National Express Reviews

1.6 Rating 323 Reviews
13 %
of reviewers recommend National Express
1.6
Based on 323 reviews
Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods
Own Driver
On-time Delivery
Greater than 26%
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
Me, my wife and out 10-month old boy were going from London Victoria courch station to Luton Airport and the journey was disrupted by traffic congestion on 19/04/2024 evening. This caused me and my family an overall delay of95 minutes to Luton Airport. According to NationalExpress clock, it was 88 minutes only. Anyhow, it was the last plane to Amsterdam that day and I had to rebook a flight for the 3 of us and a hotel. It cost me around 400€ and NationalExpress says that I should have put 3 hours between the arrival time into the airport and the flight departure time instead of 2,5 hours. Who goes to the airport for an EasyJet flight without check-in luggage before 3 hours? If I had done so, we would have missed the flight anyways, but NationalExpress do not listen to you. They found a reason not to reimburse and they hide behind it. This is not the worst thing yet. They also say that I should have contacted to the Control Centre which would have then advised me on the most appropriate action to take or arrange for alternative means of transportation to your ticketed destination. However, I did called them around the 60th minutes of the delay and they advised me to call EasyJet maybe they can keep the gate open for us. Even we called them, they assume we did not called them all. I WOULD NEVER EVER USE IT AGAIN, I WISH I HAVE NOT USED THEM BEFORE
National Express 1 star review on 24th April 2024
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Posted 5 days ago
{national express is a scam taken peoples money} i have all evidence if they come for me. my advice if you have a flight schedule or important schedule please don't use national express. a word is enough for the wise. i was fired from my job because of national express i lost many contracts in my 7years of using national express, they have never come in time, always coming 40 mins,1hour sometime nearly 2 hours late. on some occasions the bus never came at all. I WAS ALWAYS ON TIME NEVER LATE when you approach them they will tell you to call their complaint phone, it will take an hour to get to them on the phone. they then tell you to email your compliant and when you email them they will tell you cant get a refund because THE ONE TIME I CAME LATE Recently i booked for 9 35am i missed the bus due to me coming 25 mins late because my local bus was delayed. fortunate for me the 10.00am bus was there and wasn't full i explain my situation them, they insisted i bought new ticket i pleaded i don't have any money but they didn't listen, i became angry and asked why is it that when your bus come nearly 2 hours late, you don't give refund they didn't give any answer.
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Posted 3 weeks ago
Terrible , first the coach was changed and announced for journey from london to liverpool within 4hrs no stop....then wasted time on breaks and dropping in between passengers.Worst ...not recommend.
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Posted 4 weeks ago
Every Time National Express Bus from Manchester to Birmingham is late at 4:10 am, Moreover same as on return. If passenger is late only 1 minute they did not wait but if they late they did not compansate. I think we should avoid this bus service.
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Posted 2 months ago
It was first time I travelled with national express, and it was the worst experience and worst customer service I ever experienced so far. Two weeks ago I travelled from Heathrow Airport to Stansted Airport. I had two medium suitcases and it was no problem. In the other hand last week on Thursday I travelled back from Stansted to Heathrow. When the coach driver came to take my suitcases. He said my suitcases is not into the standard requirement and I have to pay £15, but I had one medium suitcase, and one cabin size suitcase, but he still wanted me to pay. I had to go to National Express office at Stanstead airport and stand behind a very long slow queue to pay £15 as penalty for my suitcases. When I sat in the coach, I read the small prints and I realised I have been charged wrongly because my suitcases it’s with in the requirement of their policy, when I got to Heathrow airport, I wanted to go to National Express office to have a refund, but I realised they don’t have a office at Heathrow Airport. When I got home I made a phone call to their Helpline team, and what they said they would give me 25% discount on my next travel with them, but not giving me a refund as they have been charged me wrongly. I feel I have been robbed by National Express company and I had a worst experience with them. I would never ever travel with them again and I will make sure everyone know about my bad experience I had with National express and their team.
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Posted 2 months ago
Rubbish. You have to validate open tickets missed busses. This information should have been provided at booking.
