I made several reservations and payments for my guest through the website in September 2009. but the bus driver of 'Atomic Shuttles' which operates in South Island in co-operation with Nakedbus refused to give the ride to him, for the reason that the bus driver did not have my guest’s reference ... Read review
Advantages: quick reservations and payments, cheap tickets Disadvantages: there is no office to claim problems in emergency
I made several reservations and payments for my guest through the website in September 2009. but the bus driver of 'Atomic Shuttles' which operates in South Island in co-operation with Nakedbus refused to give the ride to him, for the reason that the bus driver did not have my guest’s reference number both in his list and in his mobile phone. Surprisingly, the driver did not have an office to make a contact with, and demanded my guest make a phone ... ...a mobile phone which was able to call 0900. The bus driver refused to call saying he was NOT ALLOWED to do so. My guest had to travel on that day definitely, so ended up paying cash to the driver, although all the credit-card payments were approved and went through. In retrospect, this event seems to be common given the info on their website. My guest is requesting a refund of the payment that he had to pay to the driver, since this was obviously ... more
I made several reservations and payments for my guest through the website in September 2009. but the bus driver of 'Atomic Shuttles' which operates in South Island in co-operation with Nakedbus refused to give the ride to him, for the reason that the bus driver did not have my guest’s reference number both in his list and in his mobile phone. Surprisingly, the driver did not have an office to make a contact with, and demanded my guest make a phone call to 0900 number, although my guest did not have a mobile phone which was able to call 0900. The bus driver refused to call saying he was NOT ALLOWED to do so. My guest had to travel on that day definitely, so ended up paying cash to the driver, although all the credit-card payments were approved and went through. In retrospect, this event seems to be common given the info on their website. My guest is requesting a refund of the payment that he had to pay to the driver, since this was obviously caused by the driver, or his company, or Nakedbus. The driver had a hand-written list of 3-digit numbers - which did not resemble the reference numbers of Nakedbus - and ordered my guest to find the number himself. Furthermore, the driver did not load luggage himself but let customers load all the bags into the bus, which looked unsafe and unusual from the normal practice of bus companies in NZ. In fairness, this kind of event, i.e. the bus driver did not have the reference number, has happened to me several times in NZ in the past five years of my stay here when the payment was made in advance by credit card. However, in every case I had the ride given the possible mistake of the companies concerned in the operation which often involves several transport companies. The bus company, Atomic Shuttles rejected to give the ride to my guest, insisting that he did not have the number, although my guest had the evidence of payment, the bus ticket. I am going to cancel all the tickets I bought in order to avoid future troubles.