Intercape
Reviews and Complaints

Yesterday I booked a ticket from Queenstown to Johannesburg, I was told to be there at 19:30 as the bus was leaving at 20:00 (02/01/2020) indeed I was there but the bus only arrived at 20:00 and we left the Sasol Garage at 20:30, there worse part of them all we got stuck after we left Queenstown and i think we were heading to King Williams town. we were stuck for 5 hours with no communication and the only thing we were told is they are trying to find a mechanic that comes from East London to fix the bus and indeed the Mechanic came but could not fix the bus and he left and after waiting for so long the other bus arrived and to my surprise the bus had no windows they were replaced by board and mind you I was sitting by the window and i was freezing.
As i am writing this complaint, I'm still on my way to Johannesburg with the bus that was supposed to be in Johannesburg at 07:00 this morning and I was supposed to be at work this time. Intercape really don't care about customers but they only care about their pockets because if intercape was servicing their buses every time the about to take a new journey this could have been avoided and it's our lives for goodness sake.
Pissed beyond.

POOR SERVICE - My daughter was sick so she and her mother could not make it to the bus that day as they were in casualty for treatment after requesting medical proof Intercape still did not refund or transfer the ticket because the ticket is on the mother's name and not on my 1-year-old daughter's name. You be the judge. Pathetic service and such desperation for money for a supposedly Christiaan company. Not to mention the consultants are rude and zero customer service. Windhoek office robbed me my hard-earned cash for something out of my control, No compassion.🙁

I am very disappointed in Intercape.
We booked tickets for my sister and her kids to come visit us.
First of all the air-con didn't work nor do the plugs for to charge the phones.
They fixed the air con but now it doesn't work again.
There is pee all over the toilet floors you cannot expect n women nor children to use toilets like that. The employees the one driver is so rude my sister kids had to eat and they just said the places is closed they going to keep on driving. They don't stop for anyone to use a clean toilet or get water or food. When the air con did work the water was running out on one of the seats.
It's pathetic i would say i will never recommend anyone to use this bus service i am really disappointed!

I have never been so uncomfortable at a bus for all 28years of my life, this is the first ime I have faced being skwashed and in a bus were every stop we in there is no air con. The bus drivers dont care and I have have spend more money then I ever have on a bus. USB ports for chargers dont work and we are running late, I booked 17:30 knowing I'll be able to at work by 8:30 but I am still in Cape Town at this hour (19h56). This is my first experience with Intercape and it's the worst experience ever for my R1125 but I had the best experience with citiliner with only R320 from Cape Town. I am not happy with your bus and service at all. Everyone here is camplaining

Seems like here comes another compliant that won't be resolved, and I'm sure I'm complaining about things that were complaint about, two years ago, as well ...
I have also been a happy and always supportive client of Intercape, until today, and no more ...
The toilet is either broken or so dirty that, the bus driver stops next to the road, and hands special clients a roll of toilet paper, . I am saying special clients, because when I, and many, also wanted to urinate, I was denied . . .
The 15 min refreshment stops are at the drivers discretion, if you're a young lady, you can have up to a half hour at a refreshment stop, otherwise, just shut up and sit down, I was told, so yes, another rude driver, a rotten potato, influencing a friendly co-employee of Intercape . . .

This will be my last trip making use of Intercape, no more, [censored] you all

I've been taking intercape bus between PE and Durban for more than a dozen times this year. The drivers have such a terrible service. Very rude to passengers. Spend whole night talking bad about passengers.
Last night one driver was busy hitting on the young woman sitting in front. He's asking to suck their breast.
On the previous trip they denied us 2 of the refreshment stops: Mthatha & EL. When asked by passagers to stop at regular refreshment stop, they replied "sisebenza ngeskhathi la. Akukho muntu ozakwehla". Translated "we work with time here. Nobody is getting off". This morning they are playing loud Kwayto music on top of the loud TV volume. One driver just threw an empty packet of sweets on the passage without even thinking about it.
I don't even want to mention the depressing and gloomy movies they play, with crying people and drowning boys. It makes you feel so depressed after 11hours on road.
The seating arrangement is chaos. On top of that the bus is late.

