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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Was this coach driver BU?

25 replies

Teddybeau1988 · 20/08/2014 17:35

My sister just returned from a holiday in Greece. Her and her DP went on an overnight tour stopping off at lots of different places. Several times they were allowed to wander on their own, and meet back at the coach at a set time to depart. After a stop at a smal town, they coach driver waited 10 mins, then said over the speaker 'the old lady is not here. We shall leave her.' And drove off.

Obviously he was very unreasonable, but I now have a horrid image in my head of an old lady wandering round Greece alone.

OP posts:

hmc · 20/08/2014 17:40

Gosh - not so good! Scary for the old lady. As a middle aged 'lady' I would have been freaked out at being left somewhere unfamiliar in Greece at night. Why didn't the other passengers speak up on her behalf!

A better outcome would have been to await her return and then give her an emphatic warning that next time the coach leaves without her

Hassled · 20/08/2014 17:41

Poor old lady lost in Greece. Hope she's been adopted by a nice family.

londonrach · 20/08/2014 17:46

Why didn't someone have ladies phone number. (Worried about little lost old lady in Greece and hoping she been adopted by a nice family). Tbh 10 minutes isn't long but surprised lady not there. (Now worried in case little old lady got friendly with waiter and needed rescuring....like mamma Mia)

Frontier · 20/08/2014 17:58

It is very annoying on a coach trip when there's one who's always late.

Was the trip organised through a reputable tour operator thingy?

He can't possibly have left her stranded. I wonder if she was planted to make sure the rest of them got back on time after subsequent stops

And yes, why on earth would the other 50(?) passengers let that happen?

ShatnersBassoon · 20/08/2014 18:00

I once sat on a coach outside the NEC waiting for a man who failed to return to after the Food and Drink thing. His wife had lost him around lunchtime but thought she'd see him on the coach. After TWO HOURS his wife decided we should go without them.

Turns out he'd got pissed on free samples and fallen asleep in a cloakroom area. I wish our coach driver had had the balls to have given him ten minutes...

The NEC isn't as scary as a foreign country though. I wonder how she made it back, and why nobody told the driver to give her a bit longer!

sj73 · 20/08/2014 18:14

That's horrible. I hope she was ok.

I had a bus driver leave me admiring the view on a mountain i the middle of Vietnam. Everything I owned: passport money etc was on the bus. I was so scared I couldn't breathe then pulled myself together and got a lift in a truck full of chickens and miraculously got to my destination where I tracked down my bag.

NorwaySpruce · 20/08/2014 18:16

A whole coach load of people just sat back and allowed the driver to leave someone behind?

The 'old lady' wasn't his wife was she?

LadyLuck10 · 20/08/2014 18:18

I don't think he was being unreasonable. I was once on a trip like this and two annoying women kept delaying everyone, 20 mins, 30 mins and had no consideration even though they were asked to stop it.
The last time he gave them 10min and left.

Thebodyloveschocolateandwine · 20/08/2014 18:18

To be fair I would be far more pissed off being referred to as the old lady. How old was she?

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 20/08/2014 18:25

No! he left her, he left her!

Did your dsis mention if anyone tried to make him turn around?

How old is old < gets a bit sniffy>

CombineBananaFister · 20/08/2014 18:30

Crikey, bit harsh. Think if was the first time she'd done it on the whole trip then it could be a genuine 'got lost' or even fallen over or something and was limping back.

If she had form for it and had been a late PITA the whole trip then I could see why he'd had enough, but still, leave her behind? how old was she?

CombineBananaFister · 20/08/2014 18:38

slightly off topic I'm probably going to get flamed for this stereotypes etc) but when me and DH go abroad, if we book a day trip from the resort we always book onto a german trip never the english ones . Just doesn't seem to as much messing around.

Think some cultures are just a bit more man-yana, man-yana?!? than others - drives me crackers

Original poster

Teddybeau1988 · 20/08/2014 19:06

The lady was around 60ish + according to my sister.

I can't believe no one made them wait longer. I would like to think I would have spoken up if I were there. But a lot of the passengers thought it was a joke.

