Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Super Shuttle Muddle

I was going to try to write a long, funny description of my shuttle ride home from the airport.  But I think I've lost interest in trying to convey the weirdness of it.  I do, however, have a question.

Part of what made the trip interesting was that the shuttle driver was astoundingly inept.  Really, it was almost a comedy routine - you'd say left, he'd go right.  You tell him Jones Street, he says, "Okay, Smith Street!"  He brought the first passengers to the wrong hotel.  They said Holiday Inn.  He drove to the Hyatt.  I had the feeling that we could make up our own "Who's on First" routine with him:
Left, right?
Right.
[He turns right.]
No, left!
You said right!
Right is correct, not right.  Just take a left up here.
Right!
No, left!
No lefts?  There's no sign for that.
There's no sign at all.
Right.
No, left!




The whole time he seemed to be cheerfully unaware of his own incompetence.  He didn't acknowledge or try to apologize when he made a mistake.  He didn't have any kind of attitude about it.  He simply would take our repeated corrections and change course. 

So my question is this:
Would you complain about him to the shuttle company?   He wasn't necessarily unsafe and definitely not unpleasant.  He was just ridiculously inept.  It wasn't a language issue and it didn't seem to be about intelligence.  He pointed out a local high school that he recognized because he had kids who played there in the past.  So I think he was a local.

The guy is 65 years old (I looked at his ID badge.)  He should be bouncing grandchildren on his lap, not driving an airport shuttle at 11 PM on a Wednesday night.  So he must need this job, right?  It is obviously NOT a job that plays to his strengths, but who am I to screw with his life?  And I was actually laughing most of the time and marveling at his fascinating level of ineptitude.  So I didn't have much of a reason to complain.   But do I owe it to future passengers and/or the shuttle company to give them honest feedback when there is a problem?

I know what my answer is.  I am wondering what others think.




I was the last one to be dropped off at home and I asked him, "Does that GPS work?"  (There was a little GPS unit mounted to the dash.) He answered with a chuckle, "It does when I turn it on!"

5 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

Oh. I'd leave it be. As long as he isn't unsafe- why bother?

Bethany said...

Oh gosh, how ridiculous. Poor guy. Yeah, leave it to someone else to rat him out. I'm sure someone will if he's THAT bad.
You tell a great story though.
Always.

Wanda..... said...

Like Ms. Moon, I'd just leave it be...maybe a temporary distraction was causing his problem.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he was just messing with you all and had a big laugh inside each time he "accidentally" turned at the wrong spot!

No... As long as he's not endangering anyone, at least (like you alluded to) he gives people an example of how not to get too worked up about mistakes. Or time. And maybe he gives them a good chuckle. I could stand to run into more people like that, actually. It's nice you could laugh about it and I'm glad you eventually got home!

grasshopper said...

I'm with you all....I don't see any reason to complain. It definitely could have just been an off day for him. Like we all have.