Toward the end of June my daughter and I made use of the bus service to get us from our home to downtown and across the ferry to Dartmouth, our final destination. This was the first time I had been on the bus in years and although my daughter often rides it home from school, she has never had the opportunity to utilize the ferry before and was unsure if her school bus pass would work for the ferry. As we boarded the empty bus, she went first and asked if she would need a transfer or if the school bus pass would suffice. I stood below her on the step waiting my turn to pay my fare and hopefully get a transfer. The driver immediately started giving her attitude and said that he wouldn’t give me a transfer (although I hadn’t yet asked for one) until I paid my fare. No money, no transfer! I understood that but he blew up at her over asking a very simple, polite may I add, question. In the end after a few moments of her rephrasing the question he yelled that he had no idea if the school bus pass would work on the ferry! By this time I had paid my fare and had my transfer in hand and my polite daughter was almost in tears.
This guy was so freaking rude that if I had not already made plans to have my husband pick us up on the other end, I would have told him off and walked off the bus but we quietly took our seats and watched him snarl at us all the way to town. Many passengers got on and off that bus that day and he had not one good word to say to anyone… in fact I doubt he spoke five words total and none of them were please or thank you!
Lighten up bus drivers! I’d like to say that we pay your salary and that if we stopped you wouldn’t have a job, but sadly again that isn’t the case is it?
P.S. The bus pass did work for the ferry service and the young guy manning the ferry till was cordial and confused as to why the driver didn’t know the answer—he said they all know that! Funny thing… —First Time in a Long Time
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2012.
If the mongrel keeps flapping his cunt after you’ve taken your seat, report his unionized ass.
Well there are AssHats in every job and you were unlucky to get one, most of the drivers I encounter are fine and not rude.
That’s awful, OB! This man is a bully and probably good at lying, but I would report this anyway. He’ll tell his supervisor some twisted story about how you and your daughter were scammers and abusive, but if he’s getting more and more complaints of the same nature, it’ll become clear that he’s a douchesucking liar.
I’ve had good experiences with drivers, luckily, but as with every profession, there are serious bad eggs!
Hope your daughter didn’t take the incident to heart that much!
Oh ffs OB, your daughter asked a question. Don’t you know that answering questions requires thought? And that, thinking irritates hemorrhoids?
Whoa…that means that your daughter question was a pain in the ass.
Seriously, if you’re going to work with the public, learn to smile, be polite and friendly at all times. I can’t, so I don’t, if you can’t, you shouldn’t either.
A bus driver once called me “retarded” (literally) for not knowing where to put my ticket just after they installed those new automated ticket receptacles…
That said, a few bad attitudes are not good enough reason to dislike an entire organization. If that were the case I would hate -every- organization on earth.
I call this a case of transit strike hangover. Get the fuck over it already.
I just realized my retort just discounted your point: that your daughter was insulted by some asshole. My point: get to the point quicker and use bitch-relevant, and logical, titles.
Bus drivers are overpayed, underskilled, union protected douchebags. Any and all complaints will be filed in the unions special “round file”, reserved for the aformentioned complaints, and, employment contracts made by their employers ( the city and the public/us). In my job, I’m just as much an advertisement/salesman for my company as I am a worker. If I was rude to clients/customers, how long before my employer would fire me? Professionalism and customer service is how you maintain and build a business, and if you, as an employee, cannot supply the very basics of civility…? Oh yeah, it’s governmemt. Even if he IS found “in the wrong”, he just goes to his doctor and gets put on “stress leave” and gets paid to do nothing. Win win for the union wanker.
WHEELS!!!! YOU SHOULD BE NICE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, YA DOUCHEBAG!!!!!
It’s not illegal to tell a jerk-off bus driver to go fuck himself, especially after he/she has insulted or kid or you’ve sat down and he/she is still flapping his/her gums. I know I would. Try throwing me off and you’ll know what it’s like when bag gets tagged.
I’ve been on the bus while the driver spat out the window,talked on his cell and smoked a cig..I got on a bus awhile just after the driver put out a joint or so it seemed.All I could smell was weed,I was the only massenger on the bus.I could tell the driver was high.
Most Metro Transit Driver’s are fucking pigs.I called a supervisor to lodge a complaint,the rude fuck gave me his ‘private’ cell phone number and told me if I wanted to talk to call him”anytime”.Needless to say I never called him.The goddamned piece of shit.
OB, was the driver’s mirror tipped up so that he couldn’t see the passengers behind him (and vice versa)?
In my experience, it’s the drivers that do everything they can to avoid the passengers tend to be the biggest douchebags.
Don’t believe me? Just look up the next time you’re on a bus. If you can’t see the driver in the mirror, he doesn’t give a flying fuck about you.
i think metro transit deserves another raise don’t you all?
You know what I’m getting sick of?
Seeing empty ass 84s every minute (sometimes right behind each other) over and over again while waiting 30 minutes for a bus that goes in my direction (there are FOUR routes that go in my direction!!!!!).
Yesterday I counted six virtually empty 84s (three in a row at one point!) in the span of 20 minutes, and not one 31, 33, 34, 21 or 35 in sight.
Come September, I’m waiting in that long ass line at work and getting a mother fucking parking pass. Fuck you, public transit.
Good job PK thats the way to do it. I was a staunch metro transit user ever since i moved here until the strike. Now i carpool with a coworker, would rather give him my 80 dollars for gas then throw it at MT. I only take it on his days off now.
Bought a motorcycle and haven’t taken the bus since. I don’t miss it one bit. Nothing feels quite as nice as cruising past the “big white limo” full of hot, sweaty, stinky, cranky people, (and equally as cranky drivers), on my bike on a beautiful summer day.
OP, it is called public transit, not adult transit
PK, I ride the 84 or 85 everyday. It is never empty. Just saying.
ah envy… there you are.
I’ve yet to ride a single second this season so far.
🙁
I’m hoping for a LONG, beautiful autumn.
doesn’t help that I’ve been watching Full Throttle Saloon lately either.
http://images.zap2it.com/images/tv-EP01192…
You know these drivers act like assholes? It’s because you fucking let them!!
Don’t report shit here, go to their bosses. A union can’t save them forever.
mr blue, check out the beep recipes in the food and drink section
Thanks PG, interesting but I prefer my Beep straight up with a donair chaser…
i think if you substituted beep for orange juice it would make a good fuzzy navel