Mum's fury as National Express drops her and little boy off miles from home
A furious mum has vowed never to travel with National Express again after a coach driver left her and her three-year-old son miles from home late at night.
Sally Glover's trip to London with son Ziggy turned into a nightmare when the two were "abandoned" 16 miles from their planned stop on route home. The pair from Louth, Lincolnshire, had visited the capital on the coach as Ziggy was "mad about buses" and planned to come home the following day.
But while on route to London, civil engineer Sally was sent an email to say their return journey would not be stopping in her hometown and that they'd have to get off in Wragby instead - more than 15 miles away. As a result, Sally and Ziggy were left on the side of a busy A-road at 10.20pm on a Friday.
Sally, who paid for the tickets more than a month in advance, said they didn't reach London until 3.30pm, and the brief amount of time they'd had to sightsee was then spent calling National Express to sort out the mess. The coach line promised to call her back the following day, but that didn't happen until after they'd boarded the bus home.
Sally and Ziggy were excited for their day out as a late-summer 'treat' (Sally Glover)
The mum was left ballistic over the fiasco (Sally Glover)While the board at the coach station initially showed Louth as a stop, the bus driver told her otherwise as they boarded. She told Daily Star: "As I stood there sobbing, begging not to be left on the side of the road in Wragby, the driver told me, 'Not my problem'."
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"He tried to explain to me that he can't let us on the bus as we may then refuse to get off, and he'd have to call the police. If his intention was to frighten us, it worked – my three-year-old was terrified." Eventually, a staff member took Sally aside and agreed to arrange a taxi for the other end, but further stress ensued when they couldn't find one with a car seat for Ziggy.
She raged claiming the drivers left her feeling "humiliated", "patronised" and "belittled", before they eventually were allowed to take their seats at the front "like a naughty child". When Sally was finally called by the company after her previous attempts to sort out the fiasco, a staff member said she would need to sort her own taxi and claim for it later.
The board initially said it would be calling at Louth after all, quelling Sally's fears, before a driver told them otherwise (Sally Glover)Exasperated, Sally agreed to look but couldn't find a suitable ride, resulting in her husband having to leave work and make a 30-mile round trip to pick them up. The nightmare at the end of the summer has left Sally still furious, speaking out now about the coach company's attitude.
To make things worse, Sally's own investigations have found that the road closure which prompted the cancelled stop was announced months earlier, long before she booked her tickets. And the council had even told the company that access would still be possible for the late-night service during the roadworks.
A National Express spokesperson said: "The service was unable to serve Louth due to an extended section of roadworks making the usual route unsuitable for coaches to pass through safely ... There were no suitable options available and the nearest stop that we could safely serve was Wragby."
"Unfortunately, this was not communicated effectively to Mrs Glover at the time ... This is not the level of customer experience we aim to provide and we were in touch with Mrs Glover in September to apologise and arrange a full refund along with compensation for the inconvenience caused."
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