It was booked through the holiday rep ( from a big company) at the resort.

OP posts:

Frontier · 20/08/2014 19:08

So, did the lady get back to the resort OK?

I can forgive the coach driver for his turn of phrase - how many English coach drivers could attempt a few words in Greek?!

Original poster

Teddybeau1988 · 20/08/2014 19:12

No one knows, the coach collected groups from different hotels. So they didn't know where she was staying. She wasn't seen again on the tour

OP posts:

DocDaneeka · 20/08/2014 19:17

That wasn't nice. Pretty bad if she had been taken unwell or hurt or something.

But

I do feet the pain of a persistently late person on a tour group. We had a couple on our last pre kids holiday. They were:

late to the initial departure. They were having breakfast while we were sitting on the coach waiting for them.

Late back to coach for every single excursion. By anything between 10 to 30 mins.

Late up every morning, and late for every departure.

They were lovely people, but my word did they piss everyone off.

SnookyPooky · 20/08/2014 19:56

My DH is a coach driver and I used to be a rep.
We have both left people behind.

When I was repping they used to get 10 minutes after pick up time and then we would go. Not fair to hold up the other pax.

My husband's company has a similar rule.

hmc · 21/08/2014 08:01

Good God - I don't think much to that snookypooky

Original poster

Teddybeau1988 · 21/08/2014 08:36

Well I certainly won't be doing any coach excursions. DH is late for everything and we will almost certainly be abandoned if its not a one off thing

OP posts:

SnookyPooky · 23/08/2014 08:49

hmc I'm referring to airport transfers, not excursions. Couldn't make 50 odd people late for their flight because I was looking for 2 people that probably took a hire car back to the airport and didn't have the manners to tell anyone.

angelos02 · 23/08/2014 08:54

Eh? I don't see the problem. What if it had been a flight? Why inconvenience 50 people for the sake of 1?

Letthemtalk · 23/08/2014 09:00

I don't see the problem. Being 60 is not an excuse for being late, and doesn't automatically make someone vulnerable. On our last holiday the coach from the airport was held up by over an hour waiting for an old couple. Turns out they'd decided to get a taxi instead and hadn't thought to tell anyone.

If she was hurt or unwell what was the coach driver meant to do about it??

VelvetEmbers · 23/08/2014 10:41

Many years ago (pre dcs and mobile phones) we went to Wembley on a coach to see a band. The driver said he would pick us up at the place he'd dropped us off. Lots of the passengers sat together at the back of the stadium while DH and I went down to the front.

End of the day we go back to where we'd been dropped off to find no coach. Eventually we were joined by another 4 or 5 people but no sign of anyone else. Just as we were all pooling our money to try and find somewhere to stay we heard the coach driver over the other side of the road saying he'd lost his punters.

Turned out he'd been told he wasn't allowed to pick up where he'd dropped us and had told all the people sitting together but obviously not done anything about those of us at the front. We got back to the coach and all waited a bit longer. One woman was moaning on and on that we ought to leave because "we all knew where to get back on". Actually we didn't.

MsJupiter · 23/08/2014 10:46

Was there definitely an old lady? Could he have said it just to put the fear into everyone else so they didn't dare be late back?

I bet everyone was back on the bus with ten minutes to spare from then on...

MamaPain · 23/08/2014 10:53

As I have a mother in her sixties, who would be HORRIFIED to be called an old lady, I think good on the coach driver.

60 is not decrepit, my DM works, uses her iPhone/iPad and leads a perfectly normal life similar to a childless 30 or 40 year old.

This woman was an adult, and presumably knew what the circumstances were. I imagine they had been hanging around for a little while anyway because if you think how everyone comes back in a staggered way and takes time to get on the coach and get settled. I'm sure the woman was a little pissed off and coped.

Also you don't know what was said to the rep/driver. I went on a tour by coach of Santorini (small island) and I only wanted to see the first 3 stops having been to the island before so we left at the third stop, as pre-agreed with the rep. The drive right have made some joke about the pregnant lady not being back. I was having a whale of a time taking a dinner boat cruise during the beautiful sunset.

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