Be careful riding Greyhound buses, you may regret it later! My cousin took the Greyhound bus from his home in Toronto to Chicago for a visit. On his way home, on a bus leaving at 12 A.M., the bus driver, in a possibly drug inspired rage, ejected Marty, sans his checked luggage, at 95th St (look at 0W and 0E, the exact spot Marty was dropped off at, and branch out a few blocks if you want to look in the general vicinity)., in one of Chicago's rather rough neighborhoods. Several guys came up to Marty and harassed him (Marty weighs about 105 pounds, give or take, and has Canadian politeness ingrained in his genetics), no wonder he called me at 1:30 A.M. in a panic, asking me what to do. Luckily, the 'el' runs all night from 95 St. to my neighborhood, and he spent one more day here, recuperating from his psychic scars.
Greyhound sucks! We are in discussion with Greyhound's corporate offices, who have expressed dismay, but are waiting to hear the bus drivers lies account of the story before taking further action.
Marty's account of the events, after the 'jump'
What follows is an account of my experience on July 11, 2005. I arrive at the Greyhound station for a midnight schedule. I check-in at counter, my bags are weighed and ticketed. The attendant is friendly and courteous. I wait in cue #12 for Bus 1058.The driver takes ticket my ticket and I board the bus. The driver is forceful in his command of the line, and over the intercom. The bus departs the station and proceeds to make a stop. More passengers board, and now the bus is very full. The driver collects cash payment from some of the new passengers. Agitated, he makes an announcement that his count is off. He says someone hasn’t paid and will be ejected at 95th St.
We stop and he begins his check. When he asks me for ticket I say to him that he has held my ticket since I boarded. He immediately takes me to the front of the bus. I tell him that I have a receipt and I work to retrieve my papers.
Without seeing my papers the driver instructs me to exit. As I step off the bus he closes door on my jacket and sits as if to drive. I bang on window and gesture at my jacket. A passing vagrant waives to the driver and points at my jacket. The driver opens the door.
I tell him I have a bag under the bus. He exits bus and I show him my receipt, connecting tickets and bag claim check. I describe my bag. As we look under bus for my bag the driver recalls his announcement over the intercom regarding ejection. He was also upset that I had banged on the window. The luggage is tightly packed and the driver will not unload it to find mine.
We board the bus. Holding my receipt, he finds my ticket in his stack and returns the papers to me. I ask my location and how to return to the terminal but the driver offers no information. The bus pulls away, leaving me there at 12:45 am.
Greyhound provides good value for your transportation dollar and, AT NO EXTRA CHARGE, you may well get treated literally like a convict on a prison bus. It happened to me in 2005 going to Kansas City. (Actually, worse, since on the prison bus they naturally wouldn't threaten to put you out at the side of the road at their whim.) Too me, this is a shame and bad business. I'm a retail businessman. Where is the profit in allowing your employees to treat customers like crap? There is none. So, why does it happen? Some of the previous posts have had some insight, and it relates to the class & education of the patrons. (Just read a few of the above posts to get a sense of that. And, having internet access, them wuz the smart ones!) KEY POINT: IF YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE TREATED WITH DISRESPECT, IT WILL CONTINUE. STAND UP. POOR OR NOT, YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE TREATED RESPECTFULLY. (However, if you can't spell, please use spellcheck because illiterate complaint letters will reinforce Greyhound management's view of us as lowlifes.)
As a middle-class person, I personally expect good treatment from the businesses that I patronize. Never having gone to prison, I was shocked at my driver's surly and rude attitude.
Many people on the same bus noticed this and didn't like it, but who did anything about it but me? Nobody. They just sit there and took it. Poor people apparently feel that they are just tiny, invisible cogs in the machine and that nothing they could do would change anything. And there is some truth to that: Greyhound management just blew me off when I complained on the phone to their head office in the stongest possible terms about the amazingly-rude driver and the terrible service at the Kansas City terminal. Another poster got it right: management seems to believe that Greyhound customers are as "captive" as those on the aforementioned prison bus. ie They seem to think that we are voiceless, invisible and that we have no other transportation choice because we are too poor. Well, that's only true if we let them get away with it. Since, they are a virtual monopoly, we can't simply patronize a competitor. We have to use BAD PUBLICITY to shame them into action. e.g. Submit enough complaints about a particular driver and he will eventually be put on notice. My driver should never have been allowed to get away with such conduct for the last 20 years but he has been able to because people put up with it. So, don't! I HEREBY CALL FOR IDEAS ON HOW TO GET MEDIA & WEB ATTENTION. LET'S MAKE GREYHOUND MANAGEMENT LISTEN TO US. IDEAS?
ps- To those posters who say "you get what you pay for, just take the plane", this is what I say: yes, I personally can afford to take the plane whenever I want. What about all those other people on that bus who don't have that luxury? Does their lack of funds mean that they have no right to be treated respectfully, like the paying customers that they are? I think not. That's why I'm writing this post rather than just washing my hands of the whole business.
