dreadful service (Buses & Coaches in general)

Member Name: mokey

Product:	Buses & Coaches in general
Date:	09/07/00 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: slow, noisy, dirty.

I wanted to find out about the coach timetable online so I went to the National Express website thinking it would be easy. Boy was I in for a shock. To the place I wanted to visit I found that I would have to leave before I arrived. There was only one coach a day and although I stated on the form that I wanted a day return ticket they were still willing to sell me, at a £1.50 surcharge, a useless ticket that involved a five and a half hour journey time for a trip that takes no more than one hour.
I then tried to look at the prices of other journeys and found the cost very high. There was a time when coaches used to be so much cheaper than the trains but now I'll never get on one again. The company seems to have got really arrogant and assume that it's a pleasure for us to travel with them. I'm sorry but they are sadly mistaken. The coaches are full of old ladies or students. I have no objections to either of these but I do object to the fact of drunks being allowed on and causing a nuisance and the often travel-sick child. There is no escape from either the smell or the squalling. At least in a train you can walk down to a different carriage and get away from it.
The hostess service is a laugh, if you are 'lucky' enough to have one on your bus then the chances are she will be a miserable person who couldn't really give a damn whether you are comfortable or not.
If someone decides they want to smoke then against the rules or not it is very rare for them to be asked to put it out by the hostess, it's left up to the passengers to moan at the person concerned.

The last trip I took on a Rapide coach was last year, during the eclipse in fact, and the service was so-so. Accepting that they were so busy with all the people wanting to get to the west country for the eclipse I put bad service down to that, but now when I tried again, both online and by phone to get a timetable that I could understand and was ignored , told to p
ick one up from my nearest office and tried to be sold a duff ticket I now know they are only in it for as much profit as they can make.

Summary: