I've never had a problem with Greyhound or the people who ride it. *shrug*

My mom had a bag get lost back when we used to use greyhound when I was really little back in the 80s. How the hell do they lose a bag that's stored in a secure compartment? What did it do, fall out along the way? Unbelievable. What a crappy company.

That hits the nail right on the head. Excellently put!

You want to complain about the PASSENGERS on the bus, not necessarily the bus service itself. That's fine, but as others have said, you get what you pay for. If I'm paying for a coach ticket on a flight, and some kid is balling his eyes out, I can't exactly complain too much because I bought a coach ticket. If I didn't want to deal with that, I could have bought a first-class ticket instead. It's the same premise here. But again, I wasn't saying anything about the passengers - trust me, if I wanted to complain about that, the stories I could tell you from when I rode on the various Chinatown buses that traveled from Boston to NYC...

Jeers for Greyhound for leaving people stranded in poor weather conditions.

Cheers for the Seattle PD who got those people to shelter relatively quickly. An hour and a half is pretty fast to get a busload of people to shelters using nothing more than patrol cars for transport. Especially in bad weather.

@BeverlyKliet:
Well said. That's perfectly encapsulates it.

Where did you start from to get to Bangor? Not that that's any of my business or even relevant to the story - please don't disemvowel me...

Every time I use Greyhound, I end up having to stand in the aisle for three hours due to overbooking. Compared to other stories here on this thread I have had it fairly easy. (Only a three hour trip each way) Greyhound also has some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

Gord bless the North East/Mid-Atlantic - Between the Chinatown Busses and the Bolt-style busses, a $25 bus ride actually can seem expensive.

That said, I'm, a train person myself - more space, more comfort, slightly cleaner and I can plug in my computer... It's worth the money for me.

We rarely get snowstorms

Sorry I stepped on everyone's toes.

@dumblonde: What a commentary on what our police has turned into that someone proposes they get a fricking MEDAL for helping people in trouble in their own city.

It's a Seattle specific emergency because none of you can cope with a situation that many other areas live with for months at a time through the winter. My own little, fictional Canadian city has had about 2.5ft of snow in the last 4 days. We'll be getting another foot and, sigh, about 2in of rain on Xmas Day.

Stay home, make s'mores and wait for it to melt - I'm sure your usual NW weather will return shortly.

So is the greyhound station. The Seattle greyhound station is the skeeziest bus station I have ever been in. The security guard hassles elderly people about being at the station 'too early' while ignoring the people blatantly selling drugs in front of him. They always spell my name wrong on the ticket. They block the stairs to the stick the bathroom with a cleaning sign and just leave it there all day long.

Sam Adams, Portland's mayor-elect (and current Transportation Commissioner) has screwed the pooch on this - not even buses can get around because of a lack of plows and salt/sand trucks. Oh yeah - the tram and Pearl District-South Waterfront streetcar are running though.

Heckuva job, Sammy.

On my own Greyhound experience: I think Greyhound is managed very differently in the Northeast (Rhode Island, Mass., NY and Conn.) I never had any problems with them. But I also think it's because Greyhound has a joint venture with Bonanza Bus and Peter Pan Bus in the area and they seem to be far superior companies. Peter Pan/Bonanza drivers are always really nice.

Its always good to hear someone got a cop to do something besides violate people's privacy and harass non-violent potsmokers and whatnot.

It really makes you wonder, doesn't it?

@m4ximusprim3:

Had to get from Akron to Columbus and I wasn't able to drive myself.

My options, take a plane from akron to detroit to columbus for $300 (or some other similarly priced plane ride)

Or take a bus for $25.

Yes there's absolutely no reason that greyhound should still exist. heh

No real problems other then being asked for change twice.

Now airlines running out of deicer (or never having any)? That's most inexcusable.

Even if this means leaving your butt stranded out in the snow to die. Either that, or its trashcan fire Temptations singalong time!

I volunteer at shelters, I don't patronize them. I do however sometimes take Greyhound and Peter Pan.

They should have dropped them at a Motel6 and comp'ed them rooms.

Sad to say, but these folks are traveling on maybe a $20 ticket,
of which maybe $4 GH gets to keep. GH can't be expected
to park them in a Motel 6 at $40 a night!

Also, these stories are always written to be sensational ...
so the "reporter" doesn't mention that they were given advice
on shelters & transportation options. This is the world we live in.

@VidurEspi:

I encountered a very similar experience in 2000 while travelling home from Binghamton, NY. In short I was locked outside the Scranton, Pa station with temperatures in the teens. I let my pride get the better of me and did not call a cab to take me to the nearest hotel. I wish Consumerist was around back then as I would have launched an EECB.

To this day, I refuse to watch The Office (as it takes place in Scranton, PA). Nor will I ever ride a Greyhound.

That being said, I've never heard of anything like that happening here in the Northeast. When I was in college, I used to take Greyhound all the time from Boston to NYC and back during major breaks (I'm from NJ). I found the drivers competent and I never feared for my safety.

The worst that happens around here are the long lines. But the prices were certainly cheaper than trying to take Amtrak between the 2 cities (over $90-$100 vs. $20-$30 roundtrip on Greyhound? Sign me up!).

