should be living in Miami Beach with her 6'7" wannabe pet body guard at her side to back up her rude disposition and is the owner of the school. I know her type well, she thinks shes better than everyone thats there. I would have expected her to be in jeans and an A I T T-Shirt. I explained to her that I did not want to stay at that hotel and could they take whatever they pay that hotel and apply it to whatever hotel I choose and I would pay the difference. Well she all of a sudden got an attitude and had to check with someone else to see if they could do it. I want back to class and 5 minutes later I get called out again and they said NO and told me that that is where I had to stay. (I don't have to do anything) So now they proceed to tell me that in this business I will be staying in worse hubs than that hotel and maybe this business isn't for me. I said I will own my own rig and will be an owner Operator and I will be sleeping in my own rig and I didn't have a problem with hubs since I would be making my own schedule and routes. I also asked her if she had been to that hotel and if she would stay there and she replied with a yes. She's full of you know what.

At that point Julie Wirth suggested that I shouldn't be an owner operator right out of school and didn't want me there and asked my to leave. YES they kicked me out of the school since my hotel standards were higher than theirs and I want to be an owner operator. I also think they don't want me talking to the other students since I have business experience and they might learn something from me other than what they want them to know. She also said that since my enrollment papers weren't filled out yet that I wasn't technically accepted into the school yet and didn't understand why I was even there. Interesting since I was told I should pay and fill everything out the day of class.

I said to her I drove 2,517 miles to go to your school and it has cost me $2,000 in fuel and hotel so far (With driving home) and she replied that its not her problem. This is how they do business? I guess they don't need my $4,540.00 that they were charging me?


Bottom line is.... if they can't control you and own you and have you work for one of their carriers then don't bother going here. I have now wasted gas money and hotel money, put my 82 year old mother out of her regular routine on this school. Now this is turning into an unexpected expensive vacation I never would have taken. They are scumbags and don't care about you, only what they want out of you to benefit them. They get money for sending drivers to companies like Stevens and Swift and all the other big companies. They just want to use you. BEWARE!!