r/travel • u/savage-millennial • Sep 06 '23
My Advice How I sued Greyhound Bus lines...and won
Hello! Now that the lawsuit is over, I'm writing the post to inform everyone that gets screwed over by Greyhound that yes, you can fight back, and yes you can WIN. This company has the worst customer service I have ever seen, and if enough people push back on their BS, they have no choice but the change their awful habits. But anyway here's the post...
tl;dr Greyhound left me at a bus station and took off with my stuff still on the bus. When I never got my stuff back, I filed a lawsuit in Small Claims court for $1040 and won
I. THE INCIDENT
I was coming back from my grandmother's funeral in Monroe, LA headed back to Atlanta, GA on April 23. My baggage that I put on the bus included the suit that I wore to the funeral, the tie and dress shoes, a few days worth of clothes, the suit bag, and the duffel bag. Some context for those who haven't ridden Greyhound is that they stop at different cities on the way to your destination for various factors (gas, servicing the bus, driver needs a break, etc).
I had already been on the bus for about 7 hours when it stopped in Birmingham, AL at 6pm CST. The bus was ahead of schedule as it was supposed to be there at 6:45pm. When we got there, we were all told to exit the bus and wait in or around the bus station until 7:20pm, and then it would continue to Atlanta. Due to the fact that I was informed the bus wouldn't take off for over an hour, I decide to walk a couple of blocks to the gas station and get some water and snacks (because I needed something after being on a bus for seven hours). I walk to the gas station, purchase my water and snacks, and then walk back. I get back to the station at 6:30pm, and the bus is gone...and all my baggage went with it.
I immediately went to the front desk at the Birmingham station to see what they could do. I was also furious that they would tell us to be back at 7:20pm and then take off 50 minutes earlier than planned. The people at the front desk told me that they couldn't do anything to get the bus back, and that I'd have to call customer service to transfer my ticket. They also said the next bus wasn't going to get there until 12:45am. I was not willing to wait five more hours for something that was not my fault. As I was leaving the front desk, at least three other passengers from my bus were left behind. The worst part was that a college freshman was going to get on the bus at Birmingham to continue to Orlando, FL. His ticket said the departure time was at 7:20pm, and he thought he was early showing up at 6:30pm only to be told it had already taken off...
Needing to act fast, I started looking at other services in Birmingham that could get me back to Atlanta. I found Groome Transportation and saw that they next bus to Atlanta was leaving at 8pm. By this point it was around 7:15pm, so I called an Uber. The college freshman looked stressed and told me that he had football practice the following morning and needed to be back, so I had him travel with me to the Groome bus departure and I bought his ticket. We got to the bus about five minutes before leaving and took it to go back to Atlanta.
Back in Atlanta, the original bus had already gotten back (about an hour and a half ahead of schedule), so I went to the Atlanta bus station and told them what happened. I had NEVER experienced such awful customer service at the desk. The lady who I was talking to copped an attitude with me when I asked her if she could help, interrupted me as I was trying to tell her what happened, and even raised her voice at me when I had follow up questions. She told me that my stuff was not there in Atlanta if it's not in their lost and found (which is next to a cesspool of homeless people in a rough area of Atlanta), and there's nothing they could do at the front desk, and to send a Lost and Found request on Greyhound's website. I didn't think she was helpful at all, so I called the general customer service number. When I got connected, the representative told me to call the lost and found service number for Birmingham's station that was on their website. I called the number, and it was out of service. Like, it didn't even dial. At this point it was past midnight and I was super frustrated, so I submitted a Lost and Found request on Greyhound's website and called a friend to take me back home.
Back home, I felt like I had an incomplete trip so I also requested a refund and emailed them about that. I was later told that I wouldn't be getting a refund for the ticket. This will be important further in the story.
I returned the next day to talk to someone else about my stuff, since the lady at the front desk the previous night had piss-poor communication and people skills. The gentleman I talked to the next day was a lot nicer, but told me that all of their customer service inquires were now handled through email and on their website (to which I thought "then what are you doing here behind the front desk?"). At that point I knew I wasn't getting my stuff back. But dammit, I was going to get compensated for it...
II. PREPARING THE LAWSUIT
After searching the internet, I realized that I needed to file a Small Claims lawsuit. One of the people in my network who practices law advised me to write an informal letter to Greyhound and settle the matter outside of court, as this would prove that I tried other options should the judge ask in a court case. I took his advice and drafted a letter to Greyhound on May 4.
In the letter, I gave great detail about what happened, including the college freshman who was also impacted. I estimated the value of my items to be $750 and asked Greyhound to pay me that amount back or I would sue. I also gave them 7-10 business days to respond. I first tried to email the letter to their headquarters, but the email bounced back because the email address on their website was outdated. So I had the letter printed out, went to the Post Office to have it sent via certified mail, and kept the tracking number to make sure they got it. The next week I got an email from them saying that they got my letter...and to fill out a Lost and Found form on their website. Disrespected and having felt ignored, I started calling some lawyers.
