A Burnaby mother is demanding answers after she says a taxi she had pre-ordered to pick up her 12-year-old son, who is currently dependent on crutches, failed to show up at his school.

Tamara Wojdylo said she took her son Sam to a doctor's appointment at Burnaby General Hospital on Wednesday morning for a check-up on his leg, which is fractured in three places. He was injured at a skating lesson.

She said she had to return to work and wouldn't be able to pick Sam up from Rosser Elementary School at 3:15 p.m. that afternoon, so pre-ordered a cab from Bonny's Taxi.

She provided the taxi company with his contact information as well as hers, and alerted them that he is injured and unable to walk easily.

But at 3:15 p.m., the cab was a no-show. When Sam called to check in, the taxi company said no cab was on its way.

"He said he called the company at 3:30 and they said there's no one coming to get you and that's when he was really upset, he started crying," said Wojdylo.

"He realized that no one was coming to get him after school, and then he was really worried because the cellphone was running out of battery."

Called 3 times

When contacted by CBC News, an employee from Bonny's Taxi, who declined to provide his name, said the company apologized to Wojdylo by email and would be looking into what went wrong.

A supervisor phoned CBC back on Friday to offer further explanation.

Baljinder Virdi said the original cab was delayed by up to 40 minutes due to a "shift change" and "rush hour traffic." He said there was no one waiting by the time it arrived.

"We did send a taxi over, but the driver did not find any customer," Virdi said.

The supervisor said the company sent two more cabs after that and still didn't find Sam.

Wojdylo said she called the company three times on Wednesday on the way to the school.

First, she spoke to a manager who would not give their name or contact information, but said it was a busy time.

On her second and third calls, she was forwarded to a manager's voicemail.

Finally, she left work to pick up her son, arriving at his school at around 4:40 p.m.

"I had no confidence that the company was going to show up to pick up my son, I had zero confidence and that's why I had to leave work," she said.

"I'd like an explanation what happened."

Wojdylo said that she would never deal with Bonny's Taxi again.

"I've kind of lost trust in cab companies," she said.

"I think I might be more likely to contact my neighbour, I don't really know what else to do."

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