For those of you who live in London or have visited London, it is renowned for its transport system. Its efficiency (most of the time) and mostly its convenience but definitely not for value for money. This is where my rant begins.
Since having my son, every penny of mine is precious and taking buses costs money but I need buses to get to places. There is one bus in particular which serves my area and indeed it stops at the end of my road which is the ultimate in convenience. This bus is a single decker and unfortunately my travel system although light and easy to use, is wide at the back. This makes aisles difficult to pass through and on this bus an impossibility requiring me to get on at the back. When my son was quite young and I had literally just found the confidence to leave the house, I was berated by a bus driver (a different number bus) for getting on the back and not "asking permission first" as people are not allowed to do that. Firstly, I thought, why isn't it clearly marked/signposted anywhere that a parent with a pushchair must ask first to be able to get on at the back? Secondly, she could have been more polite about telling me that's what needs to happen before I board a bus instead of telling me off. Nevertheless I shrugged it off as London bus drivers have never been known for their politeness.
The attitudes of London bus drivers has never affected me so much until I started taking this particular number bus. To be clear, I am not tarnishing all of the drivers of this particular route with the same brush, there is one solitary driver who has been polite and helpful and disgustingly is probably the youngest of all of the drivers I have encountered (I think 5 so far).
There have been so many "incidents" I will have to summarise them but these are the most common:
- Tutting when I ask to get on the back and refusing to lower the bus (not a request of mine but other bus drivers have done it voluntarily as a courtesy)
- Stopping the bus so far from the kerb I have to carry my pushchair on and getting annoyed that I'm taking so long getting on
It started at the stop I was due to embark at where I tried unsuccessfully to get the attention of the driver who refused to look in my direction and kept looking straight ahead to ask if I could get on at the back. He looked like the steering wheel was his prop and he wanted to be somewhere else. His response was, "well if you get out of the way and let others get off then yes you can". Granted I was in the way however if I hadn't been trying to get his attention for so long, I would have had the chance to move. Also, it has been known that if you don't actually make it obvious you're getting on that drivers shut the doors and drive off before you have a chance to do anything. I got on the bus, shook my head and tried to forget about it. Then we left the stop before mine so I press the request button. He drives past my stop. I press the button another two times, he drives past the next stop so I keep pressing the button till he acknowledges that I want to get off and he finally stops. This would be fine however he had now stopped in a road where there is heavy parked traffic along the bus stop side and conveniently he had stopped so close to a car something would have to get scratched for me to get the pushchair out. I struggled to get the pushchair off of the bus because he didn't think to lower it despite being nowhere near a kerb and an elderly woman took pity on me and had to help me get it off of the bus. Yes, read that again. AN ELDERLY WOMAN HAD TO HELP ME so I didn't scratch the car where he had stopped. I was so angry at his attitude and embarrassed that I had to have a woman who should be taking it easy help me I burst into tears. Thankfully the sun cover was over my son's pushchair so he couldn't see me cry but I couldn't stop myself.
I wish I had a Twitter account to actually complain to TfL as I know nothing would be done if I emailed/wrote a letter complaint. I am not one to write complaints to any company as I have never had anything worth complaining about but this is one incident too far. It feels as though I am being penalised for having a pushchair and being a mother simultaneously. That I am both an inconvenience and an irritation for all bus drivers on this route and that I am the one being difficult which brings me back to my title.
If you are a worker within the customer service industry, do not work in that industry if you hate yourself and other people. No one wants to encounter a complete a-hole when they are travelling somewhere especially when we are the ones paying your salary by using your service in the first place. There is nothing worse than anyone in customer service who has no concept of what customer service actually is and blaming it on having a bad day is inexcusable. Everyone has a bad day, suck it up, take responsibility and do your job properly or don't work in the service industry. If I was having a bad day and let my son fall from something I should have been supervising him on, the onus would be on me. There are millions of people out there looking for jobs who would be ten times more polite and more worthy of the money some people in the service industry are paid especially the bus drivers on old contracts who are paid a mint. I can accept that this probably means they are seeing out their years till retirement but please find something to be pleasant about when doing your job other than driving away when people run for the bus, refusing entry onto a bus when the bus is half empty by driving past a stop people have flagged you down at and talking to people like they are dirt on your shoe.
I am not a monster, I am not difficult, I am not impolite to any TfL staff. I appreciate I take a little longer to board a bus but I thank all drivers when I board and tap my Oyster and I always try and smile when I do. That is a ton more than I can say they do in return. Rant over!
~AB~
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