Singapore to Kuala Lumpur KKKL Bus Review

Last week we ended up traveling by KKKL Bus to Malaysia, which is Kuala Lumpur as the destination. It was a random choice to pick the travels due to last minute plans. Anyways, let me share my experience.

Updated  2016 :  We have taken another trip using KKKL recently and I can tell you my experience has been amazing. I loved it. Read the comments, some users had bad experiences.

What is good about the KKKL Bus Service ? Coach Quality 

The first thing I really liked was the size of seats and the quality of the Bus. Very spacious and we really liked it. We had our baby as well and it was very comfortable for us. It was a 2+1 seater and the leg room and everything was very good.  My wife said it is the best bus she has taken in  a long time.

The best part – Free Wi-Fi Internet on coach 

One of the things that we really enjoyed was the free Wi-Fi on the coach. My wife used it to make video calls on Skype and there were very less disruptions. The speed was pretty good. There were few areas where the internet was slow, but overall it was great…

How much does it cost ? 

It costed us about $30 SGD per person. We booked tickets visa www.busonlineticket.com and they charged about $3 SGD for transaction. We used PayPal and it worked fine.

Updated  2016 :  We have used  busonlineticket.com  to book our tickets and our tickets were just $22 SGD per person for one way for each ticket when we took the 1:45 PM service on a Thursday. So, the price can be cheaper, if you leave on different times.

What are the areas of improvement ?

Well, the timing of the bus got delayed due to some reason, it was almost delayed by 1 hrs at the starting point. It got delayed at the entry point, which is Tanjong Katong Complex Parking Lot near Paya Lebar MRT.  There was only one person, the driver and no one with the coach…if you take Odyssey or other services, you will have another person to help.   Also, they ended up waiting for over an hour at the Check point as some passenger did not show up…it was very frustrating. I guess, it was a bad experience for us that day…but it has nothing to do with the bus service. Maybe they can try to see how to fix it.

Overall,  I think they are a good bus service with quality of the bus. You should try it.

[content_band style=”color: #333;” bg_color=”#ffddea” border=”all” inner_container=”true”] [custom_headline style=”margin-top: 0;” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h3″] Caution ! [/custom_headline] Some of the passengers have mentioned that their experience has been bad, you can read the comments for their experience. End of the day, I look at it as flying budget airline, some may have best experience…some terrible, it is the cheap price that they give that justifies it…Take this bus with your discretion…my experiences have been positive, but others had bad experiences…so be cautious [/content_band]

Contact Info : You can call KKKL Bus customer service number at phone number  +6563486909 for any information like delays or booking info.

What do you think ? How as your experience ?

26 Comments

  1. Wish I’d found this site before I made the mistake of travelling with them. I ,too, was abandoned at customs woodlands checkpoint w another passenger. No warning this would happen from driver. We had a slow queue thru immigration. Not our fault and beyond our control. We both lost possessions. Have emailed 3 times. No response. I rang. They dont return calls and now won’t answer their phone. How arrogant. They do not deserve to remain in business. And Kumar..please don’t try and smooth this experience over. I suspect you work for the company and your responses do not seem credible. I am a visitor to your country and am appalled at this behavior.

    Reply
  2. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE, TO AND FRO!!

    On the KL – SG route, the wifi wasn’t working, all the bus driver could say was “out of order”. I booked KKKL mainly because I wanted wifi, as I had no data coverage on my phone.

    BUT the worst part was, at the SG side immigaration, the queue was a bit long, after I was done, I saw the BUS DROVE OFF WITHOUT ME and left me stranded. I had to find my own transport from there to a MRT station. How terrible is that?

    On the SG – KL route, within the next few days, my choice of arrival at KL was the TBS station, clearly stated on my ticket and my partner’s. Well, the bus just ignored that and went to other places of KL and terminating at Chinatown – far, far away from my intended destination. I chose TBS for a reason, all the bus driver could say was “sorry, I was not informed that we are going to TBS, all I can do is drop you at the side of the highway near TBS about 2 hours after Chinatown”.

    How can a bus company retain or win customers with such bad disregard of customers? I certainly won’t be traveling with KKKL again.

    Reply
    • Extremely disorganised. Book this ride if you want to experience anxiety, stress and fear.

