Travelled Turin to Chambery on a return ticket with an assembled bike on 1st Aug. Return was scheduled 3rd Aug at 22:10, I used Flixbus because there are no trains or other buses that cross the border and allow an assembled bike. At 21:10 I receive a "rescheduled" trip from Chambery to Turin at 14:10 on 4th Aug, 16 hours later.
T&Cs state that for cancellations, Flixbus will reimburse a hotel and food in the meantime, so all good with me; makes sense as Flixbus shouldn't expect me to stay overnight at the bus station and not sleep or eat. If I slept, my bike would be stolen when I wake up again.
I find a hotel, ask for breakfast and eventually come back to Turin. I ask for reimbursement on customer service, but each time they apologise for the "expenses that you incurred", i.e. the hotel, and try not to acknowledge it or the fact that they cancelled the booking on 03/08.
Having been ghosted by the customer service team in email, who still haven't clearly explained why the T&Cs don't apply in this case, and not getting anywhere on the phone, I am now 120 EUR out of pocket. Effectively, Flixbus can cancel at any time and give you an alternative late the next day, and avoid any responsibility for the costs incurred overnight. Absolutely appalling...
In addition, I've used Flixbus six times over the past year (three return trips), going to and from Turin with an assembled bike. Of those six journeys, despite booking the assembled bike ticket well in advance (months!), the bus never arrived with a bike rack. Fine if I'm allowed to put the bike in the hold, but two of these times times I had to argue with the driver to let me put the bike on! This is despite me writing a complaint in the past regarding this. The last of these six times is the bus not arriving, as above, and me having to pay for their mistakes. It's clear that Flixbus do not consider feedback no matter what, so I write this as a warning for prospective travellers.