It’s not that you need a refresher course in traffic laws. You know that stop signs mean stop and that a solid line means no passing. You know the speed limit. It’s just that you picked the wrong time and place to choose not to adhere to these rules. And now you’ve got yourself a ticket, and if you don’t want to see your insurance rates climb through the roof, you’ve got to take a traffic violator course. Well, the good news is that you can do it online. The bad news is that it can be hard to choose among the hundreds of licensed California traffic violator schools that offer online courses. But that’s why we’re here, and here’s the scoop on Rocket Traffic School.
Top-Rated Online Traffic Schools
Is Rocket Traffic School Legit?
In February of 2014, Rocket Traffic School became licensed statewide to provide online traffic school in California, making it a newbie to the traffic violator school scene, which started in the late 1990s. Rocket Traffic School is perfectly legitimate. But are they as awesome as they are legit?
Features of Rocket Traffic School
Okay, so you go to Rocket Traffic School’s website, which is kind of sparse and really ugly, almost like it was an afterthought: Holy cow, I guess if we’re gonna offer traffic school online, we’d better slap up a website. Hey, doesn’t your boring nephew make websites? Think he could have something up by this afternoon? And voila! Rocket Traffic School was officially born. In big old goldenrod numbers, the website specifies the price as “from” $14.95**. The asterisks lead to a little blurb that says, “Some courses may be slightly more. Click here for course pricing.” So you click there, and you’re taken to a page with two dropdown menus. “So we can better serve you, please select the state and county where you received your ticket.” So you pull down the state menu, and every single state in the union is listed. But if you select any of the 49 states that are not California, the “county” drop-down menu says, “none available.” So, wait. This online traffic course is only available in California, but they make you choose California from a drop-down menu containing 49 states where they don’t operate? It’s very perplexing. It’s almost as though they want you to believe they’re a bigger entity than they are. So you choose California, and you select your county from the “county” drop-down menu. Now you’re taken to a page where you choose the name of your court. But here’s the deal: No matter which county and which court you choose, you get taken to the exact same page that tells you that Rocket Traffic School “is offering the special low price of only $24.95.”
Now, maybe we’re just dense, but don’t you think it would be simpler (and a hell of a lot more honest) if the home page simply said, “Rocket Traffic School is offering the special low price of only $24.95”? Instead of making you go through all of that drop-down menu nonsense? The course is $24.95, period. There’s absolutely no mention of $14.95 other than on the ugly home page. And making you complete six clunky and completely unnecessary clicks to find that out is a waste of your time. Can you say “bait and switch?” Click on “The Rocket Guarantee” on the main menu, and they spout what they call their “no risk guarantee,” which is the ability to start the course for free and pay later, before you take the final. But in the FAQ (which you can only reach from the “contact us” page,) they answer the question, “Is there a benefit to paying now?” by telling you that “what you may not know is that we are currently offering a special low price for your court. This quoted price is one of the lowest offered anywhere and is only guaranteed until the end of the month… if you wait and pay later, the price may or may not be higher. Of course you can wait, the choice is yours.” So which is it, Rocket? Is it risky to start now and pay later because the secret special low price of $24.95 “may or may not be higher” at the end of the month? Or is there “no risk” to doing so? Smells pretty risky to us. And it also smells a little like a rat. There’s very little in the way of any real info on the site until you hit “continue” to register, which takes you to the “Agreement Between You and Rocket Traffic School” page, which you’re instructed to read carefully and which sounds like it was written by a cranky old bat with no sense of humor who is still confused about all this newfangled computer nonsense. It feels like she’s standing on her rickety old porch, shaking her finger at you. “In order to keep costs low, all course communication is by email.” They tell you that they need a current, working “electronic mail” address because otherwise, “if you don’t receive important emails from Rocket Traffic School, you are responsible for any consequences that may result.” “If for any reason you believe that your credit card was charged more than one time for the same item(s), you agree to wait 3 business days and review your credit card charges again.” Does this really occur so often that they feel compelled to add this disclaimer to their terms? “Use Rocket Traffic School’s web site at your own risk. Rocket Traffic School cannot guarantee and does not represent or warrant that its web site will be error-free or virus free.” I guess they’ve never heard of malware scanners for websites or security monitoring services.
“Rocket Traffic School makes no express or implied warranty for the accuracy of any information on its web site, or how you use that information. Rocket Traffic School provides its web site and the content on that site without any warranty as to its reliability, or fitness for a particular purpose.” Really? You’re not going to guarantee that the traffic violator course I paid $24.95 to take contains accurate or reliable information? “In general, if you have a computer problem, there is not much we can do for you. If you’re experiencing odd behavior with the course, first check with the course directions. Things may just be working as designed…” So, not only does Rocket Traffic School not guarantee the veracity of any of the information on their site, they’re also not all that confident that their course design won’t cause you to experience odd behavior with the course. That’s comforting.
How it Works
Apparently, it may not!
What We Like About Rocket Traffic School
Well, we like the name. Cool name.
What We Don’t Like About Rocket Traffic School
We don’t like the website design, and we don’t like the cat-and-mouse game you have to play to find out that the “from $14.95” bullsmack is total bullsnot. We don’t like that they make online traffic school seem dark and dangerous, rife as their website is with warnings about misinformation for which you’re responsible, the possibility of multiple charges that you have to wait three days to contact them about, and viruses that they take no responsibility for. And then there’s the email-only contact, which is a first.
Rating for Rocket Traffic School
Rocket Traffic School is obviously not interested in instilling any confidence whatsoever concerning their services. They get one measly star. Seriously, don’t waste your time or your money. There are scores of really friendly, cheerful, and helpful online traffic schools that make it clear that they actually welcome your business.