Do not ride Greyhound

[Feral Bill]

The plan was to put my son on the bus to Bozeman MT yesterday PM. Bought a ticket in the morning and went to work. My wife took him to the station and guess what? NO SEATS! The would not refund the ticket and said to see the manager in the morning. So, my wife gets a 15 hour rount trip drive to get my son to his job at Yellowstone. I go down to the station this morning, and the manager, after initialy being willing to "make an exception" and refund the ticket judges me to be sarcastic, tosses back across the counter at me. For the record, I was naturally irate, but in no way abusive. Several calls to Greyhound customer service yield a runaround and no help whatever. I would strongly advise avoiding this company due to thier appalling attitude toward customer service.

FB

PS Had to vent

[ScottP]

Greyhounding is about as fast and reliable as hitchhiking. And the people on greyhounds are weirder than the people you meet when you hitch.

[Spokes]

FB, I had no idea seating could be a potential problem on Greyhound. When you purchase a ticket, you expect a seat right? Apparently not so with Greyhound. Your experience made me check out the Greyhound webpage further. Under their "How We Operate" tab it states the following:

"Seating is on a first-come, first- served basis. Advance purchase tickets do not guarantee a seat".

??????? That's totally absurd.

Thanks for sharing.

[darkage]

I've gone thousands of miles on greyhound, never once have i had a problem ... show up on time, get your ass in line to ensure a seat .... greyhound is the ONLY company that serves long distance bus options .... what the hell do you expect? ... And the fact that you couldn't keep your ass in check long enough to get the manager to give you a refund says little about yourself ... i've had them refund money multiple times ... In fact, i'm leaving in 2 weeks from NE PA to SW california .... i'll pop in my mp3 player, travel with my good friend and enjoy the scenes ... next time, take a plane.

[jcb]

Yeah, how rude of him to expect a seat after he paid.

I've gone thousands of miles on greyhound, never once have i had a problem ... show up on time, get your ass in line to ensure a seat .... greyhound is the ONLY company that serves long distance bus options .... what the hell do you expect? ... And the fact that you couldn't keep your ass in check long enough to get the manager to give you a refund says little about yourself ... i've had them refund money multiple times ... In fact, i'm leaving in 2 weeks from NE PA to SW california .... i'll pop in my mp3 player, travel with my good friend and enjoy the scenes ... next time, take a plane.

[rsjrny]

darkage, chill dude

[Pony]

I've gone thousands of miles on greyhound, never once have i had a problem ... show up on time, get your ass in line to ensure a seat .... greyhound is the ONLY company that serves long distance bus options .... what the hell do you expect? ... And the fact that you couldn't keep your ass in check long enough to get the manager to give you a refund says little about yourself ... i've had them refund money multiple times ... In fact, i'm leaving in 2 weeks from NE PA to SW california .... i'll pop in my mp3 player, travel with my good friend and enjoy the scenes ... next time, take a plane.

You've been very lucky then. Took the Greyhound out of Marion Va. a few years ago, which was 45 minutes late. Got to Wytheville where my 6 hour layover turned into 18 because the first bus was full (even though I had a ticket), the next bus was "run into by a truck", the next bus was broke down, and the next bus was involved in a minor collision near Roanoke. I finally yogied a ride from some people leaving the Mcdonald's. Everyone has freedom of choice, and I choose to never ride Greyhound again if I can help it.

[Panzer1]

I've gone thousands of miles on greyhound, never once have i had a problem ... show up on time, get your ass in line to ensure a seat .... greyhound is the ONLY company that serves long distance bus options .... what the hell do you expect? ... And the fact that you couldn't keep your ass in check long enough to get the manager to give you a refund says little about yourself ... i've had them refund money multiple times ... In fact, i'm leaving in 2 weeks from NE PA to SW california .... i'll pop in my mp3 player, travel with my good friend and enjoy the scenes ... next time, take a plane.

a really uncalled for post and very arrogant.

