National Express Reviews

1.6 Rating 325 Reviews
13 %
of reviewers recommend National Express
1.6
Based on 325 reviews
Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods
Own Driver
On-time Delivery
Greater than 23%
Customer Service
Communication Channels
Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In
Over A Week
Customer Service
1.7 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process
Difficult
Read National Express Reviews

About National Express:

National Express coach & bus tickets for travel to over 900 destinations throughout the UK including London airports Heathrow, Gatwick & Stansted. National Express offer Britain’s only scheduled coach network reaching around 1000 destinations in England, Scotland and Wales.

Phone:

08717 818178

Location:

National Express House, Birmingham Coach Station, Mill Lane, Digbeth
Birmingham
B5 6DD7

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National Express 1 star review on 24th April 2024
SELMAN AKSUNGER
National Express 1 star review on 23rd May 2023
Anonymous
National Express 1 star review on 23rd May 2023
Anonymous
National Express 1 star review on 9th July 2022
You Bus Smells Like Shit
Anonymous
Anonymous  // 01/01/2019
I hope this is of use, particularly for solo travellers. I arrived at Chorlton St bus station at 7.20pm for the 7.40pm to Blackpool. I am disabled and walk with a stick and I'm not good at standing for long periods so I was greatly relieved when upon arrival I saw the station illuminated sign displaying, ' 7.40pm for Blackpool now boarding. Go to Gate C.' I was stuck in a queue for a little while as other coaches were boarding from the same Gate. I finally made it to the coach door and the 2 drivers were engrossed on their phones. They looked most put out that I had come to board. "WE are the drivers and WE tell you when you can board!" said one aggressively. I explained that the display board was stating to go to Gate C as the Blackpool coach is now boarding. "You'll have to go back!" he bawled. Disappointed and somewhat crest fallen I headed back to Gate C. "Not that Gate!" he ordered loudly and indicated a Gate further away. I went through that Gate and got stuck in a long queue as the Birmingham coach was boarding there. My legs were now throbbing and I was in some pain. I got to the Blackpool coach and I was turned away AGAIN even though it was now less than 10 mins to departure. The ill manners were now becoming threatening as he insisted I had to queue yet again. Another queue had been forming outside the station [dangerous?] and I had to join that one. I eventually boarded with less than 5 mins to go. I had been using the train previously but decided to try National Express after all the disruption. I'll go back to the train because at least all the staff are polite and helpful, not threatening, unnerving and bullying.
Helpful Report
Posted 9 months ago
DO NOT under any circumstances book with NE! Wow, how many things can one company get wrong, dirty stinking buses, no working toilets, late pick ups, downright dangerous driving (apparently they bonuses) for each target! NE Driving standards should be seriously questioned by POLICE. myself and my family booked for London, 2 buses there, 2 buses back. all 4 journeys were of the same grubby buses, dangerous driving, questionable driving skills, their drivers people skills were shocking, especially considering their website claiming to out people first????????? Who ever created their website clearly never met drivers or actually used the service, or just took lots of money to tell lots of lies. I'm still waiting for a reply from any member of NE, I used their complaints form, on their complaints page???? clearly this is as usefull as their timetables
Helpful Report
Posted 10 months ago
It was terrible! Our bus 440 was scheduled to leave London Victoria for Derby at 4:30 pm on July 1st. On the day of the trip, National Express first received a message that the bus would be replaced with another one. However, when the time came for the trip, it turned out that there was no bus at all. National Express employees operating other buses told passengers that the bus was delayed and they did not provide any more information. It was impossible to get through to the company's phone number, the company's website was also unavailable. As a result, all passengers of the bus were forced to wait for long hours without any information! As a result, bus 440 was cancelled! We were terribly tired, the baby was crying and we were just lucky that there were still seats on the company's late bus, Megabus, and we finally managed to leave London by spending extra money on bus tickets. I also failed to apply for a refund for services not provided on the National Express website! Shame on you for your complete disrespect for your customers and indifference!
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Posted 10 months ago
I would love to be able to give 0 stars my car was clipped 4 weeks ago by a west midlands national express bus the driver didn't even stop just carried on so I had to turn around and pursue it to get the registration from the time it happened to me phoning them took 5 mins they tried to say the bus wasn't there's so I called there bluff and said I had a photo of the back of the bus with that registration and there logo on remarkably they then found the bus on the system I was told I'd get a call from a company that deals with there accident claims 2 days later I get a letter national express admit fault and offer to give me a hire car and fix my car for FREE a deal I thought to be to good to be true. 4 weeks later and it was they know state there bus didn't do the damage despite there dash cam showing no damage to my bumper before we crossed paths. There trying to imply im the liar
