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**WARNING FOR ANYONE PLANNING ON USING FESTIVAL BUS**


Guest marcwilson87
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Hi,

I just thought I would give everyone here a little bit of friendly advice, as I wouldn't want anyone to experience the awful journey I have to endure last year.

A group of 9 of us chose to go to Pinkpop and for once decided to use a bus company. We knew it would be a horrible journey, Holland on a bus, but £90 both ways seemed a bargin. As it happens, it wasn't!

We were picked up at Kings Cross at 8am (I believe), thankfully it one took the driver 20 minutes to realise he had forgotten his passport, so we detoured to Brixton so he could collect it. We were already running late, but due to the success of Festival Bus the year before there was a BBC journalist (Maddy Savage) on the bus, I have no idea how such an unorganised cow became a journalist, let alone for the BBC. Anyways, we got to Dover and missed our Ferry to France becuase we had to wait for Maddy to buy a laptop charger as she forgot hers! The late ferry was pleasent, possibly my favourite part of the trip.

When we got off the ferry, peoples bladders began filling up. Oh, wait, an 8 hour drive and the only toilet on the bus is broken!? Good times! So we had to constantly stop to use the toilet at various service stations. It was bad luck that most of the people on the bus were going to Pinkpop to see Incubus and Metallica, who both played the first night, and had both finished by the time we actually arrived (about 5-6 hours late) at Pinkpop. Needless to say it kicked off a bit, especially after the driver asked us if we knew where the festival actually was!

The festival was good from what I remember, I reccommed it.

On the last night we all recieved a text message saying our bus would pick us up at something like 5PM rather than 10AM, this didn't really bother anyone because it was longer to flush the hangovers out. The trip back was much better (we had a working toilet!) as it was through a different bus company. Everything was a good as it could have been on the way home until we got to the ferry station again, and instead of having return tickets, we each had been brought (by a Festival Bus staff member) two single trips from Dover to Calais each, so we had to go to the channel tunnel. We didn't have to pay any extra, but by the time we had got back to London the tubes had stopped running.

We were greeted by Festival Buses boss at Kings Cross, who had various sandwiches and milkshakes. Agter the journey from hell, he told us that the trip being so bad was OUR fault because we were RACIST toward the bus driver. I for one, and all my other friends did not hear any of this, and we were sat at the front of the bus. We told him we wanted a refund, he told us we were LUCKY that he was offering us 50% discount next time we want to travel with Festival Bus. He didn't take into account how anyone would get home from London at gone midnight. I'm sure some people had to sleep outside train stations, I had to pay £70 for a taxi to North London (I wasn't sitting on another bus for 1-2 hours after that).

We never recieved any money back, even though we missed a day of the festival and were ditched in London, let alone a refund of any kind.

I'm sure there are people on this forum who have had good trips with this company, but I feel it is my responsibilty to tell people how badly this company operated on this weekend and ultimatley ruined a holiday for the 50-60 people who had to put up with their weekend of BullShite!

I mean, you couldn't even make up a trip that bad.

Fly or get trains,

Marc

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Hi everyone,

My name is Max and I’m the founder of Festivalbus . I feel it is important that I give you guys the Festivalbus side of the Pinkpop story. We were really upset by what happened on the journey to Pinkpop, which was our first fully commercial journey. We are currently days away from a court case with the coach company that we used for the journey and will be providing compensation as a good will gesture to the passengers if our case is successful, we will be updating them before February 10th 2009.

As Marc has said, one of the drivers arrived late and without his passport and the coach had to take an hour long detour to pick it up. This was a human error by the driver who worked for the coach company that we used for the job; we had no control over it.

Unfortunately, toilets on coaches are not really designed for heavy usage, they are more of an emergency toilet. Due to the fact that some passengers on the journey had drank a lot of alcohol and were regularly using the toilet, the toilet tank filled. As a result of the upcoming court case, the coach company has provided us with photographic evidence of the amount of alcohol bottles left on the coach. The drunk passengers meant the coach had to stop more regularly for toilet breaks than it otherwise would.

