National Express Reviews

Name: National Express
Address: National Express House, Birmingham Coach Station, Mill Lane, Digbeth, Birmingham
Rating: 1.60

1.6 Rating 350 Reviews

13 %

of reviewers recommend National Express

1.6

Based on 350 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
On-time Delivery	Greater than 15%
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

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

Write Your review

Tell us how National Express made you happy

Minimum 10 characters

Would you like to add a photos or videos?

Strengthen your review by uploading photos & videos.

Drag files here or browse

(Supported files: jpg, png, mpeg, ogg, mp4 & webm)

What's your name?

Leave this blank if you'd like to publish your review anonymously.

(Optional)

What's your email?

We need your email address to verify that your review is genuine

Please note that we may share your email with the company to verify your order.

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“I had bought a ticket for 2:12( Golders Green am as my flight was at 6 from Stansted. 3 fricking busses didn't actually show up, imagine the amount of people in the station. It did arrived one after 3:30 and obviously almost full leaving plenty of 2:12 tickets on ground as the priority is the actual hour. At return, in stratford got in the station, the assistant said it's arriving in 15 minutes. Half an hour later comes back to say arrives in 10 minutes. 45 minutes later and still no buss. Won't recomand, absolutely not reliable. You will end-up paying 3 times more for a cab or re-book your flights.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

“Please don't travel in national express bus, The Cheat customer and every thing is bad. I went from London to Manchester I reserve the set and I pay for that online but on that set already an Other customer was set and as will the bus I inside was dirty.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

“I recently traveled from Leeds to Blackpool on service 173 with your company on the 1st of July. I wanted to express my gratitude for the exceptional service provided by our driver, Aram. His professional and safe driving made the journey comfortable and ensured we arrived on time. Thank you to National Express for employing such professional drivers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

“Bus departed 16 minutes early leaving us stranded during the night in Leicester bus station! Complaint response exceeded National express timeframe and resolution was a poor partial refund. We had pre booked two tickets from London Stansted to Derby. Stansted departure at 1730 with a change required at Leicester to depart for Derby at 2035. However, in the process of finding the correct bay to change coaches, we were shocked and what appeared to be our booked bus, driving out of the bus station at 2020. This was over 15 minutes early! The live bus station timetable was also updated, to reflect no National express bus now due at the original 2035 time. We had clearly followed National express advice of "Aim to arrive at the coach station at least 10 minutes before you're due to depart". We now had to try and deal with the added stress of travelling back from Stansted Airport. Now after sunset, trying to make additional travel arrangements inside a dangerous bus station in Leicester at dark. We had to commit to a taxi journey at cost of £36.40. In addition to our bus tickets which already cost £54.91. Which we were left stranded after dark in Leicester. The online bus tracker also confirmed the bus left 15 minutes early and the onboard CCTV should also confirm this. I'm aware as standard tickets, if we were late for a booked journey, we wouldn't be able to just travel on the next bus. We'd then need to buy additional tickets at further costs.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 months ago

“Bus was late, to which I had to order a taxi, to catch my next flight. Even though yes, traffic buildup can be something, that is out of control of the operator, but the attitude of the customer service is something that they actually can influence.”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 months ago

“The coach station in Newcastle looks derelict. No.office open or toilets old clothes lying on the ground . The journey to Manchester would have been fine except it was freezing cold on the bus and felt uncomfortable all the way. Manchester coach station superb”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

“Don't book online with a senior coachcard ..pay the booking fee instead at branch office .I was overcharged twice £35 and got abuse on phone”

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months ago

“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

Helpful Report

Posted 11 months 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Thanks to a self inflicted catastrophe!!! (Don't ask)! I waited for a non existent bus and passenger at Lincoln. I spoke to the operator running the help phone from 21:00hrs untill midnight! She was unfailing helpful, empathetic and totally engaged in trying to help me. It was refreshing to deal with someone so totally committed to customer service. This all happened on 27/02/24 and sadly I didn't ask her name. Can't be many Latvian operators at that time? She should be mentioned in dispatches! Many thanks from David.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Rubbish. You have to validate open tickets missed busses. This information should have been provided at booking.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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!!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“This company has come a long way. Clean toilets and usb charging and fast pick up. There is a Driver called Lawrence. He picked up passengers from Gatwick to Victoria Station. This man helped with luggage. Greeted people with a smile and helpful. Most could learn from this young man. Working for national express.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Brilliant app. Easy booking, simple to navigate. Prices, times & options all in one place. Booked tickets available within the apps wallet feature. So easy to use! National Express coaches; clean, on time, helpful drivers. We wouldn't use any other service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

National Express is rated 1.6 based on 350 reviews