alpy bus or cham express g.v.a. to chamonix

A snowHead

am doing a d.i.y. weekend to chamonix in a couple of weeks , and want to make sure i get max time in resort. so is one of these better than the other , and do they leave on a schedule or do they wait to fill up ???
other choice is to hire a car Puzzled

A snowHead

Neilski, I'm using the Cham Express transfer on Thursday so can let you know

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We did the Alpi Bus over New Year. We only did it on the return journey as we were hugely delayed on the way out and ended up at a different airport to our original destination. The return journey was bang on time. We did it from Belle Plagne. One stop, second leg was bang on time aswell. Probably an hour on top a private transfer time...I suppose you have to weigh the cost up against the time gained.

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oops...Alti bus.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Have used both (and Mountain Dropoffs, too, who I'm sure I've got a discount code for somewhere (might be SWISS1034)). They're all pretty much the same, from my experience. They have plenty of minibuses running, so will schedule to pick up a busload for similarly timed flights, but have capabiity to reshuffle if flights are delayed. I've never been hanging around in the airport for more that 10 minutes. Theres a chance of a faff if they're dropping off at a variety of chalets dotted around the place, but that's pot luck, really.

A car's a useful thing to have in Chamonix though, the buses can be a bit of a faff, but I don't know if that's worth the extra money to you.

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As a single traveller I found Alpy bus (not Altibus) were spot on in their times. They meet you at the airport and take you to yor Hotel; then pick you up at your Hotel to go home. All for €23.50 each way.
I skied a full day and then caught a late EasyJet flight from Geneva. Perhaps if you were staying further up the valley you might have to stop just a bit earlier.
See the timetables on their website : http://www.alpybus.com/home. There is a range of pick-up times to come home, depending where your Hotel is, Ask for a more precise time for your Hotel.

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thanks all alpy bus booked Smile

After all it is free

I travel across Europe frequently and never have I had such a bad experience as that with CHAMEXPRESS. They are just that a sham!!

I had ordered a child seat for a journey returning to the airport and they did not provide this.. Now they are denying I ordered it .. Even though my emailed and printed out voucher states that a child seat was ordered and paid for .. And their solution .. We'll pick one up up half way through the journey.. On snowy and treacherous roads this was not a solution and we were in an untenable position as our flights were booked and no other company was available for transfer.

Now the company will not respond to my daily emails and calls to speak to someone about the issue and the stress this caused.. Plus the fact that we paid for a seat that was not provided..

BEWARE Travellers!!!! Do not use

JezzieG, Don't worry the owner of chamexpress will be along soon enough to publicly suggest that some punters really should use Tour Ops wink

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Have used both, can (sort of) recommend both. ChamExpress slicker booking, AlpyBus cheaper. Have also had the experience of booking a child seat on ChamExpress and it not materializing. Have used ChamExpress more (due to loyalty program) so they have had more opportunity to 'cock up', to put things in context.

cran

Bit risky using Cham express if you have a late flight as they won't wait for you if it's delayed.

There were a lot of people trying to get to Cham last Saturday night after the cham people had gone and left them stranded at the airport even though they had booked transfers...

Alpy Bus are a better choice imo.

snow reports

i have used Cham Express for the last 3 years at New Year , no issues and this past new year we were delayed and stuck in baggage waiting for skis , must have been last transfer as we didn't arrive until 10pm in Les Houches , they were texting to check on progress and advised where they were waiting. Haven't used anybody else so cant compare , but have no reason to complain about the service from cham.

cran

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I've read that other thread about the guy complainging about Chamexpress and being left to wait all day at Geneva having missed his transfer by 5 mins, but having read their website and T&C's it's clear what they offer, so I'm not sure the OP on that thread had reason to complain - he seemingly got what they offer/promise, ie. a later transfer. However it's not a service I would use (though never say never of course) unless I was desperate for those very reasons, but at least they are clear about your (limited) options if you are late and miss your bus or need to change anything. Personally I wouldn't risk it, as delays and cancellations happen with international travel and I wouldn't want the stress of re-organising transfers or overnighting in GVA because my flight was delayed (wouldn't be stress-free as their homepage suggests!). But, to be fair to them they are budget end fixed time transfers as opposed to guaranteed transfers, so you get what you pay for, and they are seemingly cheap. You pays your money, takes your choice.

They seem to have a lot of happy customers though - I guess its like all value/budget end options - for most people, when it goes well its great, but for the few when it goes wrong it could be a major hassle.

