He went out to the car to leave early for his test, as he had been advised to get there early, only to discover that mum had gone off to work and mistakenly taken the car keys.
He rang in a panic and his mother quickly left work and headed home with the keys, ringing the AA to let them know of her mistake and promise that the son was still coming but could be a little late - and the boy was late by six-and-a-half minutes, which is one-and-a-half minutes past the five minutes "grace period" imposed by the testing officer.
The young man didn't even get a chance to get out of the car. The testing officer stuck his head in the driver's window and told him he was a "no show", would have to book to resit the test and pay another $67.50 for the privilege.
The tester confirmed he had got the message from mum but "it made no difference" as he walked to his own car and left for the day.
On Friday, I met up with a young couple about to tie the knot. I am their marriage celebrant and we had a wedding practice at the venue the day before the wedding. It was in the gardens at King Edward Park in Hawera and when I saw the beautiful show of the annuals in flower I was blown away and mentioned it to the bride-to-be.
Now here is a story about quality customer service.
The bride had phoned and booked the park venue with the council parks department. While in conversation she was told the beds would be ready for replanting and was asked the colours of her bridal party so the colours of the flowers could be co-ordinated.
And there they were - all shades of pink and purple to match the purples in the bridal frocks. The staff were also repainting the pagodas the party would stand under the next day as well as others in the vicinity.
When I spoke to Dave Bruce, manager of parks and reserves for South Taranaki District Council, he took it as if it was the most natural response in the world when he said: "Well, it's a big day, and we wanted it to be nice for them."
That man deserves a DB, so I rang his boss and sang his praises - and I knew I had the perfect subject for my weekly column.
It doesn't matter how much a government, council, company or organisation wants to provide the best service for their taxpayer, ratepayer or fee-paying customers if the blokes on the frontline don't understand who they work for.
If the testing officer had decided to knock off seven minutes late rather than 23 minutes early he might have had a beer dropped off to him, too.
Thankfully, after a heads-up chat to the Associate Minister of Transport, Craig Foss' team arranged a quick retest and waived the fee. Boy, I hope he gets a different testing officer and flies through his test.
His mum reckoned it was great to know that they really did matter after all. I reckon that is a big lesson for a young unemployed boy wanting to get a job. But it is a much bigger lesson for any public servant.
PS: The young man sat his licence on Thursday and passed, and got the job.
