BLUF: The Japan Bus Tickets company is predatory, and has unclear cancellation policy to cheat customers out of money. BUYER BEWARE
I booked 2 trips for my family of four with the Japan Bus tickets. It was a quick overnight trip to Fuji, but the day after we booked them we found out we wouldn't be able to make the trip. Each trip cost 9,800 YEN per way for all 4 of us, or about 20,000 YEN total.
When we booked the trip, the listed cancellation fee was 660 YEN per ticket which is about a total of 5,280 YEN ($35 at this time). I recognized that if we needed to cancel it would only cost $35 and decided it was better to get the seats reserved than wait.
When we found out we couldn't go to Fuji the next day, I went to cancel the tickets and again on the cancellation page it referenced 660 YEN per ticket cancellation fee, so I clicked cancel. Then I got an email saying they got the cancellation and we were refunded 3,960 YEN per trip or about 8,000 YEN total. This didnt make sense since I expected a cancellation fee of 5,280 YEN and a refund of about 15,000 YEN total.
I reached out to their customer support about it and within 2 MINUTES they responded with a screenshot of the page where you put in your Credit Card and check the box for Terms of Use and Commerce Disclosure and then proceeded to reference the fine print on the Commerce Disclosure which says that the fees and taxes are nonrefundable amounting to 6,400 YEN of non-refundable money.
However, this is not referenced anywhere else! It is not referenced when purchasing the tickets and it is not referenced when cancelling the tickets. They dont even say that it will be 660 YEN of the "ticket price" cancelled, it just says "per person" which any normal person would assume means ticket price and fees and taxes.
This company is predatory and they clearly know it since they have a canned response ready to go that shows the screenshot, the link, and attaches a PDF of their commerce disclosure if you complain about the cancellation. Clearly this has happened before to them and they don't care to change their website to inform customers of the actual cost of cancellation and that 60% of the ticket price is immediately non-refundable.
Edit: the company website is https://www.japan-bus-tickets.com BUYER BEWARE
by Alarmed-Ideal-2968