(I should add I've never used them or their competitors, I've only done hire car, or chalet company's own transfers)

However the situation described by JezzieG re. childseats, if as he described (two sides to every story and all that), is inexcusable. Interested to see if the Chamexpress guy responds on that one.

A snowHead

The child seats thing is interesting because it's often a problem. Given that Chamexpress offer childseats, they should definitely honour any confirmed bookings - parents won't be at all happy otherwise. However, it's by no means universal that you can order child seats - I don't think many taxis have them, for example, and on an ordinary bus you'd be doing well even to have a lapstrap.

So if this service (and booster seats, too) is offered by a "budget" operator I think that's admirably good service. But only if they actually produce them, of course. wink

A snowHead

I'm trying to get a sneaky long weekend in Chamonix from 22 March and was looking at the prices and times. Alpy Bus are a bit cheaper at 56 euro for a round trip - not bad. Also they both seem to offer an hourly service from GVA. With a flight due to arrive at 10:05am I wouldn't be pushing it to make the 10:30 Alpy Bus and would opt for one an hour later building in a bit of leeway for a delayed flight.

That said I'll be travelling alone and a hire car is £87. Question is; is the extra 30 odd quid worth it for the convenience of having a car?

Is it possible to take the train from GVA to Chamonix?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Well agreed, if they offer it they must ensure they deliver - anything less is inexcusable as far a childs life is concerned. I wouldn't stick my one year old unrestrained in an adult car/bus seat for a motorway journey !! (and I'm about as far away from a "health and safety wrap kids up in cotton wool" type as you can get - though I do make myn wear a helmet wink

)

Agreed though that it seems to be a common problem, but weirdly why is it such a problem for operators to offer ? It's not complicated is it ? A stock of 3 different sizes of car seats (rear facing, forward facing, booster), assign them out to routes as booked, have a small stock of each to allow for seat failure/replacement. Ensure correct seat is on bus for each journey. If you can't make sure people have the child seats they have booked you should not offer it

Weirdly when I read chamexpress's t&cs on the matter I recall thay have dealt with it by saying along the lines that the customers only option if they fail to deliver on childseats is cancellation with chamexpress's liability being limited to refund of the fare - fat lot of use that is if you are stuck with a child and a flight to catch.

I book each year a holiday with family friendly skiing. One of the reasons is they are one of the few operators who do actually offer childseats on transfers. (I won't claim that is always perfect either, there is usually some sort of child seat faff at pick-up time, but it always gets sorted and I certianly wouldn't stick my kids on motorway journey without one).

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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halfhand, Unless you have just got hand luggage and it is a week day 25mins is pushing it .The car never does work out at just that bit more- Fuel, tolls and then the other things the car hire company hit you with when you arrive winterisation,chains, insurance excess waivre option there is always something!

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After all it is free

brock, Fair point ,I would never expect to get from plane to bus stop in 25mins hence if getting the bus I'd plump for the next one. Factor in fuel (renault twingo has got to do >35mpg, so less than half a tank for 4 days wandering around the Chamonix valley and the airport). Hiring from Swiss side , it will have winter tyres - good enough for Chamonix in my experience.

still a tentaive plan as yet so we'll see. Very Happy

I managed to make the 10.30am Altibus from Chambery after getting off the plane at about 10.05 and picking up skis, bags etc. (despite people on here telling me it was impossible), so it can be done, even with Chambery's transfer day shambles. Altibus are pretty flexible with the tickets (it's basically just a public bus service) so it was no problem.

I was fully expecting to wait for the next one too so it was a nice surprise. Got me into resort 4 hours earlier than I was expecting. Even managed a few runs, albeit on the free beginner slope (which I got laughed at for suggesting on here. Not bitter, honest... wink

).

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Hi,

There are a number of you that have asked me to respond to the issue raised above by JG in respect of the provision of Child Seats.

RG (the group organiser -who i assume is related - given her postings on other mediums about this incident) booked a group transfer to Morzine this winter. However, it was not just one transfer, people were arriving and departing at different times. Normally this does not qualify for our group rate. However, on this occasion we did the booking for our group rate of 22.50 Euros per person HT. A discount of 20%.

A number of transfer tickets were issued for all the different arrivals and departures. Every ticket stated that a child seat was required.
However, There was subsequently a number of changes made to the bookings by RG. RG also contacted our office to say that a child seat was only required for one of the arrivals/departures and not for all of them. Therefore one of our office staff made notes for each arrival/departure in the diary. It appears that she made an error for the return journey and marked the child seat not required for the wrong return departure. We have held our hands up to this error.