Good day.. On thursday the 31st of October 2019 me and my family was on route from Springbok to Cape Town. At 21h35 as we were on the N7 almost in Citrusdal an Intercape bus saw me approaching and decided to turn in infront of me to the Caltex Garage i had to brake and swirf to the other side of the road in the oncoming vechile lane should there have been vechiles me and m family would have been in an accident.

The driver got us lost. Wasted 3.5 hrs on the wrong route. Got me home at 2am in the morning. They dont give a damn abt their passengers.
They say they have control room tracking the buses but that's obviously a lie or the driver would not have gone so far off route. It took 3.5hrs into the bush before they realised something is wrong. Shocking that they advertise that they are reliable. Blantly false advertising.

I initially had booked my ticket for wednesday the 11th of september for an appointment on the 13th in harare but then my appointment was rescheduled to the 20th of september. I did notify the relevant personnel at intercape hence the reply they gave me that on top of the r500 I had already paid, I had to add another r75 for them to affect the date change. I did call at the call centre and do remember being assured I could pay the r75 on the day I was to board the bus. Relaxed enough believing everything was in order I was shocked to be told that my trip and money had been forfeited as I was meant to have paid before the boarding date. That was a painful notification as I was even told to find another bus since the one I had booked for was already full. There was no way I would have let my money sink and put my trip in jeopardy just for a mere r75. But due to some miscommunication on intercape representative's part, all that did happen on the day. I demand a full explanation as to why my trip was cancelled without me knowing or notified.
Ticket number1109193315wc989

My son has been using your bus services for the last year between Pietermaritzburg and Heidelburg Gau and I am yet to have your bus arrive and depart as per your scheduled times times...always more than an hour late. It is very frustrating to sit and wait for over an hour for your bosses. Its 20 September ...bus was to arrive in Heidelburg at 15:30 as per YOUR schedule...it is now 16:40 and I am still waiting for the bus to arrive. Jack up your service ... arrive and depart on time...

I've been traveling with Intercape busses for a long time but I've never get a very bad service like the one I've experienced yesterday. Firstly we were given tourist bus even the drivers said that the bus is used for tourists to go around, seats were uncomfortable with no charging portals. Couldn't read my book because passenger light were not working, air conditioner was not working and the weather was 30 degrees celsius. The bus departed at 18:00 pm from Cape Town to King Williams Town, scheduled time was 10:00 am and it arrived at 11:15 because we spent 2hours in Grahamstown without explanation, there was no communication why we had to stay in Grahamstown for such a long time and I've missed my 10:45 appointment in King Williams Town. Intercape poor communication costed me a lot. Intercape doesn't care about customers.

I'm disappointed in your service really-in respect of the bus that departed BFN at 18h45 to DBN. Since we got in this bus the air conditioners have not been working as a result it is too hot in here, the lights on board do not work. The charge units on chairs are also not working. This is really terrible. It is really unacceptable to expect people to travel for such long hours in this kind of heat. Is even worse if we are not allowed to refresh from time to time.

Intercape bus:

I totally understand that delays can be expected at any time during travels. The only things that frustrated me with the InterCape bus, is the fact that we had to wait 4 hours before the bus eventually arrived. The sms that was sent out, only spoke about 2 and a half hours behind schedule. Why did we have to wait 4 hours then for the bus to arrive?
This is unacceptable, due to the fact that people were given a time that the bus is going to leave and an arrival time. It's fine if the time isn't 100% accurate, many things can happen... But for a bus that leaves at 7 in the morning to arrive early afternoon at our destination, our ENTIRE Saturday were wasted due to the bus being 4hours late.
No plans were able to occur anymore, because time wasn't in our favour and many things were arranged for the Saturday.

