Stagecoach Smart ticket problem

Hedgehog99

My latest £13 Megarider 7-day ticket was due to activate today (ordered online, confirmation email received), but when I boarded the bus, the driver's ticket machine showed a red light & said "Ticket expired" both times the driver tried, so I had to buy a £4 dayrider ticket even though my Megarider should be valid today. I phoned the "customer Helpline" (note quotes!) and went round in circles with a rude woman who reprimanded me for not having left the card on the machine long enough to load the ticket (apparently, you are meant to allow 15 seconds, but it's never taken that long and the red light vetoed the process as far as the driver was concerned). She was not going to arrange a refund of my £4 day ticket & said I had to go and try the ticket on another bus. I wasted my lunch break doing this. The first driver helpfully gave me a printout of tickets on my card & all the dates, then, after a l-o-n-g time (much more than 15 sec), it finally seemed to load, but he couldn't test it because I had to wait ten mins. Found another bus which accepted the card. So now I need a refund of my £4 day ticket and recognition of the hassle/inconvenience/rudeness I have been subjected to. Anyone been through this with Stagecoach before?

Hedgehog99

The refund of the day ticket plus postage was refunded to my card on Friday.