When I was a teenager in the 70s. I went grey hound from Conn. to Lincoln NE when I got to Omaha NE they had lost 1 of my bags and when I complained they called the cops. The cops would'nt arrest me and told the bus Nazi they did'nt blame me. Had to make a call for a ride because they would'nt let me on the bus for the last 50 mile leg. THEY SUCK
never got the bag back or the money.

Greyhound had only a few busses out of the station to NYC that day, and I had bought a ticket in person a week before for one of the few busses out. Sadly, I did not realize at the time that the ticket was not for the bus, but for any bus within 2 weeks of the date.

I don't believe the wording was in the ticket or anywhere I purchased...but after a bit of a mad dash to get downtown without a car to the station after class, I found a completely swamped station. I was then informed that anyone in the mob who had a ticket within two weeks could board the only bus, leaving the remaining 50 of us who could not get in position to leave sitting in the station. They did not honor anyone who actually had a ticket for the time first, it was first come, first serve.

Someone in the office finally requested another bus, but it arrived 2 hours later. I was unable to cancel my transfer ticket (the last transfer would have left an hour after I eventually arrived). Eventually, I arrived, tired, devoid of life, only to have to navigate the NYC transit system to get home instead of a bus close to home.

Really, I hated the entire experience. I've never used them since.

I'm only half kidding. I kinda want a CDL anyway just to have it.

Jeez that's a lot of acronyms.

@Fly Girl:

And before people say "Well, why doesn't Seattle have more snowplows." This is a 10-year storm, the PacNW will only a really significant snowstorm once every 10 years. (Of course the last one, at least in Portland where I'm at was 4 years ago. Yay, climate change) Its just not feasible buget-wise to have all this snow equipment sitting around not getting used most of the time. Our "worst" storms are usually only 3-4 inches of snow. Just driving on the streets usually will clear that much snow, hardly need a plow for that.

@Cat_In_A_Hat: The station in Washington, DC is next to the Alcohol, Tobacco I Firearms (ATF) Headquarters. Makes it convenient to pick up a lady of the evening, a bottle of liquor and a gun and enjoy a night on the town :-)

Reminds me of an old Carson parody involving a Greyhound driver. After mocking their uniform and etc., he announced, "Now boarding, non-stop to Honolulu!"

Seattle doesn't have any of that equipment because it doesn't normally snow here. Once, *maybe* twice, a year we get an inch or two. It ALWAYS melts within about 24 hours. We don't have the infrastructure to deal with a major snow storm.

It snowed a couple of inches about a week ago and then melted into a slush and promptly refroze which means that now, under the foot of snow, we have an inch or two of solid ICE on the road. And Seattle is a hilly, hilly city.

We have like, TWO sanders (we don't salt here, it's bad for the salmon and un-green) for the entire metropolitan area, so it's all we can do to keep the MAJOR arterials clear-- and that's *only* the arterials that aren't on hills. The hilly arterials have all been closed for days now. The rest of the city won't re-open until the snow melts, plain and simple. The buses aren't running, the trains aren't running, the taxis aren't running, and the airport is closed.

How do you suggest that people get around? Steep hills covered in an inch or two of ice that's covered by a foot or more of snow with no snow plows to clean ANY of it up?... I'll tell you how people are getting around: by foot or not at all, 'cause those are the only options.

I get so sick of the "A foot of snow?! That's nothing, you big PacNW crybabies!" from people who live in areas that get regular amounts of snowfall-- guess what? If your city didn't have snow plows, a foot of snow would cripple it, too.

/rant

Then in the early 90's Greyhound stopped printing their timetable. The theory being was that they wanted to hurt these secondary bus companies and try to get market share that they truly had no interest in servicing properly.

It was after this that they did big marketing campaigns to get college kids and families to ride. That was followed by a driver strike and then bankruptcy. (Or did bankruptcy come first?)

Anyway, a horrid company with a horrible business model.

I mean, if they'd been stuck at the station for days, they *obviously* didn't have money to go get a hotel... Greyhound mighta thought they were doing them a favor by arranging for them to go to the emergency shelter at the Seattle Center. I mean, one would think that an emergency shelter would be more comfortable than a nasty Greyhound station... Right?

The problem with that situation is that those shelters are night shelters only and kick the people out during the day. For regular Seattle homeless people, that's usually not a problem-- they know where the day shelters and resources are. But the stranded passengers weren't from Seattle, so if they got kicked out in the morning and the Greyhound station was closed, they'd be totally fucked.

...Not to be mean or anything, but if you're so broke that when shit hits the fan, you can't afford a cheap ass motel, maybe you're too broke to risk traveling, especially during the winter months when things are (and will) go wrong.

I think I would only ever consider it again if i was going between cities, not states. It was generally a nightmare. A 10-12 hour drive turned into a 20 hour Ordeal.

Based on the experiences of myself, and my friends, and the other commenters, Greyhound is the Amtrak of busses, if not worse. But like the crappy service and customer service of Amtrak and most airlines, there is no better option so nothing is ever going to get better.

when you take budget travel that is what you get...budget.

