Okay...I Give Up!

I'm sure all of you have had days when nothing seems to go right, despite best efforts. Yesterday was like that for me. Twice weekly I visit a hospital for a supervised programme of fitness. Believe me when I say that this is not a bow to vanity but a medical necessity, according to both GP and physiotherapist. The machines keep me strong and the stretches and other exercises keep a chronic back problem from becoming painful and debilitating. I pay a monthly fee for this.

In order to get there, I use our local taxi service, which under the ADA, is supposed to provide a small percentage of wheelchair cabs, thus there are six in a fleet of about 400. Our county being amongst the most populated in the country, you can quickly deduce that the demand for for such service far exceeds the available number of vehicles. I organise my weekly trips for all things medical and otherwise a good four to five days in advance and barring the ubiquitous traffic jams, road accidents or breakdowns, things generally go according to plan. I pay for the taxi service.

Yesterday, however, my one o'clock pick up time came and went with nary a peep from a flustered cabbie. By 1:30, I was on the phone with the cab company wheelchair supervisor querying this conspicuous absence. Keys tapped on her keyboard and then she asked if I was calling regarding my return home. When I said that I had never been picked up in the first place, she asked me to hold, please. After reaching all of the drivers, she apologised, telling me that all were in east county, a good forty minutes from me, and she had no-one to dispatch in my direction, but that she would get to the bottom of the mess...

This meant calling the appropriate party at the hospital to re-schedule my appointment. I left two lengthy voice mails. I did not know the hospital phone system was out of order. At four, my phone rang. A rather harried male voice asked if I were ready to depart the hospital for home. When I replied that his colleague had failed to show for the trip to hospital, he quite justifiably said that his supervisor from the taxi company should have advised him about this...

He had been waiting for me to emerge from the cavernous building for almost an hour...

I should add that all drivers can be reached by car radio and mobile phone. Since I was not advised which of them was to take me and that two different drivers would be involved, I could not have taken it upon myself to call the one scheduled for the return home and explain the situation.

When I rang his supervisor and asked what had transpired, she reported that the driver who was to take me in had picked up an extra fare to east county and was not available when he should have been to pick up my scheduled fare. Because of the distance involved, the driver stood to make more transporting someone to east county. He gambled that he would eventually get to me, and lost. I also lost a medical appointment and the chance to re-schedule for what amounted to greed and stupidity.

Such occurrences only serve to remind that I am a mere commodity and that no-one functions out of pride of a job well done, if they ever really did so at all. Passing the buck with impunity has become the rule of the day and no-one is really held accountable to anyone else.

The taxi company owes me more than an apology...Any takers for the bet when I'll see it??

Until Next Time...