My brother had come from Omaha, NE to visit me in Chicago. Because of funds, he chose to take the Greyhound bus. Of course, this turned out to be a mistake. On his 8 hour ride, he had to deal with 5 shouting, obnoxious men who'd recently been released from prison, a man who was listening to his headphones and drumming on my brother's seat, and a rude bus driver who threatened to leave my brother when my brother asked where the bathroom was on one of the stops. My brother Jim has a strong personality, and confronted the man drumming on his seat (which stopped it, fortunately after a heated argument). Greyhound is terrible. Terrible service, terrible people, terrible business. I, from now on, will pay for his plane or train ticket to Chicago.
So... I have had some BAD experiences with Greyhound in the past involving everything from running out of gas, to being yelled at by a driver, to dealing with terrible smells, and driver's who go over 80 miles per hour.
However, none of my Greyhound experiences were as bad as the experience I had last night.
This time, to try my luck, I took 'New Century' bus lines from NYC to DC with a round trip ticket costing $35. I went with my long time boyfriend to visit a friend in college.
The morning we left it was a foggy Saturday. (this past weekend with torpical depression - 'ernesto') Anyway, we got to the bus an hour early and thought it was great that they put us on the earlier bus. We wait on the bus for half an hour listening to all the Chinese people yelling and screaming and then fighting over bags. We finally leave 88 East Broadway, NYC and hit the road. My boyfriend and I were exhausted as we hadn't slept much the night before so we slept most of the ride. We woke up for a couple of minutes at a time several times in the ride to find the bus driver driving at speeds of WAY WAY over 80 miles an hour through TRECHEROUS hurricane-like weather. Terrified, I tried to ignore it and went back to sleep. I awoke again to find the bus never stopped for food/water/gas/etc.. To make everything worse, the bus' bathroom door was broken and kept opening and releasing it's terrible stench. Also, the driver refused to turn on the air-conditioner. Through the grace of god, we actually got to DC in 3 hours and 48 minutes which is pretty record time from New York.
Had a great time in D.C.
When we got to H and 5th streets in Chinatown, D.C. to board ur 6:00 p.m. bus at 5 p.m., we waited until 7 p.m. for the bus to even show up! Someone came down the street at 6:40 and said in broken English that the bus was coming and was in traffic. I thought to myself, "It happens." So, the bus finally came and there were a whole bunch of people there waiting bus. We had gotten there early and nabbed the two front seats on the bus. This bus driver DID NOT speak more than 4 words of English. We got on the bus to find again that there was no air-conditioning 'allowed' and that the smell of moth balls was almost enough to make you pass out. In addition, the garbage bags they so nicely leave you for your trash were not emptied from the riders before us. I sat next to smelly banana peel. The bus driver drove at a moderately fast speed but not enough to make me worry. Therefore, I took a slight nap. When I woke, I had a snack I had brought with me because, once again we did not stop for ANYTHING. I was listening to my iPod when all of a sudden I heard a LOUD-- "F***!" It was the bus driver cursing like a mad man and he pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike somewhere near Elizabeth, NJ. Of course, telling us NOTHING, the driver gets out with 2 plastic bags on his hands and heads for the rear of the bus. Everyone is in a panic. The driver comes back cursing and looking through all his compartments for tools and whatever. Finally after 20 minutes of not being told anything , a woman got up and asked the driver what was going on. The driver said to her, "Need key for to put coolent". The lady said to him, "You need to make an announcement to passengers". At first he said "No", and then he did... saying, "Bus brake down. Need key for to put coolent. Wait for bus from Philadelphia for key. 30 minutes." To we're all terrified because there were HUGE tractor-trailers passign which were making the bus shake. Also, after that, the bus driver was talking on the phone and laughing. HE HAD BEEN TALKING ON THE PHONE SINCE WE HAD LEFT DC! (by the way) So, 45 minutes to 1 hour later, another bus shows up and apparently, the fix the problem. We start back on the road, not more than 3 minutes later, the bus driver starts yelling "F***"! again. Of course he says nothing, stops again, and gets out of the bus. He is gone for 5-10 minutes and then gets back on the bus yelling and pressing buttons. Then, he started up the bus again and we continued towards the Holland Tunnel. Everyone got more nervous because the bus started bouncing up and down furiously. We weren't sure if it was the road or the bus. SOMEHOW, slowly, the bus driver got us back to New York, NOT AT THE STOP LOCATION BUT MORE LIKE 4 BLOCKS AWAY.
Shared a cab with someone back to Queens at 1:30 AM!!!!!!
DONT EVER TAKE NEW CENTURY BUS LINES!
I used to work for greyhound.
Man people are so fucking stupid and bitchy
what time does the 4 o clock bus leave.
2 feet of snow how come the bus is late?
