To think the bus company is taking the ****

[muddleduck]

I posted on here months ago about a really horrible bus journey I had with the dc which should have been 30 minutes but ended up being nearly 2 hours. My main moan wasn't about the delay it was about the fact that the company clearly couldn't care less about trying to minimise the disruption to us. They refused to let us use the replacement bus (which was available) and instead made us wait for the next scheduled bus. There was another mum in a state about her dc being stranded after school but the driver was about as helpful/reassuring as a brick.

I decided to write and ask for a refund. (You can't do this by email or phone.) Not so much because of the money but more because I think the attitude of bus companies stinks. Their view seems to be that people only use buses if they have no other option so they can treat us like . I usually travel by train where IME the customer service is pretty good.

So after nearly 3 months I get a reply containing an apology and a single trip voucher as compensation. Great! I win! Hooray! But then when I come to use it I realise that because a single ticket is nearly the same price as a return ticket they have only saved me 50p. Not really worth the stamp.

Iknow there are more important things in life to get annoyed about but as someone who chooses to use the bus (I have a car and am not too far from the train station) I really feel awful for those people who use this service reguarly and are clearly resigned to being treated like their time is of no value.

you had one journey disrupted.
you have been refunded one journey.

what's the problem?in your own words it was the principle of the matter so now that the bus company has in principle admitted that they were in he wrong and could have handled everything better you should be appeased.

I think I'd write back (maybe even sending back the ticket) and explain that it wasn't so much about the one journey you had disrupted, more about the way you were treated, and you want to be reassured that if you travel with them again, there is no chance it'd happen again.

that'd be fair enough.but she wrote to ask for a refund and received one.
why change tact now and start writing for assuarances that she can in no way hold the bus company to?
personally i'd claim the moral victory and let it go

Well, it sounds like you asked for a refund for the trip that was disrupted, and that was what you've got. You would have had a better chance of getting additional compensation the if you'd requested it at the beginning.

(I had an incident recently when it took us an hour to get out of a carpark due to the paypoints being broken. I complained and suggested that they give me vouchers for free parking for the next few times I visit, and they've agreed to give me 3 vouchers.)

If a similar thing happens again, request compensation (perhaps a specific amount) and aim high.

Good point melpomene. I guess it was my fault for not being bossy enough. Next time I need to complain about something I'll have to let the mn jury approve my letter first.

BTW they only ever apologised for the actual delay and not for their rude driver or decision not to let us use the replacement bus.

I would write back, saying how disappointed you were with their inadequate and slow response... I had a hideous "interaction" with Mothercare a few months ago and kept going back to them until I had a refund AND gift vouchers. True, I am still too furious to enter a Mothercare store and thus use the vouchers, but I am hoping to eventually get over that... the thing is, I can't abide

"I would write back, saying how disappointed you were with their inadequate and slow response"

slow perhaps. but inadequate response? asked for refund, received refund.

surely abu to expect them to be mind readers and give out more than was requested by an unsatisfied customer?

I think it is inadequate.

A good response would have been an explanation as to why the replacement bus could not be used, where the training needs of the staff fell short and how they were going to be addressed, as well as an apology and a hope that the customer was not put off using the bus as it was an environmentally friendly, flexible transport method blah di blah di blah, planning to extend network next year to blah di blah di blah, positive blah di spin, blah di blah di waffle

It's not difficult to write a grovelling letter and it's the difference between keeping a customer and losing one forever. I'm always surprised at how shit organisations are at doing it.

I now see both sides of this, but I do agree with LB that their response was inadequate. I asked them to refund my ticket (which was a return) and they have given me a voucher, which (assuming that I always want to come home again) saves me a very small proportion of this return fare. More to the point they have not apologised for the issue that I complained about, which was their response to the delay not the delay itself.

Will let you know if I can be bothered to write back.