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Posted 11 months ago
Having been advised to pick my coach up at Pool valley Brighton which was the wrong info I missed my flight but they are not willing to refund my holiday even though I clearly had it in writing to pick it up they are now blaming me ? Disgusting company it’s all about the money they don’t care just a greedy bunch of thieves never will I ever use their services anymore
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Posted 11 months ago
Very slow driver, shouldn’t be working at Airports transport
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Posted 11 months ago
Awful experience! Due to multiple attempts in contacting the national express complaints and customer service team I have had to resort to writing a negative review as the response to my formal complaint offered barely any resolution. While I was refunded my bus ticket of £5, I am more comparing and giving my negative review over national express’ disregard for patient safety and change of bus departure (which led me to have to pay over £80 for a last minute Uber) and lack of communication/resolution to my complaint. Update: response from national express 23-MAY-2023 “Having reviewed your case again, given that we did contact you by email to inform you of the changes despite the email going into your junk folder I am unable to add anything further to my colleagues comments. Unfortunately, I am unable to warrant any compensation on this occasion.” This email is upsetting as they did not follow their typical guidelines national express stated to me “When we need to change the time or date to the ticket we would normally automatically email new ticket to the email that was provided when ticket was purchased. I'm sorry to hear that this did not happened.“ per their response, it is their responsibility to notify customers of the time change with a new ticket. Unfortunately, I was just made aware of the time change however the email was sent from an unknown email! So of course it will then go to my junk. It would be different if the email had come from their official ticket email address as that is an email I would look out for but how should I know to be constantly be checking my junk for a potential national express update from an unknown email! Someone as critical as a time change should be sent by an official email and have an option to acknowledge the change (something airlines do!!). The last thing is the live update said the bus left after I had arrived so regardless of the time change, I should have made the bus due to the bus’s delay. This is another reason why I had missed the bus! I expect a live bus tracker to be updated accurately.
National Express 1 star review on 23rd May 2023 National Express 1 star review on 23rd May 2023
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Posted 11 months ago
This is the second weekend in a row I have been let down by National Express. Last weekend, my first bus was one hour late, causing me to miss my connection at Heathrow. I then had to wait over 2 1/2 hours for another bus which turned out to be over booked. This weekend doing the same journey - Our driver from Bournemouth decided to leave five minutes early and had to be called because back to Bournemouth to pick up passengers he’d left behind. This is resulted in a 30 minute delay getting to Heathrow and we arrived just in time to see the coach, they said they would definitely hold for us, drive away. I will just simply never trust National Express again. Your customer service is quite frankly awful, and your service is totally unreliable and not fit to serve the purpose that it is there to provide
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Posted 11 months ago
I tell you what’s a joke. It’s when you pay a 18.00 ticket to get from Luton Airport to Leicester and NE asks for an additional 32.00 to switch to a coach an hour earlier. Value for money indeed. I flew in from Cyprus on a 28 Euro ticket so work that one out
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Posted 11 months ago
National Express Coaches are a joke. On my return from Bath on the 29/4/23 at 20:15, we got into the Bus to find out the toilet was out of use, with the message stating that it was blocked. It is unbelievable that National Express Coaches actually put a bus in service that can be considered Not Fit for Its Purposes as it can't even offer the minimum for their passengers. When I tried to charge my mobile I was disappointed to find out that the USB wasn't working. I tried several seats and none of them had an USB working. People seating next to me also tried several seats without success. When the driver turned the lights off, those who wanted to read their book were unable because the white lights on the ceiling were not working. I requested to the driver to stop in Earls Court, as I knew the company has a stop there before heading to Victoria. The driver told me that it would not be a problem. When the driver turned the bus from CromWell Road into Warwick Road I got my things to leave. He even stopped for a few seconds almost in front of the station. I could just literally cross the street to it, but then he proceeded without opening the door. I asked him where he would open the door, and he told me just a couple of streets away, and drove for another 10 minutes until Albert Bridge Road, near Chelsea and tried to convince me that the place was Earls Court, when Earls Court was at least 10 minutes back by bus and it would