national express - no refunds?

non-expert_3

We were due to travel with national express coaches yesterday to Heathrow. I bought the coach tickets last Monday. The coach was cancelled by national express due to the bad weather. I e-mailed national express for a refund and they have replied saying the tickets are non-refundable (I could understand that if we had cancelled our trip) but they are happy to amend the tickets for free! (nb re-book on an expensive 0871 number!) However, we won't be making the journey now, since the holiday is cancelled so we just want our money back. I see that there is recent EU legislation that gives coach passengers similar rights to airline passengers when journeys are cancelled by operators. Does anyone know if it has been enacted in UK? And if not, what rights do I have to get a refund? Thanks.

Freddie_Snowbits

Travel Insurance?

DVardysShadow

Forget the weather for the moment, I tkae it the tickets were for a specific journey on a specific coach at a specific time and date. And if you did not travel on the right coach on the right day, the tickets were non-refundable.

If that is the case, then NEx have defaulted by failing to provide the contracted transport and they should refund. But you do need to check their T&C's very carefully - go by the written version on their website - take a print today - and don't go by what the call centre tell you

non-expert_3

Thanks for the replies. My travel insurance covers "costs not recoverable elsewhere" and the insurance company says National Express should re-imburse because they failed to provide the coach service.
I'll look at their T&C - I've received another e-mail from national express thanking me for travelling with them and asking me to complete a customer satisfaction survey!!!

aheaton46

Your best recourse may be to write requesting a refund and stating the coach did not run, rather than trying to deal with them ov the phone.

derrick

non-expert wrote: »

... (nb re-book on an expensive 0871 number!)...

Is this the number? 0871 781 8181
If so the geo number from "saynoto0870" is 0121 460 8400

.

non-expert_3

UPDATE - National Express have apologised and agreed to refund the fares.
Thanks to all who replied to my posting.