I booked an Olisipo tour online with Carristour at a web discouted price of 13.50 Euro. According to the website the Yellow Tour buses run every half hour and stop at the Gare do Oriente. On 29 November 2014 they most certainly did NOT. I took it that the Gare do Oriente is the bus and coach station adjacent to the railway station of the same name. So I arrived at the bus station at 1000 hours, found the Carris island, sat down and waited, and waited…and waited. I saw plenty of local buses and a few coaches come and go but no Yellow Tour buses. Of course they are bright yellow big double deckers and hard to miss, so I am quite certain that none came anywhere near the station. After two and a half hours I gave up in disgust. I remembered that reviewers had similar problems with the schedule but a two and a half hour wait is ridiculous.
Upon returning home, I emailed Carris Customer Service relating my experience and requesting a refund. I received a prompt acknowledgement full of weasel words about how the company took customer complaints seriously. Shortly afterwards, a reply came which totally ignored my point about the lack of a half hour schedule and stating that there was GPS evidence that a Yellow Bus had called at the station at 1154 hours and I “may have missed the bus”. Words fail me!
