Wait 15 minutes, then drink two beers at once -- and join us for another installment of Dear Mr Ford, the column where we come to praise and bemoan Muni. Send said praise and moaning here!

It wouldn't be Dear Mr Ford without an adventure with SFist Matt, would it?

I must begrudgingly give Muni high marks for customer service today (even as I give it low marks for timeliness):

I was on my way to a job interview today, and I called the When's-The-Next-Bus-Coming number (673-MUNI) to find out when the next 33 would be coming by. "Two minutes," someone told me. Ten minutes later I'm still waiting, so I call again. This time, I get a woman who is apologetic that I've been waiting that long, and actually calls a dispatching office to see what the delay is. After being on hold for five minutes, she returns, apologizes again, and explains that for some unknown reason, the bus is, in fact, very late, but it was now on its way to me. Another ten minutes go by and finally it arrives, only 25 minutes after it was scheduled to. So, booooo for Muni being late. But YAAAAAY for the proactive Customer Service lady making calls on my behalf. (And in the end, I got to my int rview with 5 minutes to spare. Whew.)

Image of the occasionally tardy 21 hayes from the CCA site.

SFist reader Scott's experience is a little less positively tinged:

I'm on the 21 Hayes. Things are going swimmingly. But then the driver stopped the bus, sat there for a few moments, then got out and adjusted the passenger side view mirror. Ok, no problem. She sat back down in her seat for 8 to 10 more seconds, then got out and adjusted the mirror again. Ok, fine. But this went on, I kid you not, for literallly six or seven MORE times before someone on the bus finally said:

"Hey, lady, youre gonna need to learn to adjust that mirror on your own time, this is ridiculous!"

To which she said: "Sir, this IS my time, I'm getting PAID!".

She then went on with this sit down for several seconds then get back up and adjust the morror twice MORE . She made darn sure to give the guy who said something a LONG dirty look each time she went back out to adjust the mirror. I gave up, got off the bus and walked to my destination.

So, what have we learned this week, besides the fact that drinking two beers at once is FUN? We learned that being nice can get you a long way, and that rude behavior is something people remember (and blog about). Pretty kindergarten-level stuff, eh, Mr. Ford?