“Time to name and shame I advise anybody to absolutely NOT travel with this company they are shocking !! We booked these to take and pick us up from the airport and they never turned up on the day so we had to take 4 cars and drive to the airport ourselves after paying them £700! And now they are offering no compensation at all it’s disgusting you should be ashamed of yourselves !!! SMC Coach Hire
not to mention we missed an hour of the vip lounge that we booked.had to drive home at 3:30 in the morning after 10 hours travelling and the only excuse they had was that they couldn’t contact the driver,wasn’t even willing to try find someone as a replacement but just left us stranded and to not even give us compensation says a lot about the company and how they’re only arsed about receiving money instead of the customers satisfaction”
“You just do not mèss up with people’s emotions at all. This coach was hired over the weekend for a group trip to Bournemouth. Every one had fun and when it was time for us to return, we had a last minute info that this company had cancelled our return trip and unwilling to get us a coach to take us back. A trip that involved lots of people including children?? We had to wait for hours, children crying and tired because obviously it was past their bed time. Seriously highly disappointed”
“I recently had an appalling experience with SMC coach hire on June 29th, 2024.
On organising a means of transportation to Bournemouth beach from Southampton, SMC’s customer service: at the time of enquiry, change of itinerary to final payment seemed straightforward
Disappointingly, our group, CUBES4FUN, consisting of 130 African passengers, including men, women, young children, and babies, was left stranded in Bournemouth due to the company's shocking service.
Firstly, we were provided with the wrong coaches for our trip to Bournemouth beach. Rather than two coaches with large capacity for luggage for 130 passengers, a double decker bus turned up, with little space to hold luggage. Despite this major error, we expected SMC coach hire to be reasonable and that our return journey will be managed properly. However, SMC coach hire refused to come back to take us back to Southampton. Their refusal left us frantically searching for alternative means of transport.
Rather than owning up to their failings, SMC coach hire claimed health and safety concerns, a reason that was not communicated to us until we had already been transported to Bournemouth.
SMC coach hire offered a refund for the return journey, but this wasn’t the solution we needed and was simply not good enough. The SMC coach hire representative that I spoke to refused to pass my problems to a manager and at a point even hung up on me.
SMC coach hire’s decision to abandon over 37 African families at Bournemouth beach without a positive resolution was inhumane and utterly unacceptable.
The stress and inconvenience caused to everyone, especially the young children and elderly passengers, were immense.
I strongly urge others to reconsider using SMC coach hire, as their actions during this incident were unprofessional and deeply disappointing.”
“Needed to cancel with 12 days notice... understood would lose deposit, which was 50%. Not good enough for them wanted the rest of the money felt bullied.”
“They didn't show up when booked leaving us stranded. No call, no one in the office and no information. Just didn't show. This forced us to miss a major and important event for British Army Veterans and also forced us to incur additional cost which they are refusing to acknowledge or refund. Some days later they are claiming the vehicle 'broke down' but the driver (who was receiving texts and calls but didn't answer) didn't contact us so I believe this to be a lie. They are trying to use their terms and conditions to avoid refunding our losses so sadly this is going to court. Do not rely on these people turning up.”
“Having booked ages in advance and paid the fee in full the driver didn't even show up. I couldn't get hold of them nor SMC Coach Hire and in the end I missed a major and important event and incurred significant losses desperately trying to arrive on time.
To date, the company has refused to even refund what I had paid them let alone what I lost (note that I suspect they will try and hide behind their rather restrictive terms and conditions but we will test this in court).
Absolute bunch of scam artists who have even failed to apologise for the misery and costs incurred.”
“Avoid this company if you don’t want your holiday memories ruined. This company left me and another 10 members of my family including children stranded in Manchester airport at 3am in the morning. All they can say is claim from your travel insurance. Stay clear please”
“AVOID THIS COMPANY they are National something or other not SMC. They have terrible 1-2and 3 star reviews here and on trustpilot left me and my whole family stranded at 3am in Manchester airport. They knew about the delay I told them well before our schedule time 1hr 20 min delayed. Said they would be there as the flight was monitored when we arrived this is what he said. Recording on my mobile. Iv left you wasn’t there. I said you knew we were delayed he said not my problem Iv took another job now. We got home at 10am on the train. SMC said he was out of driving hours as if that’s an excuse for a transport company. I have his text and recording g saying he took another job. Look at the poor reviews they do it often to delayed flight customers. They will be exposed by my in court. PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM. thank you”
“Avoid this company read the 1-2 and 3 star reviews a few of the 1 star are mine I know but there are a lot of others. Long story short if your flight is delayed you are likely to be left stranded when you arrive back from holiday. They left us 11 family members at 3am in Manchester airport and just told us to claim from our travel insurance. An obvious scam when you see how many people have had the same shoddy service. AVOID THIS COMPANY”
“SMC Coach Hire PLEASE SHARE THIS POST
They are a SCAM they make money on delayed flights ! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY as a big family arriving home from holiday they stranded us left us at the airport early hours when called the driver said not his problem as flights were delayed WE LET THEM KNOW ALSO! We were straight out from baggage and were on time if not early from the delay and they confirmed knowing the driver was rude and said not his problem and LEFT!! Plus they had the baby car seat to which the driver when spoken to said he didn’t even have that either!! We were stuck at the airport hours away from home with a baby and 5 children left in Manchester airport freezing early hours For hours! they were aware we was delayed and said no problem we track the flights ….. DISGUSTING SERVICE PLEASE DONT RISK IT NOT RELIABLE and will be fighting for refund DO NOT USE took upfront payment now refusing to refund we are taking it to court it isn’t as if it was a small price it was £700+ all they have said is not their problem and claim on holiday insurance not off them!!! 🤯 it is disgusting please spread the word if they did this to the elderly or young people or people travelling with venerable adults we were lucky we had each other as the outcome could of been very different in a city away from home! I won’t stop sharing on all social media until we are refunded plus giving bad reviews online”
“Very bad service from SMC they quoted me a price to go to london which I was happy with but when my party wanted one drink each on the bus (in cans) the driver demanded £100 cash but said I would get back the deposit so I obviously thought that’s fair once they see the bus is all clean (we cleaned up rubbish our selfs and recorded)
we’re a group of women not teenagers but now as a suspected they refuse to give my deposit back even though we recorded it all ! No problems a company charge more to drink I get it but don’t lie and say it’s only a deposit and they will transfer back to me ! Also this is like 3rd party company the driver didn’t even know where we was going to they just outsource to different drivers! Wouldn’t recommend don’t trust this company at-all now !”