      The bus ticket from Red Bus stated that the boarding point was beside Starbucks at Berjaya Times Square. Problem is, it’s a huge area and could have been anywhere. To the left, right, and even in front of Starbucks, there were many people waiting for taxi, other coaches etc. There isn’t a KKKL counter. There was no contact number on the Red Bus ticket. I had to ask around and found out that a KKKL staff would usually hold a placard looking for its passengers. No such staff with placards even at 3pm, which was the boarding time. In a panic, I called the Red Bus hotline which gave me KKKL’s number. Then KKKL gave me 2 numbers (1 unavailable, the other couldn’t speak English). All these calls made in a foreign land when they could’ve been avoided with proper planning. So I managed to call one of the Malaysian staff. He didn’t speak English. I had to ask a local who could speak Malay to translate for me. Even then, there were communication issues not because the local couldn’t understand the driver’s language. The driver simply could not enunciate where he was and could not give details.

      Needless to say, I was very frantic and worried that I might have missed my bus. Just by luck, where i was standing and still waiting for the local dude to help me translate, a random guy started calling out “KKKL”. Turns out to be a KKKL staff. No placards, nothing. If I didn’t happen to be there at that right place and right time, I might have missed this KKKL staff calling out for his passengers. Thank God because my prayer must’ve worked. It was already 3.15pm by then- already later than the boarding time.

      The worst part was after actually finding the bus. As the staff (with no placards or any indication that he was really a KKKL staff) led me to the back of the nearby hotel’s car park, we passed by some KKKL coaches. Starting to be dubious, I asked him “Not this bus?” He replied in simple English that those were the KKKL Singapore buses, and his side was Malaysian’s. Fair enough. When I finally reached my bus, it was a random ‘Hock Link 9888’ bus. NOT KKKL. Maybe KKKL had seconded their bookings to other bus companies. I was not informed prior to this. Up to this point, my experience was of course getting more dubious by the minute.

      And that’s not the worst. As I went to take my first step into the coach, the driver asked if I was going to Singapore. At last! A sigh of relief but for a second. To confirm, I said that my bus is supposed to go to Katong V in Singapore. Then I found out that the bus goes to Lavender FIRST, then Katong. I guess it might be common practice for the buses to go to multiple locations, but this was once again not conveyed when I booked my ticket through Red Bus. The options on Red Bus seemed as if there were several buses by KKKL from my boarding point, each going to different destinations at Singapore (Lavender, Katong V). Needless to say, I alighted at Lavender, which was the first stop. No point wasting my time going through another stop in between. It would’ve been good if it was actually made clear that my preferred stop was the last.

      Finally, the above was not even the worst. Upon boarding, a stench permeated the air. It was the dank smell of wetness. Could be the upholstery. Can’t believe I paid $48 for this ride (one-way trip only) where I could’ve paid lesser and gotten first class hygiene and service.

      Needless to say, I’m never taking KKKL again. Also not sure if I will book through Red Bus again. No one from the two companies were particularly helpful when I was frantically searching for the bus. All those international calls made on my side I probably consider as loss and never return as a customer again.

      Reply
  3. Me and my mother just took kkkl bus from katong v mall to tbs this morning at 11am. We have no complaint overall and the condition of the bus itself is also quite good, but the driver did not taken the responsibility to clearly announce the station to alight. Thus, we had missed to get down at our station and when we realized, it was already at a Shell station 1km away from tbs. So we had to get down at the petrol station rather than going to the next stop which was at Berjaya Times Square. Later when we asked why he didn’t announce to us that we had reached tbs station just now, he said that he did. We have 3 pairs of ears including another passenger and we were just sitting at 4th and 5th rows but we never heard any announcement at all. Our eyes are widely opened too, not sleeping. This is our first time riding the bus and expected the driver to let us know when he reached any station. As previously he talked really softly and with his casual attitude, we suspected he did say ‘tbs’ but only the first row can listen to his voice. The driver also tried to blame us by saying that it was because we were sleeping just now. Thank you for letting us to know thatnext time we should be wiser..

    Reply
  4. ***Best Customer Experience***
    I Traveled from Singapore to Alor Setar on 31st Aug,
    @1st Sep Morning 5:30 A.M, I got down bus ( Alor Setar bus station ) missing my wallet in the Bus itself.
    But that time ( 5:30 AM ), I can’t follow and catch the bus, Because it cross the Thailand Border. Non of the bus operators (Johor, Singapore, songkhla ) are not working at that time to call.
    I tried calling @ morning 9:00 A.M and informed Bus operator sitting @ Johor about my wallet lost.
    Operator reply – ( We will check with bus driver and get back to me ).
    Again i called the same Operator @ 6 PM,
    Operator reply – ( Driver found the wallet, we will send to Singapore office ).
    When i Reach Singapore, They ( Bus service Team, Golden Mile Complex Team ),
    Handed over on Sep 4th, My Wallet ( *** Even 1 Dollar was also not missed from my wallet ). What a great service, Appreciate KKKL service, more than 10 stars i can give the ratting for this Valued customer service.

