The Nationhell Express Thread

[Richard Waller]

I think this deserves a thread. Had an absolutely diabolical experience with National Express (again), gave em the benefit of the doubt but never again. So who wants to share tales of woe and tips on how to get our money back?

I sent this to them this morning:

Good Morning,

After having experienced previous problems with National Express I made the mistake of giving the benefit of the doubt and made another journey, references below.

I last travelled to Glastonbury Festival with National Express in 2010 which ended in despite buying direct coach tickets to the festival from Manchester, being expected to change in Birmingham and then again Coventry, causing the advertised journey time to almost treble. As a result of this, my friend who was with me complained and rightfully received a refund for the outward journey.

As a result of my previous experience, I took the train to the following festivals but this time I felt that by now National Express may have learned from their previous mistakes, seeing as the festival continues to put faith in your service. This was a mistake.

The departure to the festival wasn't too bad by your standards. I booked direct coaches to leave Manchester at 3:30, which didn't leave until 4:45. Having travelled to around fifteen festivals via different methods, I understand how congestion around the festival site will lead to delays. I expect it and to a reasonable degree, accept it. However, I fail to understand how when the journey began 200 miles from the site, National Express could not arrange for coaches to leave at 3:30 rather than 4:45. Fortunately this didn't lead to a significant delay accessing the site (despite the driver making a couple of wrong turnings) but I expect (hope) you will understand how it is frustrating.

The return journey, however was nothing more than a great inconvenience and further expense. The first leg of our journey wasn't even completed. Despite booking a 13:30 departure, every coach heading to Bristol was delayed and the extra coach we were told by the stewards to board, G24, arrived half an hour late and the driver promptly took a 45 minute break which delayed our departure even further. When I have travelled with Megabus and indeed yourselves in the past, the journey time advertised includes the driver's break. Why was this not accounted for? Our connection from Bristol wasn't until 16:00 but it quickly became apparent, before departure, that we would not make this.

When we finally arrived in Bristol at around 17:30 we were dumped at a bus stop on the side of a road and expected to find our way to the coach station, despite the ticket explicitly stating we would be dropped off at the coach station. When we arrived at the station we hoped to find some explanation and hopefully a solution for our journey problems but instead, we were greeted with customer service that should more accurately be described as customer contempt. Do your staff partake in any conflict resolution training? As hundreds of irritated customers sat in and around the station and more arrived while we were trying to find out what we were supposed to do, your customer service staff were rude, patronising and antagonistic towards me and everyone I saw them deal with. Despite the journey departure being delayed by almost an hour and a half, and despite being dumped by the side of the road, we were told that this situation was our own fault by your customer service team and that no extra coaches would be put on for people to get to the destinations they had paid for.

Finally, after waiting around for an hour to find out what was going on, the absolute best your customer service team could offer was to send us via London to Manchester for an expected time of arrival of 5:30 today. Would you accept that? Given my experience up to that point, I simply didn't believe that it would happen so we ended up getting the train from Bristol to Manchester, via Newport for £47 each. Despite this journey approaching ten times the distance of our journey with National Express, it turned out to be around the same length of time.

I am not unreasonable enough to expect to be reimbursed for the train journey - that was an absolute pleasure. I do expect to be reimbursed for the journey I paid for, as it didn't happen. I think when you refund someone you usually call it a "goodwill gesture" rather than admitting any fault on your part but given the rude staff I had the misfortune of attempting to deal with yesterday and the sheer volume of complaints I expect your department is receiving, I dread to imagine if I'll get a reply at all.

Yours

Richard Waller

[rawrsomesauce]

I find it great that National Express wanted almost £50 for a coach journey back to London from the festival, which would have taken 6/7 hours, whereas I paid £25 for a train ticket and had a much more comfortable and a much quicker journey than I would have had by coach

[Richard Waller]

Ah I was skint at the time, this was £55 return compared to £100+ it'll have been on train. I'm doing that next time.

[STEatT]

Interesting that the 3:30am one was so late, we got the 2:30 one which left bang on time and many waiting for the 3:30 were already there so definitely feel for everyone.

[Chief Scout]

sorry to hear of your experience. I personally had a good experience with them travelling from Donny. Route down left 15 mins late but arrived bang on time, coming home left bang on 06:30 and arrived back in Donny over an hour early.

Would use their services again and couldn't really knock the price for a return journey

[justperfect]

I also can't fault the service we received from national express.

We were on the 07.00 monday morning return to Manchester.

very civilised queuing. Departure bang on time. Didn't hit any serious traffic to note either coming or going. We were due back in chorlton st coach depot at 13.00 and even with our half hour services stop we arrived at 12.25pm.

Paid £63 which upon reflection was money very well spent.

w

[DeanoL]

Short of it: after boarding us, driver decided coach was overloaded, tried to get us to leave all our booze behind. Eventually we take everything off the coach, staff member fiddles with the coach suspension, everything goes back on, and it's fine. Driver just being a c**t. Still only ended up half an hour late and confident I'll get my money back when I complain so not all bad...

[tillyandthewall]

Got my money back from NE after a 6 hour delay when the engine was smoking on the way to Glasto. The way to do it is to realise that legally all they have to do is get you from A to B whilst adhering to their Conditions of Carriage. So get in touch, and the main point of the complaint should be about what condition they did not meet. You will also need to give them a chase after a few weeks.

[JGP]

The Birmingham coaches both there and back were fine, although on the way there we stopped at a service station when we were already an hour late. I think the good/excited mood I was in let me just not care.

[Gucci Piggy]

I had three coaches back to Doncaster, and every one arrived late. I was half an hour late for both connections but fortunately they waited. Although even after the delays cause by them waiting for us, the actual journeys took way longer than we were told.

[little_jim]

The Birmingham coaches both there and back were fine, although on the way there we stopped at a service station when we were already an hour late. I think the good/excited mood I was in let me just not care.

[stardustjunkie]

I had a pleasant journey with National Express and every time I use their service I am never disappointed (journeys that are nothing to do with Glastonbury).

Our coach was meant to be at 3am from London. Understandably London is probably one of the most popular departure destinations so there were a lot of people. They got a queue formed and the coaches were leaving incredibly frequently. It didn't matter what time your coach ticket said though, you just got on the next coach that arrived. I ended up leaving London around 3:20 which was mainly due to them struggling to get the hold to close and the driver needing a break.

We arrived later than expected but that was probably because of the sheer amount of traffic around the festival site.

The return journey had us leaving the festival slightly earlier than we had booked. Again, queuing up and just getting on the next available coach seemed to be the general idea.

At the end of the day it got me there and back comfortably. All the staff were pleasant and they were keen to get everyone on coaches as swiftly as they could. I much prefer it to trains, you get a guaranteed seat and you can forget about your luggage for the duration as well as sleep in some sort of privacy.

[Dan R]

Sounds like a pretty unlucky ordeal. Iv got NE each year iv been, twice from sheffield and from bristol this year. The buses will have been running late and the driver wont have had the break they legally need to have, and im guessing they didnt go to the centre of bristol cos of traffic, it took our lift an hour just to get out of the centre. Still unfair for you to have to deal with it but im gueasing thats why it happened.