Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions - using the Reading Buses website

These are the general terms and conditions for using the Reading Buses website, the Reading Buses Shop website and any associated sites provided to you by any other company under contract to Reading Transport Limited, Great Knollys Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 7HH, registered in England number 02004963.

About the website:

The Reading Buses website is designed to provide you with information about the company, its services and products. It is also to provide you with products for purchase for use as travel passes on our buses.

We strive to keep the site up to date so that all information presented to you is accurate. On the rare occasion that information is incorrect, we reserve the right to withdraw any offer or service that is mentioned without warning.  To the extent permitted by applicable law, Reading Transport Limited (trading as Reading Ruses) disclaims all warranties; express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials on this website and will accept no liability for any loss or damage arising as a result of problems with access.

If you spot any mistakes on our website, please tell us via the contact us section of the site.

Using the Reading Buses website:

We present the information and design of this website to you for use primarily as an information tool. Some parts of the Reading Buses website, the Reading Buses Shop website and subsidiary sites will allow you to purchase and top up products online.

Any contract between you, the user, and us, the provider, whether for use of the site or in relation to the purchase of products or services through the site will be governed by the laws of England and Wales and all parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts. All transactions are to be made from the United Kingdom only. Any attempt to secure products from any country outside the UK may result in charges being made. Please check your location before purchasing.

Any contract will be communicated in English.

We shall not be liable to any person for any loss or damage, which may arise from the use of any of the information contained in any of the materials on this website.

Our online shop www.reading-busesshop.co.uk is run as a separate site from the Reading Buses main site and is completely under our control, but managed by our agent, Unicard UK. If there are any issues between the two sites, please contact us as soon as they arise.

Certain other links on our site may lead to other websites. These are provided purely for your information and are not under the control of Reading Buses. If you choose to click on these links, we will accept no responsibility or liability for the material on any site which is not under our control.

The exclusions of liability set out in these terms and conditions shall not apply to any damages arising from death or personal injury caused by the negligence of Reading Buses, or any of their employees or agents.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law. If any provision of these terms and conditions shall be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable then that provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

We reserve the right to alter these terms and conditions and any such alterations will be communicated to our users through our email programme as well as news stories which will appear on our homepage. We commit to you that all changes to any part of these terms and conditions or GDPR privacy notice will be clearly marked on the homepage of www.reading-buses.co.uk as soon as practicable.

Bookmarks and caching errors:

Whilst we take care in ensuring that this website is always up to date and free of errors, due to the way in which the Reading Buses website is updated, some errors may be seen on your browser if you have bookmarked a specific page. In these instances, Reading Buses cannot be held responsible for any issues that arise from this. For your own convenience, we advise that you only bookmark the Reading Buses homepage and navigate from there. You may also have errors from updates happening whilst you are browsing. For this reason and for general internet safety, we advise that you regularly clear your cache from your browser. Each browser is different, but all should have an internet options link which will allow you to do this by either selecting clear cache or delete cookies. This will remove any information stored on your computer meaning that when you are browsing the Reading Buses website, you will only get the most up to date information.

Contacting us:

To contact Reading Buses, for any reason, please use the links or information found on the contact us page.

Purchasing products from the Reading Buses Shop website:

In all instances, products will be purchased by you, the user, from Reading Transport Limited (trading as Reading Buses), the merchant.

Transactions take place on the Reading Buses Shop website which is linked to from the main Reading Buses site and is managed on our behalf by Unicard, who supply and manage our smartcard system. All transactions are done on a secure webpage that uses a secure server and all card details are transferred using an SSL provided by GoDaddy.com. Please see the GDPR privacy notice for more details on how we keep your data secure.

Products available on the Reading Buses Shop website are:

Adult and Boost Period passes, 10 trip smartcards, E-purse smartcards, Fastsaver, Greensaver and Greenpass smartcards

We are unfortunately unable to offer simplyUni period pass top ups on this site. However, you can still top up your SimplyUni card at the Bus Shop at the Broad Street Mall.

We will never pass on or sell the information you provide to us. We will also never use your information for anything other than its intended purpose to provide your chosen service. We will only contact you directly in instances of errors or issues, or to reply directly to a query, unless you have given your permission when registering your account or buying a product to opt in to our email programme. Please note, we will never see, use or store your credit or debit card details.

In accordance with our privacy and security policy, users aged 13 or under are not eligible to purchase their own products on our website and must get their parent/guardian's permission before providing us with any personal information (such as your name and address or email address). If you attempt to purchase any item from our website using false details, you and your parent/guardian may be subject to legal action. All purchases for customers under 13 need to be undertaken by a parent or guardian, but still provide the information for the end user, i.e. the child using the pass. Adults may purchase child products under the stipulation that these products will then be given to someone under the age of 19 and used in accordance with the Reading Buses conditions of carriage.

If a customer is 13 or over, they are legally able to purchase products from our site (subject to having a suitable method of payment) and submit information in accordance with our standard Terms and Conditions and GDPR privacy notice as laid out on this site. We cannot be held responsible for any issues arising from any minors using false details to obtain goods or services from Reading Buses.

Price information:

Reading Buses takes great care in ensuring that the prices of all our products are up to date. However, sometimes mistakes may occur due to human or computer error. We reserve the right to remove or amend prices or special offers due to such errors at any time. If you have purchased a product at a rate that is the result of such an error, we reserve the right to give you a full refund or ask that you pay the difference.

