Coach Innovations has issued a full statement and refund update after LFC fans were "stranded" outside the Rocket.
Huge groups of Reds were left waiting for hours at the Rocket junction on Friday, May 28, for pre-booked coaches to take them to Paris. After hours of waiting, many were devastated as they reported five coaches pulled up near the crowds empty before they carried on driving.
Some eight hours after the fans were supposed to be picked up, a coach was sent out. But by this time, supporters say they had already been told to go home and the coach collected just six people.
Following complaints from customers, Coach Innovations has now issued a full statement regarding the issues. A spokesperson for the company said they "didn’t advertise any travel to Paris" and "all 20 coaches were filled up quickly by personal recommendations and word of mouth from customers that had previously travelled with us."
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A section of Coach Innovations showed a "Liverpool to Paris" section on the homepage of the company's website. The company's statement regarding delayed coaches said: "The seven coaches that departed the on the Thursday went without any problems. Friday the day started as planned with confirmation that all coaches had departed their bases and now on-route to Liverpool.
"What we couldn’t have predicted was the unprecedented traffic chaos throughout the country. Many of our coaches were coming from South Wales which were experiencing severe traffic problems travelling to Liverpool.
"As some coaches were running late, staff on the ground were thinking on their feet, as coaches were arriving at Rice Lane (which was the bulk of our .customers) staff were dealing with a deluge of people rushing coaches and filling up every seat as they arrived. Once Rice Lane was completely cleared, we had a driver report the Rocket had now been cleared.
"However, this clearly was not the case and not helpful. There were a number of passengers still waiting at the Rocket and other departure points. We immediately despatched another coach to start collect remaining customers from all departure points from Liverpool to Dover. However we are aware, by this time some customers had now returned home."
Regarding the claims of lack of information regarding the delays, a spokesperson for Coach Innovations said: "After departing Liverpool passengers on many coaches experienced the traffic chaos first hand with further motorway closures due to accidents and long delays at Dover.
"We have years of experience transporting thousands of fans from different clubs to big European games and European Cup Finals. On departure days we always have 2/3 staff on hand to receive a usually small number of calls. On this occasion, due to delayed coaches we were experiencing many more calls than usual, leaving many people struggling to get through.
"Unfortunately the lack of information resulted in some people not travelling to Paris with us. We sincerely apologies to anyone that couldn't get through and will contact you shortly."
The coach company also addressed there was a fake Twitter, and other social media accounts claiming to be Coach Innovations. It said: "From what we can ascertain, some of these sites are suggesting that Coach Innovations were a fake company set up to trick Liverpool fans. If this was the case, we didn’t do a very good job of it.
"We took over 1100 reds to Paris and are in the process refunding anyone that didn’t travel. We really can’t do too much to stop fake news and conspiracy theories." It said the only social media page the company has is its Facebook page and will "endeavour" to get the fake accounts removed.
The statement concluded Coach Innovations will be directing those impacted directly for a more "detailed explanation and a personal apology". A spokesperson said: "We previously taken over 12,000 fans to European cup games over the past 15 years, and many more to English domestic cup finals, play-off finals etc. Just a few weeks ago we took a total of 11 coaches of Liverpool fans to Wembley for the FA Cup Semi-Finals & the Final.
"We understand what football means to the people of Liverpool. While we done everything possible to get everyone to Paris, we understand that some people didn't make it. The fact this was a small number is no consolation whatsoever to you.
"Given the importance of this game, an apology on here would be meaningless. We'll shortly be contacting you directly with a more detailed explanation and a personal apology. Finally, we apologise to everyone who experienced delays, not only departing your pick-up points but also on-route to Dover.. We hope you can understand that these delays were something completely beyond our control.
Coach Innovations have said their priority is to ensure anybody who didn’t travel, will be contacted and get a full refund as soon as possible.