I would also like to request that the toilet in the bus must be cleaned out very often, as it is extremely unhygienic and people could become sick from the toilet not being cleaned out, as germs can be picked up from using the toilet. The smell from the toilet also travels through the bus, and it is an unpleasant smell to smell during time of travel. Perhaps clean it out during all the refreshment stops.

I am very disgusted in the InterCape bus service, and I highly doubt that I will make use of this service again. I wanted to travel by bus, to cut expenses on fuel, but I will rather spend money on fuel and save time.
I understand time delays do not happen very often, but 4hours has been quite a waiting time and patience were tested.

I was set to take the bus to Middleburg at 05:55 on the 30/08/2019, the instructions stated to be ready at the Shell Ultra City N1 (Samrand) garage by 05:25 - with no instruction as to whether they meant Southbound or Northbound. After waiting from 04:15 until 06:10 there was no sign of the bus, I was informed by inquiries that the bus was at the garage on the other side of the highway (Southbound). They also stated that my ticket states which garage to be at HOWEVER there is NO INDICATION whatsoever as to which garage I should be at (as seen below). The communication at Intercape is pathetic and vague, I will not be making use of their services in the future.

I am highly disappointed with what happened to my sister on Tuesday 14/08/19 and l will not recommend your bus to anyone on this earth. You are the worst bus company l've ever used all my life.

I booked a bus for my sister from Harare to East London. She was supposed to get to Pretoria at about 1230 midday and board the EL bus at 1730hrs but you people got to Pretoria at 6pm and the bus had left, you do not communicate and instead of telling the truth the drivers and conductors lie to the customers. When she got to Joburg to be on the 630pm bus it had left because it was just after 1830hrs... the following day she went to park station so that she can be on the bus to EL, she already had a ticket and you people had the audacity to ask her for a R100 topup. Was it her fault that she missed the bus? Your drivers took forever on the road and instead of them communicating with the connecting bus driver they did not and to ask my sister to pay a top up when it's your staff's fault that she missed the bus THAT IS THEFT. I've always used other bus companies and their service is way better than yours and l will make sure everyone sees this.

On Sunday the 11th of August 2019. I witnessed a very bad incident between an Intercape customer assiatant at Johannesburg around 13:30 at gate number 8. The assiatant qas very rude to the client qhen she asked about checking in her backback as hand lugguage. The response she received was uncalled for. Further leading the client to anger an exchange of words. Later I could hear the intercape staff member shouting "[censored] you" rubbish, nonsense at the customer. Who in return responded with more vulgar and anger towards the assiatant. The incident went on for a good 5minutes with no-one trying to intervene. At the point of exiting the gate the client was steaming with anger ended up pushing the assistant as he was on her way. I was quite shocked that the intercape staffstaff member was so rude and unprofessional right in front of everyone. The lady wanted to clap the guy as he just continued swearing at her as if she did something terrible just by merely asking. I am very disappointed in Intercape and will never use their bus services. My brother couldn't believe it either that Intercape employs such unprofessional people and expect them to deal with clients daily. I am taking this further to the Ombudsman I have the entire event on video. It is very unacceptable for clients to be handled in such a manner.

