I spent £1,200 on hotels and trains after £82 Blablacar coach home from Paris was delayed

In July, my daughter and I took a holiday to Europe. The return journey involved travelling from Lake Garda in Italy by train, changing at Milan to catch a train to Paris, then going back London on an overnight coach, which we booked with a company called Blablacar.

The bus was scheduled to depart Paris at 11:35pm, so we booked trains that would get us to the coach station in good time for that. But two days before, we received an email telling the time had been pushed forward to 9:25pm – meaning our trains would no longer get us there in time.

We had no option but to rebook our trains which cost a total of £132. The earlier timing meant we also had to book a hotel in Milan the night before, as the first train out of Lake Garda in the morning would have made us late. This cost us £90.

Travel trials: J.S booked a coach from Paris to London with Blablacar, but the journey did not go as originally planned

We made it to the Paris coach station 1 hour and 45 minutes before the coach. Come the departure time of 9:25pm, it had not arrived and was showing on the board as ‘delayed’.

I spoke to the Blablacar representative in the station and they say they didn’t know what time the bus would be coming. They couldn’t guarantee that it was coming at all.

At midnight, the bus station terminal closed and we couldn’t access toilets, water, food or seating. We didn’t feel safe as two women travelling alone and so shortly after we made the decision to go to a nearby hotel, costing £176, and spent the night.

All future buses were completely booked until mid-afternoon the following day, which wouldn’t get us back home in time for work. We had to book a train from Paris to Lille to catch the Eurostar the following day to return home. This cost us almost £600, as there were only business class tickets left at such short notice.

In total we spent an extra £1,200 on alternative travel, hotels and food. The coach tickets were £41 each and were supposed to be a cheap option so it is galling that the trip ended up costing us so much.

We asked for a refund and compensation, but Blablacar never got back to us. J.S, London

Helen Crane of This is Money replies: Mon dieu! That is a very hefty mark-up on a trip home that was supposed to be cheap and cheerful.

You had been holidaying in Italy’s beautiful Lake Garda with your daughter, no doubt enjoying the laid-back local lifestyle.

But your return turned into the mother of all nightmare journeys.

Back down to earth: Our reader had been holidaying in picturesque Lake Garda, but her trip had a bitter end as her journey home with Blablacar faced delays

You have since learned that the coach did turn up shortly before 1am, after you had left for a hotel due to a lack of information and safety concerns.

I can completely understand that you didn’t want to potentially spend hours more in a bus station in a foreign country, late into the night.

It was particularly annoying that, given how late the coach eventually turned up, you needn’t have bothered rescheduling your train trips at all.

Delays do happen, and there isn’t always much that travel companies can do about it. But what they do have control over is the way they communicate that information to their customers, and attempt to make things right.

Blablacar fell down here in my opinion. You say you spoke to its representative at the coach station plenty of times, but no one could provide you with an answer. 

You also made phone calls to the company, but these didn’t get through or were disconnected after seconds. For a company called Blabla, they were staying suspiciously quiet. 

You didn’t hear anything until 12:55am when, having just booked into a hotel, you received an email stating the platform number.

You tried to contact Blablacar for a refund, and also asked them to compensate you for the additional hotels, travel and food you had to pay for because of its rescheduled and delayed bus.

There are well-established compensation rules and complaints procedures for air travel, but the process of getting recourse when an international coach trip has gone wrong is unfortunately less cut and dry.

In theory, when someone purchases a bus or coach journey in the UK, they are able to claim up to 100 per cent of the price under the Consumer Rights Act if it is not ‘carried out in a reasonable time’ – but how much companies will pay often depends on the length of the delay. They can also appeal to the Bus Appeals Body.

But Blablacar is a French company, so this doesn’t help you.

You got in touch directly to ask for a refund and compensation, but despite being promised a call back within 48 hours, you heard nothing for months.

Stranded: J.S and her daughter were stuck in a Paris bus station late at night, with no idea when their coach would arrive 

Eventually, the company contacted you in September to refund the cost of the original bus tickets and gave you a voucher for 50 per cent of the ticket value.

But you didn’t feel that was good enough as it still left you more than £1,100 out of pocket.

I contacted Blablacar and am pleased to say it has now offered to pay you an extra 480 euros (£419) towards your hotel costs.

‘We recognize that the information we have communicated to this passenger before this time was not satisfying enough. This is why we have decided to exceptionally cover her hotel,’ a spokesperson said.

It explained that the bus was delayed because it was arriving in Paris via a ferry, which ran late. It said it had offered a refund for the bus tickets when the trip was initially rescheduled, and could not cover non-hotel expenses.

You have since told me that you have accepted the offer. While you are still out of pocket, you said you expected them to pay much less so were pleased with this result.

I’m glad to hear that your coach calamity has now come to a conclusion, and hope your next holiday is less eventful.

Cheque calamity: Virgin sent mixed messages when a reader tried to close her account 

Hit and miss: This week’s naughty and nice list 

Every week, I look at the companies who have fallen short when it comes to customer service, and those who have gone above and beyond. 

Miss: Reader Hilary emailed to tell me about the tedious back and forth she experienced when trying to close her TV and internet account with Virgin Media.

She was a TV and internet customer at her former address, but when she moved house the new property wasn’t in the Virgin service area so she had to switch.

She disconnected her service in April 2022 and returned the necessary equipment. She received an email saying her account was £102 in credit, which would be sent via cheque.

But a month later, Virgin debited her account for £65 – saying this was a bill for the month after she had disconnected.

Three weeks passed, and she then received the cheque for £102.

Confused, she messaged Virgin. It said it would void the £102 cheque, and send another one for £167 – making up for the erroneous £65 charge.

That never arrived, so in July she phoned the complaints department. It told her to bank the £102 cheque, and it would send another for £65.

Still no new cheque arrived, so in August she called Virgin again. It then told her the £65 refund had been included in the first £102 cheque.

This was getting silly, so I dropped Virgin a line. Thankfully this painful payment saga is now over and the £65 cheque is safely in Hilary’s hands.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: ‘We’ve apologised to the customer for the issues she experienced whilst closing her account. We’ve now arranged for a cheque to be sent to her, no further money is owed, and she is happy the matter is now resolved.’

Energetic praise: A customer wrote in to say supplier Octopus was ‘first-class’ 

Hit: Reader Morag wrote to tell me how impressed she was with her energy firm Octopus, which she said stood out from the sea of suppliers thanks to its great customer service. 

She said: ‘I am so impressed by their efficiency and consumer-awareness. First class! I have been with all the major energy companies over the past 50 years and I have never written to one telling them how good they are, until I joined the Octopus company.

‘My only regret is that I sent my daughter their invitation to join (we would get £100 to share between us if she signed up) but she ignored me, took her father’s advice and stayed with the company she was with – now paying an astronomical bill each month! Oh dear!’

I do feel a little sorry for your daughter, Morag, but perhaps this shows that mum really does know best.