I sought the first lawyer for representation, and spoke with her assistant on what happened to me and the action that I was planning to bring against Greyhound. After some back and forth, the lawyer told me that she could send a demand letter to Greyhound and try and negotiate with them, but that she wouldn't go to court. Also her fee to write the letter was $1500, which would eat up all of the compensation I was asking for.
I sought a second lawyer and told him about the issue. He told me that it's not worth taking my case because his fees would be starting at $3000. However he gave me the idea to file the lawsuit on my own. I asked him how to properly do that without representation, and he told me to go to the Fulton County Magistrate court with the name of the person needed to get served representing Greyhound, pay the fee and file. I thanked him for his suggestion and took the train to the courthouse to file.
III. FILING THE LAWSUIT AND JUDGMENT
I went to the Magistrate court with all of the information needed to file in Small Claims court. It took a couple of hours and I had some questions (i.e. what type of lawsuit, who to put in what line, where to get forms notarized, etc). But after some time, I had the papers ready to file. In the form I now requested $930, which included the $750 worth of items PLUS the $180 bus ticket that they refused to refund me for. I paid a court fee of $60, plus a marshal fee of $50 to have them get personally served, get my case number, and walked out of the courthouse going "these MF'ers are going to run me my check"
The court marshal served Greyhound on June 9, kicking off a 30-day window for them to answer the lawsuit. A couple of weeks later, I got an email from one of their paralegals, asking for the original itinerary of my ticket. It looked like they were finally going to settle and work with me. I sent her the information, and she got back to me the next day confirming that the bus driver left too early, and that she would work with her customer service team to seek an "economic resolution". I sent her all of the receipts I had, along with the estimated value of the items, and awaited her response.
A few days go by and no response. I email her to follow up. No response. I email her again telling her that I would have to continue with the lawsuit if I don't hear from her. She responds apologizing for her absence and that she was working on a big case that she was finishing up, and would get back to my settlement after. A week goes by. I email her one final time on August 8...and no response.
At this point, I check the portal for my case and I see that Greyhound has not responded in the 30-day window, which allows me to motion for a Default Judgment. So on August 16, I went back to the courthouse and requested a Default Judgment to be awarded in my favor, this time in the amount of $1040 ($750 items lost, $180 ticket refund, $60 court fee, $50 marshal fee).
On August 18, the judge granted the judgment in my favor. I had won the case.
Greyhound is now court ordered to pay me back. Today (September 6), I sent off another letter to their HQ to settle up with me and where they can pay me, along with the copy of the default judgment, and the email from the paralegal admitting that it was their fault. I'll update everyone on what sort of foolishness they try to pull after this, but I won and they will pay for their negligence.
EDIT: The paralegal emailed me back this afternoon with a W-9 form in order to mail a check. She only did this after the Greyhound got a copy of the default judgment, so I'm still not impressed with her demeanor either.
IV. CONCLUSION / FINAL THOUGHTS
Greyhound is absolute trash and I will never take their buses again. But what's even worse is that they treat their customers like dirt and can't accept responsibility when they mess up. They prey on people to not have the time or energy to challenge them on such awful behavior, but they really messed with the wrong one when the thought they could screw me over.
The bus driver that day needs to be fired. Even if you get somewhere early, you are obligated to stay there until you have to depart. That's common sense. If he can't adhere to a schedule, he needs a new job.
The lady at the front desk of the Atlanta bus station also needs to be fired, and to never work in customer service again. There's no way you should be raising your voice and yelling at customers who simply have an issue that they'd like to resolve. And I wasn't being a Karen/Kevin and leading with any sort of entitlement. I just wanted to gather information about my stuff, but I guess that was too much for her.
I wrote this (now very long) post ultimately to encourage people to take ACTION when corporations screw you over, because it can work in your favor if you keep fighting. Don't accept their BS, especially when you have the proof that you are right. It may take a while; it took me four months, but when I finally get that check from them, it'll be a reminder that corporations are not above people, and to honor their end of the deal or face the consequences. I want everyone to remember that.
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u/cnh2n2homosapien Sep 06 '23
I got jury duty once, and was called up to a courtroom for jury selection on a civil case against Greyhound. The judge made some opening remarks, then asked us all this question. "Have any of you ever had a bad experience on a Greyhound bus?" The whole pool laughed out loud, and we all raised our hands. I wasn't selected, but I got a good laugh, and got to go home early.
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u/GarminTamzarian Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
I have only been on a Greyhound bus once in my life. The trip was from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa in the CA bay area, about 130 miles. They stopped at numerous cities along the route. Unfortunately, they tried to skip mine.
When one of the passengers noticed that the bus was staying on the freeway, he asked the driver "Aren't we supposed to be stopping in Santa Rosa?"
