6.5 hrs trapped between metal fencing

ynot420

Hi,

this weekend, me a group of friends attended a festival on the Isle of Wight called Bestival. The Bestival site is a few miles from the ferry port and they operate a shuttle bus service for people to travel between the 2 sites. The service is sub contracted to a nation coach company.

When we attempted to use the service for our return journey, the experience we encountered was absolutely horrific, in total we spent 6.5 hours in one of 4 channels, trapped between 6ft high metal fences with no food, water or toilets.

In addition to this, about 4 hrs into our ordeal, we realised that people in the other 3 channels were moving much quicker than us and had a wait time of only 2 hours ( compared to our 6). As we eventually got near to the front of the queue, it became obvious that the coach company stewards were totally incompetent in crowd management and were dramatically increasing the wait time through poor organization.

Due to our extended waiting time, we also incurred an additional £95 travel costs. due to our minibus having to wait at Portsmouth for us to arrive.

Today i have written the coach company a letter explaining the situation in detail and asking for a refund for all our tickets, payment for our additional travel costs and also compensation for the experience we had to endure.

I've done some looking into the company and they have a very poor level of customer service, so i don't have high hopes for their response. Can anyone please advise me as to other possible lines of complaint and persual of compensation? Also, i'm sure that somewhere in the ticket contact, it will say they are not liable for any extra travel costs or refunds. If anyone can advise me as to any laws that maybe helpful in reversing this?

Any help in this matter would be gratefully received.

Regards

wealdroam

ynot420 wrote: »

Today i have written the coach company a letter explaining the situation in detail and asking for a refund for all our tickets, payment for our additional travel costs and also compensation for the experience we had to endure.

Sorry but it is not clear to me that the "nation coach company" are responsible for the six foot high fencing, but if you say they are, then ok.

"a refund for all our tickets"... does that mean the festival tickets too? Good luck with that.
Didn't they transport you "between the 2 sites"?

Did you voice your complaint to anyone at the time?

I suggest you place a monetary value on the experience you had to endure.
Without that you will not receive any offer of compensation.
Note that the converse is not necessarily true.

ynot420

hi wealdroam,

thanks for your reply, the fencing system was placed there by the coach company as a way of channeling the large volume of people onto the coaches. sadly due to their shambolic organization, the system failed. the 6ft high fences split the crowd into 4 lines, each about 100ft long by about 25ft wide.

The director of the company was present, and we voiced our complaint to him as well as taking the names of all staff members we encountered. We only had any contact with any member of staff in the final 10 minutes of our 6 hr wait, by that time we were more concerned about getting on the first available bus.

I have asked for a refund for all of our travel tickets for the return bus journey (£10 each) as well as payment for our extra travel costs (£95 in total), i purposefully placed no monetary value on the experience we had to endure. So that the company can offer us what they believe to be fair, it is then our decision to accept or refuse it.

rxbren

how can you be sure it was the coach company who put the fence up it will more than likely be by the organisers of the event

newbutold

I get the point of the extra expenses you have incurred but wanting compensation for the "experience we had to endure", the country's going compensation crazy!


Personally I'd just be happy you weren't on this coach......

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tributes-paid-to-bestival-coach-crash-victim-8130904.html

Tilt

This year the Bestival shuttle bus service between the venue (Robin Hill) and the ferry terminals was awarded by the Bestival organizers to a mainland company called the Big Green Coach co which I believe is based in Birmingham so obviously it's staff is hardly going to be familiar with the Island. Previously the local Island bus co has done it. I have heard that on the arrival day (Thursday) their staff were 'marshaling' Bestival goers straight onto their buses from the ferry and charging £8 one way or £10 return. Some local businesses (including taxi drivers) have been outraged by this.

I don't know if anyone knows the distance between the ferry terminals and the venue but its about 7 miles. Last year the local bus co was charging £5 one way.

Me living on the Island can confirm that 'usually long' delays have been reported in revelers leaving the Island.

My advice is to write to the bus co and detail your complaint and also send a copy to the Bestival organizers.

Here are the relevant links;
http://www.biggreencoach.co.uk/
http://2012.bestival.net/info/contact

Please do let us know how you get on as I work for an Island based Tourism Media company which is concerned about negative feedback of any kind about the Isle of Wight.

Basil1234

i have a simple question if you took a flight with easyjet say from manchester to london where delayed to whatever unforseen circumstanses, then missed a flight from london to new york with british airways then ba moved you to next flight for £100.
do you think as one company would compensate you?
and i think we all know what the answer would be, no.
they will have it buried in there terms.
i think you are completely wasting your time there. another question would be if you caught the I.O.W ferry and had been delayed crossing by bad weather do you think the ferry company would pay your extra £95 the answer again no.
one thing i would suggest if this money burden is a real issue my advice go to another one instead or leave earlier leaving extra time or ordering a taxi directly reckon you could have been done and out in an hour.