Greyhound Buses – Why Won’t You Refund Me?

I’ve whinged before about Greyhound Buses before here, but it’s becoming that their refund policy is a joke.

After 2 weeks of hearing nothing, an email dropped into my inbox saying the following:-

Dear Mr. Wynne,

Thank you for contacting our office. We apologize for the delay in responding to your email.

We have received your request for a refund on the ticket with confirmation number 74411661. We need a proof of a new purchase in order to process the refund on the ticket that was purchased wrong. The purchase confirmation you sent was for the same ticket.

At your earliest convenience, pleas forward the proof of purchase of the new ticket and we will proceed with the refund on the wrong ticket.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us or call our department at 214-849-8966 from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm CST Monday to Friday.

Sincerely,

Mr. Lacouture
Customer Care Analyst

So by reading it there appears to say they don’t do refunds unless you buy a new ticket. Which is odd, but fine. I have bought tickets with an alternative provider (Megabus) who were actually sending buses on that day. I forwarded on the tickets to Greyhound and today I heard the following:-

Dear Mr. Wynne,

Thank you for contacting our office. We apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

In order for us to process your refund, we require a proof or receipt of purchase of the new ticket. Since your original tickets are non refundable, they can only be refunded to the original purchaser  by showing a proof of a new purchase.

Please send us an e-mail  with  the original unused ticket(s) attach to the e-mail address below along with the second confirmation number the second ticket you paid. Please refer to the following Customer ID number when contacting our office.

Customer.Service@greyhound.com
We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Mr. Ramirez
Customer Assistance Analyst

I beg your pardon? Are you not refunding me because I’m going with an alternative provider? It’s not really a refund, is it?

It’s only about $50, It’s really not much, but it’s the principle!

Am I being daft? Or does it appear that Greyhound Buses have one of the worst customer support systems?

It’s Not The End Of The World

I don’t think even Harold Campling believed the rapture himself. I mean, on their website they do have offers that are due to end on the 28th of May. Still it’s a nice bit of promotion for him, and everybody knows about him and his station.

This is the most frustating thing, though. I’ve written epic blog posts showing useful things, and generally posted things that are good and useful to the world. How the fuck did that crackpot get so much PR quickly? There’s a blog post in there, just I’m not the man to write it.

Holiday Booked & Why I’ll Never Book Greyhound Buses In America

So yes! Remember when I talked about my holiday? Well it’s finally booked, here’s my final itinerary:-

A few changes were made from the original itinerary, largely due to problems (more on that later), and advice from readers. The two main changes are the following.

  • Less Time In Richmond – A day and a bit is apparently enough, because there’s nothing much there.
  • Less Time in Toronto – On the 15th, I’m doing a night bus between New York and Toronto. Primarily because it’s the best option. I know that a lot of people suggested I spent a day or two at Niagara falls, but I couldn’t. The reason is solely down to one company.

Greyhound Buses

Oh my days, I’ve never known a difficult to use website. Nothing is made obvious, as I’m pretty sure it’s organised like this to make the company a lot of money (more on that later).

Here’s a real life example. On the 7th of June I wanted to go from Richmond, Virginia to Washington DC. I placed the details on the website, as you can see here:-

Upon clicking on search schedules, notice the date that’s searched for:-

So all of a sudden, I’m now getting a bus on the day before. Not exactly helpful is it? Why is there no seemingly point to say “Sorry, we can’t do Tuesday, here’s Monday instead!”. I don’t want a bus on the Monday, I want a bus on the Tuesday!

I know Dan will probably take the piss out of me for it (because I did when he did something similar a few months ago), but it caught me out. Foolish, or should the website have done more? I’m pretty sure I won’t be the only person to “fall” for this.

Either way, after Greyhound got my money (which they’ll probably keep, as the refund enquiry process takes 14 days), I went to megabus.com. Sure enough, it worked out easier, cheaper and friendlier than Greyhound. Admittedly they don’t go to Niagara, but I’ll live.

In conclusion – Greyhound, I’ll never use your services again. Your website seems like it’s out to trick me (which it did), and problems don’t seem easy to fix.

When One Website Bear Scrapes Another Furry Bear’s Website, That Makes Me A Sad Little Panda

I can’t be the only person who thinks of this when people talk of the Google Panda Update?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5I9TWMA4U8[/youtube]

Who lives in peace ‘neath in Mountain View?
Google Harassment Panda!
Who explains Google harassment to me and you?
Google Harassment Panda!
Don’t cloak that, don’t link there..
Don’t be evil says the silly old bear!
He’s come to teach you what’s right and wrong..
Google Harassment Panda!

In other news: I’ve noticed nothing untoward, so I’m going back to bed/pub/doing what I should be doing.