Intercape-Bad service, bad advisors. Vathiswa in particular.

We booked tickets for my parents to depart from Pretoria Station to Cape Town, weeks ago already. Yesterday, they were supposed to board bus number 210. They missed the bus in Pretoria, so we rushed all the way to Vanderbuijl for them to catch it. On the way there, we called the call center, that makes you stay in the line for no less than 11mins before attending to you, even though you are caller number 3.

Eventually we spoke to someone. They said we need to go to Vanderbuijl, because the bus will be there at 18h15. She even said she'd call the driver and explain that we are on the way. On the way there, we rode into a massive storm of rain, and it delayed us.

Again,we called the call center, and they said next stop Kroonstad. The bus will depart from there at 21h00. At this stage, the agent we spoke to, Vathiswa, even recognized my voice, and knew who she was speaking to, but she advised that we are chasing the bus at our own risk.

We understood, and took the risk. When we got to Kroonstad, at 20h30,after R500+ petrol, she told us that our ticket is now forfeited, and we need to buy new tickets from the driver at a cost of R870 each because 'there are still 2 seats left on the bus'. It was our seats anyway, now we just have to pay for them again. I immediately flipped out, because the whole way there, she only mentioned the risk, which we took, but now we are here before the bus, and she's insisting that we buy new tickets.

Anyway, we eventually decided, we'd pay for the tickets when the bus gets there. After 21h00 the time the bus is supposed to get there, I call the call center again for 11mins+. I speak to the same person. Now I'm asking where the bus is, because it is 21h20 already. She advises that the bus is on its way to Kroonstad now. And we wait...

It is now 10h54 pm, and I call again, and again Vathiswa advises the bus is on it's way and reiterate the fact that this is now at my own risk. Again, I assure her that I am taking the risk, because I'm there already!! But she assures me that bus 210 is still on its way.

It is now 23h13, and I call her again. She says "the bus has already left the station, mam."

And then I blew a gasket!!

First of all, we checked all the busses for 210. NONE OF THEM HAD THAT NUMBER ON IT!! But my father and husband kept going to ask EVERY SINGLE driver, if that's the bus. Because we are going to buy new tickets, this is us 'taking the risk'. Second of all, it is freezing, and my elderly parents are sitting here being fed wrong information by an inadequate advisor, who is very nonchalant about what we're going through right now. Third, she calmly says to me 'mam, when you called me the last time, the bus was like 10mins away.' How the hell evens?? My dad is checking every damn bus!!!!

Now there's nothing for us to do. We have to head home,WITHOUT A DAMN PERMIT AFTER DAMN CURFEW!!! But she's very uninterested in what we're going through. So after spending R500+ and WASTING ****ING 4hrs of our time, my parents STILL didn't get on the bus!

We got home at 2am this morning, and had to be at work at 6am,because of ONE FREAKING *********** person!

I would NEVER advise anyone to travel with INTERCAPE. They have no regard or concern for anything or any of their passengers. They took time and money from us that we will never get back. If someone in Pretoria had told us that we would forfeit the ticket, we wouldn't have made the trip. We would've booked new tickets for the next day. But they still advise you wrong!

This was the first and last time.