I was in the US for a holiday from India with my parents in May 2007. We had planned a trip to Niagara Falls while we were there. On May 16, we bought three tickets for travel from Milwaukee, WI, to Buffalo, NY. We took the 2.15pm bus from Milwaukee to Chicago as scheduled and reached Chicago around 4.30 pm. From Chicago, we were to take the 4.55pm bus to Cleveland. At Cleveland, we would have made another change and reached Buffalo on the morning of May 17.
But at Chicago, we were told that the bus to Cleveland was full and we could not take it. We had confirmed tickets and were in good time but were not allowed to board the bus. The next bus was seven hours later and would have reached Buffalo in the afternoon. But that would be too late for us because we needed to visit the Canadian visa office there for a visa to go and see Niagara from the Canadian side. Besides, the seven-hour wait would be too much for us. My father who is a senior citizen.
So we said we would rather go back to Milwaukee. We were told we would get the refund for the tickets (a little over $300) if we sent the original tickets to the Greyhound office in Dallas. We sent the tickets to Dallas in the refund envelope we had been given at Chicago, with the tickets and the explanation why we needed the refund. We still haven't heard from them. I have sent Greyhound three emails since returning to India but have had no response.
We had a great holiday in the US but for this very unpleasant experience. Not only did Greyhound spoil a trip to Niagara (which we could not see after all), and cause us a lot of harassment (we returned to Milwaukee a good 8 hours after we left for Chicago), they are not giving us our money back although we have given them the address to send it to. This is daylight robbery and not something we have ever come across anywhere.
Incident
On July 4 2008 i was in Memphis taking pictures of people enjoing themselves. After i left Peabody Hotel where i took some nice pictures and i went to the greyhound (i dont feel like spelling word "greyhound" with Big letter) bus station and stood there at the end of the public cross walk, leading to the greyhound entrance. I stood far away from the entrance and began to wait for my wife to pick me up as we agrreed before. it was about 7.30 pm. uddenly some afro-american female - security guard ( company ASAP )from grayhound came up to me and angrily told me:" you can't stand here, they dont want you to stay here." I asked why i couldnt stay there and she began to shout at me, : "dont stay IN FRONT of the bust station, or i will do smth(i couldnt understand what exactly she was going to do but i felt threatened because she was angry and had a gun). So i went to the very left end stood there, not in front, but rather behind the front, waiting for my wife to come. Then the same female security came and began to shout at me: "i told you to not stay here on greyhound premises, get out of here or i will do smth." (again i couldnt understand what exactly because she was shouting and talking not clear.) i then took my wideocamera and went to the right side of the bust station and when i passed the entrance i saw her and asked her where i could stay and why she was singling me out when there were about other 10 people staying there and she again began to shout at me agressively, saying, : "they are waiting for the bus, and if you are not waiting for the bus you cant on grayhound premises!" (she was screaming and i felt so bad because other people were looking at ame as if i was some kind of a thief or another bad person.) i videtaped her at this time shouting. 4 of July was ruined for me. I came home very upset. I often use greyhound bus lines myself and i shall admit that stuff working ther are mostly rude people who shout at you, dont care about your baggage, do not provide any good customer service. Buses inside are dirty, stink horribly with urine and other bad smells comming from the dirty toilets. Often doors in toilets are broken and if you sit at the end of the bus, then you will have to smell that ### smell several hours. DELAYS ARE HORRIBLE TOO. i cant believe that this is happening in USA. I travelled all south and central America and buses there are better. Here they perhaps don't have competition and that makes greyhound treat people as they want. i wish i could use another bus lines but there are not any that i know in Memphis.
greyhound is awful, the employees are rude. My 13 year old son was stranded at
phoenix bus station and was told e would have to wait 8 hrs for another bus. He used a strangers phone to call me and i drove to phoenix and got him. We were out 70 dollars because greyhound doesnt refund or care about their customers
Greyhound is Horrible. I have been traveling way of grey for 10+years and they are mostly ALL rude and non-caring employees. I believe this to be because of their monopoly like bus service. Recently this past beginning of april (A1 through 2 to be exact) (I live in Virginia Beach, VA) attempted to go visit my cousin in Nashville, TN that I have not seen in 3 years. It took weeks of preparing and people taking very valuable and limited time off to allow the visit. I purchased a ticket and proceeded to make my travel..when I arrived in Knoxville, TN we were told that we had to switch buses immediatly so I proceeded to gather my guitar and bags to move to the next waiting bus..after waiting in line I arrived at the driver(a she) who was taking tickets. WHen I handed her my ticket she refused it because it was STILL IN THE PACKET THEY PROVIDE. She then rudely handed it back and equally rudely demanded me to take the ticket out of the packet. I then kindly but wearly asked her because my arms and hands were full could she be kind enough to open it for me..at that she became INFURIATED and DEMANDED that I leave the line..I of course objected..she refused to let me on the bus and told me I was a rude punk! I then in desperation proceeded to go over to a few other employees stand a couple buses down and explained what the situation was... at that I was told by a EXTREMELY RUDE Jack Wallace that I must have been rude and mean to her for that "kind old lady" to treat me that way! MONSTROUS! I then proceded to leave them knowing that they were not going to help and went to the front desk asking and explaining my happening. I was told "nothing can be done" and I was told to wait for the next bus which was at least 6 hours away. I then asked for the manager and found out to my complete amazment that Jack Wallace was the manager. the bus then left. I proceded to ask Jack for file a complaint papers and HE REFUSED TO GIVE ME ANY. At this I am stranded 700+ miles from my home and my cousin not having access to come get me. I stepped outside to smoke a cigg and Jack proceeded to come out and start taunting me and calling me degraditory names such as quote" A damned hippie" and "what are you on drugs or something?" at this my anger is showing in my voice. Then a duty cop for the station comes out and says "So whats wrong jack" Jack then proceeded to tell her white lies and half truths and she LAUGHED. then when i asked if I could speak my side of the story in private to her, she flatly and rudely told me quote-"no I dont wanna hear your ###" I then noted that they would cause major problems for me if I did not get away. I walked Knoxville for the next 5 hours untill the next bus came and while I was waiting in line they called reboarding passes only I waited in line and gave the next driver (an equally sour faced man) my reboarding pass who then proceeded to have a fit and said WRONG BOARDING PASS! GET THE HELL OVER IN THE NEXT LINE! so I left it at that and went to the other line..after he came to me again he mumbled that I must be "stupid, deaf or something" which annoyed me because I do have a confirmed hearing disability so I said " as a matter of fact sir I DO have a hearing problem! At that he said "yea right sure I still think you don't listen worth a hell" after accepting and punching my ticket. I proceeded to turn around and say " NO I believe it is you all that don't listen!" At that he threw my ticket on the ground and said "you an't riding my bus!" I was stunned and in shock. I asked him kindly please be reasonable, damn near begged because I was stranded in their town and he COLDLY AND FLATLY IGNORED ME. ALONG WITH THE OTHER EMPLOYEES THAT WATCHED THE ENITIRE EPISODE.