When the coach arrived at Pinkpop, some members of the group damaged the coach, again we have been provided with photographs of the damage. As well as this, one of the drivers alleged that one of the passengers had made racist remarks to him, a claim which another passenger supported. This was the main reason why the coach drivers refused to return Festivalbus passengers to London.

We were informed of this decision at 9pm on Friday night. We had previously planned to offer the group compensation as a good will gesture upon their return to London but we had not planned on needing to pay for a replacement coach to bring our customers home. Three Festivalbus staff members, including me, worked all weekend to secure a replacement coach, we found one company in the area that could provide a coach but only at the time later time Marc mentions. This coach company arranged the eurotunnel ticket, which they booked the wrong way.

I met the group in Victoria when they returned. I did not accuse them all of being racist, I just tried to explain what had happened, the reasons for the delays that we couldn’t control and why the original coach company had refused to pick them up. I apologised for the journey and tried to explain how the replacement coach had cost us the money we would have otherwise have given them. I never suggested they were lucky that we were offering them 50% off. Just that we would be making serious improvements and we would like them to try us again. Some of the passengers did travel with us to Pukkelpop and wrote to tell us of the improvement.

We took 350 people to 3 festivals after Pinkpop and have only had positive feedback. Festivalbus is now partners with a much larger coach company, meaning we offer coaches from all over the UK. We work very closely with our partners to ensure every journey runs smoothly. This year we will be providing coaches to around 15 festivals in the UK and abroad.

We’re not an evil company trying to ruin your festival, ask the other 350 passengers who travelled with us! Festivalbus is all about having a good time on the way there, and relaxing on the way home.

I hope we’ll be seeing you soon for your favourite festival.

Max

Festivalbus

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Max, cheers for the reply. I think that does clear up a few issues and does make your company look a lot better than I did portray it. However, I have a couple of problems. It was, what, 8 months ago we went to Pinkpop and this is THE first time I have been contacted by Festival Bus about compensation/apology and that is only because I posted this 'review' on your Facebook Page - here's one you should maybe look at;

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15540267457&ref=ts]url]

lots of angry people who haven't had an apology of heard anything about compensation. I will be sending them all a link to this page. Also, I hope it isn't a ridiculous, tiny amount you are talking about here becuase I don't want to insulted by Festival Bus again.

"Unfortunately, toilets on coaches are not really designed for heavy usage, they are more of an emergency toilet. Due to the fact that some passengers on the journey had drank a lot of alcohol and were regularly using the toilet, the toilet tank filled. As a result of the upcoming court case, the coach company has provided us with photographic evidence of the amount of alcohol bottles left on the coach. The drunk passengers meant the coach had to stop more regularly for toilet breaks than it otherwise would."

Now to this quote. As far as I'm aware the toilet was NEVER in order. One of the people I was with went to use it before the driver got his passport from Brixton and couldn't. As for the damage, I apologise, everyone was understandably fuming, and I'm sure it was a small majority. We shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush! The alcohol situation (as far as I was aware) was down to the drivers. As soon as they asked us to stop drinking we all put our alcohol in the holding part of the deck. Nothing wrong with drinking on the boat.

As for working hard all weekend etc, you run a company and because the company you paid to take us to our destiation were ridiculous and you decided having a BBC journalist (who realised she wasn't wanted in Belgium I) was much, much, much, much, much more important than getting us to our destination on time (which is why we paid you in case you don't remember) it was solely your responsiblity to get us home, so please stop telling me how much you worked that weekend, I don't really care, I spent most of it on a bus.

If you want to get in touch with me personally (as a discussion like this on a forum is a bit silly) you can e-mail me at marcwilson87@gmail.com

Edited by marcwilson87
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We have emailed everyone who provided us with their email addresses on 06/06/08, the email address you have provided was included the email. This email stated that we are pursuing the coach company and will be in contact with news. As of yet there is no news. There will be before February 10th as the court date is before then.

