Last Saturday at White Plains you boarded a 6:35 a.m.ShortVista bus to Ithaca, New York, a city 225 miles northwest of Westchester. The bus was scheduled to make five stops along the way and to arrive in Ithaca at 11:40 a.m., just in time for you to attend an important regional luncheon at the Statler Hotel at Cornell University starting at noon. (You were to be a panel speaker at this function and had accepted the appointment two months ago. You planned to return to White Plains the same afternoon on the 5 p.m. bus.)

At about 10 a.m. the driver of your bus, after making four scheduled stops to pick up passengers, turned off Route 17 at Hortonville for an unscheduled stop at a roadside snack bar. He told the passengers they would be there a "few minutes to stretch and have a snack if they wished." Since your hands were sticky after eating a candy bar, you visited the rest room to wash them. About two minutes later, when you came outside, the bus was gone! The driver had apparently left without a warning toot or a count of passengers! You were stranded off Route 17, 15 miles from the next scheduled bus top. No other bus was to pass on the freeway for another three hours! You would surely miss the entire function at Cornell. Seeing how upset you were, the snack bar operators stated that this incident was the second in one week that the same driver had left a passenger stranded at the same place. Rather than have you miss the luncheon, one of the two operators generously offer to drive you in her car to the next bus stop in Deposit, New York-15 miles away. You managed to arrive just before the bus did, and you gave $25 to your Good Samaritan and then rushed out to board the bus. Not one word of apology came from the bus driver! At the Statler all your colleagues agreed with you that the driver should be reported.

Write an effective letter to the customer service manager at ShortVista, 311 Main Street, Ellenville, New York12709. Request whatever adjustment you believe is fair. Make your letter as concise as possible but retain all crucial information about this incident.