*** PONY TRAFFIC SCHOOL IS NOT IN OPERATION AT THIS TIME. *** The State of California takes traffic violations seriously, and they prove it by assessing points against your license if you don’t take a traffic violator course following getting a ticket. Points against your license result in higher insurance rates, and since nobody wants that, most people who get a ticket for violating traffic laws end up taking the course. While it used to be that attending traffic school meant you were stuck in a classroom for eight hours, usually on a Saturday, the advent of the Internet changed all that. Now, you can take traffic school online in California, and Pony Traffic School is one of a whole lot of online traffic schools in the state.
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Is Pony Traffic School Legit?
Pony Traffic School is, indeed, legit. They’re licensed to operate in all California Counties by the DMV, and they’ve been around since 2007, making Pony Traffic School one of the older – although not the oldest, by any means – traffic schools available. Pony Traffic School also uses industry-standard SSL encryption on their website to protect your personal and financial information.
Features of Pony Traffic School
Pony Traffic School’s course costs $19.95, which is pretty standard. It’s not the cheapest traffic school, but it’s not the most expensive, either. If you find a cheaper course that operates in the same county where you got your ticket, Pony Traffic School will match their price. You can call or email them to request a refund of the difference. The standard price of $19.95 includes the course, the final exam, and the electronic transmission of your completion certificate to the DMV and court. Pony Traffic School offers a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and will refund the cost of the course if you’re unhappy for any reason. The catch is that you have to get your refund before you take the final exam. Along the same lines as the satisfaction guarantee, Pony Traffic School offers a Money-Back Guarantee, which allows you to get a refund if you somehow manage to fail both of your allotted attempts at the open-book final exam. Or if you’d rather take the course again for free, you can do that, too. Customer service is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, which is a little limited compared to some other schools, but they promise to return emails within a few hours most of the time, but for sure within one business day. The office is closed when the courts are on holiday. The course isn’t available on mobile devices, which means you can only take it on your desktop or laptop computer.
It’s unclear whether the course is timed. In the FAQs, Pony Traffic School says that the DMV requires that you spend a minimum amount of time on the course material, but that’s no longer true. Still, many traffic schools have timers on each chapter that prevent you from moving on until the timer – usually set to 40 minutes – runs out. This may be a deal breaker for some, and if that’s the case for you, you might want to give Pony Traffic School a call to find out whether they actually use timers. Pony Traffic School points out that hidden messages are required throughout the course to ensure students carefully read the materials, and they recommend that you pay attention so that you can answer the “hidden message question” correctly. Although this particular reviewer hasn’t heard of this, it could very well be that all traffic violator courses have hidden messages but don’t bother to tell you that up front. No reviews for Pony Traffic School have been posted to Yelp! or similar sites.
How it Works
After you register and pay for the course, you can start taking it immediately. The course is divided into chapters, which are followed by short quizzes to help you prepare for the final exam. The final is open-book and consists of multiple choice questions, and you have to answer 18 of 25 questions correctly to pass the course. Once you pass the final, your completion certificate will be transmitted electronically to the DMV and your presiding court. Certificates are transmitted within 3 business days.
What We Like About Pony Traffic School
We like the price match and money back guarantees, and we like the reasonable base price for the course.
What We Don’t Like About Pony Traffic School
Customer service hours are a bit limited, and you can’t take the course on your mobile devices. It would also be nice to know up front whether the course is timed, but it sounds like it is, although we may be wrong about that. Pony Traffic School doesn’t indicate whether they can expedite the processing of your certificate if you waited until the last minute to take the course. If you’re in a rush, it’s a good idea to give them a call to find out what options you have for notifying the DMV and court of completion before your due date passes.
Rating for Pony Traffic School
Pony Traffic School appears to be a straight-up fine traffic violator course provider. They don’t have some perks that other traffic schools offer, but they also offer a few that others may not. Smack in the middle, Pony Traffic School earns an average rating of three out of five stars. *** PONY TRAFFIC SCHOOL IS NOT IN OPERATION AT THIS TIME. ***