I have always been a loyal local South African intercape rider and so when I saw intercape route while I was on my holiday in Harare I decided to take a bus to Cape Town instead instead of flying and experience a descent road trip. But to my dismay I had the worst experience ever. I took the Harare to Capetown bus (905) that departed on 7 August at 1800hrs and was meant to arrive on the 9th of August at 8.30 am but arrived at 1210pm instead.
To start off there was no system showing you where you check in. We arrived an hour before departure time and consulted in with the lady in the Intercape offices and she said we must go outside, just to stand outside with no guidance on what was going on. Only until we decided to ask one of the gentleman who was loading luggage on the bus and the departure time was approaching the bus people referred me to go back inside and get paper tickets as I had Paid online and had no print out.
I happily obliged and went back to check my luggage. I'm not sure of your luggage requirements as our bags weighed less than 26 kgs but we paid 100 Rands for extra luggage. The gentleman said it's 5 Rands per extra kg so he was implying that we had 20 extra kgs which is ridiculous because I read the scale myself but because we were rushing for the now about to leave bus I just paid the money. As if that wasn't enough we were then forced to pay 2 dollars per person for gate fee which was never indicated prior or on the website otherwise one wasn't allowed in the bus. I paid and went to check if my bags were loaded in the trailer.
Then we had to run for the bus because the guy we paid the gate fee tried to act like he was unaware of our payment. The younger driver who was explaining the stops was just rude. He was shouting at customers at the boarder and being unnecessarily pompous.
The bus experienced a breakdown in Musina. Apparently it was the trailer issue . Which was amusing to me as to why they wouldn't just detach it since all the luggage was loaded in the bus trunks at the boarder . Most people didn't try and complain or question because we didn't want the same situation that happened with the accident in Free state. Better safe than sorry. Anyway we experienced a two hour delay because of that .
As if this wasn't enough Mitchelle who works in Bloemfonteins office came in claiming that there's a lady with three kids who had booked our seat. Which is confusing to me because I had been in that seat since Harare. And when we boarded why wasn't I pre informed about this inconvenience.
So she had us leave our seats in Bloemfontein and wanted to move us to separate seats when I had specifically called for adjacent seats . And the whole system seemed to be confused as there was more passengers who boarded and not equivalent dropping off. Which resulted in extra delay time .
The bus toilet was clogged, smelly and malfunctioning the whole route. No one bothered to even fix it or check it when we stopped in Johannesburg . And I was moved to the back of the bus near that smelly toilet .
You clearly do not care about customer service anymore. It's appalling . I expected a luxury coach but I got the complete opposite.

I would like to express an extreme disappointment in your service. Due to incompetence in your drivers in the name of Lovemore driving to Harare on this day 08 August 2019. It baffles me that after paying R1100 from Cape Town to Harare i had to be displaced from my seat because apparently I was not allocated a seat despite having allocated a seat in cape town. The said driver went as far as "conniving with the so called allocated customers to ask me to go outside the bus and have them occupy mmy seat. I rate this as poor management of events at the hands of the drivers. I am also in the service industry and would not just write reviews on pages but in your case i saw the highest level of incompetence and there was not even the slightest will to resolve the matter. Lovemore went as far as saying he did not care if i complained or not and that all managers present reported to him so he canas well does he pleases. Is this how you treat people after paying you? To have to be tossed from seat to seat after the fatigue of cape town journey is uncalled for. I will write this review all over your sites as well as name and shame so people know how you treat paying customers. I AM DISSAPOINTED

i booked a bus for a minor travelling alone from durban to cape town .At bloem the child was moved from a seat i booked and payed for it very early, for the other person to sit. according to the child and the person who fetched the child at cape town station the child was sitting at a seat that is not even for customers... instead of finding a place for that person a child that was travelling alone was moved at her comfort seat as if she never paid. what a trauma for the child and a bad experience

Booked tickets months in advance online and received multiple confirmations along with my tickets by email up to 2 weeks before the ride. We showed up at the petrol station where we were supposed to be picked up in Vic Falls, Zimbabwe a couple hours early and were waiting. Soon after, an attendant for the station come over to ask us what we were doing. When we told him we were waiting for the bus, he said he didn't think they were running that route any more. We called Intercape and sure enough they said it had been cancelled. They said they tried to call us, but couldn't reach us (I didn't have phone service in Africa). I asked why they didn't send me an email, and basically got a shrug. I then asked what I was supposed to do and/or how I was now supposed to get to Namibia and the answer was, "Not our problem." They did refund my money, but obviously didn't care at all about stranding us in Zimbabwe.