What a nightmare.
Less than ten minutes after Examiner Guy took M off, they came back, and one look at my boy's face told me that D stood for Disaster, not Driver's License.
He was devastated. The guy failed him on item one - ie reverse parking- simply because when he stopped, he didn't stop deep enough into the bay.
While M tried to pull himself together, I went to rebook him, and was told that the next available date would be in Feb 2008, and that we'd have to join the very long queue downstairs to do the paperwork, retake the eye test and pay the fee again. We decided to do it later, and left.
On the way out, we met up with M's instructor who was bringing another pupil in for her test. We told him what had happened and he said: 'Did the guy tell you where he wanted you to stop?"
"No," said M.
"He should have," said the instructor. We talked some more and as a result, back upstairs we went to talk to the Chief Examiner. And to cut a long story short, the Chief Examiner called in Examiner Guy, quizzed him, and then told us that we were in the right and the Examiner was in the wrong. He should have said to M: "Reverse in here, as far as this pole, and then stop." He didn't do that and therefore he had no right to fail M.
But as far as M was concerned, the vindication was too late. He was still emotionally shattered, felt like a completely useless failure as a driver and we'd wasted a day and the fees not getting his license. And all that the Chief Examiner could offer us was the name and fax number of somebody higher up to whom I could address a letter explaining the situation and asking for a free second test, which might be sooner if there was a cancellation or still might be in Feb next year.
By this stage, I was seething with rage and frustration, but there was nothing we could do about it. All we could do was go home, M still feeling devastated and me full of righteous anger and frustration.
Less than half an hour after we got home, the phone rang. It was Mr Chief Examiner and he said: "I can jump your son to the head of the queue - if he'd like to come in tomorrow, he can retake the test at 2pm. But you'll still have to redo the paperwork and pay the fees. What would you like to do?"
So, tomorrow we go back again, to retake the test. I'm working very hard here to help M overcome the demon of Fear that makes him want to never, ever go back there again, not tomorrow and not next February. Character-building it may be, but comfortable it is not!
Your good thoughts and prayers are appreciated!
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3 comments:
What a day! Vindication is good, but a driver's license is better. Poor M. Good on his instructor for standing up for him!
I'll be thinking of you guys at 2pm (8am my time) sending off my good wishes. :-)
Crikey, it sounds like it's ridiculously tough to get a license over there - I got my license (in New Zealand) first time round, and it was pretty darn easy to get. Only the truely atrocious drivers are failed...!
I'm thinking of you guys...
Thanks Kel, hon! Much appreciated!
Keren, it is pathetically and ridiculously tough here. I don't know why. But they really do fail the guys at the drop of a hat, as happened to Matt today. I don't remember it being anything like this when I was young. Maybe it has something to do with the very high road death toll in SA? They'll even fail them for not doing the 'observations' clearly enough, which means you look like Noddy at Wimbledon, with your head flying back and forth at every side road, intersection, stop street and just while driving along. They have to see your whole head moving to check everywhere all the time, eyes alone aren't enough. :-(
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