I know I'm not just a crazy person. Other customers--passengers--I've talked to have confirmed their frustration, and it was not even the weather that bugged them. It was the way they were treated by the bus line.
I am really not happy with Greyhound. I don't know if it is because of the bad weather or they just have bad leadership or if it is really just a combination of both. Upper management that creates policy obviously does not travel or even drive buses. The attitude and rudeness I ran into from the "corporate" echelon of the company was astounding. The method they use to cancel routes is questionable. So far there have been efforts to try to accommodate me but it's being done at the expense of my time and money and it has been testing my patience since I arrived in Harrisburg yesterday. This is a direct reflection on how corporate policy is affecting the Greyhound experience.
Why people insist on perpetuating drama is beyond my understanding. I would think that making the customer happy would be the primary drive behind keeping the customer base for any company, and Greyhound must feel that they are bigger than anyone and that they can do what they want once they have your money.
They don't even give supervisors the ability to make supervisory judgement calls, using a blanket method of "treating everyone absolutely equally on all things" to a fault, and that means that the roads traveled by Greyhound are paved with "good intentions" even though they seem to lead straight to hell. Human beings have been doing business for thousands of years and still there are people that own businesses that just don't have a clue. Customers ARE needy. That is why they are customers. They need a service. Therefore: they have come to the company to have that need fulfilled--basic Business 101.
So I was told that I can return to Williamsport, but because they cannot do a partial refund of my ticket I had to cover the cost of the return trip. My full refund may or may not be refunded, and if so it may take several business day before appearing on my credit card statement (debit in this case). This is due to corporate policy and does not reflect on the terminal supervisors--their hands are tied. It doesn't seem to compute with them that I gave up my seat because I don't want to be put in a terminal on terminal wait. . . since the weather is progressively degrading in lieu of another storm pummeling the USA right now. Why would anyone travel face first into it and then get stranded thousands of miles from anyone they know when they have a schedule or life to live?
Not only that, my rabbit fiasco in Harrisburg was completely uncalled for and just malicious. The customer service reps claimed they were "Corporate Supervisors" (even though it was only the second tier of service I encountered on the phone--therefore they are lying) and they were completely rude, inflexible, unreasonable, and unwilling to connect me even higher to help resolve the problem. They acted as though the bunnies were vile face-eating creatures that would get loose and unleash mayhem on other people on the bus. . . . not to mention they were. . did I say. . . . R-U-D-E!
The website obviously doesn't work. I did a keyword search to research how to transport an animal like a rabbit on the bus, if it was even feasible--before committing to bringing the bunnies back with me. I'm not stupid. I have lots of experience traveling around, however a bus line is something that I have not used in a while for interstate travel. What I found was a detailed explanation of policies that now cannot be found on the site after I spoke with "corporate" customer service reps. What was presented to me at the terminal looked nothing like the policies I saw online. What I was working under what that animals that were not ADA certified service animals were permitted ONLY if they were small and able to be contained in a small carry-on sized cage. Amazingly this text has vanished and they are ascerting that only DOGS that are certified ADA are permitted on Greyhound buses, and if the documentation is PRESENT on the handler. Greyhound is breaking the law by this policy. They are not even permitted by law to demand paperwork. If you say your ANIMAL is a service animal or a therapy animal--not limited to dogs, they are required to accommodate you. I know. I have a service dog. I have read the rules as provided by the agency that certified Mona for me. The other part of the site that doesn't work properly is the booking of tickets and the inability of the site to actually show you where you connect to other bus companies for terminals like Williamsport, PA. Calling the 800 number last week when attempting to book fair from Williamsport wasn't possible, and I had to do two separate fairs by separate transactions, adding an additional 65.00 to the total trip. Even the boarding passes were wrong. The Greyhound driver in Harrisburg commented that the booking agencies for Greyhound are all over the map on how they present ticket information, even leaving out important information or formating things like sales receipts rather than furnishing boarding passes--something that you can do at Ace Hardware or 7 Eleven. . . . go figure.
I guess I could by the bunnies service animal vests. . . they do exist by the way.
There are a number of other things I noticed, but one that really stood out to me was that they had one guy that not only cooked in the Greyhound Cafe in the terminal, but he also handled all the garbage in the terminal including the cans in the rest rooms and returned to the cafe to reopen for customers. You would think that they would have a dedicated employee and not a baggage or bus line and building maintenance person run the kitchen and handle food. AND he was unkempt and dirty.
One of the security guys was hostile too, not sure if he is that way all the time or if it was just an isolated day in a very bad and hectic winter storm jamming everyone up. But one thing that I learned in customer service and something that I come to expect from anyone I have paid money too is GOOD customer service. It carries with it good feelings and a desire to do future business with a company when the customer is treated well. Greyhound needs a serious overhaul on its policies and how they handle their customers and customer NEEDS.
Also, Greyhound will cancel a bus, then make you wait around for hours and hours before communicating what is going on. If you ever go to an airport, they update you consistently and constantly on the status of your flights, something that Greyhound has forgotten how to do.
So my round trip ticket from Williamsport to Pittsburg cost me more than 400 dollars, and almost 3 days of travel and more than half of that time wasted waiting around in a terminal in the midst of a city where hotel costs are in excess of 200.00 per night--making everyone who can't afford the Hilton to sleep on the floor or in the bus. My trip to Tacoma was only supposed to take 3.5 days, and granted the Snowpocalypse is upon us. . . still something is wrong with this. It would have cost me less to fly, but because I wanted to transport bunnies with me back to Washington, I chose the bus. Hindsight is 20/20.
I recommend that anyone that wants to travel by a mode other than air, take the train and spend the extra money on that. If Amtrak is delayed, they charter PRIVATE busses at their own expense to get you where you need to be on time.
Given that this week is some of the worst winter weather we've seen this year to date, I will give the local Pittsburg supervisor and the bus driver from Harrisburg to Pittsburg yesterday credit for trying to help and to accomodate. The trip could have been a success even in it's failure if Greyhound would give these people the ability to service a customer in a way that is in keeping with a higher standard of excellence and promote a good business relationship with the public. More people would travel by bus if this was done consistently, but apparently, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have issues with smart asses being jerks to customers.
I do not recommend Greyhound and would rather not travel with them in the future if I can help it--unless some serious changes are made in their everyday policies despite the weather conditions and the circumstances make life for them frustrating. We the customers are frustrated too. . . more so than the bus company--believe me when I say this. There is no exoneration for unprofessional behaviour. When I have time to wrap my brain around this experience, I am writing a few letters to some key agencies pending the outcome of this trip. It hasn't been fair, it's been a disaster, and it is not just because of a bad snow storm. It's more exasperating because the drama could have been abated by simply using some common sense--something that the local supervisors would like to be able to command on their own.
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