“My wife and kids left last night (an hour late, but that happens) at 12:40am for Albuquerque. We paid for 3 seats, but were only given 2. We checked two bags and a car-seat and were asked if we needed assistance in moving them from bus to bus in the layover at Dallas. We said yes and they tagged them with special tags. The trip was supposed to comprise 3 legs: Austin-Dallas with a 90 minute layover, Dallas-Amarillo with a 20 minute layover, and Amarillo to Albuquerque…”

They made it to Dallas with 5 minutes to spare before the second bus was scheduled to leave. My wife saw one of her bags and the car seat on the dolly, but couldn’t get confirmation that it had made it on the bus. She boarded and managed to at least get all three of the seats we had paid for this time.

I called again at 1, and learned that she had been stuck in Amarillo for over two hours already and that there was no clear idea of when the bus might arrive. Not much we could do about it, so we just shrugged and resigned ourselves to waiting; her there, me here. The kids were being good, but were so exhausted that they were asleep…

At lunch, I got a call from a person in Dallas who found our luggage… empty… and in a dumpster a quarter mile from the bus station. I called Heather to let her know. She was still in Amarillo (now going on 4 hours…). I called “Customer Service” and was put on hold for 36 minutes. When I finally got a hold of a person, I was immediately told that she would not discuss the matter with me because I was not the one who had ordered the tickets… I pointed out as calmly as I could that I was the sole breadwinner in my household and that I sure as heck HAD PAID for the tickets. She told me to have my wife call (You know, the love of my life, who would have to then wait on hold with two fatigued kids to monitor in a bus station). I told her to put me through to a supervisor. I got voicemail and no one has contacted me.

Around 2:30 I called my wife back and found out that a bus had just pulled up. I let her go, thinking we were getting on top of this. I later learned that she was not allowed onto that bus because it was too full… Wait… didn’t we buy a dang ticket? Then, as she got into the only 3 contiguous seats left in the NEXT bus, the driver said they were too close to his seat and that he didn’t want kids sitting there. My wife, now completely overwhelmed, came very close to crying. He accused her of threatening him because apparently he feels threatened by a crying person. He then told her that she was a bad parent if she was not able to control her kids better… They had not been doing anything! I won’t go further, but she was VERY badly treated by the Grayhound company and its people as a whole. My wife is very understanding and not prone to exaggeration. She has literally circumnavigated world, including visits to many third-world countries. When she told me the specifics of what she was told, I was glad I had not been there because I would have gone to jail.

They have now been on the road for 15 hours of a supposed 16 hour trip and are barely halfway there.

We will be buying a plane ticket for each of them to get home.

-Harold

There’s a reason Greyhound is the travel of choice for paroled convicts, fleeing criminals, and teenage runaways, and no, it’s not their fast, friendly service. It’s because they’re the cheapest option and they let you pay for a ticket in cash. We rode Greyhound from Denver to New York City so we know what we’re talking about. We’re not sure why Harold and his family chose to go Greyhound but it looks like they’re making the wise decision and springing for an airline ticket. Plane tickets aren’t that much more expensive and while air travel has complaints all its own, it’s definitely more enjoyable than bus. That said, the level of customer service Harold and his family received is abhorrent. That Greyhound let their luggage be stolen and didn’t care after it was reported is pathetic. Harold and his family are doing the best thing which is to take their business elsewhere from now on.

(Photo: bomb_tea)

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