UnSAFE, UnRELIABLE and UnAFFORDABLE

Safety and affordability means customer care.

I took an Intercape Mainliner bus from Pretoria on the morning of 23 May 2015 at 05:30 bound for Maputo through Nelspruit. The bus arrived at Johannesburg Park Station at approximately 06:35. The bus conductor advised passengers to grab coffee as the bus was going to depart at 08:00. Myself and two other passengers took the opportunity to grab a bite at Wimpy. When we returned to the bus at 07:40 we were told that the bus had left at 07:30. We quickly rushed to the parcel weigh in point to request assistance. We were directed to the Intercape front desk where we had to seek someone either called Desmond or Monde, who we were informed was the Manager.

The ladies there nonchalantly wanted to know our ticket numbers. One of us had her ticket with her while we had left ours inside our bags in the bus. We however had our ticket numbers which we gave to them. They idly got on the phone and told us that the gentleman denies that he said the bus was departing at 08:00. They insisted he said 07:30. We inquired how could the three of us who were sitting at different sections of the bus hear the same ‘wrong message’. The ladies were adamant that we heard it wrong as the departure time was 07:30. We insisted that there is no way that three people who did not know each other until a few hours ago could have schemed to lie about departure time.

They sent us to a gentleman named Mhlambi who was on the boarding terminus and alleged to be the manager. When we finally found Mhlambi he started by giving us a lecture about how the bus left at 07:30 and refused to listen to our complaint beyond the fact that the bus had left us behind and was carrying our luggage. We then inquired about the next stop and he said it was Bertrams, roughly two kilometres from Park Station. We requested him to delay the bus as we would find a way to get there. He told us that the Intercape bus is like an aeroplane; it cannot be stopped once it has ‘taken off’. Time was 08:10. When we asked him what time does it leave Bertrams he assured us that it departs at 08:30 and that its next stop is Witbank.

We rushed and booked a R100.00 maxi taxi to Bertrams. The driver drove fast through traffic and finally arrived there at 08:21. When we inquired with the ticketing agent she said the bus left long ago. “It left at 07:50” she assured us. We stood there wondering why the bus conductor and Mhlambi gave us wrong information about the departure times of the bus.

We then called Intercape Customer Care to lodge our complaint. We were not getting any useful help even when we gave them our ticket numbers. At the end of the day, after failing many times to get assistance the other passenger we were with managed to have her ticket converted by the agent at Bertrams so she can board Translux bus service to Maputo through Nelspruit. When it became obvious that we were not getting relief from the Intercape Call Centre and the agent who told us that her system cannot print Translux tickets even with our ticket number we finally decided to buy Translux tickets so we can get to Nelspruit and rescue our luggage. We both paid R520.00 for Translux even though we were supposed to have travelled on our R209.00 Intercape tickets each.

Once in the Translux bus an Intercape consultant called George called to inquire about the descriptions of the bags and their code so that they can be dropped at Nelspruit where we would salvage them. We described them and minutes later he called to confirm that the bags have been found and they will be left at Nelspruit. We asked how do we lodge an official complaint and he said a consultant will call us about that. The call never came but we got a Ref number C63459. Our complaint to George was that we wanted a reimbursement of our R260.00 since we were not at fault and we had spent R100.00 on a metre taxi and R260.00 on a new ticket.

When we got to Nelspruit at 12:57 and rushed to the Intercape office we found it closed. The security guard told us that the lady had left for the day and we can only salvage our bags either on Sunday or Monday. Everything that I owned was in that hand luggage; house keys, toiletries, clothes and sensitive documents. I come from Bushbuckridge which is roughly 80 kilometres from Nelspruit and the thought of going home without house keys frustrated me. I wondered why did the Intercape office worker leave before 13:00 which I believe is the knock off time.

I called the Call Centre and spoke to a consultant called Sharon who we requested to call the Nelspruit lady to release our bags since she had not been gone for ten minutes and was still around. She refused to call and to give numbers for us to go fetch her and take her back to the taxi stop if she was there.

I ended up booking accommodation in Nelspruit for the night so that I can salvage my house keys and bags the following Sunday, 24 May 2015. I only managed to get my back on that Sunday and left for Bushbuckridge.

I should confess that I felt abused, inconvenienced and short-changed by the service I received at Intercape and proposed a remedy in two letters sent to them. They ignored them and when I finally called a lady named Jessica on the 2^nd of June 2015 she was firm that they will not compensate for any of us. She was firm and cocky that Intercape did nothing wrong and that they will not compensate. I said fine; all I knew is that I will share my story with as many media as possible and we will see who will suffer reputational damage in the long run.

My advice to you: DON’T BOARD INTERCAPE. OR. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. THEIR STANDARDS ARE THE LOWEST I HAVE FOUND IN A BUS SERVICE. Hahahahahahahaha! This is funny.

MPUMALANGA'S FINEST