Bus Tour - misdescription, misleading...help me find out the solution.

anotherginger

(Apologies for the length of this, but any help will get thanks!)

Myself and my boyfriend booked onto a bus tour and cream tea provided by a very well known large department store in London.

On arriving, the directions in our emails were rubbish but our saving grace was that the buses were very distinctive on the website so it would be hard to miss! Anyway, we asked the doorman where the bus went from and he indicated a bus stop on the other side of the road. We were there 20 minutes early, and five minutes after we were supposed to be picked up we rang the office to see what was happening to be told that we had missed the bus! However, we were then told that the real start of the tour was at Victoria Bus Station, and to get a taxi there, we said we would like our money returned as we were not late and the bus was not there, so they said keep the receipt and it would be refunded.

So we arrive at Victoria to find the bus, and the tour guide who greeted us with 'oh you're the ones who missed the bus! its a bit big to miss!'. I got slightly irate but remained calm with the tour guide. I said we waited at the bus stop outsie the shop as indicated, and he said the bus goes from outside Sainsburys up the street. The directions in our confirmation email say outside the shop! Then when i got over this annoyance I looked and saw that the bus was not the very distinctive bus advertised on the website and was in fact old, red and clearly did not have the shop name written anywhere on it.

Does anyone know how we take this further? We are not seeking compensation over what has been offered (the five quid taxi journey), but we would like to make some attempt in making sure that other people do not have the same disappointing start to something they are looking forward to.

We feel that the website is not representative of what was provided, and the fact that you are in a distinctive vintage bus is even described as one of the highlights of the tour.

I've tried not to mention the company name for the minute, but please see this website for an indication of the discrepancies! remember, we were on a tired, dated, red, unsigned bus, which left without us, from a place that was not described on the booking information, and then had to get a taxi to catch up.

Firstly - these are the buses advertised - http://www.harrodsbustour.com/info/vintage_buses.php
Secondly - this is the trip info - http://www.harrodsbustour.com/tours/details/harrods-tour-plus-afternoon-tea.id9.html

Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for any help you can provide.

wealdroam

anotherginger wrote: »

I've tried not to mention the company name for the minute...

Errr... I think you have failed...

anotherginger wrote: »

Firstly - these are the buses advertised - http://www.harrodsbustour.com/info/vintage_buses.php
Secondly - this is the trip info - http://www.harrodsbustour.com/tours/details/harrods-tour-plus-afternoon-tea.id9.html

anotherginger

ha, i know that! i wanted an opinion on the situation rather than the company, so i haven't mentioned it initially. the 'i've tried' was in the past tense, but at that point i was willing to name and shame. have you got anything constructive?

alistair.long

this is a very simple case of you will get a refund of the taxi fair at least, you will need your phone bill to prove the time you called.

You can also if you want to make a big deal of it it, take it to court and claim for "loss of enjoyment" and get a lot more (maybe price of the tickets).
The red bus appearing is diffrent to the green bus so therefore not as described, unless the website states it has a replacement.

anotherginger

so we sent a letter of complaint to premium bus tours AND harrods - we got an email in return from premium saying that harrods had passed on our complaint (our complaint direct to premium obviously wasn't enough!), and we accepted a 50% refund. their excuse for the wrong bus was that vintage buses often need repairs!