National Express...rude rude rude...

fruitcake_2

Sorry to start off with a rant, it's just I was so upset today with the way I was treated by the staff in Manchester.
I purchased what I thought were great e-tickets called a funfare, from Manchester to London, booked two as my sister was going too. It was a fab price and I printed out the confirmation, clearly staing "two adults", was all set, scheduled two days off, was very fortunate that a friend was driving back this weekend, anyway, the driver said he could only let one person on.......
puter said "no". So i went to check at the ticket desk, and the CS said "oooh don't know what's happened there, showed her colleague, who shrugged her shoulders and said "get her to buy a full price one", I couldn't afford it and if I could I would have got a train ticket cheaper!

Anyway I went back to see my sister off, almost in tears. Gave her a hug (don't get to see her enough), and the driver turned to me and said "you should get a full price ticket", tutted and turned away!!

It took all of my self will not to give him a flying kick in the mouth...(and I don't condone violence!!) I swear if it hadn't been for my sis traveling on his coach I would have had some sharp words!

I apologise again if this isn't the place to write this, it's just been a poo day today for me....National Express, your staff really let you down today. Shameful!

CrazyChemist_2

Heh, you should try their customer relations dept - they are rude arrogant and clueless.

But they have a monopoly over the coach transport system in this country. Not much we can do apart from use our cars... my, what a good idea, I think I'll do that :cool:

N9eav

They are a wierd bunch. We used them to get back from airport. Last bus from heathrow to Cornwall NYeve 2005. Stupid Plymouth controller got on for a free ride home, Talked constantly to the driver about coplete crap and then had the audacity to walk halfway back in teh coach of about 8 people and tell my daughter her MP3 player (with headphones) was too loud. What a geek. I let him know it too, well as much as I dare without having to walk the rest of the way.

Had another a few years back who after stopping for a rest break on the M5 services said on his PA system. I will be here 15 minutes, be back in 10 or I am going with out you".

Why do I keep on using them? well they are cheap I suppose... and it shows.

fruitcake_2

So right, cheap but not cheerful....thanks for sharing the misery....so sad isn't it? It actually helped knowing I wasn't alone...

grex9101

they're not really that cheap... glasgow to manchester is cheaper by train if you get APEX tickets....

N9eav

grex9101 wrote:

they're not really that cheap... glasgow to manchester is cheaper by train if you get APEX tickets....

True, but travelling from Cornwall to the London airports is a nightmare anyway. The car is too small for passengers and our USA potential baggage. The train still means a bus link from reading or Paddington, so lots of moving cases about.

National Express last Christmas was 6 x return tickets from Cornwall to Heathrow, included in that offer was 2 x 4* rooms at the Holiday inn, and transfers. All for £160 total. Cheap but I hate doing it. Coming back is the worst although most of the time the drivers are pretty good.

zappomatic

I had no complaints about my £1 Fun Fare to Poole last week. We arrived an hour late due to a car breaking down on a 2 lane section of the M4, but booking was easy, coach was quite new, comfortable and clean and the drivers friendly and polite. I guess I need to use them a bit more to experience the everyday horror!

black-saturn

You should write to their head office and complain at this address and sent a copy of your ticket:

National Express Limited
Ensign Court
4 Vicarage Road
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 3ES

I travel to London every other weekend by National Express and one weekend I got a really rude driver who accused me of being a terrorist just because I had a back pack and was generally rude to all the other passengers. I wrote to them and they sent me a gift voucher.

Make sure you give them the correct route and times when you write.

Fran

My friend uses the coach with them and one day he was doing a trip that went through Birmingham where he had to change. He showed his ticket to the 2nd coach driver who said the number was wrong and he couldn't get on the coach. He went to counter staff and they confirmed ticket was ok but coach had left (with room on it). He has many other complaints about them too... one trip a driver was on his mobile for 20 minutes! You can't order a coach ticket by phone from a lot of destinations. Another time he said the toilets were stinking. Last time he went the waiting room was shut so he had to stand in the shelter for 50 mins. waiting for the connection.

If you order by phone, you can't get through to get a ticket and when you do you're paying 087 no. rates and they keep you messing about for ages.

black-saturn

When I travel to London every other weekend they always stop at Bury St Edmunds for 45 minutes on a sunday. What a total waste of time as the toilets are always closed and the town toilets are too far to walk there and back.

highguyuk

I have used them and Eurolines quite a bit over the last few years.

The first time I got on one of the coaches, they didnt have enough seats and my OH had to sit on my lap from Stafford to Brum.

Otherwise, no real complaints. On time, or as on time as you would expect, clean coaches, pleasant drivers, cheap fares. If we need to go anywhere and cant take the car, its national express all the way.