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Yesterday a family came to drop off their minivan for an installation appointment.
They started off by pulling their van right up outside one of the bay doors. This has always been my pet peeve, because it blocks in whatever vehicle is in the bay at the time, but it always happens. At that time both of our install bays had vehicles in them being worked on.
A man and a woman came in and I got them started on the paperwork, after which I asked for their keys so I could do a check of the vehicle and move it out of the way. I got the keys, went outside and found a grown woman in the passenger seat and a small child in the back seat. The lady was talking on a cell phone. I told her that I needed to move the vehicle; she continued her conversation and waved at the driver's seat. I said, "I'm sorry, I can't drive the vehicle if anyone is in it". Without missing a beat in her conversation, she got out of the car and went through the door into the waiting area, leaving me alone with the 2-year-old in the back.
So there I am with the kid. I look at him, he looks at me, we both don't say anything. I wasn't sure what to do; I was going to move the van out to a parking space and I didn't want to leave him alone in the van to go back into the building.
I was about to go back to the door and ask someone to come remove their child when the man came back out. He didn't say anything; he just opened the rear sliding door, sat down in the back seat next to the child, and closed the door. And then he just waited.
I said, "Sir, I'm sorry, I need to have everyone out of the vehicle before I can drive it." So finally (again without saying a word) he unbuckled the child and took him out of the vehicle and into the waiting area.
Through the rest of our transactions, it was clear everyone in the family knew their place. The first lady handled all of the paperwork and talking to me. The second lady never got the phone unscrewed from her ear as far as I know; she was still talking into it an hour later, when I signed the van back over. And the man and boy never spoke a word that I ever heard.
They started off by pulling their van right up outside one of the bay doors. This has always been my pet peeve, because it blocks in whatever vehicle is in the bay at the time, but it always happens. At that time both of our install bays had vehicles in them being worked on.
A man and a woman came in and I got them started on the paperwork, after which I asked for their keys so I could do a check of the vehicle and move it out of the way. I got the keys, went outside and found a grown woman in the passenger seat and a small child in the back seat. The lady was talking on a cell phone. I told her that I needed to move the vehicle; she continued her conversation and waved at the driver's seat. I said, "I'm sorry, I can't drive the vehicle if anyone is in it". Without missing a beat in her conversation, she got out of the car and went through the door into the waiting area, leaving me alone with the 2-year-old in the back.
So there I am with the kid. I look at him, he looks at me, we both don't say anything. I wasn't sure what to do; I was going to move the van out to a parking space and I didn't want to leave him alone in the van to go back into the building.
I was about to go back to the door and ask someone to come remove their child when the man came back out. He didn't say anything; he just opened the rear sliding door, sat down in the back seat next to the child, and closed the door. And then he just waited.
I said, "Sir, I'm sorry, I need to have everyone out of the vehicle before I can drive it." So finally (again without saying a word) he unbuckled the child and took him out of the vehicle and into the waiting area.
Through the rest of our transactions, it was clear everyone in the family knew their place. The first lady handled all of the paperwork and talking to me. The second lady never got the phone unscrewed from her ear as far as I know; she was still talking into it an hour later, when I signed the van back over. And the man and boy never spoke a word that I ever heard.
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