Stagecoach/Provincial > Reviews > Expensive and unreliable

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Average
Customer service	very bad
Frequency of bus / buses	Poor
Value for money	Poor
Reliability	Very poor

Advantages:	Sometimes you can actually get to your destination !
Disadvantages:	Expensive and unreliable

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Stagecoach! Pah! Like most areas the deregulation of bus services some years ago led to a multitude of different bus companies running services within the same area.

Where I live (Surrey) we have as our main bus companies Arriva, Stagecoach, Green Line and Safeguard. Stagecoach sticks out like a sore thumb for poor (non-existent almost!) customer service aswell as being hideously overpriced.

In my area there are a couple of long routes they run on - one I use(d) fairly regularly to go to a nearby town about 8 miles away - about a 35 minute journey. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had problems with this so-called service. It supposedly runs every half hour until about 6.30pm when there is one bus about every hour or so until about 10pm. The return fare for the journey is £3.10 - very expensive compared to the other companies.

I've been left stranded at the other end of my journey unable to return home on many occasions meaning I've had to pay extra to take a train instead, or, on two occasions pay about £11 to get a taxi!! On enquiring at the station about getting a refund on my ticket I was met with a dismissive shrug of the shoulders and "You'll have to try writing to them love". On one occasion one member of staff even just curtly said "Well, you've made half the journey haven't you?"!!!!!!

Unfortunately on these routes there's no alternative bus company running so I have to bear with Stagecoach and their appaling activities.