AIBU to complain after a bus driver shouted at me and my children?

When did you and your kids get a bus last OP? You saying that you saw they were free and would be ‘novel’ to try it, so suggests that it’s not your usual form of transport….

Neither you or your children acquitted yourselves well, and really ‘shaking’ after the driver said you needed a ticket? 🙄🤔. This suggests to me none of you knew what you were doing and failed to exercise even common courtesies such as hello etc. Yes passengers should acknowledge the driver and even a ‘hello’ would be nice and courteous.

No, you shouldn’t complain. Don’t be one of those people.

I was wondering how much this scheme, and the VAT cut at attractions, would help those families of the lowest incomes - this post has helped answer that.

How was the driver to know the children were with you? You tell the driver and say the children are with you, it’s not hard!
I was on the bus today and same thing happened, he did shout the mother back and told her she needed to still tell him about the children.

They are not in anyway "Poor Bus Drivers". They are (for this area) very well paid plus they choose to do this job. They know before they start they are customer facing with all that it entails.

If anyone comes across such bullying behaviour then report it. The number of the actual bus is printed on the body of the bus, this is not the service number. Give as many details as you can, also ask for the result of the action taken against the driver. Complaints about a driver should be logged at the appropriate level.

Would you put up with being shouted at when working in an office/shop/hospital? No, so you don't have to be shouted at on public transport by an employee ever. There is no excuse for this at all.

Yeah I would complain. No need to speak to anyone like that. Some drivers are on some sort of power trip. I used to work driving the buses, and I wouldn't speak to anyone like that. But I would see plenty of drivers who simply did not care about how they spoke to people. We had no training for customer service at all

I agree - the bus drivers in my area really have their work cut out for them, but I notice that they never seem to scream at the ferals men and boys who incidentally get off outside the courts but the polite, inexperienced folk on their way to work/uni 🤔.

I think you’re being a bit U to have wanted him to say this.

Yes he could have been more polite but an ‘Oi’ is pretty standard.
I would have been annoyed he was rude but not necessarily complain.

But I would 100% complain for the things he said.
It’s beyond disgusting to say about how they were raised etc - it’s not like they were trying to get on for free which I would be a little more understanding about his rudeness.

I don’t get why he couldn’t have been like “Oi come back here, you still need a ticket even if you’re travelling for free” - still blunt but without the rant.

I would definitely complain.
I work with some massive idiots but I don’t treat the next person any differently.

Sorry. Sometimes both sides can be in the wrong/right, and both end up feeling angry.

But this poor guy has to sit there all day taking crap from people. That was probably the tenth time that day he had found himself having to say something (and, inevitably, some of those times he won't have read the situation properly).

I have infinite sympathy for him and people in that kind of role, who end up in the firing line for a lot of society's problems, especially rude kids, or what he perceived as such.

I appreciate you tried to say something before leaving, but at some point you just have to let it go and move on. It wasn't your fault.

Why did you apologise 3 times, it was unnecessary and probably gave him a thrill of power.

What an absolutely weird comment! OP isn't a 'tourist' and 'all year users' don't subsidise her, she paid the exact same amount as you would. If anything people who use the bus daily would get a weekly ticket so she probably paid more as a one-off. The free kids thing is a NATIONAL scheme so subsidised by the govt, if anyone.

The only person delaying anything was the driver. If the kids needed a ticket he could have just printed one.

And 'the worst' really? Someone who doesn't quite understand how something they've never done before works is worse than people who swear, argue, smoke, put their feet up, listen to music etc. on buses, let alone rapists, murderers etc. You might want to go hunting for a grip.

I can’t believe how many posters are blaming the OP here, for what seemed like not very much other than a misunderstanding ( apologised at length for) and not being attentive ( seems to have become a terrible crime to some posters!)
I travel daily on a bus and although most drivers are lovely there are definitely some who are extremely impatient and aggressive when people make mistakes.