On the return day in question, the driver arrived at the pick up at 08:55am for a scheduled 08:45am - 09:15am collection. It was immediately apparent that the child seat was to be required for this collection. The driver called our duty manager and the passenger was given a choice. A 2nd minibus would bring a child seat straight to them - 10 minutes. Or, this driver would go and collect a child seat and return - 15 minutes. Both options would still have been within the timetabled collection window and the bus would still have been able to depart on time.

There was no pressure on flight time as there was plenty of time before their flight was due to depart.

The parent of the child refused both options, and demanded that the minibus leave straightaway for the airport. This placed the driver under considerable duress and forced him to transport a child illegally.

Regards.

Andrew

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Chamexpress, Thanks - nice factual response.

(secretly hoping I can pop some popcorn if Jezzie G returns wink

)

snow reports

Yes a well written reasoned account by Chamexpress, and if true a seemingly sensible and reasonable set of options provided.
Interesting how the account is almost opposite to JezzieG's.

If nothing else though, I respect companies who take the time to engage with customers and publically respond.

Out of interest though, if your driver could have executed either option and still picked up within the contracted time window and departed per the scheduled departure time as you say he could, it begs the question as to why on earth he actually agreed to leave and transport the child illegally. Surely as a matter of policy, law, insurance, and indeed common sense he and/or the duty mgr should have taken control, refused the customers demand to depart immediately and sat out the 10 minutes of the cusomter complaining whilst bus 2 bought over the car seat, problem solved.
Just my humble opinion Smile

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

fatbob, I do not know what was meant by Chamexpress, suggesting the OP of the other thread should not book DIY and use a TO! But he appeared to be a bit of an "innocent"! He did not have a leg to stand on, and it would appear that most of the forum's readers thought the same! He was entirely wrong and if I were one of the passanger hanging around arrivals waiting for someone on the "other side" that could not collect their belongings, I would be rightly pissed off if the driver had waited toooooo long for my scheduled departure!

Although it was great craic listening to that guy whinge! He hasn't come back yet!! Maybe he will be along soon to say sorry! Maybe not, but that is alas my loss as he was fun. Laughing

A snowHead

Definitely avoid Chamexpress if you can.

We used them recently and they had mistakenly taken incorrect contact details so did not pick us up, but did not bother using one of the alternative methods to contact us and tell us. When I called they arranged another transfer, but when that picked us up it was delayed by 45 minutes because of passengers who were running late. In the end we had to jump out in Chamonix and get a friend to give us a lift so that we wouldn't miss our flight.

I have been in touch with them 4-5 times since that trying to get my money back for the transfer we didn't use, and also for the next transfer we had booked that I told them I no longer wanted because I would not travel with them. Unsurprisingly, they were quick to take my money, but after promising they would get back to me numerous times, they still have not got back to me and hold my money for 3 transfers I have not used.

Avoid Chamexpress - they're a scam

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Here we go Toofy Grin

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Two first posters slagging off Chamexpress. Is the competiton bored ? Laughing

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

When's the court date.

GL calling a company scammers, and then trying to get money back for a future trip. I'm sure there are booking T+C's for pre-paid trips.

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I've used ChamExpress loads of times and never had a problem.
My mates arriving tomorrow with Chamexpress I'll let you all know how it goes.

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@martinm - I am not affiliated with any companies. I am only reporting what happened because I think others should know. I was unimpressed by what happened, but more disappointed with how Chamexpress have not responded to or dealt with the situation. It's incredibly poor customer service and does reflect that they're a business with passing trade and unfortunately just don't care about a single customer. BTW. Yup, I am a first poster, I came across this this forum by Googling "Chamexpress reviews", so thought it a good idea to post here as others will see this.

@andy - No court date necessary, I have protection through my credit card company for these exact situations. I have paid for 3 transfers and not received any of them. There is no dispute fortunately and I have a paper trail of the entire incident. It's a shame that Chamexpress didn't just say sorry, refund the money, and retain a happy customer as opposed to dragging this process out, ignoring me, and making me rather unhappy about the whole thing (hence bothering to communicate this all).

After all it is free

Not as entertaining as the thread for that other transfer company.

Well hello all.. It's the silly season again:

Here's our reply to Matt which makes things pretty clear:

Dear Matthew,

You booked a transfer for our 17:30 departure from Chamonix for the 22nd December 2013. This transfer has a pick-up window in Chamonix of 16:55-17;25. You booked by telephone and were advised that you needed to be ready and waiting at the Aiguille du Midi bus stop from 16:55 onwards.

