Horrible bus experience BKK - ChiangMai

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"Our bus ride to Chiang Mai was the worst experience we have ever had. We are pretty furious right now, and what makes it worst is that no one takes responsibility for anything so we can't get our money back.

We were told that we would get a seat that reclined.

We got on the bus, which was overbooked, and were asked to sit in a lounge area with a table in front of us. Our seats did not recline nor did we have any kind of head rest. They wanted to fit 5 people in a row. We Said no, a long with a few other angry tourists, and they said "if you say no, then get off the bus." Well we had no choice as we had to get to Chiang Mai as the Elephant Nature Park was expecting us.


The people seating us had no answers for anything. No explanation. They just said "we didn't book your tickets maybe you no pay for chair"

Cody and I did not get any sleep for 12 hours!! And we are so tired of this happening and not being able to do anything about it.

I had nowhere to lean my head, my back is aching, and Cody was so uncomfortable that he went to sit on the stairwell.
I had a little boy sitting next to me crying because he was uncomfortable, and he had his knees in my back all night.

Also, the girl that left with us from your office, she got a seat that did not recline either. Most people on the bus were very unhappy. They then packed us into mini vans that did not have room for all of the people.

This kind of service is so extremely unacceptable, and very frustrating because nothing ever gets done to resolve the problem. People just keep getting their money taken. We would really like a refund but somehow don't think that's going to happen.



We have a travel website that a lot of people follow and we do reviews. I will also be writing to Lonely Planet.

Can you please give me the bus company name? They really should not be running a business if they are ripping people off. The more people know, the better."

We have talked to the Bus company again and they will refund 35% of the tickets to Chiang Mai after we put pressure on this matter. The reason why they do not pay the full amount back is because you already took their transport system. If you had contacted us before the departure they would have done a 100% refund.

The problem around here is that there are 3 major companies leaving for the north with Maximum being the cheapest and closest option in this area. What we will do in future is suggest the other two companies over this one but the distance to the terminal and price will definitely put people off. We also spoke to the staff responsible for bookings and organising and they assured us they will not take bookings from us any more when the top row is filled.

Hope this solves a few things, if they keep their word and if people keep giving the right kind of feedbacks then these bad experiences will soon be history hopefully.

Kev