You sound a bit like that Katherine Tate character who accidentally hires a northern nanny 😂
What did he say that wasn’t correct and factual? Your kids were rude and it’s reasonable for him to wonder how they had been brought up if they didn’t know to acknowledge a service giver is the most basic of manners. Maybe he shouldn’t have voiced that bit, but him saying ‘Oi come back here’ is how he speaks (probably to 100 rude teenagers a week) - an ‘excuse me, would you kindly return to the front of the bus for your tickets’ probably wouldn’t cut it.

You should have had your kids in front of you, so you could have verified if they were rude, and got the free tickets at the time if those are the rules

I can vouch that if those ARE the rules, they're not communicated anywhere I am (regular bus user) and as two drivers hadn't mentioned it at all she had no way of knowing, before she got on the bus and took a seat, that there were any such 'rules'.

In my experience some drivers do issue a free ticket, and others look baffled when you get on with kids and present them to the driver saying "I've got two children; they're free at the moment aren't they?" and just want you to go and sit down - it's seemingly very arbitrary.

He didn't need to know the kids' ages - he'd already clocked that they were getting free tickets. Weird that you didn't read the OP - I think you should act more responsibly, avoid annoyance for people that explain fairly straightforward things when you get them wrong.

Responsibility for what? Shouting? Ranting? Making personal remarks to strangers and their children?

Oh, hang on.. no that was the “poor” bus driver.
Yet funnily enough you've only expressed sympathy for him. He doesn’t need to take responsibility?

-And come to think of it, HOW do you think OP should be taking responsibility? By calmly and politely addressing it at the time, and apologising (unnecessarily) to the ranting loon? I think she actually did take responsibility, didn’t she?

It’s such a shame that aggressive twats constantly dodge accountability, and weirdos defend them and deflect blame onto innocent people.

It was more advice for doing that next time 🙄

Yes OP, get in your time machine and do those things 🙄

I can think of any number of crimes which are far, far worse than that. It’s not as if women don’t shout, either.

Well I do, and I hear other people say Hello or Hi everyday.

I despise bus drivers like this and I always vow to complain about them when they are outrageously rude for no good reason, but I know deep in my heart nothing will ever get done, so I don't bother and just pray their dicks shrivel up.

The majority of people just tap on or pay with a phone or bus pass. Teenagers mostly have the pass on their phones. I doubt bus drivers really care if 100s of people don't say hello. They just want you on the bus as quickly as possible.

Some bus drivers are really rude today I walked rather than catch a bus because I dont need to deal with potential hostility today my local bus company

Regularly has buses burst into flames or breaking down
Sent out a bus leaking diesel two days in a row causing chaos all over the road my friend had to get her brakes cleaned (or something like that) because it was all up in there she span out on it and couldn't stop breakdown guy said she was car number five
Hit someone's car when it was parked denied it then said it was driving and hit them then when shown the camera footage said it shouldn't have been there anyway (on its own driveway)
Hired someone who couldn't speak basic English you asked for a return he would repeat the word return you say yes he says return yes RETURN YES RETURN????? they left him on the rural route for weeks before putting someone with him to find out "why everyone was complaining"
Ran a bus full of students into a wall shattering all the glass along the side of the bus on more than one occasion thankfully now they have decided that only experienced drivers can do that route

And thats just the ones ive been involved with or been friends with

They are also some of the nicest people who occasionally work for the company they gave me a free lift when they had no change and it was raining put music on when my then toddler was crying dropped me by my door because again it was pouring wedged my friends in when it was a full bus because we were mates 😂 shame the nice ones dont last long

Most people say thanks when they pay. Not many people say hello though. There's a difference.

Well they do where I live, at least everyone with social skills does. Either Hello, or Morning, or just Thanks as you pay.
Live in Covent Garden, grew up in Hampstead.

Too kind. You sound lovely and he sounds a grumpy git! I don't care how tired or overheated he was!! I've been known to take a bus driver to task for being rude to me 😄

I would complain. If no one ever complains about this sort of behaviour the person just continues to do it.