take me at least 40 minutes to walk back. It was overall, a very bad experience with this Company, who has an unexperienced driver and lack of care for their customers running old and not fully functional buses. How can you leave the bus station with a bus which doesn't have the minimum necessary to offer a comfortable trip to your customers? It is unacceptable to have in service a bus which will run for at least 2:45 minutes where passengers can't even use the loo. When we boarded and found that the toilet was not working, my friend asked the driver where the toilet was and he told him that he would have to go to a restaurant as the station doesn't have toilets. My friend is an old person with mobility problems and he had to try to run to the restaurant and back before the bus left. He got back just in time, but had to push himself to be able to take that bus. The request to stop in Earls Court was also due to his mobility and the driver trying to drop us more than 1 mile away wouldn't help at all. I would like an apology and compensation from this Company, as I didn't receive what I paid for.
Helpful Report
Posted 1 year ago
The worst and rudest experience I have encountered on any travels, we were there before the departing time to go to gate 19 for our bus at 7:30 to Middlesbrough. We waited there and went to ask a number of staff at the coach station who told us to go to stand 17 and to board. One of the staff members then proceed to slam the door in our face, shouted and made gestures. He then proceeded to come back 2 minutes later to shout at us, condescending and utterly rude. I have never experienced this type of customer interaction before and as a result would refrain from ever using this service again. Such was the level of shouting by the staff member, a customer on a different coach stepped in to say he was out of line in the manner he was speaking to us. To put the cherry on the top all we told they can do for us was for us to purchase a new tickets as there’s nothing they can do. Everything was out of their hands.
Helpful Report
Posted 1 year ago
My 2 19 year old sons along with three of their friends booked a return to Leeds from Milton Keynes on 18th returning on 19th March. Unfortunately they had car issues on the way to Milton Keynes and arrived 1 min before the bus departed. One of my sons ran to the bus and asked the driver if he could wait just a couple of mins for them to park their car. He said ‘no’ and said you’ll have to get the next bus. The office would not allow them to use the ticket they had paid for the next bus, so they all had to fork out £30 each (£150 in total). When they got on the next bus, the driver said he would have accepted their tickets from the earlier bus. There were plenty of seats available. My son tried to get a refund, but he was told it was company policy. These boys don’t have a lot of money to spare. I think your company are extremely mean at making them pay again when there was plenty of space on the later bus. Very unkind and money grabbing company. My sons will not be travelling with you again! The 1st driver was very arrogant and could have easily waited 2 mins, but worse than that they were charged the extra £150 on top of what they had already paid.
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Posted 1 year ago
I got a ticket on national express bristol London. After that I had booked a bus from london/paris with more than 3hrs difference. When I was in the national express bus in bristol it was decided to join the people from 2 buses in one. So my bus that was direct was going now to be diverted to Swindon and Heathrow. The bus driver told me that was better to get the train instead. That was not guaranteed what time we will be arriving to London. Like me there was about 8 people in the train to London that I saw. I requested a refund for uber /train/subway. The bus drivers told us that in this circumstances national express pay for the expenses. Now national express is replying that they just can do a refund from the national express ticket from Bristol/London that don't cover by far the expenses I had with this new national express strategy. I know now that this is gappen very often, cancel buses to join the clients from different buses to reduce costs and leaving clients to their own chance.
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Posted 1 year ago
On 13 March 2023 I traveled from London Victoria to Nottingham at 20.30 -23.30 In coach NX450 all my journey was worried because I can’t charged my phone none of the switch was not working and my battery was dead and was thinking how I can book taxi to pick me Not good at all 🥵🥵🥵🥵 I didn’t enjoy my journey even I try to call national rail office it goes on voice mail
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Posted 1 year ago
Should be zero rate !!! but without 1 star will not let me add my review! Please be careful and never use National Express coach service from Stansted airport. The driver of the National Express came about two hours late,was very rude and disrespect to us passengers,he shouted and was very aggressive,his language was vulgar and very inappropriate acting like he is on top of the world, he started an argument as a result of which he refused us to travel with him. National Express employee there were very unpleasant, unhelpful and didn't consider us as passengers at all, they created their own fake story with this rude driver so they wouldn't have to refund our tickets. They never refunded us for our tickets. We had to return to London by train at our own extra cost. BE AWARE DO NOT USE NATIONAL EXPRESS SERVICES! Better is to take the train from Stansted without delays and extra stress. Using National Express was a big mistake and no one from my family will ever use National Express again. I just want to warn people that it is not worth choosing this service to travel with National Express. Never never again