    Kudos,

    KKKL Team.

    Reply
  5. Bad experience with KKKL…!!!
    We’ve booked three tickets by online from Larkin Sentral to Kualalumpur on April 21, 2017 at 3.30 p.m. We’ve also make a confirmation about our trip to the ticket sales counter in the morning.
    However, we so disappointed when we knew there is an old lady sitting at one of our booking seat at the time the bus is ready to depart. She said she also have a ticket & didn’t want to leave. The KKKL bus driver tried to handle this problem & ask one of the KKKL staff to come. Suprisingly, after he failed to solve this problem, the KKKL staff asked three of us to come out of the bus. Is it because we’re just a tourist?
    We asked him whether he could give us a compensation about this or not. He didn’t say anything & just blame us because we booked the ticket by online.
    Luckily, one of the passenger give his seat to us, so the bus could depart on time. But, we felt so guilty to know that he’ve to sit on the stairs near the driver.
    How about the KKKL’s policy? Is it a common thing that you’ve double booked on your trip? How could you blame your passenger that book your ticket by online?

    Reply
  6. This is the worst bus company! We planned to go KL for short visit. We booked our ticket one week before the trip, and pay the amount of $45 each (its holiday season thats why expensive). Then day of our trip, the guy says there is an error in system and our seat is taken by another person. It took them more than an hour to settle the things. And we end up in seat location we dont want.
    On our way back, the bus is late more 2hrs. I will never book on this bus ever again! Also, they say we got wifi on board. NO WIFI

    Reply
  7. Worst bus company ever.
    I often use coach services and this one KKKL is definitely the worse.
    Bus was delayed. Of course no information given. Called the hotline and their answer was : “drivers are often late” .
    At least they announce it clearly.
    Driver aggressive. And dangerous driving.
    Bus dirty..
    KKKL never again. They should be closed down.

    Reply
  8. I have e mailed this company to complain that the driver on the service from Singapore to KL was rude, lacked any customer service skills and was constantly on his mobile phone putting passengers at risk. They haven’t even bothered to reply.
    Would not recommend this service .

    Reply
  9. Bad driver. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore trip, he was impolite and disrespectful. I was stuck in the singapore immigration as there were queues and it took me 1 hour 30mins to get through it. When me and my friend finally got on the bus the driver complained that he waited for us so long and that we need to pay him a fee of SG$10. I was irritated as i had been standing in the queue for 1 and a half hour waiting to get through when he was sitting in the bus waiting with AC! The family that queued infront of me got on 5 mins before me but he didn’t ask them to pay? (Because they are from the same race?) Of course we didn’t pay him. If they need additional fees for waiting they should state that in advance. After reading other people’s comments seems like their driver is a serious issue.

    Reply
    • Ynette,
      Maybe I got lucky the few times and set my expectations too low 🙂 I always have less hopes for the budget bus operators…so, it is all about expectations I guess

      Reply
  10. July 2016.

    I have never been on a bus where the driver is noisier than the bus! He picked up two of his friends a little way from the Katong pick up point and they spoke loudly and continuously during the journey making it very difficult to sleep. The bus left Singapore at midnight. When I moved to the seats a little bit further to the back, he was rude and complaint that I had “dirty” the seats and I should book my seats further back if I don’t like the noise. At Berjaya time square he was rude to four European girls who asked whether the stop is Berjaya square. Probably they did not here him clearly. He shouted to them to hurry up to get out of teh bus and complaint that they did not hear him. It is a pity because the bus was clean, spacious, tidy and comfortable other than the noise from the driver and his mates through the night.

    Reply
  11. Me also being left by the driver. Me and my brother and 2 of my friends are still queuing at the singapore imigration check point. When i come out at the exit door, i saw the bus is ready to go. When i try to open the door, the driver scolded at me, and he said he can not wait for the rest (my brother and his friends). Then he just left. Fortunately we had brought all the belongings with us. We upset and dont know what to do. Very dissapointing service from KKKL. Never ever take this bus again!

    Reply
  12. My wife and I had a very bad experience with their level of customer service. We booked a pair of tickets online for KL to Malacca with pick up point from Berjaya Times Square. There was no details of where the bus stop is. We arrived at 7:30 am before departure anticipating the bus to be there.
    As it got closer to 8 am, we started worrying about where the bus is picking up. We started running up and down the taxi rank outside Times Square asking people if they know where the bus stop for KKKL. They all said it was just outside the hotel where we were waiting before. We also started ringing the contact numbers from their website for assistance. The customer service was appalling. They were shouting and hanging up on us several times. By this time it was well past 8 am and we believed the bus did not show up and went to Pudu station headed to see if we can get another ticket but they don’t sell tickets to Malacca. At 8:36 am the bus driver Rizib rang me that he has arrived. We were so pissed that they only rang us so late after the official departure time.
    To sum up, the level of customer service is non-existent and no one notified us the bus will be severely delayed by 36 minutes and in the email they say arrive 30 minutes before departure. Are they expecting the customers to wait up to 1 hour before departure?