I then had a voided ticket, 200 dollars, no place to stay and no way of getting out. I had to walk to a near by expensive hotel to ask the desk employee who as VERY KIND to help get me in contact with my girlfriend in Virginia Beach, VA to spend 300 more dollars on flying me out of that town because I now had a void ticket. It was one of the worse experiences of my entire life. when I arrived back I immediatly called the complaint line to greyhound and a "Mrs. Smith" told me they would investigate my happening and contact me back soon for the details of it. I never recieved any calls or notices and June 30th I recieve a greyhound voucher in the mail with NO NUMBERS or anything but a paragraph saying they value me as a customer and for my troubles I recieved $135.00 half of what the ticket cost good for only another trip on their line.HA! I am not finished with these cruel people and if they think that a fake bribe will shut me up they truly and extremely mis-underestimate me and my friends and family.
I plan to take enormous actions against these people and greyhound lines. I have contacted all witnesses and people involved and they can expect to see me in court. If you have had equally terrible experence with this company please contact me at drummingdanny1@yahoo.com
Thanks for taking time to read this and I say NEVER let them belittle us. Peace, Daniel M. Rigney Jr.
I included a photo of my 5 year old. I was traveling with my family ( husband and 5 year old child) today from Michigan (8-15-09) when i came to chicago. In chicago i asked to make sure ( as i was promised would not be a issue when i purchased the tickets) that i would be able to sit by my 5 year old child. However 4 different greyhound employees told me no i would not be able to accompany my 5 year old child along the 6 hour trip by his side at 1 am in the morning to st louis. They had no compassion or understanding of my need to be with my 5 year old and to be beside him on to take care of him on this trip. They quoted saying its first come first serve for the seats. That they would not be able to provide my child who is 5 a seat next to me or my husband. They said i would have to sit him by a stranger... Please keep in mind this bus travel 6 hours without any light whatsoever except one short stop. My child would have been sitted by a stranger where i would not have had any visibility or been able to observe him. had i not become hysterical and finally after 20 minutes almost of me crying and screaming saying i will not put my 5 year old child on the bus with a stranger in the dark night without even bus lights for 6 hours and I also begged for management which never came they finally made us a seat together. However this seat was right behind a man watching pornography. I had been under the impression that greyhound was a family site... but they tried to separate me from my baby and tried to force me to neglect his safety and allowed us to be exposed pornography... he is five years old... and when i complained about it all they said was go get a complaint form. When i tried they said they were out of complaint forms. Please alert other families who are concerned about there children's well being, that they very well may be separated completely from there young children, and there children and themselves can very easily be exposed to pornography, by alerting people to my experiences, so they can protect themselves, and there children from such traumatic happenings, by making this public. You may use my name and any other info you need.
greyhound has terrible customer service. they jerk you around and they act like no one can do anything too them. please STOP greyhound from treating consumers like garbage. all companies should have to answer to someone, PLEASE HELP US GET THINGS RIGHT WHEN IT COMES FROM OUR WELL BEING.
My Future wife and I were on a bus that the driver didnt check the breaks, and we were stranded by the highway 3 hours waiting for another bus, when we finaly got to seattle we were promised a full refund and 3 weeks later still no refund
POOP SERVICE. Almost always late for at least half an hour. it sucks!
I can relate to these complaints because I too had a bad experience with Greyhound. They have a thing about refunding your money back. They will tell you that lie about mailing the tickets back to the refund center in Dallas and you wait and wait but no refund. Although after a while you will be told that your tickets were non-refundable and the only thing they could possibly do is sent you a travel voucher for the money you purchased the tickets with. It is not like a person will be traveling by Greyhound after a bad experience back to back. They have a way of trying to trap people in riding that stupid bus. It is just too bad that there is not enough people complaining and letting the world know the real truth behind Greyhound's little trick. Greyhound is a BIG JOKE!
Greyhound canceled a ride and caused me to miss my flight and forced me to spend an extra $127 to get home and now they refuse to help and still haven't even refunded me the price of the ticket that I never used. Customer service is rude and nasty and not helpful at all. I have spent hours trying to resolve this and they refuse to help. I am out of money through now fault of my own because I trusted Greyhound.