Irksome bus woes

[TalcAndTurnips]

I decided to take the bus home today instead of walking, as my new summer footwear had chafed a suppurating trench in the side of one foot. Damn you, Footglove, with your empty promises!

I boarded the bus, tendered my second mortgage and asked the driver for my destination, which I named as the actual place name that is printed on the bus stop itself. He looked at me wearily and said "Don't give me road names, love, don't know them."

I said that it was the actual name of the bus stop. He told me that "we don't look at them - where is it?" - so I had to explain where I wished to go using local landmarks. I remained my usual polite and cheery self, despite his disdain for my shoddy customer efforts.

He then proceeded to drive like an arse - I swear I actually left the surface of my seat as we negotiated a road hump at approximately warp speed.

Was I being unreasonable?

Was he being unreasonable?

Should I just stick to walking, and just apply several plasters?

And it was about 90 fecking degrees centigrade on there. I need a lie-down.

YANBU. And thank you for making me laugh!!

He was being unreasonable. 21st century bus drivers have ticket machines with the correct names programmed in. Some are even satellite tracked.

I feel your pain, I bought some Sketchers with memory foam as I walk everywhere and have been rewarded with crater sized and bloody rubs on both heels. When I hobbled on to the bus rather than make the agonising walk home, uphill pushing baby, toddler and shopping for 30-40 mins I was met with sighs and impatience.
As I feel your pain all too similarly I can only say YANBU. Definitely.

Ours do that too! I say "A single to Bagpipe Lane please." and they go "Where's that then?"

"At the top of Swallow Street." say I.

"But then you want to go to Swallow Street."

"No...that stop is further and costs more...I want to go to Bagpipe Lane...it's two pounds."

"No...you don't...it's two fifty...Swallow Street..."

I SWEAR I stood there for ten minutes until he gave in. Idiot.

YESSSSSSSSS - get in!

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I have never started an AIBU before in the many years I have been hanging around these parts - and nobody has flamed my arse to buggery yet.

flimflam - thanks for the Sketchers warning. I think Britney Spears used to appear in their advertisements, so it is only to be expected.

Do you live near me? I have exactly the same problem. I say the name PRINTED ON THE BUS STOP and not one driver ever knows where it is. I have a rehearsed description now.

Foot shredding would make it more irritating, though!

Yes Nettle - I should have brandished my ghastly mangled feet at him, to draw out his absent kinder side.

ouryve - the very notion of this nineteenth century charabanc being satellite-tracked has amused me. I think it was held together by gaffer tape and sheer good fortune. There is a small area of cobbles on the route - it was like being inside a spin dryer.

round here you have to phone the bus company the day before, if you want it to come to the stop!!

Rb68 really? really really? They really don't want anyone to catch that bus do they

Blimey RB - are you in the Highlands?

I remember, when taking a holiday in Sutherland, that the Post Office vans used to double up as a bus service for locals - they could arrange to travel to the nearest town in one.

I wish we had the London system - where the gentle-toned woman reads out the next stop for you and it scrolls on the display. And the tapping the card bit too for a flat fare - I have to scrabble behind the sofa for change here.

I know talc, I should have known better. Was just desperate for a comfy walking shoes that didn't look like they belonged to a stereotypical retired rambler. Got sucked in by the advertising.

I had a row with a bus driver once - well more than once on the same subject but one time it got pretty bad.
Me - return to xxxx college please.
Him - Two quid
Me - No, it's one seventy.
Him - It's two quid.
Me - Have the fares gone up?
Him - No. It's two quid.
Me - It was one seventy yesterday, and all week before.
Him - You may have got away with it before, but not with me.
I pay my two quid.
Me - This ticket says town centre. I want xxxx college. That's a lot closer than the town centre.
Him - It's in the same fare zone.
Me - No it isn't.
He stared driving. I got off at the stop for the college only for him to stop me, hand me back my 30p and correct ticket and apologise.
He tried the same thing a few days later.
Then there was the bus driver who drove away from the stop as if he was starting the Silverstone Grand Prix while I was half way up the stairs. I fell down the stairs. He did not stop.
I was a fashion student at the time, I know all about suppurating footwear.

Rack - I think our two drivers may be one and the same!

It seems utterly daft that the bus company go to the trouble of naming all the bus stops, so that customers can just ask for their destination of choice - for one of their employees to declare, on behalf of all his colleagues, that they don't take any notice of them and would rather customers describe where they want to go using a selection of hand signals, semaphore and flashcards.

All the while this is taking place, the geriatric bus is churning out purest CO evil into the atmosphere as it idles.

Birds fall from the trees. Lambs collapse in the meadow. A maverick hedgehog decides to make an unwise bid for the kerb opposite, only to be rearranged anatomically by Eddie Stobart.