I travelled by Neeta Volvo - KA01 AA6897 from Bangalore - Mumbai on 16th Dec 2011 and had the worst experience ever. The bus was scheduled to depart at 9.10 PM but departed only at 9.35. The bus stopped at almost every stop possible (even the unscheduled ones). It halted in Pune and other places around for a long time to pick up additional passengers. In Pune they over filled the bus. They even sold the seats that are meant for the reserve driver and the cleaner. The on board staff harassed an elderly woman and a middle aged man (they even had the audacity to tell the man who boarded from Pune to get off the bus in the middle of the expressway when he complained). When we protested they were very rude to us. They asked us to mind our own business and told us too to de-board if unhappy.
Finally when we got off at our destination Andheri they were very arrogant and they made us climb into the luggage rack to retrieve our own luggage. As the passengers who boarded the bus in Pune etc complained too they did not even make a scheduled halt at the expressway foodpoint thus causing major inconvenience to the passengers who had boarded the bus from destinations like Bangalore. The bus finally arrived Andheri at 4.00 PM (when the scheduled arrival time was 11AM for Borivali i.e. over 5 hours late). A point that I would like to mention is that for everything wrong that the staff did (like overfilling the bus) when we confronted them about it that simply said that it was policy and to take it up with the management.
I have travelled many times on the Bangalore-Mumbai route via various tour operators and have never had such a horrid experience. This was my worst experience ever. I will certainly never travel again via Neeta Volvo and will make it a point to advice everyone against this. My advice to customers travelling Bangalore-Mumbai route (or Mumbai – Pune route) is to avoid Neeta Volvo at all costs. There are loads of other operators that you could check out like VRL, National Travels, Konduskar, Sharma etc. I’ve personally travelled by VRL at least 10 times and have never had a problem. They never over fill the bus do not halt to take additional passengers and hence are always on time. They also have well trained and professional staff.
Whatever the travels you choose, avoid NEETA Volvo at all costs or you will be back here writing the next review.