Unfortunately, it is a very long winded process to arrange a court date, we have been pursuing the coach company since the journey and were informed of our court date at the start of December, we had hoped to have everything resolved much sooner.

I personally apologised to everyone when the coach returned, the rep also apologised during the journey and attempted to explain our side of the story.

No one else who has contacted us has suggested the toilet never worked, only that it was not usable after the ferry.

We lost a lot of money on the journey to Pinkpop as a result of having to hire another coach, the reason the price seemed like a bargain was because we made barely any profit in the first place and then had to fork out for a replacment coach.

I think it's really important that you understand that it was not Festivalbus who tarred you with one brush, it was the coach company we used. We don't think they were right to do it but there was nothing we could do, that's why we are taking them to court.

The drivers story which they have provided to the court suggests that not all passengers simply stopped drinking when they were asked. The drivers allege that some passengers became very aggressive when they were asked not to bring pint glasses on to the coach from the ferry.

While there is nothing wrong with drinking on the boat, it naturally leads to people needing to use the toilet more frequently. There is no way any toilet on a coach would be sufficient for heavy use for a journey as long as Calais to Landgraaf. If people drank too much and needed to use the toilet frequently, that caused delays. Not Festivalbus.

It's unfair to say we decided the Radio 1 journalist was much more important to us than getting you there, as you have already acknowledged there were a number of factors that we had no control over that added delays to your journey.

I don't want to have a debate on a forum but I believe you are doing us a disservice by suggesting that we are an unreliable company because of mistakes which even by your own story there was nothing we could do about. Since Pinkpop our service has greatly improved, largely due to our new partners. Unfortunately for us, the 45 passengers who had a bad experience are much more vocal on forums than the 350 who had good experiences.

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Hi I'd like to just put up my email address and name along with my brothers for you to put on the list of people awaiting compensation for the Pinkpop Trip as I don't believe I ever received any information about this upcoming court case or the possibility of compensation, finally.

In regards to the toilet not being in service from the start I am not completely aware but the fact that you have honestly got the brass to state that delays were caused by peoples liquid consumption on the boat and them then needing to urinate is unreal. Did the fact that people may need to use a toilet in the 170mile journey between the ferry and the festival on a slow moving coach never occur to you?

Of course by the time we got on the boat I assume all of our posible 'delay' credits had been used up; what with the passport, the Radio 1 womans wire and the fact that we were booked on an open ferry ticket which meant we had to sit in a queue for an hour and a half before we even got on the ferry at nearing 1pm.

We travelled with you in the hope that we would be able to go to a festival and not miss any part of it. Seeing Incubus was the main reason why I even decided that I wanted to go to Pinkpop in the first place - unfortunately this didn't happen and instead we got to listen to Incubus on the coaches sound system. Bit of salt in the wound is always nice...

We ended up in a position where we had paid way over the odds for a sub standard coach, which had not been organised correctly.

It was my birthday present and it was to all intensive purposes ruined by this fiasco.

I threatened legal action at the time we returned in London and were greeted with sandwiches and drinks as compensation along with a promise of money off another trip..... one which, I personally, would never consider taking with you.

I didn't continue with this legal pursuit due to a serious illness in the family which was much more important then my anger with your company.

That aside. I will now be following your company’s progress with this court case and I, as a T-total, non-racist believe I am fully entitled to compensation along with my brother.

Rebecca Lee g9011433@bournemouth.ac.uk

Jacob Lee jake@routeb.com

I would like for a member of your company to contact me with confirmation that we are both on your emailing list.

regards

Rebecca

Edited by ListenMoreTalkLess
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I also was a passeger on this trip and this is the first i've heard on the subject of people being informed over the matter or a court case taken place. Even after the event no written statment was released on the festivalbus site or to the email address i used while perchasing the tickets. I have now asked to be included on the matter.