We stood outside of the new bus and refused to get on until a semi showed up to tow the old bus to the station (we weren't terribly far from Jackson) - there was no way we were trusting them with our stuff.

Other than that, it was smelly and cold, but in a pinch it'll do.

If the airline cancels your flight, you can at least stay in the (heated) airport while you figure out how to get to where you're going. Greyhound just dumped them off.

That being said I'm about ten miles out of downtown Seattle and I've been stuck in my house since Wednesday. I haven't seen a plow in three days. This is ridiculous and I feel so sorry for those people who got dumped off.

@Fly Girl:

This wasn't a regular bus coming through. Reading the background articles some of these people had been stuck at the Seattle Greyhound station for a couple of days trying to get any bus out of town. Greyhound cancelled all the buses out of course, and then told the people stuck at the station that they'd found someplace for them to stay, took them to the shelter and just dropped them off.

Here's an earlier article that wasn't included in the original post:

[blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com]

<--Just spend 30 minutes going the 3 miles home in Montana.

This storm has been different, though. I've lived in Seattle-proper for a decade and I've NEVER seen something like this-- it's been snowing non-stop for the better part of eight days and we've got over a foot of snow on the ground in downtown Seattle! To make matters worse, under that foot of snow is a thick sheet of ice. It's DANGEROUS out there. Most of the main roads are closed, all of the hills are closed, and NO transportation is running. Even chains and four-wheel drive aren't good enough to get people through this mess. The trains aren't running, the airport is closed. I have no idea how/why that Greyhound even came to Seattle in the first place-- they should have just stayed where they were!

On the way back, a lot of people were picked up in Salinas, Kansas, I think. They were standing up and sleeping in the aisles. I could barely get to the restroom.

Otherwise, it wasn't too bad. I took a Greyhound to Tennessee once. Chatted with the driver all the way back, he was cool.

Not all Greyhound drivers are jerks, and they won't always screw you over. But when they do... boy howdy, do they.

@dragonfire81: in 5, 4, 3, 2, ...

@m4ximusprim3: The station in downtown SF is also pretty shady. It's connected to our transbay bus terminal and while in college I communted every morning from this station. It was a haven for the homeless and other "unwelcoming" individuals. I remember the day I ventured to the restroom in this station, scariest day of my life.

1) Almost left me, a lone female, at a locked bus station in downtown Salinas, CA in the middle of the night. I said no way. I got back on the bus and rode to San Jose and spent the night in the lighted station there before I caught the morning bus back to Santa Cruz.

2) Overbooked the bus with migrant workers on a trip to L.A. - they were sleeping in the aisles. This is not supposed to happen. It's a violation of safety rules.

3) When I got to L.A. I went out to have a smoke and this lady came up and sat on the bench, looking shell-shocked. I asked her if she was all right, and she said that their bus driver had stopped the bus in the middle of the desert, got out, walked out of sight and DID NOT COME BACK FOR THREE HOURS. The passengers were frantic. He finally came back and got in without a word and continued the trip. (Yes, they all reported it immediately.)

4. On the bus back from CA to MO, we changed drivers in Indio, CA. The new driver got on the bus and YELLED at us that we better behave on his bus or he would call the cops on us. No one on the bus had ever seen him before, or was doing anything untoward.

I will never ride the bus again. Ever.

That said, transportation problems are occuring all over the place. Yesterday an Amtrak train was stuck downtown most of the day due to a bridge problem. I didn't see them kicking everybody out and taking off in the other direction. Poor form Greyhound, poor form.

Where there are pimps, there are hookers. Check...

After seeing this, I definitely won't be riding a Greyhound if I ever need a bus. Not that I have ever needed one.

I'm shocked anyone uses greyhound anymore. I'm 25, male, and in great physical shape, and I don't feel physically safe anywhere within a two block radius of our local greyhound station. Drug dealers? Check. Pimps?Check.

Greyhound is bullshit. I rode from Orlando to Corpus Christi, Texas for about 2 days in August without AC. Then when I left to go back to Orlando 2 weeks later, the bus drove half the route, then drove ALL THE BACK TO TEXAS because the hurricanes flooded/blocked some roads. Why not drive another route or have everyone wait at a station until the roads were OK? On top of that, I had to pay for ANOTHER ticket back to Orlando. Finally, on the way back, the bus was overcrowded, because it picked up a bunch of convicts just RELEASED FROM PRISON! I am never taking another fucking Greyhound again.

How nice.

One night, as a youngster, I was in Bangor ME, awaiting a connecting bus to Portland ME to get back home. The bus was scheduled to arrive in the evening - In February - and the bus just never showed. No explanation was given to me by Greyhound, the attendants locked the station up and threw me out, after letting me know they had no idea when a bus was coming.

Long story short, I was stuck outside, in Bangor ME, in February, with all my luggage, overnight, because Greyhound stuck me there. No refund was issued for it, either.

Of course, they only left one guy there (me) so there wasn't exactly an upheaval over this, but Greyhound is one of those lousy companies you want to avoid at all costs.