The full price for each product will be clearly marked and will be the full amount for that product. There is no booking fee and, unless otherwise stated, no delivery charge for ordering a new card.

Delivery information:

When you purchase a product from the Reading Buses website, there will be different methods of how and when you will receive your product depending on what you have bought. If you have purchased a new Smartcard, then we ask that you allow up to 5 working days for delivery.

Online top-ups are created at the point of payment and will begin being processed immediately. To ensure that you are able to receive your top up in time, we recommend leaving 24 hours between buying your ticket online and using it on the bus, however in most cases you can top up by 9pm the night before you want to use your ticket and it'll be ready to touch & go the next day. In all cases, if you have not received your product within the times specified above, please contact our customer services team immediately.

Returns and refund policy:

Hopefully you will receive your product within the specified time and to your satisfaction, however we realise that there may be times when you want to return a product and get a refund. This policy outlines your rights and how you can secure any refunds that you are eligible for. We have included the on-bus policy as well for your reference. 

Cancellation policy:

We do not have a cancellation policy - all issues with transactions in progress are covered by our returns and refunds policy. Any online transaction in progress cannot be cancelled and can only be refunded. If you have ordered a new smartcard or applied for a top-up of an existing one, and want to cancel your order, you must let us know before you have used the product to be eligible for your full refund. Once you have begun to use the product, you will not be able to get a full refund. Please see below for the full refund and returns policy. 

On-bus payment:

When paying by cash on the bus, you will need to have the correct change. Due to our drivers having no access to change, we cannot offer any refund due to overpayment on our buses. We also accept contactless payment through contactless enabled bank cards or through mobile phone payments such as Apple Pay. We also have our own App which allows you to buy mTickets on your phone. We also sell smartcards which allow travel by period (e.g. 7 days), carnet (10 single trips) or either electronic money payment (e-purse). You may contact our customer services team at the Bus Shop in the Broad Street Mall or on 0118 959 4000 if you have any queries or complaints about this policy.

Online orders:

We provide a refund and returns policy if you are not entirely happy with the product that you have been given or if you have received the wrong product. All products must be returned within 7 days and not been used. If you have ordered a card or top-up online and you want to secure a refund, please let us know as soon as possible either via email, phone or in person. The product must be unused to secure a full refund.

The product will begin working from the first use, rather than a set date so please ensure that if you know you have the wrong product that you do not use it. To return a product and/or secure a refund, you will need to email, phone or visit the Bus Shop in the Broad Street Mall. You will be required to either send or bring in the product that requires refunding so that we can check the product and authorise the refund. All refunds will be made via our head office by cheque. Please note that we may check your details against those that have been given at the time of purchase to help us combat fraud. If you send in the product, we will ask you to cover this cost, but will cover the cost of posting out any replacements that are required.

If a product has already been used, then we do offer partial refunds calculated retrospectively based on the unused portion of that product at the time of our receipt of the product. Unfortunately, in such circumstances, we also charge a £10 administration fee to cover the resource and costs incurred by us.  

Bus Shop orders:

These work the same as the online orders. You have a 7 day period to make us aware of any issues and then collect your refund if eligible. Please note that in all cases, we ask that you check that you have the right product at the earliest possible opportunity. If you have used a card for a reasonable period of time before alerting us to an error, a refund may not be given.

Reading Buses newsletters

By ticking the box for our newsletter, you consent to us sending you a regular periodic email (normally monthly) with information about our products and services. You also consent to us being able to send you occasional email alerts about our services for reasons such as adverse weather or route changes. We will collect your personal information which is then stored on secure servers. None of your details will be shared with third parties unless authorised by you.

We commit to you that we will not send you excess amounts of emails (spam) and that if we change the frequency of our email sending, we will clearly state our intentions before proceeding to allow you time to decide whether you wish to unsubscribe or not.

To unsubscribe from our email list, please use the unsubscribe link within the newsletter itself or untick the box in your personal preferences on our shop website.

You may use any content within our newsletters, including images, for personal use only. Any images or text may not be reproduced without express written permission from us.

For full details on what information we collect and how we use it, please see our GDPR privacy notice.

Smartcard Terms and Conditions

All smartcards remain the property of Reading Buses and their subsidary agent (Unicard). All cards are ITSO compliant and therefore are also covered by ITSO rules and regulations.

Smartcards are non-transferrable and should only be used by the person they are intended for – the only exceptions being e-purse when paying for multiple customers or carnet tickets where multiple single journeys can be used for more than one person on one card. This may be the person who purchases or tops-up the card or another person for whom the card has been bought or topped-up. In all cases smartcards can only be used by one person per journey and cannot be passed back to be used by another.

It is against Reading Buses policy for cards to be copied or cloned. Any attempt to do so may result in legal action.

Day ticket validity

Our day tickets can be bought at any time, but will only be valid up to 4am the following morning if bought during the day. If you purchase a ticket between midnight and 3.59am it will only be valid until 4am that morning - so please make your purchases wisely during this period. 

Tickets are not valid for a 24 hour period - this applies to both on-bus and mobile tickets.

General Data Protection Regulation

Reading Buses only uses your personal data with consent or to enable us to enter into a contract with you in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation principles. Please see our GDPR privacy notice for further details.