This is the second time in a week I have had to wait forever it seems for shuttle. They claim the right to make a pickup within a half hour of the schedued time and then call it on time. I can understand emergencies getting in the way of the schedule but emergencies have not been the problem. What seems to cause the mix up is the failure to tell the driver that I am to be picked up. Keep in mind they know of all pickups two days before a person is to be picked up. In my case I am known as on the list all the time. So they know every day I am to be picked up. When the bus gets to me and I ask the driver when he got the order to pick me up he will say I was a "dropin". I the ask him when he got the order. If he says 5 minutes ago and I talked to the dispatcher 6 minutes ago asking where the bus is it is obvious that they called the driver after I asked where he was. Every person picked up by the shuttle has been scheduled since morning. The shuttle will absolutely not respond to a request for a ride the same day. Because they were so late today I called the dispatcher asking to be assigned a pickup at a later time because they got to me so late. At previous times they have been able to do that. Sometimes no. But it has been done so I thought it could be done today. The person you call, the dispatcher, could not find one today or for other reasons, and transferred me to a rude supervisor Robyn Williams. This was the most arrogant rude person I have ever talked to on the phone at Pierce County Shuttle. She didn't want to hear one word from me on any subject. Fortunately they record every call and I hope she has her superiors listen to it to see what a horrible person they have answering the phone at the Pierce County Shuttle. I may ask that they listen to my call.
Kay was in pretty good condition today. I was told she did not eat lunch so I gave her a bite of my peanut butter sanwitch but she did not eat more than a bite or two. She did eat a couple trufflles. She did not want much of a graham cracker. I thought she would because she did not eat. I took her outside and we sat together until it was time to go home. I had to wait a half hour then I had another delay while he did other deliveries and pickups. I got to my place about 4 45. An hour and a half after the 3 15 pickup time. I just figured out how I can keep a record of what goes on. These busses are too rough to write while it is moving so I will just turn on my Sony point and shoot camera and just speak into the mic while in the record position. Things may be somewhat mixed up in the reporting above as some is from memory. I wrote down some details but not all. I talked to williams about 2 pm
This is a short version of my trip home yesterday. Nearly two hours on a bus with no shocks. Pierce County Shuttle records everything so if you want verification call them. 45 minutes after the pickup time I called in to get an ETA. She told me it was one minute away. Several minutes later it arrived. After getting on our way and settled i I asked the driver when he got the order to pick me up. He said about 5 minutes before he got to me. This indicates to me that they had forgotten or some how I was not on their list and my call in reminded them I was supposed to be picked up. I talked to the driver about how schedules are made and he did not know. This trip I was a drop in where he got the call during his run. This is a common occurrence and happens all the time in spite of the fact that they know about who the passengers are at least a day in advance. They know all the riders for the next day a day in advance. So it is not like they can'd make a schedule the day before. Everything can be planned the day before so I can not understand why they drop in a pickup during a drivers run. What this means is I had to be on the bus nearly two hours. This is not the first time this has happened. Of course drivers can get sick, busses break down and other emergencies can happen. But this happens way too often to account for the miserable performance gotten from the Pierce County shuttle. I am inclined to attribute it to the people running the system. Their customersare people who generally have no means to complain. One rider commented to me that she was just glad to get a ride, as if the people running the organization had no responsibility to give decent performance. I say people without cars also have rights.