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Posted 1 year ago
Can't get intoutouch gave up waiting on phone The Answer I wanted Awas NOT on useless websight find another coach company..
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Posted 1 year ago
I can't describe my disappointment at the driver who took went the wrong direction ended up in junction 28 & drove all the way back waisted almost 1 hour what made it worst he didn't know where HD was Coach SH291 ON THE 3RD OF FEB
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Posted 1 year ago
We arrived at the coach station early, and at about 12:13, two coaches turned up. Ours was due to leave at 12:15, so it became a stressful situation of trying to determine which of the coaches was ours in about two minutes, as neither of them listed our destination. We had also seen another coach come in and then change its destination, so weren't sure how reliable this was. The monitors where we were waiting said no information on coach departures was available, so we had no information about which coaches were incoming and when, other than literally seeing them as they arrived. My Mum got into the queue for Coach A, and I went to check on Coach B. The driver from Coach B (the coach it turned out we should have been getting) asked if I was getting on, so I asked where she was going, and she said, '[end destination]'. I then said oh I think we're going in a different direction, at which point she said okay, and got back on the coach. She didn't ask to see a ticket, or ask me where I was going, or establish that there were other stops along the way, all of which gave me the impression that it must have been a direct route to that place - assumedly she was in a rush to leave at 12:15, which again, gave us barely two minutes to figure out what was happening. Also Coach B stopped at a different bay to the one we had been directed to by the signs, whereas Coach A was parked in the proper place, causing additional confusion. I went back to the queue for Coach A, where there were two members of staff, one helping people with their luggage and another checking people's tickets. I went to the man who was helping people with their luggage, said we were going to Nottingham, and asked him if this was the correct coach for that. First he stared at me in a disbelieving sort of way, and then rather than answering my question, I am not exaggerating when I say that he shouted at me to 'look at your phone', 'look at your phone'. His tone was extremely angry and disrespectful, and again, he was actually shouting at me. He kept saying to look at the service number - at the time I wasn't sure what this was, as the text on the ticket is very small and it's not highlighted as an important piece of information - so he actually helped himself to my phone screen and zoomed in to the point where the service number was, then pointed back at their coach to say that it wasn't the same one. He then continued to shout, 'You want that one, it's gone now,' and pointed to the NX 240, which was just turning the corner and leaving. He then turned away to carry on helping other people with luggage. So thanks to the poor service of the National Express staff, we were left stranded in Sheffield on a day when no trains were running due to strikes, and my partner had to drive two hours to pick us up and bring us home. I would also note that the man in question seemed perfectly ordinary with almost everyone else. He didn't direct any of his aggression towards my mum (people often don't realise we're travelling together, because she's white), seemed perfectly normal and calm with everyone else, and seemed to be having a laugh and a joke with his fellow driver - the man checking tickets - so didn't appear to even be in a bad mood. The only times that he got angry and shouted were at me asking a very simple question, and at the only other black woman there, who he shouted at to go and get her ticket checked because she was wheeling her luggage over to the open luggage bay first. Again, I really do have to stress that although the shouting in and of itself was completely awful, unprofessional, and unacceptable, there was a real nastiness and anger to it, and a real disrespect that made me feel spoken to as though I was thick, and his behaviour was the same with the other black woman who was there. Before and after speaking to both of us, he seemed perfectly normal and level, and I did not see him direct this aggression or behaviour at anyone else. I cannot express enough how uncomfortable this made me feel, and both myself and my mum were hardly able to respond for just absolute shock at the way he was "speaking" to me. Suffice it to say, we won't be getting National Express again, and I would strongly encourage anyone else considering it to steer clear of them.
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Posted 1 year ago
Very bad schedules. Friday night: bus every 90 minutes. I didn't get to catch the bus at the time booked and I have to queue like those who don't have a ticket. If you know it's a strike on trains, why the hell don't you put in buses more often? The tail is 200m. Shame on you
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Posted 1 year ago
This company is a joke!
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Posted 1 year ago
National Express is rated 1.6 based on 325 reviews