“returning from Crete we 11 family memebers including children were left stranded in Manchester airport at 3AM wednesday morning after having spoken to them from Crete about being delayed £570 fare and only actually carried out half of the contracted job. we spent £160 on train fares to get back to Leeds and all these people can say is its not their problem and advised us to claim on our travel insurance. be carefull this company just subs out jobs to uncaring cowboy companies , on this occasion they used Stallion chauffeures of Bradford .”
“DO NOT USE as a big family arriving home from holiday they stranded us left us at the airport early hours when called the driver said not his problem as flights were delayed WE LET THEM KNOW ALSO! We were straight out from baggage and were on time if not early from the delay and they confirmed knowing the driver was rude and said not his problem and LEFT!! Plus they had the baby car seat to which the driver when spoken to said he didn’t even have that either!! We were stuck at the airport hours away from home with a baby and 5 children NOT RELIABLE and will be fighting for refund DO NOT USE”
“Avoid this company my family 6adults and 5children We arrived back from holiday into Manchester airport today 2 hours delayed at 02:15Am with no signal (we live in Leeds) but the company monitored the flight. However when I rang our driver once we got into arrivals he said he had gone and it wasn’t his problem. Try to imagine that. Please do not use them.”
“With only 12 hours to go they cancelled our booking for 23 people to the airport . Offering no alternative, and taking no responsibility. They are only a 3rd party , they actually don’t own any coaches . So they are not liable ! Shambles of a company !”
“Very poor service. Very poor communication. Staff were unhelpful. Tried to change price and conditions after non refundable deposit was paid.
To confirm that SMC is an intermediate company and this review is only in reference to THEIR service. The mini bus drivers we had were excellent, prompt, professional and helpful. The poor rating is poorly based on how unorganised, unprofessional and unhelpful they were as soon as a significant deposit was paid.”
“DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY!!! they are cowboys 5 days after paying the full amount and 2 days before our event they emailed to say the specific coach for our party had "broken down" and the replacement would cost us an extra £220 which morally isn't right in the first instance but then we were shocked to read in their T&Cs they had this written in for this very unique circumstance which is very suspicious. We were even more shocked to look at the reviews and see they've done this to people multiple times so this is obviously a sinister tactic they use to get more money from people who they know 2days before an event that they're stranded and left with no other choice but to pay the extortionate extra fee. The email they sent to announce this change was also very suspicious as whatever low IQ staff member they got to send out the round robin email left a space for "PRICE" and also called me two different names when I rang up so this "broken down" coach specifically relating to just our party was obviously conveniently happening to all the rest of their fleet all at the same time.... convenient that. Only redeeming factor about this company is they refunded me which in all honesty I wasn't expecting but other than that they are cowboys. the wish.com of coach hire companies”
“SCAM COMPANY AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
I booked SMC over 6 weeks ago now for a trip we are taking this coming Saturday (it’s Thursday today) I paid in full £350, and emailed them 2 days ago to confirm the booking as I’d not heard anything from them and to ask if we’d be okay to leave bottles of water etc on the coach whilst we were at our event for the journey home to which I received an email saying “let me come back to you this afternoon” I received no further communication. Then TODAY less than 48 hours from our booking departure I received an EMAIL to say they were sorry the mini bus has broken down and they have to cancel the booking. I called and spoke to Marcella who was rude and completely unhelpful and unsympathetic and just said they would get the refund processed asap. I then frantically called a number of local mini bus hire firms trying to find alternative transport (I haven’t been able to at such short notice) to be told by 3 of those said companies that this company is a broker they do not own any vehicles they are renown for taking multiple bookings and taking peoples money then cancelling on them last minute as they are incapable of fulfilling the bookings. I was told by one company I was the 4th call he had received just today who had been let down by them due to “vehicle breakdown” absolutely disgusting company they will be getting reported. Crooks taking peoples money and leaving them in the lurch less than 48 hours before they are needed !!”
