Centaur Travel - Dartford

Jun P.

I messaged the driver at 8am with the following message; Good morning Georghe. This is (my name), your booking from (number and road name), (postcode). Hope all is well with pick up?

We had no reply and at 8.55am, so I called. I was told to "wait" as soon as I said "Morning Gheorge, this is (my name), your 9am pick up from (full address)

They then said "I am on (road name) but it is a very narrow road and can't get through"...I suggested to them that it would be easier if they went around, entering through another side road, they then said "ok" and hung up the phone. It was now 8.57am.

I would like to point out how we have used the exact same pick up point for many years and dozens of trips as a family member has a severely Autistic son, using the same size coaches if not at times, even bigger coaches.

I didn't think too much of it, because I hadn't seen the coach at that time and thought they would just go around, through the side road, as I suggested and that would be the end of it, but as soon as the coach arrived at the pick up location, rather than letting the people put their stuff away in the under carriage storage and board the coach, because he arrived at 9.07am (late) he got off the coach, walked around and when I approached them and said "Good morning" and stuck out my hand to shake his hand, he immediately said "Excuse me, why you have this as pick up location" to which I replied "I'm sorry but we always have this as a pick up location" to which he said "next time, never do this pick up location"...we request a pick up location as customers, if it is big enough, safe and adhering to all road laws, I couldn't understand why they were being nasty about it. I didn't want any confrontation, as I could tell by now that this driver is a nasty, bully type of person, so I said "ok, that's fine" (Driver is a 6 ft 2 plus figure who stands right up to you, I'm 5 ft 7)

We had a smooth ride and when we arrived at our location, the Driver called me over to the front and said "Listen, I will come to this exact same place at 6.30pm and we leave 6.50pm ok, I will go to the coach parking" I said "that's fine" and I thought that's fair enough, our departure time is 7pm.

At 3pm, our group had enjoyed a bit of the water and as we were a group of 61 people, we had quite a few bags. The group wanted to put back their excess bags into the coach storage, so a small group head off with the excess bags to the coach parking (where they said they will be) to find the coach parked but the Driver was nowhere there. Eventually after walking around one of the group got signal and called them, but he said he will be 30 minutes, then arrived almost an hour later and was grumpy about having to come back...

On the way back, they were driving poorly through some countryside back roads, with earphones in his ears, doing 40mph in a 30mph zone, harshly braking and turning, when suddenly he hit into a tree branch which cracked a window. He braked sharply soon as the bang occured.

When I then asked them, if we could stop at a service station he didn't reply, I then asked "is that ok please, a service station please" he SHOUTED "YES"

When we arrived at the service station, he opened the door, stood up and said to me "we will be here 15 mins then I go" I didn't reply.

The Driver came out, went into a bush and urinated!! (Bus CCTV) He then came and said "Hey, I do no more stops" rudely.

He then said "we have toilet inside coach" I replied saying "but unfortunately the flush isn't working, there is urine over the floor and poo in the toilet" (this was faeces left from before and before any one of our group used the toilet) the audacity to say that when they just did what they did.
04/09 UPDATE: Centaur reported my review and still no update as promised on 21/08 and they requested that I remove the Trustpilot review. Now they are requesting information to confirm my review on Trustpilot was genuine, they have this information already, they knew exactly who to ask to remove the review.
Limited/shortened text due to Google.

Adam S.

The service is great however the buses smell like a toilet. They really need to get it checked out or just take the toilets out of use if they’re not going to maintain them.

Cathy

Booked a minibus from Centaur to take us to and from a birthday event in London. Would definitely recommend this company, our lovely driver Jonathan was prompt, professional and made sure we got to venue on time. Thank you.

Jack Y.

The schedule on the website is out of date and some of the drivers are incredibly rude

Amninder K.

We decided to book with Centaur Travel for a ladies group trip from Gravesend to Eastbourne. We booked the Coach with 57 seats. It was clean, comfortable, and fully air-conditioned. Really happy we chose this coach service.
Most importantly, we just want to say a huge thank you to our lovely driver Kenneth! He was an absolute gentleman. Very professional, polite, and approachable which made communication stress-free. He was very kind and accommodating towards our needs – his patience was greatly appreciated. We highly commend him, and Centaur – we will be booking again for future trips - Kez &Amninder

Miss T.

We had the misfortune of having an extremely lazy and unhelpful driver and passenger assistant. Not what you need with special needs children. Hope we never have Centaur again. That said the first driver and passenger assistant we had were great, but the second experience was as bad as it gets. You can earn minimum pay and still do a good job. This says a lot about the people working for Centaur..

Ziona M.

Recently booked for a trip to Southend-on-Sea. Coach was very clean and up to date. Driver was on time and got us to our destination and back on time with no problems. Can not fault them for their service. The reason for 4 stars is because the toilet was not working and driver did not seem aware of the facilities available on the coach (WiFi name and password, charger ports and failed to notify us of broken toilet). Otherwise would glady use again and their prices are very good.

stuart

2/10/23 One of these massive coaches pulled out of a side road right across my path in north farm road tunbridge wells driver kept coming I had to take evasive action to avoid collision
Supposed to be a professional driver
50s glasses he thought it would be professional to stick middle finger up at me !!!!!!!! A great image for this company