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Posted 2 months ago
THIEFS! Terrible service, with automatic replies. You buy a ticket, offered by their partner Ryanair, ticket is not received on time so you have to buy a second more expensive ticket. When you complain about it by National Express they only offer you a voucher of 25% . What give them the right to keep my payment? To me this matters. RETURN ME MY MONEY NOW! COMPENSATE ME FOR THE WASTE OF TIME!
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Posted 3 months ago
16-1-2024 Reference: NE84743443 Busticketnr. RRAV8069 I booked an RyanAir-flight and accepted the offer of the bustransfer to the airport. I did not received the busticket on time, so had to buy a second more expensive ticket. RyanAir did not want to help me and after a week they told me I had to contact National Express. National Express did not want to help me either because they needed the request within 24h. I wonder if I get my money back. This feels like I've been stolen and from RyanAir I can expect terrible service, but I did not expect National Express to be worse. I demand £11 and a compensation for the more expensive ticket of £7,50. Besides that this matter cost me a lot of time.
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Posted 3 months ago
Wrong and poor customer service! Poor communication from such a reputable company. I was booking tickets to travel for the first time with National Express to the airport. My coach was booked for 17:10 and left house at 15:00 to male my way to Marble Arch. The location in their email took me to wrong station on the opposite part of the road. A coach driver who I approach was so rude and probably fed up with his work place too and he said to me he doesn't own the company he is just the driver so he refused to even tell me that I was in the wrong station. The coach did not turn up. The online tracker did not work and did not help me in any way. The phone line also did not work. I started panicking as I thought I will be missing on my flight and it was in between Christmas and New Year. I ended up taking an Uber. The bottom line is...NO COMMUNICATION AT ALL...I was not informed at any point that the coach was having delays or anything. For a first time user of the service what do you do???? You loose your trust in the service and do not take a chance to miss on your flight either. When I contacted them afterwards they told me the next service was withing 38 minutes after my scheduled one. Who on Earth would wait there for almost 40 minutes just in case a National Express coach would arrive for you when there is no communication from them? A normal person would never do that. When I approached them about this issue they dealt so rudely with my complaint asking me to even prove that I travelled by uber that day in order for them to give me the money on the coach tickets!!!! Is this normal for such a big company to treat their customers this way??? They made me travel all the way to Marble Arch and pick up an Uber for the city when I could easily do the same thing from home spending less time for travel and being even cheaper than traveling from there to the airport. Unfortunately, I believe that due to the business being so waste, the customer care and consideration is getting forgotten...the money is most important!!!!
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Posted 3 months ago
On 09/12/2023 the driver of the the 025 coach from London Victoria to Brighton refused me entry to the coach, as my ticket was, according to him, not valid. In fact, it was perfectly valid which has since been confirmed by the coach company. But he refused to even discuss what his issue was, even though I presented him with both a printed and digital copy. I haven't encountered anyone as rude and dismissive as him in a public facing role. I am a female and it was late at night and I felt extremely vulnerable. As a result I had to spend £100 getting a taxi to my destination, which I really can't afford. It was really upsetting incident.
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Posted 4 months ago
Passengers, I was going to Stanset airport few weeks ago.I waited in front of the bus for a few minutes for drivers to read my ticket because my trip was important. and I showed the driver my ticket and he let me on the bus... When I arrived, I reached Luton. I was in shock. I had to quickly catch a taxi to get to Stanset because the driver didn't even want to talk to me. Passengers, advice, I believe that you can travel on old NE tickets because the drivers do not read them, or cannot read them, or are not even interested in informing the passenger that this is not the right bus. So my advice is, if you have old tickets or tickets from another city, use them because drivers don't read them anyway.Often the driver is busy putting your luggage on the bus and you can also enter without checking your ticket. I filed a complaint with NE and my taxi fare was not refunded. .NE has stupid regulations that the passenger's responsibility is what bus and where he gets on, the driver doesn't care. This is super irresponsible. So be careful and take advantage of the stupidity of NE and their drivers.Aleksandra
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Posted 4 months ago
Very bad service our location was andheri he dropped us in sion it was very disappointed and disgusting to travel with national
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Posted 4 months ago
The coach travelling from Chadderton to Bradford has extremely poor service. if you are coloured no point of booking the 171 national express coach as the coach driver will see you waving but will still ignore you and drive off. i would recommend women not to waste your time and money. As the 171 coach travelling from Chadderton to Bradford has done this a. few times to other coloured women. national express is only a service unfortunately for white and privileged people, it doesn’t care about others.
