Nakedbus exposed for the scrooges they are

Nakedbus has refused to refund a passenger's ticket even though the bus was over an hour late and the company gave no delay notification. Sonia Kalekale arrived at the stop in Manukau in south Auckland well before her bus was due to depart for Hamilton last Friday evening. However, a full hour past its scheduled departure date, the bus still hadn't showed and the company hadn't contacted her about any delay. "I had no way of knowing if the bus was ever going to show," Kalekale said. Angry she couldn't make it to her friend's birthday party in Hamilton, and not wanting to wait in the cold and dark any more, Kalekale went home. That night, she wrote an email to Nakedbus requesting a refund for the trip. Nakedbus refused to play ball. "We apologise for the delay ... [but] Unfortunately we will not be able to refund this to you," the reply said. I'm not a lawyer but this looks like a breach of the Consumer Guarantees Act to me. Sonia bought the bus ticket with the express purpose of attending a birthday party. Late bus meant missing the party so no point going to Hamilton after that. As prescribed in the Act, the service Nakedbus were providing was not "fit for purpose." Without being bothered looking up the Consumer Guarantee's Act, I'm sure it'll also say something like you're entitled to a refund for "not receiving a service substantially similar to what was purchased". Pretty good argument that buying a bus ticket that departs at 8:15pm (when the bus was scheduled to leave) is quite different to buying one that departs at 9:26pm (the time the bus came; 10 minutes after Sonia left).