A Hearty Fuck You
Going out to Muni this morning. I *HATE* always having to find somebody who's willing to help me figure out how to get places. I hate having to balance between not quite understanding their directions and not pissing them off by asking too many questions.
And yet, where I can go is SO FUCKING LIMITED because public transportation is so fucking difficult for me.
Muni has this phone number that gets you a live person who will give you directions using mass transit. Should be great, right? Should be just what I need, should be the first number in my cell phone, right?
No.
I called them this morning. I wanted to go somewhere and told the woman where I was starting and where I wanted to end up. She asked if I knew the cross-street of my destination. I did not. She did not like that.
Rapid fire, she began giving me directions. I began writing down what she was saying, and quickly fell behind. "I'm sorry, would you mind saying that again please? I'm writing it down and can't write quite as fast as you talk." She didn't like that either. "Do you need me to spell Geary?" No you fucking cunt, I need you to do exactly what I asked you to do! That's why I asked you to do it!
I may not know a lot about public transportation, but I know enough to know that if you don't stand at the right street corner, you won't get the bus you're looking for. So I asked "When I get off the first bus you told me to take, where do I go to get the second bus?"
She actually said "I can't believe this."
What? What can't you believe? You've never NOT understood something in your entire motherfucking life? You've never gotten lost? You've never had someone give you instructions that went too fast for you to follow? It's never occured to you that perhaps someone doesn't know the city as well as you do? You've never met someone who's more of a car person than a bus person?
Well let me introduce myself. Hi. My name is GreenYogurt. I was born and raised in the suburbs, and have what are sometimes severe learning disabilities. Sorry that they are causing you to actually have to WORK a little bit at doing your job. Heaven forbid.
I hope you get terribly lost some day. I hope you can't find anyone to ask directions of. I hope you have to pee, too. Really badly. I hope that when you finally find someone you can ask for directions, I hope they either give you perfect directions in a language you can't understand, or they give you directions that send you to the exact opposite place you were trying to go. I hope you feel awful and frustrated. But most of all, I HOPE I CAN GET WHERE I NEED TO GO THIS MORNING, NO THANKS TO YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!
Geez, the moon thing must be affecting everyone.
And yet, where I can go is SO FUCKING LIMITED because public transportation is so fucking difficult for me.
Muni has this phone number that gets you a live person who will give you directions using mass transit. Should be great, right? Should be just what I need, should be the first number in my cell phone, right?
No.
I called them this morning. I wanted to go somewhere and told the woman where I was starting and where I wanted to end up. She asked if I knew the cross-street of my destination. I did not. She did not like that.
Rapid fire, she began giving me directions. I began writing down what she was saying, and quickly fell behind. "I'm sorry, would you mind saying that again please? I'm writing it down and can't write quite as fast as you talk." She didn't like that either. "Do you need me to spell Geary?" No you fucking cunt, I need you to do exactly what I asked you to do! That's why I asked you to do it!
I may not know a lot about public transportation, but I know enough to know that if you don't stand at the right street corner, you won't get the bus you're looking for. So I asked "When I get off the first bus you told me to take, where do I go to get the second bus?"
She actually said "I can't believe this."
What? What can't you believe? You've never NOT understood something in your entire motherfucking life? You've never gotten lost? You've never had someone give you instructions that went too fast for you to follow? It's never occured to you that perhaps someone doesn't know the city as well as you do? You've never met someone who's more of a car person than a bus person?
Well let me introduce myself. Hi. My name is GreenYogurt. I was born and raised in the suburbs, and have what are sometimes severe learning disabilities. Sorry that they are causing you to actually have to WORK a little bit at doing your job. Heaven forbid.
I hope you get terribly lost some day. I hope you can't find anyone to ask directions of. I hope you have to pee, too. Really badly. I hope that when you finally find someone you can ask for directions, I hope they either give you perfect directions in a language you can't understand, or they give you directions that send you to the exact opposite place you were trying to go. I hope you feel awful and frustrated. But most of all, I HOPE I CAN GET WHERE I NEED TO GO THIS MORNING, NO THANKS TO YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!
Geez, the moon thing must be affecting everyone.
posted by Green at 10/08/2006 10:59:00 AM
7 Comments:
Think about asking for their name and the name of their supervisor. There is NO excuse for rudeness when you job is to serve the public. You didn't deserve that treatment. Having this person re educated and/or fired would be doing everyone a favor, including the B...h.
Geez, what a bitch. What did she think you were calling for, because you had a sudden craving for shitty attitude?
I always avoid talking to a person if I can. Not because of people like her, but because I am a visual learner. If I try to understand anything explained verbally, I'm screwed. Maps and printed schedules are my friends.
If I were dependent o public transport, i would never leave my block. I am that freaked out by it.
signed,
suburban girl who lived well in LA.
Ouch. Public transportation can be a pain in the butt to figure out. I'm happy I live in NYC where it's all pretty much linear, because when I was out in suburbia figuring out the public transportation game was enough to make me go stark raving mad.
Boston sucks, too. So I can only imagine the hell the muni is putting you through.
What's the point of a help line if the people aren't helpful? Is it just for the people that already know the damned directions and are trying for a refresher course?
Bleh.
Hope you got where you needed to go!
I had a shitty ass day...green, thanks for this post, it made me smile...I always enjoy a sincere rant, i hope you found your way to your destination!
I think you should call and complain. At least SOME of their calls should be recorded and maybe they can pull it. I work in a call centre (unrelated to Transit - you couldn't pay me enough to work there!!!!) and I'd get my ass tarred if I treated you like chickie did.
Our Transit system blows all kinds of chunks too. You know what's sad? They've got a Trip Planner on the website, and IF it detects the street names you ask for (the correct ones, since I've lived here all my life), and IF it manages to find the trip you're looking for, it STILL gives you inaccurate information. Like telling me x bus leaves Y station at 22:15 when it actually leaves at 22:27.
And no, the fact that it's a holiday (Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Green!) is no excuse. My search is by date, not by day of week. (i.e. the fact that the buses are running on a Sunday schedule today instead of a weekday schedule should be understood, especially since it's Transit themselves that make that decision!)
I'm going to write them an email and rip them a new one tomorrow. You should join me in getting our rage on. (I'd call, but waiting on hold = major waste of airtime, plus that way I have a written record).
Either way, hope your evening went well. Today is my Friday and I look forward to depending on Transit as little as possible for a couple of days.
Green! I had forgotten you live in SF, but will indeed be there all weekend and would love to meet up...but I don't know your email address- email me at pseudostoops@gmail.com with a way to get in touch with you and we'll figure something out.
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