Calling out unexpected potentially cold behaviour towards you

First to explain the context before I get to the point of this post. At work I had to refuse to drive the only bus in the out-based depot for safety reasons which caused a delay in the service. A previous time I'd drove that same bus (1 month ago) I'd listed a defect (in the system) that the emergency exit door was difficult to open. The next time I drove it after that it was yet more difficult to open... gradually getting worse. It finally wouldn't open on this day, and when refusing it I rang the garage manage and luckily for me I'd a print-out of the defect which I'd kept, which he asked me to whatsapp it to him.

When I met him in person later that day I said "hi Sean" and as he turned his head and looked up at me I noticed he wasn't going to say hello back. I just went straight into my question of "is my bus over by [so and so]?" and he left a pause and nodded. I then asked another question and he again left a short pause and nodded. I said "are you giving me the silent treatment Sean?". Then I got some sort of verbal response from him (forget exactly). In tha moment I remember wondering if he was going to say "oh don't mind me, I'm just so bombarded with all the work I'm doing that I can barely think". Anyway, shortly after his response he addressed my comment and said "no if I'd a problem with you, I'd bloody well tell you"! So I was meant to think "good, there's no problem".

Now if I hadn't called him out on it I would've been annoyed with myself, and been thinking "what was that all about?". So, yes I'm able to call a person out in a way that's graceful, but I'm not necessarily able to follow through on it. In other words, I could've also pointed out that his excuse didn't make sense. I think he obviously was sulking. And no one's ever going to admit they are sulking. So in this case I could've said "I just noticed a few non-verbal responses there, so just checking". It wouldn't be essential to say this but why the hell not, seeing as he's never behaved like this before. And for context, they'd usually tell me where my bus is (for second half of shift) without me having to go looking. Maybe it was set up so that I'd cross paths with Sean.

Anyway, Sean took out some log book and showed me that that bus was out every day the last few weeks as if that proved that it wasn't defective. My reply should have been "that only proves that the drivers aren't doing their walk-around checks". I should've also asked him "are you able to show me the date it was fixed?" which he didn't point out. Because I'd find it very hard to believe that it broke within the 3 weeks since I'd last drove it.

Have you ever had similar experiences where you've tried to call out behaviour directed towards you that you didn't like, and for someone to deny it? Do you think "oh that's enough, they know what I thought of it so they won't do it again", or, for the hell of it, do you deliver that follow-up comment to show them up?

 

Lots people living in their own heads.
I don't expect people to always be cordial these days. Especially in low paid jobs.

I once complained about heavily clorinated water served to me in a restaurant in Southern California. I had just returned from years living in Mexico where all water served is usually reverse osmosis treated from a bottle.

What I was served tasted so gross and minerally.it was that notorious California tap water.

So I complained to the waiter, who got real cold, took away my water, leaving me nothing.

All I said was "how can you serve something that tastes so bad." I apologized for complaining. He replies "too late".

Fortunately another waitperson took over. Oh yeah he made sure my meal was so spicy, it was nearly inedible (Thai restaurant).

I can take anything short of ghost pepper, but that was insanely hot. Only experienced that kind of heat once, in Bangkok, when I ordered Tom Yum as hot as the waiter eats it

 

I ignore people like this. So they did not answer your question the way you thought they should have. If you're the type of person who lets stupid shit like this bother you, it says more about yourself than the other person. Not everything is about you, so maybe try not to get so easily butthurt over silly nonsense. I think what the person said when they finally did respond to you shows they were not ill-intended in being short with you. Sometimes people are just overwhelmed or having a bad day.