This week went smoothly up until Saturday.
10:00: I call, I give them my address. By now, they have my information, and she confirms that I need someone for 12:15.
11:30: They call back asking me if I still need a cab. I confirm that yes, I do, but not until 12:15. The guy says they'll have someone out to me.
12:30: No cab. By now, the store is locked, I can't go back in, and I'm getting irritated. A cab passed me, and I'd been fighting a nasty migraine and nursing a sprained wrist. I call. The man tells me he cancelled my cab, but couldn't give me a reason. He claims he's sending another one out.
1:15: I'm shivering and getting anxious, because an employee with keys, sitting alone in the middle of a gas station lot, plus the fact that no one else is open and people keep coming up to the doors thinking we're open, isn't exactly the safest place to be.
I call again, and the woman assures me that someone isn't too far away. While I'm on the phone with one rep, I get a call from the same number that I dialed to reach the rep that I'm talking to. Confused, I ignore it, because I figure that since I'm on the phone with someone, obviously still needing a cab.
Wrong.
I call back, out of sheer curiousity. I ask the rep why they called me, and she said, we cancelled you again because you didn't answer fast enough, and LAUGHED.
At that point, I was beyond frustrated. I explained to her the reason I didn't answer was because I was ON THE PHONE with another rep. She said it didn't matter, that since I didn't answer the call, I'd have to wait again.
1:45: Finally, a cab shows up. By now, my boyfriend is calling me, because he just got home from the bar (I tried calling him at the bar, but none of the regulars were there and the woman bartending said it was too crowded to yell over everyone to ask for him), and he realizes that I'm not home, which is why I didn't meet up with him, and panicked. I tell him I'm on my way.
I decided to give Metro another chance yesterday, when I realized that the bus/light rail schedule would mean I'd either be waiting forever or miss one or the other entirely.
1:15: I call for a ride at 2:40.
2:50: I have been outside for about twenty minutes, and I can sense that I'm going to have a repeat of the prior night. I go in the lobby and page my boy on the intercom telling him what's up. I then call Metro and ask them when they think that I'll be able to get a cab.
"We haven't even sent one out for you yet. But we're getting there."
....
3:10: I call again, and by now, my boy is outside waiting with me, cursing about me being late for work (I was supposed to be there at 3), cursing that I got stranded again (but at least I'm at home and not in the middle of Nowhereville). The woman hears him, and asks me to watch my language, or she was going to hang up.
By now, my patience is way thin.
"Ma'am? That is obviously not me cursing. I am being way too patient with you guys, and I just want to get to work. You guys are already a half hour late. I called in advance and this is a little absurd that you couldn't find someone to come to Littleton in an hour to get me, when Denver isn't even 15 minutes away."
She hangs up anyway.
3:25: My boyfriend decides that HE needs to speak to someone. He explains that it's unacceptable and ridiculous to leave someone stranded when they call well in advance for people who don't even call. He explained to them what happened the night before and that everyone keeps saying that no one is even CLOSE to coming even though they're an hour late.
3:30: We resign to the fact that I'm probably not going to go to work. We can't get in touch with anyone else to give me a ride. Then, we remember Yellow Cab. I call them, and they say they can send someone, but they don't know how long it'll be. I try Metro again, of course, no one is coming.
3:35: Yellow Cab arrives!
I finally got to work about 4. Out of curiousity, I call Metro to see if they got anyone for me.
The first man I spoke to insisted that they called me at 3:38.
By now, I know I'm turning into a bitch customer. I think I deserved to be a little angry, though, because I can tolerate a lot, but I was just about over everything at this point in time.
I first informed him that he didn't call me, because I had my phone in hand, in case work called and I got replaced for my shift, or someone we tried to call for a ride called back. I was in the cab by that time, but I still had it out. I also asked him if he realized that even still, it was an HOUR LATE.
He proceedes to interrupt me and tell me that the system says that they called.
I demand a supervisor. So what does he do? He puts me over to dispatch. Who tells me that they called me at 4:10. Actually, she said "I did. Personally."
I explain that the man before her said something totally different, and that either way, I never got a phone call at either time. I told her that if they weren't planning on picking me up either Saturday night or yesterday for whatever reason, then they needed to say so, instead of putting me off and not giving me straight answers. I told her that "either way you would have been an hour to an hour and a half late and you were almost two hours late last night".
She tells me she'll tell a supervisor, rather sarcastically, and we hang up.
The funny thing is, I was enlightened by Yellow Cab yesterday. Apparently some cab companies won't come out because it's too expensive on gas and they'll stick to serving downtown even if they have people who call ahead in the suburbs because it's more money and a bigger tip. Too bad, because every driver I've had receives at least a 20-25% tip on a $21-$24 fare (depending if they take me home or drop me off at the bar).