Panzer

[George]

One of the many services etc that you get what you pay for, greyhound charges cheap enough that they have run themselves BK more than once, as far as folks who think you can hitch long distances as fast as greyhound, you have not hitched much, it may be fast if you are a hot 18 yo female but do you want to take that chance? hitching is seldom even cheaper than the bus for long distance if you are actually paying for your own food, showers etc instead of begging/ freeloading like most hitchers are

[Toolshed]

<snipped> i've had them refund money multiple times ... <snipped>

There are so many problems that they have had to refund your money mutliple times? Sounds like a company NOT to spend my DOlars with.....

[Driver8]

To the topic, sounds like the solution, if you're gonna ride Greyhound, is 1) to pay at the counter prior to boarding and to confirm there's sufficient seating on-site, and 2) to leave a day or so early depending on how long your trip is (i.e., will there be boarding changes).

I Greyhound/Trailways'd it many times in college from down south to New England and grew to hate it. I'd go a long way to avoid it. If going on ground a long distance and not driving, I'd probably take the train if at all possible.

Feral Bill - you might get somewhere complaining to the state consumer protection authorities or to the Federal Trade Commission, since G/h is an interstate service. Sorry to hear of your trouble - thank you for sharing.

[jbwood5]

I've used them a number of times in the past for LD hikes. It is usually miserable but got you where you needed to go. Remember when you could get picked up and dropped off at Weasies in Waynesboro? No more, they discontinued that route. It was a 25 hour trip from Clearwater and cost like $65 if you got your tickets in advance. Gas would have cost 3 times that from Tampa, FL

You are right about them overbooking. They do just like the airlines. You got to get in the corral 20 minutes before the bus pulls in. Definitely the bottom of the food chain here, but sometimes the best alternative.

[flatfeet]

Greyhound. Helping you to get across the country....with weed.

[jbwood5]

Greyhound. Helping you to get across the country....with weed.

...and maybe with a full fuel canister too. Who's checking these days.

[Chubbs4U]

Bill- I feel your pain. Not with greyhound but with customer service. I have had some really bad problems with Dell, ATT and Sirius. I wont get into them but our money is what keeps these business going. What i did was contact the BBB. They know who to contact and will get some resolution. Also email the board of directors, the CEO, etc. The job of some customer service is to give you the runaround so you just give up. I wish you luck and hope this helps...

http://www.bbb.org/

[Panzer1]

if you do take a bus, they will want to put your pack below in storage. Keep as many of your valuables as you can in your carry-on.
They may loose your pack.

Panzer

[Skyline]

Go Amtrak next time. Yeah, it gets a bad rap sometimes too, ditto airlines, but Amtrak is light years better than the Dawg. A better experience most of the time, for a bit more $$$.

For long distance travel, it's nice to be able to not be confined to your seat; you can visit the sightseer lounge car/bar car, dining car, etc.

[stranger]

Amtrak...the only way to fly!

Unfortunately, Greyhound services about 5 times what Amtrak does, but for me rail is the way to go. I did hear lately that you can spend $5 more on Greyhound and reserve a seat, and while this may seem intelligent, I have no confidence in Greyhound enforcing this policy, it's still going to come down to the person having to deal with whatever they have to deal with.

I have used Greyhound in the past without problems, but I make damn sure I get their early and I do get in front of the line, its sucks, there shouldn't be competition in bus service, sadly you pay one way or another.

[Bronk]

Greyhounding is about as fast and reliable as hitchhiking. And the people on greyhounds are weirder than the people you meet when you hitch.

Totally agree with this one. Greyhound is one of the slowest ways to travel, and probably one of the scariest experiences of my life was spending the night at the DC bus station during a snowstorm when they wouldn't let any buses leave.

As to their refund policy, if you paid with a card just have the charge reversed.

[Toli]

a really uncalled for post and very arrogant.

Panzer

ru serious??? On whiteblaze??? Please...