I lost all my pictures and my meds and my social security cards under the bus
why are you so dumb not to have that stuff with you.
once a day a black and blue white trash whore would be running a way from her husband
and people who try to move under a greyhound thats funny no you can't put you 25 broken rubbermaid totes under the bus for free
the only people dumb enough to ride the bus are those to stupid to figure out a plane ticket is usually cheaper
After a 4 day horrible experience, lost luggage, stolen wallet, and a week of frustrating dealings with Greyhound, I'm putting out a Call to Action against Greyhound. Please read below for more information:
It's time Greyhound was held accountable, so I'm putting this action together to get everyone who has ever had trouble with Greyhound's bus system to call and complain about their operating procedures, lack of customer service, amount of lost baggage, and anything else you can think of that you, or anyone you may know, want to address with Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Action Dates: June 23 through 27, 2008
Action Time: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Central Standard Time (so adjust the times for your time zone.)
I believe if you can post this information in your Blog, on Message Boards, on Forums, or email it to your friends. If everyone then calls, sends letters, creates picket lines outside your local Greyhound station, faxes Greyhound and Laidlaw on June 23 through the 27th, perhaps they will understand just how unhappy everyone is with their bus service. Also, please consider finding and taking another bus service. If you know of a bus service, please list it so others can learn about them. I've listed one below, after all the other information.
Unpublished location of Greyhound's Corporate Offices:
Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Criag Lentzsch, CEO
15110 Dallas Pkwy
Dallas, TX 75248-4635
U.S.A.
Do NOT call the listed phone numbers for Greyhound (214-849-8218 is given but only reaches a voice system and it's almost impossible to reach a live person on the 800-231-2222 official Greyhound number.), instead reach a live person by calling any of these unpublished numbers:
Operator with Executive Office: 214-849-8219
Bryan: 214-849-8217
Ursala: 214-849-8215
Safety Dept: 214-849-8214
Claudette: 214-849-8213
Jennell: 214-849-8211
These are the numbers that I was able to reach people, however, you can try to reach other live people by dialing 214-849-82XX (put any number in for the XX)
The Parent Company (the company that owns Greyhound) for Greyhound is:
Laidlaw Inc.
55 Shulman Boulevard, Suite 400
Naperville, IL 60563
U.S.A.
Phone: 630-848-3000
Fax: 630-579-6438
Other Bus Services:
Trailways services some areas, so please see this website to see if they service the areas you are traveling: http://www.trailways.com/schedules.asp
Another great website to find bus services: http://www.apta.com/links/transit_by_mode/bus.cfm
Hello. I'm the one that posted the unpublished information about Greyhound and I've now created a website to help bring everyone together to complain about Greyhound's ineffective dealings with consumers. Please consider becoming part of the solution by visiting http://greyhoundbus.spruz.com/main.asp?
You are risking your health riding the Greyound. Their drivers will force you to ride on their buses even if they are leaking coolant and exhaust into the passenger compartment.
I was on a bus from Oakland to Los Angeles. I tried to ask the driver to turn off the air conditioning because we could smell coolant, but the driver yelled at me to shut up. He was extremely angry, rude, and insulting. The driver finally pulled over a half hour later because the bus broke down and huge clouds of white smoke were leaking from the side vents into our compartment.
The driver restarted the bus a few minutes later and drove us a few blocks to the terminal. We panicked when the driver announced he was going to drive the same bus overnight to Los Angeles. We begged the driver and the terminal staff to call for another bus but they called the police on us.
We were forced to either ride the bus or remain stranded in the middle of the night. A few passengers, including me, decided to sleep in the streets that night. The rest of the passengers, including mothers with infants, quietly boarded the bus.
I wrote a letter to Greyhound bus company, but they didn't respond for months and merely denied any wrongdoing.
By the way, I find your remarks extremely offensive dfg. It is that bad attitude which causes the Greyhound Bus staff to treat paying customers so rudely and ignore customers' concerns about their safety.
fred bailey
July 31st, 2010
at 2:14pm
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Thought I’d take my 12 yo son on a long trip for his first Greyhound experience. 930 miles each way. Getting on an earlier bus leaving San Antonio than the original one we were scheduled to leave on, we still left SA two hours late. It would only get worse. We’ve yet to meet a courteous Greyhound employee. We witnessed extremely rude greyhound drivers refuse to allow some persons back on the bus at scheduled stops in Ms. just because they were talking about being so late. Two really nice stops in Ms. at bus depots had no signs of life whatsoever. Restaurants were closed, and the only form of snacks were vending machines. Pathetic. Late, late, and late. Missed connections. During one horrible layover in Dallas, (over 2 hours), the driver that knew we were very late seemed to slow down even more. After loading all passengers, he then began collecting tickets in the bus. This took over 30 minutes additional. My son had his experience. He will never, ever get on a greyhound again I’m quite sure. Oh, new, spacious buses? My knees were pressed tight against the seat in front the entire trip. I’m 6′ tall. That’s normal size where I come from. Greyhound sucks, plain and simple.