You purchased a 'Standard Fare Ticket'.

Your ticket was automatically sent to your email address. The ticket contains all your pick-up details, re-iterates that pick-up window, and gives our emergency contact telephone number.

All our minibuses are satellite tracked. This informs our Duty Vehicle Dispatchers of exactly where each bus is at any time. The movements of the buses are displayed on large screens in our offices in real time. It also enables us to analyse and replay all past vehicle movements.

I can confirm that the satellite tracking systems proves that our minibus was present at the Aiguille du Midi bus stop at 16:50hrs and waited for you for a duration of 18 minutes 32 seconds.

Clearly you were not there during this period of time, otherwise you would have seen, and boarded the bus.

When you telephoned our office at 17:20 our staff did everything they could to assist you. Including placing you on the next departure at no additional ticket charge. Even though you should have paid, as originally a Standard Fare Ticket had been purchased.

The 18:00 transfer departure which you were subsequently placed on was not delayed. It was running perfectly on time. The driver of this transfer had a number of collections in Les Houches on his way out of the Chamonix Valley. There was no detour. It is simply the pick-ups that that vehicle was scheduled to complete.

YOU, then made the decision that you would like to disembark the vehicle and make your own arrangements. Why do you expect a refund for these unused seats on the 17:30? If you purchase a flight with easyJet and fail to turn up on time to board the plane.. Would you expect a refund from them?

You then wrote to us, blaming us for having the incorrect telephone number for you. You then said you wanted to cancel your forthcoming inbound transfer as well. So we duly cancelled it at your request. That does not mean you are entitled to a refund for it as we may not be able to resell those two seats.

I would further point out, as many have done on these forums, that it is important that you follow the instructions of your airline. Your airline requires you to check in at least 2 hours prior to your flight departure. Had you followed this advice, then travelling on the 18:00 transfer instead of the 17:30 would not have been a flight-critical situation for you.

We are certainly not a scam. We have been here for over 10 years and are the largest airport transfer company in the Alps. In the last two weeks of December we successfully transported over 7,000 passengers. That is no mean logistical feat with mainly 8 and 16 seat minibuses.

I trust the above information provides clarification for readers of this forum.

Regards.

Andrew Martin
Managing Director
SARL Chamexpress.com

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Andrew, it may be the silly season for Chamexpress because you have more customers than you can throw a stick at, but I am an individual who trusted you to get me to the airport and you failed me. I don't find that silly, I find that frustrating.

In addition, your response within a day to this issue publicly is surprising and disappointing. Surprising because I contacted you on 23 Dec about this problem to try and resolve it and have not heard back as of Today. I have sent you 6 emails about this, and you have still not come back to me. It's disappointing to me because I wish you paid more attention to your customers when they contact you in a fair and reasonable fashion instead of just ignoring them, forcing me to use a public forum such as this to warn others of your bad behaviour. If anyone feels I am misrepresenting Chamexpress in anyway, please do feel free to review the complete email thread between Chamexpress and myself at http://goo.gl/rdnwGP

The fact that your van was waiting is appreciated, however it was not visible to us and we were indeed waiting for the van. I don't need to check my GPS to tell you that because my girlfriend and I were out in the cold. We called you at 5.20pm because we were worried the window only had 5 minutes left and you had not contacted us yet. If you had simply taken the correct details in the first place or confirmed them then this whole problem would have been avoided. As you can see from the email thread at http://goo.gl/rdnwGP which includes your confirmation email, there was no phone number in there or any request to confirm the contact details.

The fact that your alternate pickup of 6pm was supposedly running on schedule is of no use to me. We missed our earlier pickup because you had incorrect details, a problem that could have been so easily avoided if you simply confirmed them yet you didn't. And you did not bother to email us either when you could not get hold of us, which I would have picked up.

Your mistakes cost us a missed lift, and yet you are not acknowledging that. I find it shocking that a company that has been running 10 years to not simply confirm details when you take a booking, and more importantly understand that when you make a mistake perhaps the best step in the first place is to say sorry and try and keep a happy customer avoiding these public discussions in the first place.

I don't feel any further discussion is necessary. I have voiced what happened so that others can be warned, find an alternate transfer company, and hopefully in future you'll consider replying to the customers you let down.

Matt

Help!!

alpy bus or cham express g.v.a. to chamonix

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