Late arrival and disrespect to the poor

Yesterday, I booked a city to city bus for my mother to travel from Grahamstown to East London. The bus was supposed to depart at 19:15. We arrived at the bus station 30 minutes before. We waited as 19:15 hit, we watched other coaches arrive and depart with ours not showing. No correspondence was made to alert anyone that the bus would be late. Many people including women with babies on their back waited as an hour passed and no bus showing. We tried calling the helpline and no one picked up. We waited another hour, still no bus. After 2 hours 13 minutes, we decided to go back home as I was with a baby and he was getting fussy because it was past his bedtime. We went home holding our ticket. Today I woke up and tried to call the helpline and they gave me a customer service number which has been engaged and not going through after three attempts. What I'm utterly disgusted by, apart from the fact that I have lost money, is that this shows undisputed disrespect to the poor. The company is confident in the fact that those people are not going anywhere because they do not have another option. I was lucky to have been waiting in a car, but the other passengers had to stand in the cold night air with crying babies on their backs. This is unacceptable and I should get a refund, but I know that I will be told about the million conditions stated in the fine print. I do not know when the bus eventually arrived, I was probably fast asleep by then. I regret buying that ticket. I would have thought the bus transport services have improved in the years that I have not used one, but it seems that nothing has changed. The companies do not respect their clients. If the was a negative rating, that is what they would get because they deserve it.