If only a cathartic exercise, we would like to share with you our disappointing family experience on a recent tour with The Original London Sightseeing Bus Tour. 1-/ The buses were dirty. The smell was disgusting, particularly in one bus. 2-/ The buses were packed, with not enough seats (inside), especially on a rainy day. 3-/The information provided by the audio system was insufficient and the sound quality was mediocre. 4- The price was much too expensive for the mediocre quality offered. A negative publicity can only be the consequence of such a poor service. Let this be the beginning of this negative paragraphs of mouth.
It’s nice to see that the Original Tour hasn’t improved since I used to work for them (hence the reason I’m anonomous).The sales staff were actively encouraged to sell,sell,sell regardless of whether we had enough buses on the roads that day.The majority of their undertalented and over confident staff would spend most of the tour talking to the driver,giving boring snippets of information when they felt like it.
Not that it mattered anyway.The sound systems were tuned up by someone with the hearing skills of Beethoven in his later days, so you could barely hear the words of wit and wisdom from the tour host.Are you getting the picture?This attitude actively reflects the incompetent management, based in Wandsworth.Completely uninspirational.My advice to any visitor to London would be to use the Big Bus Company,their competitors.
I strongly agree that The Original Bus tour is a complete rip-off.
The audio system commentary is very brief, hard to hear and not worth listening to.
We had too very surly drivers who have not a clue about customer service. In one incident, the bus took a different route from the one shown on the map. It turns out they’d changed the route but still had old maps in circulation in the hands of their sales people. We had wanted to visit Westminster Abbey which was not exactly on the revised route. When I realized the driver had taken a different route, I went up and asked him how to get to the Abbey. “Two more stops”, he said. The second stop was actually Buckingham Palace. He’d gone straight past a scheduled stop by Lambeth Palace and didn’t bother to call up and tell me the we’d reached Abbey stop. “I don’t have to tell you where the stops are – it’s not my job” was his answer when I challenged him. “I thought you decided to change your mind”.
We waited half an hour for a bus at the London Eye. Five of the competition’s buses went by while we were waiting.
I recommend you avoid “The Original Bus” like the plague and use their competitor “The Big Bus”.