A woman was left in fear for her safety when a Stagecoach bus driver left her stranded alone on a dark road at night.
Danielle Allen, 19, said she desperately pleaded with the driver to let her on the bus after she tried to buy a ticket and her card was declined.
When the payment didn't work, she even used her banking app to show the driver that she had money in her account in a bid to board the service.
Danielle said the bus driver told her he would give her "one more try" but her card was declined again.
The cleaner claims she was then told she could not board the bus and left alone on the dark strip of road just before 11pm last Thursday.
Unsure of what to do next, she broke down in tears fearing someone could attack or kidnap her.
"I said 'please can you let me on this bus... It’s dark, I’m alone and it’s late. I have no other way home'," Danielle told Kent Online.
"I pleaded with the bus driver but I had to get off the bus. I panicked so I phoned my mum crying my eyes out because I had no other way home."
Danielle had been trying to board the number eight service from Canterbury to Margate in Kent after finishing her cleaning job.
Danielle insisted there was "no reason" why the bus driver should not have let her on.
She told how she had shown the bus driver she had money in her account and explained there must be an issue with his payment machine.
But the driver referred her to a nearby cashpoint which would mean her having to wait another hour for the next bus, she claims.
"I was worried that something could happen as I don’t know the place very well and it’s a long, dark strip of road. I thought someone could attack or kidnap me," she said.
"But it might not have been as serious as that. It could have been a man coming along and making me feel uncomfortable."
Danielle explained that she did not have enough money to take a £30 taxi home and did not have enough time to catch a train.
Instead, she walked to the nearby McDonald's where she felt safer and waited for her mum's friend to collect her.
After her experience, the teenager contacted the Stagecoach customer service team on Twitter.
Stagecoach has since said that the driver should have let her travel "out of kindness" on the service last week.
Responding on Twitter, the bus operator said: "Out of kindness the driver should have let you travel.
"I have taken all the details from this complaint and will pass it on to the depot manager so they can do an internal investigation."
A Stagecoach South East spokesperson told the Mirror: “We are extremely concerned about this incident and are very sorry for the anxiety this clearly caused for the customer.
“We have a very clear and longstanding policy that young people or other vulnerable individuals should be allowed to travel in these circumstances.
“We are investigating why this does not appear to have been followed in this case and we will take appropriate action internally to reinforce our policy with our team.”
