A Ukrainian refugee was left devastated after a bus to take her from Dundee to London failed to show up.
Oksana Gorbach was set to spend her birthday in the Big Smoke – a dream she has had since moving to Dundee last July.
She had booked an overnight FlixBus for June 27 and had planned to spend a day sightseeing before boarding a bus back home.
Her host, Gaynyr Dickson, also bought her a champagne ticket for the London Eye as a birthday gift.
But her dream remained just that after she was left stranded at a bus stop due to the coach not turning up.
Oksana, 37, told The Courier she was left disappointed on what was supposed to be a special day.
She said: “When the bus was 10 minutes late, we didn’t worry because sometimes there is a delay.
“But when we saw another FlixBus show up at the stop we did start to worry.
“Many people started to call customer service and I got my friend to call them up too.
“The app where I can see where the bus is didn’t work.
Oksana’s birthday dream dashed after bus doesn’t show
“I waited another hour and when I checked the app, I saw the bus moving to Edinburgh.
“I think the bus maybe started at Perth and missed Dundee completely.
“We were still standing at the stop after 11pm.
“Some people who were also at the stop were worried as they were catching flights the next day and didn’t have another opportunity to go to London.”
When it hit midnight, Oksana decided to leave having been informed by Flix Bus that she would receive an email on what to do next.
But she never received this and was instead told that she had missed her bus.
“12 people can’t miss the bus,” Oksana continued.
“After they cancelled my trip, they returned my money.
“But I don’t have an apology or explanation and I can’t get the money back for what I was planning to do in London.
“I was disappointed because I had this plan for my birthday but other people had bigger problems.”
‘It’s an embarrassment’
Host Gaynyr was unable to get her money back for the London Eye present and said: “I’d gifted Oksana a champagne ticket on the London Eye and I can’t get the money back for that.
“You can only change the date of it with 24 hours’ notice and obviously because she was left high and dry in the middle of the night, there was nothing we could do about that.
“It’s that kind of thing that they need to look at.
“If it’s their fault that people can’t travel then they need to look at other expenses they’re going to be refunding.
“It’s not about the money for me, it’s more about that Oksana was left in tears and her birthday dream was ruined.
“Everybody in this country has been so welcoming to our refugees and it’s just an embarrassment that we can’t get things right like a simple bus trip for somebody’s birthday.”
Oksana ended up spending her birthday in Edinburgh instead and still hopes to visit London in the near future.
She said: “I love Edinburgh so for me it’s my lovely city here and I like to spend time there.
“It was really good but next time it will be London.”
FlixBus has been approached for comment.
