Easy Bus: My arch nemesis

Did he really just leave me? On purpose?!

I stepped off the bus and bent down to pick up my bag. The next sound I hear is the bus doors closing and the bus driving away. The problem is that I wanted to be ON it. FRICK!!!! I turn around to bang on the door and chase the bus down as it gains speed while pulling away from the curb. The driver ignores me and keeps on driving. I'm pretty sure I hate him.

Let me start by saying this. DO NOT TAKE EASY BUS. They are the bus that takes people to/from the airport to/from the city center in London. It is super convenient, and pretty fairly priced, but they are JERKS! I was going to take the bus from Baker street in Central London to Luton to catch my flight back to Warsaw. The night before I bought a ticket online for the 12:18pm bus. On the website it says I am supposed to print my ticket, but when you are on vacation it's not so easy to find a printer...so I emailed it to myself thinking that they would just accept the ticket on my Blackberry. I mean, why wouldn't they? It has my name, the time and date of the bus I want, and the price I paid for it. What's the difference between this and wasting paper by printing it out? Plus, even airlines take boarding passes on my Blackberry, surely a bus driver will.

Actually, surely he wont. It's true that the ticket says "you must have a printed ticket, or you may be denied entrance on to the bus". But I read "MAY" to mean that the driver has discretion and if you have other proof of purchase, he could be nice enough to let you on. I mean, it's not like I had no proof of purchase. It's NOT like I told him "Hey, I bought a ticket last night. I have no way of proving it, but just trust me, I did it. I'll mail you my receipt when I get home." Come on people, I had proof.

He rudely denied me when I showed him the ticket on my phone, as if he had never seen a smart phone before and didn't trust the technology. He berated me to make me feel like an idiot and said "If you could read the website you'd know that you need a printed ticket". I almost slapped him. I know what it says, asshole, I am just explaining to you my situation, and if you had a decent bone in your body you'd accept the ticket that I am showing you...with my name, date of the bus, the time, and the amount I paid. It looked EXACTLY like a printed ticket, because it IS the ticket that I would have printed. It's just not made of paper. Why can't you take it? You don't even collect the tickets from people, you just look at them anyway!

He stands his ground, says no, and says "you can't ride" and looks at me as if to say "Get off the bus." What an effing jerk. I mean think about it. I am getting on a bus to go to the airport. Which probably means I have a plane to catch. So that probably means I want to go there, and maybe you can help me think of a way to make it happen. I mean, you are a bus driver. And you are going to the airport. So instead of "you can't ride" how about "I'm really sorry, but I can't accept the ticket on your Blackberry because the policy says you need to have a printed one...but if you want to, since we are idiots and we don't understand technology, you can buy a paper ticket from me". It sucks to have to buy another ticket, but if he isn't going to accept the one on the BB, what choice do I have?

So I say "Here's an idea...can I just buy another ticket from you?" He has a look of "Oh, that could work, I never thought of that...I just thought you would get off the bus and decide you don't really need to go to the airport because I'm mean and stupid." So I said I'd buy one and asked how much it is. "16 pounds". I have exactly 16 pounds and 7 pence in my pocket. I'm in luck (I actually don't like coming home with just a few dollars worth of foreign currency, so I try to spend it all before I come back. It isn't the ideal way to spend the money, but it was a nice coincidence I had exactly 16 pounds in my pocket and I wouldn't have to bring home just a few bucks). So I say "Ok, I will buy a ticket (I have the money in my hand), but I just need to grab my bag".

Ok, I know you are thinking. "Why did you leave your bag outside of the bus?". I will tell you why. It's because the bus said "Greenline" on it, even though it was at the Easy Bus stop. So I wasn't sure if it was the right one. I went aboard to ask him if it was the right bus, and left my bag outside so I didn't have to carry back and forth in case it was the wrong one. Plus the bags go under the bus anyway, so I didn't think I needed to bring it on. I thought he'd get off the bus to put my bag in the compartment underneath, like a nice normal bus driver.

I step off the bus to grab my bag and as I bend down the next sound I hear is the bus doors closing and the bus driving away. I turn around in a panic, bang on the door, yell at him, chase it down the street a little and finally give up, PISSED OFF like never before. I got duped by a mean idiot bus driver! After a few moments of disbelief, I realize I still need to get to the airport, no matter how mad I am at this guy. A taxi is out of the question because it will cost a fortune. The next bus is coming 20 minutes later...so I look at my watch. And it's 12:17! My bus was supposed to leave this stop at 12:18!!! The frickin' bus driver left me at the curb ON PURPOSE before he was even scheduled to leave!!! ARGHHHHHHHHH. I still get upset just thinking about it.

Eventually the next bus comes, and even though the driver still wouldn't accept my e-ticket, he was nice enough to not leave me behind. He apologized, smiled and offered another ticket for the full price. Normally I would be mad at this, but he was so much nicer and polite than the last driver I actually thanked him. For making me buy a second ticket. I guess it's all relative... The morale of this story is to print your ticket and don't leave your bag outside if you want to ride that bus. And don't take the 12:18pm bus from Baker street to Luton airport.

I emailed customer service the next day and they made it worse. I explained what happened and gave them the opportunity to make it up to me somehow. The easy thing for them to do would be to refund me one of the two tickets I had to buy, if not both. But they kept telling me that I should have known the policy of printing the ticket. Fine, I will do that next time. I already acknowledged that rule (even though it's stupid). But what about the fact that your driver left me chasing after him ON PURPOSE!?!?! Do you do anything to make up for that? "No sir, we will review the situation but the results are confidential". That conversation went back and forth for about 10 messages until finally I gave up.

I asked to speak to someone that could do something about it and she says "I am the customer service manager so I can't pass this on to anyone else. I can only recommend that you print your ticket next time." Really, Jodie Sandiford? IT'S NOT ABOUT PRINTING THE TICKET! IT'S ABOUT THE FACT YOUR DRIVER LEFT ME BEHIND ON PURPOSE!!!!! Is this really how Easy Bus operates? Even just reading her name bothers me now. I mean, Jodie Sandiford. What kind of name is that? (Sorry if your name is Jodie Sandiford, as long as you aren't this Jodie Sandiford). I explained that the way she dealt with me was very poor customer service (especially for a big shot manager) and a poor business decision. It's going to cost her a lot of business from all my friends and family (meaning you). So don't take EASY BUS! Let's show them who's boss!!!! Without our business they will go bankrupt!!!!! Yea, like that will make a difference. And that's why it bothers me so much. Nobody notices. Nobody cares. And nobody will do anything about it.

I'll just try hard to believe in Karma.