Fast forward to the next evening. I get a phone call from my parents who have been standing waiting for 20 minutes on their taxi. My doubts were confirmed when I called the firm and they had no record of the booking. I told that call taker that I suspected the girl who took the original booking (or as the case maybe she didn't) was new. However this woman was lovely and remarked that one of her cars was about to do a drop off at the airport. He would be there in 10 minutes.
And he was. But he over-charged my parents which I felt was a 'bad show' considering the original booking had been fucked up. I would have called back to complain further but my mother stopped me.
If I had screwed up a call like that when I was training my arse would have been kicked. Hard.