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Posted 4 months ago
Terible service. Five hour ride from Leeds to Edinbourgh with no heating in the bus, everyone was in coats the whole trip. Never again, I will rather pay double for a differente service provider or train rather than having to go through this again.
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Posted 5 months ago
A bus 035 Westbourne-London Victoria omitted my bus stop at 2. 17am. Just like that as it was late. I was forced to find another way to get on time to the airport. When I called customer service after holiday I heard lots of excuses. Something like "bus was late 15 min and the tracker shows 2.30 at your bus stop" when I said I waited up to 2.40 they called me back again after 5-10 min and said " the bus was late 30 min and arrived at 2.47" can anyone explain it to me? Horrible experience. Lost case and the fortune spent.
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Posted 5 months ago
1 1/2 hour delay with no explanation. Different excuses made. Put in the wrong queue. If such a delay, give the redcoats a tannoy and let your customers know what’s happening. And apologise for the delay. Told you could only get on if you had a priority ticket?? Just about got on the coach because of the rush. We were lucky to get a seat; some didn’t!
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Posted 5 months ago
My wife and i bought a ticket from heathrow T4 to Bournemouth with National Express after a very long flight. The attendent at the airport came out and declared to the crowd of 30 of us that our coach will not be arriving. He told us that we all will be getting on to the coach to portsmouth and they will be dropping us off in southampton and a further coach will be getting us to bournemouth. We ask for the guarantee of this and he said the national express will never leave anyone stranded i promise. When we got to southampton there was a coach but with not enough room for all of us. 17 of us were left in southampton andf told taxis or a coach will be with us in 5 minutes. the crowd left of 17 people included a family of 5 with a small baby who didnt speak english and anther couple with a baby and 2 young 16 year old girls who were here from switzerland. Without a care in the world for any of these people National Express left us all stranded without anyone turning up after 45 minutes.. We all scrabbled around trying to flag down taxis to arrange transport but when we left there was still a family of 5 left there at midnight. Getting home at 1am nearly 3 hours after we should of was a disgrace. I contacted customer services today and they stated taxis were sent and i advised that was untrue as we were there waiting. I asked to speak to a manager who first said he would refund my ticket and taxi but went back on his word and said later that he would not refund the ticket as he got us half way home. Outrageous.I then asked to go through to the complaints dept and was told that now i had dealt with him then he would not put me through to a complaints dept as he dealt with it. I then asked for the name of the taxi company he said he had paid to collect us . He told me they did not know the taxi company. This is the same taxi company he said they had paid to pick us up that did not arrive but he did not know who they were ???!??! . The fact this company left so many families stranded and offer no apology or damages for this is disgusting. luckily we had good people in the group that helped out the people whose first impression of our country was this disgrace of a company. Like me if you were one of this group contact trading standards and lodge a complaint so this does not happen to other families or youngsters . National Express you should be ashamed !!!!
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Posted 6 months ago
Received an Email from NE stating that on my day of travel, after 11pm at T5 different stops would be in use due to road closures. I was standing at the designated stop ten minutes before departure of the last coach only to eventually connect to their useless App to see it on its way to T3. It had not departed from the stops I was told to use. Then followed a frantic attempt to catch it at T3 by using the midnight departure of the Elizabeth Line, you've guessed it; the train was delayed the T3 travelators were switched off and I missed it at T3 by two minutes. After midnight T3 turns into a scene from the apocalypse with intensive road engineering. Eventually found my way to connect with at taxi. NE customer service have sent several contradictory replies to my complaints none of them accepting responsibility for their misinformation which caused the issue. The term 'customer service' is an oxymoron when applied to National express. The service is good when it works but they are trained to offer a customer disservice when things go wrong.
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Posted 6 months ago
customer service on telephone is unable to give verified information, friendly staff on the telephone who don't know about the details of their job it took 2 weeks to have my problem solved, poor e-mail service, unable to forward and send messages
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Posted 8 months ago
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.
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Posted 8 months ago
National Express is rated 1.6 based on 323 reviews