I can understand that this is an event that festivalbus wishes never happened but it was our festival that was runied because of the number of set backs we had (the drivers passport, maddy was late on many 'pit stops', she forced us to stop so she could get her cable and also to leave the bus 10 min after a break). I, like a few others i know from the event, was lucky to recieved the news updates of the bus from a friend who had found out. There was a make shift festivalbus rep on the bus who was there working for another company, i didnt see or hear from them after the drop off friday night till the monday morning.

One of the worse things since this event is finding the only statement made by the company is on this forum.

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Hybrid665,

You haven't provdided a name or email address so I cannot check if you are on the list. As I have said we sent an email to every one who's address we had 5 days after the coach return. We have also responded to emails since then informing anyone who has asked that we are waiting for a court date.

The Festivalbus rep was not makeshift, he worked for Festivalbus on the coach and Quest for the Fest at the festival, there was no need for you to see him during the festival, it would have been impossible for him to find everyone anyway.

Whilst I understand your misgivings, I cannot understand why so many of you are determined to ruin Festivalbus as a business. Surely it is an idea that some of you liked as you chose to travel with us? Even by all your statements, it was a number of very unlucky events that caused problems for you and us on the journey. It's not like we're some con artists who take your money and don't provide a coach, its just that you were unlucky, the 350 other passengers who travelled with us had a great time.

As a new business working on small profits in order to provide an affordable service, we are doing everything we can to try and rectify the situation.

I hope those of you reading this who weren't on the coach understand our side of the story and that the Pinkpop journey was our first ever, please don't judge us by it. Ask any of the 350 people who travelled with us to Rock Werchter, Dour or Pukkelpop.

Thanks for your time

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first off let me say sorry for my comment about the rep, i was not made fully aware he was an employee of yours. At the time of the event it was implied he was only working for the other company.

As i stated this is an event we all wish had turned out differently. Im not out to destroy your company or ruin your name. I believe the idea of festival bus is a good one, so much so that after pinkpop i went to another big festival and invited many people to travel with me because of the great idea the company is based on and i had seen the positive side of it. It was made clear by everyone i travelled and camped with they also loved the idea of it.

Edited by hybrid665
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I would just like to add - you keep repeating that 350 other people who enjoyed their time travelling with you. This is completely irrelevant when it comes to Pinkpop.

We were never informed that the journey to Pinkpop was your first ever venture and that we were, in part, guinea pigs for your companies exploit.

I for one would have thought differently if I had known that this was the company’s first journey.

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Hi everyone,

My name is Max and I’m the founder of Festivalbus . I feel it is important that I give you guys the Festivalbus side of the Pinkpop story. We were really upset by what happened on the journey to Pinkpop, which was our first fully commercial journey. We are currently days away from a court case with the coach company that we used for the journey and will be providing compensation as a good will gesture to the passengers if our case is successful, we will be updating them before February 10th 2009.

As Marc has said, one of the drivers arrived late and without his passport and the coach had to take an hour long detour to pick it up. This was a human error by the driver who worked for the coach company that we used for the job; we had no control over it.

Unfortunately, toilets on coaches are not really designed for heavy usage, they are more of an emergency toilet. Due to the fact that some passengers on the journey had drank a lot of alcohol and were regularly using the toilet, the toilet tank filled. As a result of the upcoming court case, the coach company has provided us with photographic evidence of the amount of alcohol bottles left on the coach. The drunk passengers meant the coach had to stop more regularly for toilet breaks than it otherwise would.

When the coach arrived at Pinkpop, some members of the group damaged the coach, again we have been provided with photographs of the damage. As well as this, one of the drivers alleged that one of the passengers had made racist remarks to him, a claim which another passenger supported. This was the main reason why the coach drivers refused to return Festivalbus passengers to London.

We were informed of this decision at 9pm on Friday night. We had previously planned to offer the group compensation as a good will gesture upon their return to London but we had not planned on needing to pay for a replacement coach to bring our customers home. Three Festivalbus staff members, including me, worked all weekend to secure a replacement coach, we found one company in the area that could provide a coach but only at the time later time Marc mentions. This coach company arranged the eurotunnel ticket, which they booked the wrong way.

