No Luxury Mainliner as alleged

Item: Intercape
Rating: 1
Author: Cecilia M

Unfortunately l have had three consecutive AWFUL experiences with Intercape Mainliner within a period of 3 months so bus service users- rather go to GREYHOUND and trust me you will thank yourself. First, in December 2016 l bought a ticket for my brother who is a student from Johannesburg to Harare. The bus arrived in Harare around 3am and not the scheduled time, with the consequence that pople had to use private taxis to get to their homes at that odd hour!!!And no it was not border issues as theu like to claim- the bus broke down!!!!! So much for a luxury unroadworthy bus. And one would have thought they would have offered some food and drinks to their stranded passengers whose journey time they had made longer but NOPE- its about profits here and who cares about customers. Then in January 2017 same story. The bus from Harare to Johannesburg also arrived in Johannesburg late again because it broke down!!!!The consequence was that my brother missed the connecting bus to Durban. They wanted to put him on a bus leaving later that afternoon and they only agreed to put him on an earlier bus after l telephoned the head office in Cape Town. Unfortunately when by brother arrived in Durban, the supplementary exam he was scheduled to write had already been written because he was late, all thanks to Intercape. Unlike Intercape, the UKZN authorities who are understanding, allowed my brother to write the exam subsequently. For the inconvenience caused, Intercape was prepared to refund 40% of the Harare- Johannesburg ticket, towards the purchase of another Intercape Bus ticket. In other words, you must still use this bus with such a record if you want the 40% discount!!!! Now knowing Intercape Bus itself cannot be trusted to arrive on time (because it will in all likelihood break down along the way), l booked my brother on Greyhound to Johannesburg from Durban. But l needed to send his bag to Johannesburg from Cape Town and only Intercape offers the parcel service. Given the urgency of the matter, l reluctantly settled for Intercape to transport the bag to Johannesburg. l was informed by the gentleman in the parcels office (whose capacity to be on duty was UNDOUBTEDLY compromised) that the parcel will arrive in Johannesburg around 11am the following day and that the office would be open until 10pm. As my brother was arriving in Johannesburg around 6pm, l figured he has 4 hours to collect his bag before he connects on the 8pm Greyhound to Harare. He arrived in Johannesburg and lo and behold, the parcels office is long closed, which means he must proceed to Harare without his bag. And thats what happened!!! On learning of this, l contacted the Intercape Head office in Cape Town. Thrice my call was transfered to another person with the consequence that l had to explain it again!!What an irritation. Eventually I explained the problem to the 3rd person and surmised that the wrong infofmation about the closing time of the Johannesburg parcel office was wrongly communicated to me possibly because the person who assisted me in the parcels office was clearly under no condition to be on duty. Without first investigating the claim, the manager told me it is my fault that l did not report the matter to management. Really!!BUT it would have been obvious to every other Intercape employee on duty that day that their colleague was in no condition to be at work but Intercape wants to put the obligation on customers to report to them. I do not work for Intercape and will certainly not supervise their employees for them. The manager requested my number and telephoned me back an hour or so later. He informed me that he had investigated the matter (must have done it telephonicaly because he is not based in the Bellville office) and that they deny that the person manning the office was in no condition to work as alleged. I was also informed, to my shock, that l spoke to the ladies in the ticket office about the closing time of the Johannesburg ticket office. Apparently according to these ladies, l did not specify which office l was inquiring about. First l did not speak to these ladies about the closing time as alleged but to the gentleman in the parcels office. Secondly, why would l inquire about the closing time of the Intercape ticket office when lm sending a parcel? So INTERCAPE refused to bring back the bag to Cape Town and said l needed to pay for it again if l needed it in Cape Town. Obviously l wasnt going to ever give them a cent of my money so l collected the bag from Johannesburg myself!!!! So bus users dont say l use Intercape because l didnt know better. My free advice is to use GREYHOUND. The few times l have used Greyhound for my family, they always arrived on schedule, the service was superb and in fact their prices are not very different from INTERCAPES prices. BY THE WAY, INTERCAPE NO LONGER HAS HOSTESSES ON THEIR BUSES BUT GREYHOUND STILL HAS THEM. Oh and for good measure, some years back Intercape left my then boyfriend (now husband) stranded at King Williams Station in the Eastern Cape because he had a bike. They told him they dont transport bikes and yet he had phoned the office and had been informed that in fact they do. So they left him STRANDED at 6pm and he had to look for transport back home- about 40 kilometres away. And of course he forfeited the ticket because according to them, he was not on the bus!!!!! Since then he does not not book anyone on Intercape and now l have joined him. Its a pity it took me this long to come to my senses!!!

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