Left stranded at the Spain-Portugal border
I bought two bus tickets from San Sebastian to Porto from Alsa. Alsa provided these tickets which included a change in buses in Vilar Formoso. According to the tickets provided by Alsa, our first bus was set to arrive in Vilar Formoso at 1:15pm, with the connecting bus to Porto departing at 1:30pm.
At the beginning of our trip at San Sebastian, we showed our full tickets including the arrival and departure times of the changeover, and verified with our bus driver we were going to Porto changing at Vilar Formoso. During the trip, the bus driver assured us that the changeover for the bus to Porto was coming up soon, and then when we were dropped off at the changeover location (Vilar Formoso) at 2:15pm, the bus driver said that the bus was coming. After waiting 55 minutes with no second bus arriving, I contacted Alsa customer service to inquire. Nearly an hour after my inquiry, and two hours after being dropped off, I was told that the second bus had departed at 1:30pm. Alsa did not apologise, or provide any assistance for alternative travel to Porto. As a result, my party of two were required to organise a taxi ride out of town to catch a different bus which was the last available mode of transport to Porto for that day. Not only were additional monetary costs placed on us for this transport, but additional time costs of at least 6 hours. If we had not organised this alternative, we would have had to organise and pay for accommodation in Vilar Formoso, and forfeited prepaid accommodation in Porto.
As instructed by Alsa's customer service via Facebook, a claims form was submitted explaining that it was through no fault on the customer that we did not get the service we paid for but on the fault of Alsa's scheduling or operational decisions. Over two weeks later, a partial refund was provided without explanation or any cost breakdown. After following up with them about this inquiring about a full refund reiterating the situation, they responded that they refunded only the second bus tickets. I've since responded again reiterating the unresolved issue. I hope that this matter can be properly resolved and that Alsa prevents these issues from occuring in future.
15. juni 2025
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