Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To complain about this Bus Driver

37 replies

Poppyandme · 16/12/2011 00:08

i know, I know... Bus threads are done to death but I need to know whether you think IABU to complain about this bus driver....

I met a few colleagues after work for a meal and a few drinks, nothing wild as we all have our formal works Christmas night out tomorrow night. We had all agreed to leave about 10:30 which is great as my last bus home is 10:42.

Got to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare and there were about 7 people waiting, the bus turns up and stops but immediately drives away without letting anyone on. There is a set of traffic lights just after the bus stop which the bus stopped at and we all ran to get the bus thinking that he hadn't realised that we wanted to get on. The driver did open the doors but started shouting ' who kicked the bus?' ' do you know How much these cost?' we all sort of looked at each other in shock as nothing untoward had happened. A few of us did say that no-one had kicked the bus but the driver closed the doors and drove off (after shouting at us).

I had to get a taxi home which cost £35 and am none too pleased.

WIBU to complain and do you think the bus driver was correct. I should say of the people that were waiting all were pretty sober but one guy who was a bit pissed but in a harmless, quiet way. I did not witness anyone kick the bus and surely even if someone did the whole queue shouldn't be penalised?

OP posts:

Ghoulwithadragontattoo · 16/12/2011 08:29

Sounds like a power trip to me. He knows he's the last bus ( not fun this close to Xmas) and he decides to leave you in the lurch on spurious grounds. If you report him he will of course say someone kicked the bus and it was unsafe to let you on.

YANBU at all. I would try and report him and hope others do too.

MabelLucyAttwell · 16/12/2011 08:32

KateMiddleton

No the original receipt should not be sent - only a copy should be sent.

GwendolineMaryLacedwithBrandy · 16/12/2011 08:33

I'd be furious too. The last bus home and the driver refused to stop? I'd complain. It's his job to pick up passengers who are waiting not decide willy nilly when he fancies it or not.

TheRuderBarracuda · 16/12/2011 08:36

OP Did you discuss writing in with the other passengers (especially the women you kindly ensured got home safely in your taxi)?

I would write in and explain what happened. Depending on size of bus I think it would be very hard for a bus driver to 'feel' the impact of a kick and if there had been a kick hard enough for him to feel (bearing in mind driver would be sitting on opposite side of bus to the side passengers are queuing beside and entering) it would have had to be so hard you would have heard/seen something (unless bus is a tiny one - i am thinking of the one level buses in London) Maybe the driver saw something he didn't like in the wing mirror. Either way I do think he was wrong to drive off and the cost of your taxi should be reimbursed.

Original poster

Poppyandme · 16/12/2011 11:10

Thanks for all the replies, I have phoned the bus company this morning and 4 others who were waiting in the queue have already complained in addition to 3 passengers who were on the bus. They are waiting for the driver to start work but wil speak to him when he arrives. The manager was very apologetic and has promised to call me back this afternoon.

I thought long and hard about complaining but feel it was the right thing to do - I could totally understand if it was a rowdy crowd of people but it was just a normal queue of people waiting for the bus and it was freezing cold with no other public transport options which the driver will have known.

Will update when I hear back from the bus company.

OP posts:

kelly2000 · 16/12/2011 11:14

Report him. What if you had been a sixteen year old girl with no money for a taxi, you would have had to walk home alone. If he looses his job that is his own fault. Why should he get to behave how he wants and not face the consequences.

tinkertitonk · 16/12/2011 11:19

OP you sound like a kind person. Complaining was the right thing to do, it's a matter of standing up for yourself and others.

Ghoulwithadragontattoo · 16/12/2011 12:14

Well done op. hope you at least get your taxi money back.

WibblyBibble · 16/12/2011 13:45

Yes, you were definitely right to complain. Really sick of public transport operatives acting like arseholes to people because they're on a power-trip. Even if someone did kick the bus, that would never have had chance to happen if he'd let people on at the proper bus stop, would it? Bus drivers and train managers seem to think they can treat people like shit and then complain about 'antisocial behaviour' against them when people respond in kind, actually. I have had this with bus drivers here, just driving straight past the stop even though several people signal them to stop and they are clearly not full, and I suspect it is when they are running a bit late and trying to keep to some target about time-points- completely unfair on passengers.

pigletmania · 16/12/2011 14:04

Well done op, you did the right thing, and put it in writing too. What if it had been a vulnerable person without much money on them, just enough for the bus . Dreadful behviour of the driver.

MackerelOfFact · 16/12/2011 14:12

How bizarre. YANBU. Even if someone had kicked the bus (which sounds unlikely) surely it wouldn't even have caused the slightest bit of damage, it being a bus and everything.

Angelswings · 16/12/2011 20:36

Did he call back?

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread