Go Greyhound!

My rendezvous with Greyhound began on March 22, 2010. I received a phone call about a job interview in New York City and needed to book a trip there from here in Pittsburgh, PA for the following week. I checked fares and schedules on Greyhound's web site at around 2pm that day. It would be approximately $50 for a round trip ticket leaving Monday, March 29th and returning March 31st. For me, this was a great deal. As a rule, I prefer flying, but with my departure date less than a week away, I knew I would pay no less than $300 for a round-trip airplane ticket. And for a trip lasting less than 3 whole days, it wasn't worth it. I should add that I have traveled by Greyhound bus many times over the past 6 years and am no stranger to any part of the process, including last-minute price increases.

By the time I had the opportunity to actually purchase my bus ticket, around 5pm that same day, fare for the exact same schedule had more than doubled to over $100! While irritated that the price would increase so quickly within a mere matter of hours, I forged ahead with my plans to go by bus, as it was still cheaper than flying. Thankfully, I had some Road Rewards (Greyhound's reward system for people who travel with them. You receive a discount on your next trip after you complete a certain number of trips.) points left from a past trip that I was able to apply, and ended up paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $95. Not a huge discount, but it meant a little extra money in my pocket and not Greyhound's.

My bus was to depart at 5am on Monday, March 29th from Pittsburgh, PA. I arrived at the bus station at 4am, got my luggage weighed and tagged, and walked over to the gate we would be departing from. At around 4:50am, there were approximately 15 people, including myself, standing in line. A Greyhound employee approached us and asked which of us were traveling with New York City as our final destination. About seven of us raised our hands. We were told that Greyhound had overbooked this particular bus, so we were going to be put on another bus to New York City. We would no longer be traveling by Greyhound bus, but by Fullington bus. Confused, but relieved that my trip would be, otherwise, unaltered, I boarded the Fullington bus. After everyone else had gotten on board, the driver informed us that we would be arriving two hours later than the original bus was supposed to and making four additional stops. This meant that instead of arriving in New York City at 2:45pm like I was originally supposed to, I would be getting there at 4:45pm, if I was lucky.

And it wouldn't be a direct trip anymore, but would be making numerous stops along the way. We would also need to get our tickets re-issued at one of those stops, and since we would be running short on time, would have to hurry to change buses with our luggage or be left behind. Feeling myself becoming more irritated, I tried to brush it off as I had no other choice and really had no other plans for that day. Shortly after 5am, our mostly-empty bus departed from the Pittsburgh terminal and we were on our way. Our first stop in Dubois was where we were to have our tickets re-issued. It involved everyone frantically hurrying into the very small, crowded bus station, luggage in hand, in an attempt to get their tickets changed before the new bus we were to board would leave. Thankfully, everyone made it. We made no less than 4 additional stops throughout Pennsylvania before arriving in New York City.

The next chapter in this comedy of errors begins on Wednesday, March 31st. I learned that a friend would be coming home the following day and decided to extend my trip to Saturday so I would have some time to catch up with them. Since I was originally supposed to depart on Wednesday, I called the Greyhound bus station to find out what the procedure was for changing the date and time of the return portion of my ticket. I knew I would need to pay a $15 fee and had no problem with that, however, I did not know what else was involved. After calling the customer service numbers on the web site and ticket holder, I was no better off than when I had started. One number appeared to be disconnected and after speaking very briefly with a hard-to-understand service representative at the other number, was informed that the system was down and asked to call back in 45 minutes. I decided to hedge my bets and wait until the next day to try again.

After trying three times, I was finally able to connect to a person and not a disconnected number. After explaining my situation with the ticket re-issue, original departure return date, and desire to extend my trip, I was informed that I could make the changes to my ticket anytime I wanted, including the very day I intended to make my return trip. For me, this sounds very problematic and seems to be the source of many of Greyhound's overbooking problems. Basically, I could get 30 of my buddies together and we could all go down to Greyhound and buy tickets for a particular bus leaving that day. If we got in line an hour or two before anyone else, we would force most, if not all, other travelers to have to take another bus, even if they had bought their tickets months in advance. For, you see, Greyhound is first come, first served. Not very fair. I thanked the woman and decided I would go down to the Port Authority Station the next day to get everything sorted out, just in case there were any problems. As it turns out, it wouldn't make a difference when I went.

The Port Authority Station in New York City was only a short walk from where I was staying, so I went in the early afternoon, not really anticipating any problems. While there wasn't an extremely long line, it moved very slowly as the Greyhound employees did not seem very knowledgeable or concerned about executing tasks in a timely manner. Once it was my turn, I explained my situation (again, the ticket re-issue, original departure date, etc) and presented my original ticket. After looking it over, he informed me that they didn't handle Fullington, only Greyhound. Again, I explained that Greyhound had been overbooked and put us on a Fullington bus where we then had to have our tickets re-issued. He called over another Greyhound employee who appeared to either have more of a manager-role or just more experience. Or so I thought. After a couple minutes of pushing buttons, I realized that this other employee had inadvertently re-started his computer and needed to load everything up again. I was told to step to the side so the employee a little further down could help me until the computer had booted up again.

I slid down and waited on this particular employee to finish with the customer in front of me. Unfortunately for me, this customer was buying, literally, 4 one-way tickets to places all over the country and paying for them separately. I sighed and resigned myself to the wait ahead of me. As I stood there, the employee who had been helping me previously called out "NEXT!" and another customer went up to the desk. I was confused as I thought he would be helping me since he had been prior to his computer being re-started. Apparently not. Having been forced from my place in line, I stood and waited for the customer buying many tickets to finish. Once he had, I approached the employee who had been helping him and, yet again, began explaining my situation. She looked at me, and then turned to the employee who was originally supposed to be helping me. "Why didn't help this woman?" His reply "What?" "She's been standing here all this time. You were supposed to be helping her." "I didn't even see her standing there." You would have to be blind not to see me, since I was standing in front of him, less than 2 feet to his left. Again, the woman said "You were supposed to be helping her.

Now you're helping someone else. You were helping her before these other people got here. Why didn't you finish helping her?" At this point, I just wanted my ticket changed so I could get out of there and I was quickly losing my patience with this charade. "Ummm...could someone help me?" The woman looked at me, having no other customers but me in front of her and said "He can help you when he's finished with that customer. NEXT!" By this point, I was very angry. I didn't understand why she couldn't help me, as I was standing there and, technically, next. Instead, I had to wait for the other employee to finish up with the customer he was helping. Finally, it was my turn.

Once again, I explained my situation, and told them I wanted to change the date and time of my return departure. Before arriving at the bus station, I made sure to determine which schedule I wanted so I would save them time and trouble! I told the employee that I wanted the schedule that departed on Saturday, April 3rd at 1:30pm from New York City and arrived in Pittsburgh at 11:30pm. After about ten minutes of typing on his computer, he took a ticket holder, wrote a gate number on it, and handed it to me. Puzzled, I asked "...Is this all I need?" "Yep. Just the gate number. You can show them your original ticket and board the bus." Ok, I thought. That took way longer than it needed to, but fine, at least this fiasco is over.

I arrived at the Greyhound bus station at about 1:10pm on Saturday, April 3rd. Ordinarily, I arrive no less than one hour before departure, but due to unforeseen last-minute circumstances, had to cut it somewhat close. I went down to the baggage area to get my luggage tagged and weighed. There were two employees working at this particular baggage station who seemed very unhappy with their jobs and inconvenienced by my presence and desire to have my baggage tagged. I informed them what bus I was taking, the time it was leaving, and the gate number it was departing from. "There is no 1:30 bus to Pittsburgh on Saturdays." "WHAT???" "That bus doesn't run on Saturdays." "How is that possible? I came here yesterday and they gave me a gate number for it!" "You'll have to talk to someone at the main desk."

Meanwhile, they attached a tag to my bag that said 12:30pm and directed me to the gate for the 4:15pm bus to Pittsburgh. Furious, I went up to the main Greyhound desk. When it was my turn, I informed the same woman of a seemingly manager-role from yesterday that the baggage people downstairs said there was no 1:30 bus into Pittsburgh. After staring at me for no less than two minutes, she finally said "Well, it's 1:45 now, you missed that bus." "So there WAS a 1:30 bus to Pittsburgh? The employees downstairs said there wasn't and for some reason put a tag on my bag that says 12:30pm." "You missed the 12:30 bus. And the 1:30 is gone now too. You can take the 4:15." Seething, I made them print me up a new ticket, rather than just writing down a gate number, as well as a print out of the bus departure times. Rather than arriving in Pittsburgh at 11:30pm, I would now be getting there at 2:10am. Wonderful.

The 4:15 bus eventually arrived at around 5:15. While the journey itself back to Pittsburgh was mostly uneventful as there were no transfers, it was after arriving in Pittsburgh that Greyhound wanted to prove that it could irritate me every step of the way. I got off the bus and stood off to the side waiting for the baggage handlers to unload my luggage. They finished both compartments of one side and directed me to the other side. I walked around the side of the bus to see an employee shutting one of the compartment doors. "No more bags for Pittsburgh." "What? I got on this bus where it originated in New York. I watched them load my baggage. Where is it?" "I don't know." Angrily, I walked over to the driver.

Trying not to panic and think about all of my possibly lost possessions, I asked "Where's my luggage?" "What's your final destination?" "Here! Pittsburgh!" "Did they check the other side?" "Yes!" At this point, one of the baggage handlers comes over and says "Maybe I didn't check it good enough." He opened one of the compartments and through it I could see my luggage on the other side. "That's my bag! It's over there!" "Oh. Maybe you didn't see it when they opened that side." "No!!! They didn't open that compartment! They only opened one compartment of that side and it wasn't that one!" I stormed around to the other side, waited for them to unload it, and walked away from the Greyhound station as fast as I could.

I have traveled with Greyhound many times in the past. Sure, no trip is completely without little snags or inconveniences, but this took the cake. You really outdid yourself this time, Greyhound. You lost a frequent customer and I will not hesitate to inform as many people as possible about your rude employees, poor customer service, and bad business practices. If I can keep at least one person from traveling Greyhound and preventing them the many inconveniences and stress that I had to go through, then I'll consider it a success.