I met the group in Victoria when they returned. I did not accuse them all of being racist, I just tried to explain what had happened, the reasons for the delays that we couldn’t control and why the original coach company had refused to pick them up. I apologised for the journey and tried to explain how the replacement coach had cost us the money we would have otherwise have given them. I never suggested they were lucky that we were offering them 50% off. Just that we would be making serious improvements and we would like them to try us again. Some of the passengers did travel with us to Pukkelpop and wrote to tell us of the improvement.

We took 350 people to 3 festivals after Pinkpop and have only had positive feedback. Festivalbus is now partners with a much larger coach company, meaning we offer coaches from all over the UK. We work very closely with our partners to ensure every journey runs smoothly. This year we will be providing coaches to around 15 festivals in the UK and abroad.

We’re not an evil company trying to ruin your festival, ask the other 350 passengers who travelled with us! Festivalbus is all about having a good time on the way there, and relaxing on the way home.

I hope we’ll be seeing you soon for your favourite festival.

Max

Festivalbus

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Hi Colface,

Thanks for your input. I'd like to respond to some of your points.

There was a Festivalbus rep on the coach, Damo. I was present with Damo in Victoria before the coach left. Damo greeted almost all the passengers on arrival, he was also wearing a blue Festivalbus sweatshirt.

This was our first FULLY commercial journey,we had used the same coach company the previous year for a trip to Dour which was 70% general public.

As far as people drinking goes, the only reason this caused problems was because of the behaviour of the few that damaged the coach and one who racially abused the driver, this was why the coach company would not return.

As far as toilet stops, these are planned in to every journey because no coach toilet, no matter how high the spec has toilets than can be used constantly. Normally we would allow for one stop every 1.5/2 hours, the stops were far more frequent than that to Pinkpop, and took longer because some passengers bought food and drinks at the stops.

Of course the minimum we had to do was work all weekend to get people home, I would never argue against that. The reason I make that point is that I feel the very nature of this topic is deter people from using Festivalbus as if we are hell bent on ruining peoples festival experience when actually we do everything we can to make the experience easier.

We are aware that many things went wrong on the journey to Pinkpop and we have taken steps to remedy the situation, unfortunately this has taken much longer than we anticipated. As you would expect, we learnt many important lessons in our first year operating and have made many improvements.

You are of course right that people are much quicker to complain when things go wrong than they are to give praise when things go right. We're just hoping that people who read this will understand that we did and are doing everything in our power to resolve the Pinkpop issue and make sure nothing similar occurs again.

Thanks for your time,

Max

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what an interesting thread, 4 friends and I very, very nearly booked with festival bus for the pinkpop trip last year, but we decided to get the ferry from hull to amsterdam instead, then get the train the rest of the way,

we we're thinking of looking into the Festival Bus service for this years festival, thinking that it would be more a laugh, since everyone would be going to the same place for the same thing,

so im pretty glad i signed up for the forum, i'll be sticking to the Ferry.

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Still not quite sure why this is being discussed in such a public domain. I think maybe you should be considering making this a more private matter, Mr Festival Bus man, just it stinks of unprofessionalism to me.

Yet my opinion is that whilst this was by the sounds of it a largely unsuccessful venture, it seems it was series of unforeseen mistakes. And mistakes happen. I would still travel with Festival Bus, if I were in London and it was cheaper than planes (I'm not saying it isn't, just don't know) etc.

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Hi Sam,

Thanks for your input.

Believe me, no one at Festivalbus wants to have such a public discussion. But when we were made aware of the post on here, the most popular festival forum in the UK, that made allegations about the company, some of which aren't true (ie no rep on board) we felt someone had to provide our side of the story. As the founder of Festivalbus, I said I would respond as I am aware of everything that happened that day. We're not some big corporation that is removed from our customers, we are festival goers too so we thought it was best we respond on the forum.