    Reply
    • Hi Dan, I bought the same tickets from Berjaya Times Square to Malacca for August.
      So where is the bus stop?
      Where is the coach counter to show the reservation and get the actual tickets?

      Thank you very much.
      Mirko

      Reply
  13. Bad experience ever.
    Still in the bus now from genting to jb.
    The driver smoking and use his handphone while driving.

    Very dark in our bus now.
    No light till somebody asking for the light. But still not help at all. Just a tiny light.
    The driver said that they dont have cabin light.

    1hour again.. sight..

    Reply
  14. I booked online for this coach service from port dickson to singapore.

    Bus did not turn up to fetch. Called singapore contact but did not offer any solutions. I have to make my own arrangement to return.

    Received sms from this agent the following day (after I safely returned) home that the bus will arrive at hotel lobby at 2.45 pm that day. Received another sms that bus broke down and they have arranged for replacement bus.

    Totally screwed up and irresponsible agency. Give it a thorough consideration if you wish to engage/book their services.

    Reply
  15. I had the worst experience traveling from Singapore to KL. The attitude of the driver was very rude. He can’t even speak proper English and Malay! How can the company hired this kind of people? How the passenger suppose to communicate with the driver? The coach broke down on the way to Timesquare and it was raining that day. The irresponsible driver just left us beside the expressway. It was 8pm and the coach only have 2 passengers. Me and my boyfriend. I don’t even know where was the location. I called my father for help but the driver can’t even explain clearly where was the exact location we were. It was terrible. The driver didn’t take any action to solve it. I spent 8 hours on this journey!!! I paid for the ticket fee and I don’t reserved this kind of ‘service’! I will never ever take KKKL!

    Reply
    • R,
      Sad to hear about your experience. Unfortunate that the driver cannot speak and communicate. It is not right for them to leave a passenger like this on the road…I always wondered how they even make money with few passengers on the bus like 2…also, in our trip, we had only 4 passengers….On a side note, the reality is that these guys provide a cheap ticket, so the service can be bad too..if you take Aeroline or some expensive services that cost about 80 to 100 dollars, I guess we can expect better service…KKKL seems to me like flying budget airline 🙂

      Reply
  16. I had a very bad experience with this KKKL tours SG to KL bus service. On the way back from KL, at the Singapore immigration they won’t wait for more than 20 minutes apparently. When there is a line in the immigration counter, the check-out time is not within the control of the passengers. If they are unable to stay more than 20mins at least they should have the courtesy to inform this to the passengers. So we don’t have to waste our time searching for the bus. The agreed drop-off point was their office location at Katong V. But these people don’t take any responsibility of their passengers safety whatsoever. They just disappear at the immigration check point without any notice and we, the passengers have to pay for another coach from there. This was highly inconvenient and very disappointing. Apart from this, I also booked their KL “City Tour”. But the guide didn’t stick to the posted itinerary on their website and didn’t even take us to city. The tour finished in less than 2.5hrs even though the website tells a 4hr tour. These people are only nice to you, til they get the money and after that just provide with a crappy service. I will not recommend KKKL coaches or the KKKL tour packages to anyone.

    Reply
    • Madhavi,
      Sad to hear about your experience. In one of my trips on this bus, we were stuck at the immigration checkpoint for over 1.5 hrs as we were waiting for one passenger. I guess it all depends on the driver. It is a good idea to get the driver number, I guess to avoid issues like this…I still believe, the driver has the responsibility to take care of everyone and wait to pick up everyone…Hope they improve their service.

      Reply
  17. I had a worst experience with these bully bus services. I booked online and paid high price for a better bus for more bucks. And when arrived at pick up point at Golden Mile Tower Singapore, they changed the bus without any notice, delayed it by more than 2 hours and no one tells you anything of the where-about of the bus and its schedule. You cannot say anything to anyone as no one responds to you – and very mean operators.

    Reply
    • Rick,
      Interesting to know. I have noticed same thing at our Tanjong Katong pick up point. There was no one waiting to tell about bus or anything as such. I had to call their customer service to know where to wait and then we had to socialize randomly with few people around the same area to know that we are in right place.

      Reply

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