Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to call the bus driver a tw@t I was angry?

39 replies

LolaTheShowgirl · 08/08/2008 12:07

first of all i'm supposed to be on holiday so i was all happy and everything on the bus on my way to the beach today but then we stopped to let an elderly man on who must've been in his late 80s by looking at him. The bus driver turned him away because there was just 1 MINUTE to go before he could use his oap free pass. These buses are every 20 minutes.

I was so angry with the driver that I loudly huffed and shook my head and he could see thru his mirror then when I went to get off I didn't thank him as I usually do all bus drivers. He said 'don't say thanks then' so I replied 'why should I when you turn old folk away with a minute to go - we were at the stop for more than a minute while someone else got on' and he said 'don't even start, i'm not in the mood' to which I said 'do you even know what customer service is and then he started on about if he didn't have such troublesome customers like me his job would be so much easier.

I loudly replied 'tw@t!' I never swear (well hardly ever) but he really angered me!

OP posts:
mazzystar · 08/08/2008 15:12

um, i think your huffage was wasted energy really
because it was too late to let the old man on
if you had intervened at the time it might have been different

and may i say the bus drivers round our way go out of their way to be helpful and polite and my only criticism is they sometimes corner in a rather exciting manner

MrsFluffleHasAWuffle · 08/08/2008 15:19

I probably would have done the same - actually I wouldn't have needed to as I would have dug into my pocket and paid for the old fella to get on so wouldn't have had to call the driver a twat

UnquietDad · 08/08/2008 15:50

wasn't me with the French manners, it was BGD.

Kaedsmum · 08/08/2008 16:46

I can't believe some people have said YABU. The bus driver obviously has no common sense, no common decency, no social skills, a bad attitude, and if he carries on, NO BLOODY JOB.

Good on ya for telling him.

boogiewoogie · 08/08/2008 21:18

I do empathise with OP, some bus drivers can have a really awful attitude to put it mildly.

I once had a bus driver turn me away when I was 8 months pregnant!!! I was waiting at the right bus stop at the right time etc. He let a passenger off but didn't let me on. He just said "I can't let you on it's as simple as that!"

I wrote a letter of complaint and received 2 free all day travel cards as a result. You would have thought that the experience would have put me off travelling by bus for life!

unknownrebelbang · 08/08/2008 21:27

Huffing and puffing? Waste of time.

Did you consider asking him why he hadn't let him on? Give him the opportunity to explain?

Of course, he may have been an arse, or a jobsworth, but why swear at him?

FWIW, I work with a lovely bloke who used to be a bus driver, he'd rather work with 20+ high risk offenders than drive the buses again, because of all the shite he used to have to put up with.

barnsleybelle · 08/08/2008 21:40

YANBU I would have done the same tbh.

MrsMattie · 08/08/2008 21:43

YANB that U... I rarely meet a courteous or helpful bus driver (in London) and I use the bus a lot. I feel sorry for anyone who has to put up with daily abuse on the job, but I also feel sorry for myself and the millions of Londoners who have to put up with rude, reckless, unprofessional twits on a daily basis...

solo · 08/08/2008 22:55

Yep unknown. I feel much safer working with armed bank robbers, rapists and murderers than driving London Buses. How sad is that?

Mamazon · 08/08/2008 22:58

YWNBU.
i would send a copy of my bus ticket to his company and complain.

Slickbird · 08/08/2008 23:08

Hmmm tricky. Initally I agreed with you entirely and thought 'yeah, what a twat!' But then as the ex bus driver on this thread pointed out, if he lets them on with those passes out of time then they can get busted (there are a lot of jobsworths out there!!) BUT having said that, a lot of commonsense is now missing to the way services operate and this is clearly another instance. I think he should have found another way to lose a minute. Poor old guy.

solo · 08/08/2008 23:34

Like I said before, I would've lost the minute. The only thing with that is, that you then get the OAP's that then want to get on 2 minutes early, then 5...where does it end? I had the lovelies trying to board at 08:45 instead of 9am. This was just after they'd changed the time from 09:30 to 09:00 IIRC. Give an inch, they'll take a mile. Sorry, but that is true. A minute you could lose, more and you just can't.

ivykaty44 · 08/08/2008 23:41

Bus drivers around here are mixed - some will not let you on the bus in school uniforma and allow you to pay half fare others you can forget your pass and they will let you on and take you into town

Poor op old man - he probably served his time in the war to allow the bus driver the freedom to be so blardy rude to lola, just look what it got him

ladymariner · 08/08/2008 23:51

No you were def not being unreasonable, the bus driver was a twat. You were dead right to call him that.

Lack of respect for the elderly in this country really ticks me off, that poor old boy would have had to wait for at least another 20 minutes because the bloody jobsworth wouldn't let him on!! And I'm amazed that some people on here are critisising the op for swearing whilst defending the bus driver

New posts on this thread. Refresh page