I belong to a senior center that, among other things, takes us on bus trips to shopping malls or Walmart on Wednesdays (but not every Wednesday). I was pleased to see that in January, we were going to the Henderson Mall on the 15th, the Dawson Mall on the 22nd, and the Sturgis Mall on the 29th. I really wanted to go to the Sturgis Mall, because I had a number of watches that needed new batteries, and I really like the people who work at a store there. I signed up to go to the Henderson Mall and the Sturgis Mall.
On January 15, when I got out of the bus, I was surprised to see that we were at the Sturgis Mall, not the Henderson Mall. I asked the driver, “Weren’t we supposed to go to the Henderson Mall today?” She insisted that we were supposed to go to the Sturgis Mall. I didn’t want to start a fight, so I said, “Okay. I guess I was wrong.” So I was at the Sturgis Mall without my watches. And I was afraid that on January 29, we would go to the Henderson Mall instead of the Sturgis Mall, and I didn’t know when I’d get back to the Sturgis Mall with my watches.
On the way home, the driver admitted that she had taken us to the wrong mall, and she said, “We’ll go to the Henderson Mall next Wednesday!” I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t think that that was a good idea, because the people who would get on the bus on January 22, expecting to go to the Dawson Mall, might not be happy to wind up at the Henderson Mall. And a lot of people don’t like the Henderson Mall. And if the driver wound up driving to the Henderson Mall on January 29, people expecting to go to the Sturgis Mall would not be happy, because, as I said, a lot of people don’t like the Henderson Mall.
Afterwards, I told Diane, the dispatcher, that we had been taken to the wrong mall, and that the driver had announced that we would go to the Henderson Mall the following week, and I wasn’t sure that that would work out. Diane told me to let the head of the Transportation Dept. know about this.
So I notified the head of the Transportation Dept. and asked that it be mentioned in our Sunday newsletter exactly which mall we would be going to on January 22 and 29. The newsletter said that even though there had been a mix-up on January 15, we would follow the schedule and go to the Dawson Mall on January 22 and the Sturgis Mall on January 29. The February schedule was already set, but we would go to the Henderson Mall in March. So I went to the Sturgis Mall on January 29 with my watches.
The driver was extremely nasty to me on January 29. She claimed that I wasn’t on the list of people who had signed up to go to the mall that day. I always make a written list of the days I want a bus ride, and I get a copy from Diane after she enters my rides into the computer. I tried to show the driver my copy to prove that I had signed up for the trip, but she refused to look at my list She grudgingly let me board the bus. Afterwards, I told Diane that the driver had refused to look at my list. Diane said that the driver had been rude to me.
On February 5, when we went to the Campbell Mall, the driver was nasty to me again, but she did acknowledge that I was on the list of people who had signed up to go to the mall. I think she is angry at me for telling Diane and the head of Transportation Department that she had taken us to the wrong mall and for telling Diane that she (the driver) had refused to look at my list. What should I have done? Should I have said nothing and pretended that we went to the correct mall? If I hadn’t said anything, and if the driver took the people to the wrong mall the following Wednesday, what would have happened? And what can I do so that the driver isn’t nasty to me any longer?
