Thank you for your e-mail.

We are currently investigating the points raised and we will contact you further once our investigations are complete.

Thank you for bringing these matters to our attention.

Yours sincerely

Customer Relations Department

Dear Mr Taylor

Thank you for your email.

I was sorry to hear of the delay on your service with us to Leeds recently.

On that day in question we did experience exceptionally severe weather conditions with gale force winds and driving rain. As a direct result many rail and coach services were cancelled and those that did run were subjected to strict speed restrictions for safety reasons.

I am sorry if you received any incorrect information from our staff, I hope you’ll appreciate that National Express is unable to accept liability for delays caused by severe weather conditions.

In situations of this nature, we do advise passengers to contact the 24 hour control centre emergency number which is printed with the tickets. The control centre can then advise the passenger on the most appropriate action to take or arrange for alternative means of transportation to their ticketed destination.

Once again, thank you for taking the trouble to contact us, as customer comments are used as a basis to improve our standard of service and provides us with invaluable feedback. I do hope that this will not deter you from travelling with us again in the future.

If you have any other queries regarding this matter please don’t hesitate to contact me directly on [phone number] and I will be happy to talk to you.

Yours sincerely

[Fantastic Name]
Customer Liaison Executive

Travelling with [them] again in the future? How could I travel again? I haven’t managed to travel with them at all yet. And how can I phone the number printed on the ticket, which says it’s for emergence use only, when I’ve not yet bought a ticket?

From: Andrew Taylor
To: National Express

So let me get this straight so there’s no confusion. You’re saying that as my delay was caused by bad weather I’m not eligible even for a refund of the ticket price?

Only when I phoned up to check on the service levels available the storms had been raging for two hours and your coaches were already running at least an hour and a half late, and I was explicitly and repeatedly told that the service was running as normal.

I don’t blame you for the delays themselves, because obviously I don’t expect you to be able to see into the future, but I DO blame you for the huge discrepancy between what I was told was happening and what was in actual fact happening and what had in actual fact been happening for at least an hour. I DO expect you to be able to see into the PRESENT.

You lied to me and took my money under false pretences. That is an act of fraud.

Is my £4 really that important to you?

Andrew Taylor

Thank you for your email.

I am very sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with my previous response.

Having reviewed our past correspondence, I find there is little I can usefully add to my previous comments about the disruptions you experienced when travelling with us recently. Please though allow me to reiterate my earlier apologies, as well as offer my reassurance that we do appreciate the difficulties caused in such situations. We really make every effort to ensure our service operates as planned.

It is always a concern to us when our customers remain dissatisfied. Having noted your comments, I feel that a further gesture on our part would be appropriate.

I have pleasure in enclosing an E Coach Travel Voucher to the value of £ 5.00 which I hope will go some way towards restoring your confidence in the service we provide.

To use your voucher, simply visit http://www.nationalexpress.com/book (don’t forget to log in or register)

Voucher Number:[number]
Security Code:[code]

If you do not have access to the Internet, please call [number] and one of our Customer Relations Advisors will be pleased to help you.

Once again, my apologies. Here at National Express, we value your custom and hope that, despite your present sentiments, you will choose to travel with us again in the future.

Yours sincerely

[name]
Customer Liaison Executive

Thankyou for the e-voucher, but it doesn’t really help me unless I choose to travel with National Express in the future, which I currently don’t plan to. I also notice that it probably costs you practically nothing to give away such a voucher and that it would be very hard for me to use it without giving you more of my money. In fact, since you have kept £4 of my money in exchange for this voucher, what I effectively have here is a £1 discount — which is pretty useless, you must admit. What I would like would be a cash refund of the money I paid you, and some reason to believe that you will fix whatever system caused this problem in the first place. Any “gestures” you choose to make should be on top of that refund, not instead of it.

Andrew Taylor

I don’t know what to think!

I just wish I felt it ws acceptable to publish the guy’s name, because it really is brilliant.