Well since you chimed in with stories about driving, I have another from that dealership job. This was really in no way any fault of mine, but I sure felt like it was. Its a long one too, but I think its pretty funny… maybe you’ll get some enjoyment out of commiserating.
I had been promoted from car wash detail to delivering parts and picking up customers in the dealer shuttle. One morning I had to bring a woman to her office downtown on the only highway going in that direction from the dealership. Before I left, the guy who previously had my job said “Have fun with Claire,” and laughed sarcastically. Claire was a particularly overweight woman, who apparently had a reputation I didn’t know about.
I dropped her off and she told me to be there at 5. I took both her office and her cell phone numbers down so I could call when I was on my way and again when I got there to pick her up.
It got to be around 4, I knew rush hour traffic would be bad so I left real early. Soon as I hit the highway there is some traffic stoppage up ahead. I don’t move anywhere for 30 minutes so I call her office to give her a headsup, it goes to her voicemail and I hang up. I try her cell, also goes to voicemail, I leave a message explaining the situation… and again call her office number, this time to leave another message. When I Identify myself a man picks up and tells me she already left for the day… 30 minutes early.
I call my boss to explain and ask if she called the dealership, he said no. I call her office again at about 4:50 and get the same coworker, saying she just came in and back out again. No cell answer still. I end up getting there at about 5:10 and call her office, this time she answers and says she’ll be right down.
She comes out, and before I can even say hello shes already screaming. Something about how she nearly had a heatstroke on the sidewalk waiting for me for an hour, and how the elevator was broken so she had to climb the stairs up and down 4 times… she claims to have called my boss and that “nobody had any idea where you were.” I tried to explain that I had called her a number of times, even left messages but nothing could convince her that her alternate reality was false. I even gave her the name of the guy I spoke to in her office, she then claimed (impossibly) that she was in the office the whole time and didn’t hear him.
I gather that I won’t be able to convince this woman of her insanity, so I just apologize and admit guilt. To which she replies “don’t say another f’ing word, I don’t want to hear it.” After a few minutes I try to apologize again, she says “what did I just say!” and swears at me again. So just say “absolutely,” and put on my STP CD. She shoots me a nasty look but doesn’t say anything.
We get near the exit for the dealership and I signal to turn off, when she tells me “No, you’re taking me home. I was going to the dealership, but you made me late and you have to stop at my house first.” I’m so confused and peeved right now but I hold my tongue.
I usually get off work around 4 because I would start the day around 6. It is now after 6 pm as we pull into her house, and my impatience is building. She says “Now you wait here, don’t move,” and disappears inside for a minute. She comes outside with a little shihtzu, takes 20 minutes to walk around the block, then puts the dog inside and gets back in the car. She sits down and says “thank you.” To alleviate the pressure of all that pent up anger, I let a sarcastic comment slip: “I’m just glad I could be some help.” She screams again about how she told me not to say anything.
Getting near 7 now we actually pull into the dealer, I drop her off and roll around back. I get into my bosses office and find him with the same coworker from the morning, at the same time one of the service reps walks in and says “Kevin, Claire wants to talk to you, says shes very upset.” My coworker says, like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy (or is it Black Sheep), “What’d you doooo?” and my boss just burst out laughing.
Now, I’ve been in fistfights, I’ve been in bad breakups, but I’ve never been as pissed as when my boss started laughing… I was angry for days.