I will no longer be posting on this forum and ask anyone who wants to contact me to write to max@festivalbus.co.uk ( I gave this email address to everyone on the Pinkpop journey upon their return).

Craig- I'm sorry to hear you feel that way. We have greatly improved our service for this year. Whenever possible our coaches arrive at the campsite the day before the festival. Some festivals, such as Pinkpop, the campsite opens on the same day the festival starts. In 2009 coaches for festivals like this will leave the night before the festivals so our passengers arrive in the morning.

Bec_price, you are already on the list.

If anyone else would like to discuss the matter, please contact me directly at max@festivalbus.co.uk

Thanks.

Edited by max_festivalbus
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To be fair I would probably be pissed off if i had gone to pinkpop however me and a few friends used FestivalBus for Pukkelpop and had a great time and would happily use them again. I think the pinkpop thing sounds like a freak one-off incident that happens one out of a million times just so unfortunate u had a simpleton driving the bus, tho it would probably be a good idea to check everyones passports before they enter the bus next time....you can only learn from mistakes :rolleyes: I hope that incident doesnt spell the end of FestivalBus cos its such a great idea. Are there any plans for any 2009 Festivals by the way because its around now that people are starting to book tickets and flights etc?

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  • 1 month later...

Basically, for anyone considering using Festival Bus DO NOT DO IT. As you can see from all the angry people above why take the risk of ruining your festival.

Keep the control in your hands and arrange your own travel.

For those of us who went to Pinkpop 2008 it was an unmitigated disaster. The company won't pay compensation because they claim they can't. However they can't see that this bad PR will do them more damage in the long. If they just held their hands up and said "yes, we f*cked up, here is an offer of compensation" they could turn this situation around. However they lack that commercial insight.

DO NOT TRAVEL WITH FESTIVAL BUS

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Its not as though theyre con artists and deliberatly set out to screw the festival up for you.....its the stupid bus company's fault for employing a retarted bus driver who cant even remember to take his passport on a foreign trip. Me and my mates went to pukkelpop with them and had a great time and would def use them again as it was a far more enjoyable trip than say a boring flight etc.

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The mistake we made for the Pinkpop journey was not allowing for more than 4 hours of delays. Unfortunately, due to a number of unforseeable events, the coach was seriously delayed. We would have offered compensation but some of the passengers damaged the coach and one racially abused the driver, resulting in the coach company refusing to collect our passengers and Festivalbus having to pay for 2 coaches just to get our passengers home. This meant we could not afford to compensate our 45 passengers.

We have made serious changes as a result of Pinkpop 2008:

-We’ve teamed up with a nationwide coach operator who operate thousands of coaches abroad a year.

-For festival such as Pinkpop and Rock Werchter where the camspite opens the same day that the music starts, our coaches now leave the day before, cross on a late night ferry and arrive in the morning. This ensures that our passengers arrive at a good time, and allows plenty of time for delays, although none of our other 350 passengers suffered any delays on their outbound journeys.

-We are working closely with ALL the festivals we stop at to ensure all our coaches drop off and pick up from convenient places.

-We have negotiated with a number of festivals the use of private shuttle lanes not open to the public to avoid traffic leading into festivals

-It’s also worth pointing out that most of the festivals we run coaches to open their campsites the day before the music starts

I hope you understand that Festivalbus is an honest, well run company that was very unlucky on our first journey. Unfortunately for us, the passengers from that journey are determined to convince everyone that we are some cowboy company only interested in ruining your festival. This couldn’t be further from the truth; Festivalbus is all about making your festival experience more enjoyable. I urge you to have a look at our testimonials page on our website; these are all genuine emails and messages we received from some of our other passengers. And take a look at r0w’s comments too.

Thanks for your time, I hope you’ll try Festivalbus for yourself, none of the other 7 coaches we sent last year encountered any problems. We’re always improving our service, this year we’re offering more pick up points and more festivals so it’s even easier to get to Europe’s best festivals.

Take care,

Max

Edited by max_festivalbus
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