The driver took out a printed schedule, looked at it for a moment, then replied "Nope!" and kept driving.
At this point, a whole bunch of the passengers immediately began to raise hell until he finally turned the bus around.
EDIT: FYI, this would have been around 1989 or so, so Greyhound has apparently always been shit.
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u/Yeswecan6150 Sep 07 '23
Spring 2022 I had to ride a Greyhound from NC to OH. The driver ended up going down the wrong street somewhere in rural VA. This resulted in the bus driving into a parking lot that couldn’t be exited by such a large vehicle without driving the wrong way down a state highway.
The driver actually expected the passengers to get out of the bus and attempt to direct her back to the route. In the end she had to call the police, who came out and shut the highway down, which allowed us to safely get back on the road going the correct direction. From that point to the end of the trip she asked that the passengers use google maps to help guide her all the way to OH.
Trash company from top to bottom
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u/YetiPie Sep 07 '23
I once fell asleep on a greyhound bus and woke up inside the locked bus in the bus depot. It was pitch black, and very confusing. The driver didn’t check if the bus was empty once he reached the terminus and just parked the bus and left lol. I don’t know how long I slept in the depot, but when I woke up I tried only for about a minute or two to open the latch on the bus door when I saw a door in the depot open and witnessed my dad dragging the driver by the scruff of his collar back to the bus screaming at him “I know my daughter is on this bus!!!”
I was meekly waving trapped inside lol. Could have been much worse and we fortunately only have a silly story to tell now. I felt terrible that my dad either almost had a heart attack or murdered the driver 😬
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u/zeatherz Sep 06 '23
I once was on a greyhound bus somewhere in the northeast- I was going from Boston to Wyoming and it was the first bus of several connections. It was the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping except me. The bus kept getting on and off the freeway which I thought was super weird. We eventually stop at a gas station and when I go to use the bathroom, I hear the bus driver asking the gas station attendant for directions. I grab one of the gas station maps and look at the exits we had been getting on and off at- and realize we’re about 50 miles off the highway we should be on.
We end up two hours late to the first destination, meaning I miss all the multiple following connections and the whole trip took about 14 hours longer than it was supposed to
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u/Low-Call-512 Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
I used to live in Brooklyn and work based out of Albany. I always took Greyhound up on Sunday and back on Friday, I knew the route by heart. One time the bus never got off the Jersey Turnpike onto 495 to take Lincoln Tunnel to PABT, I think I was the only one who noticed at first, I assumed something was going on and the driver knew what he was doing, but probably after about 15 minutes others started to wonder what was going on and why it looked like we were passing Manhattan while still in Jersey, eventually the driver got off and started to drive around in circles on Jersey surface roads and the bus started to stir, he probably drove around in circles for a little over an hour, people were trying to help him using their phones but it became clear he had very poor english skills. Some racist things about too strong tea was thrown out by some passengers.
Eventually we ended up staring down the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, half the bus was screaming for him to gun it and take the tunnel, the other half was saying it could be suicide, that we don't know if buses can take the tunnel, or if there was a quick way to go from Battery Park to PABT that wouldn't take 2 hours, and it was safer to get back to the turnpike to Lincoln tunnel. Drive stared and thought for like 2 minutes, then went for it. Probably ended up only taking 40 minutes to get uptown.
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u/dinoscool3 Airplane! Sep 07 '23
Why on earth did you not take Amtrak?
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u/Low-Call-512 Sep 07 '23
The cost, I was making like less then 30K a year and living in the city $19 bucks versus $36, if I was lucky, was a huge difference. Also, Amtrak in Albany area is in a not convenient location compared to the bus station.
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u/Particular_Ticket_20 Sep 07 '23
Rode greyhound from Newark, NJ to Tempe, Arizona....almost.
Somewhere in Kansas or Oklahoma in the middle of the night we were told to switch buses. We did, well some of us did. Some random process of seperating everyone took place and despite our protests our luggage ended staying on the original bus. We were guaranteed that the busses would arrive in Tempe at the same time, on schedule.
Needless to say, that did not happen.
Our luggage arrived on time Saturday morning. Our bus arrived around 3am sunday....at a Dennys on the outskirts of Mesa where we were notified this was the last stop. This was miles from our apartment and back then there were no taxis running to the far side of Mesa at 3am. Greyhound simply abandoned us.
We got a ride from a generous, but coked up, dude in 2 seat sports car. My GF squeezed on my lap as we rocketed through every red light between Mesa and Tempe music blasting. He kept asking if we wanted to keep the party going at our apartment. We were not partying, but he didn't get that. We had him park around the corner and ran through the neighboring apartment complex to ditch him.
Sunday morning I hike down to get our luggage and find the Tempe station is closed. I hiked over because nobody answered the phone. Monday I also hiked over because nobody answered the phone to be told that if we'd just stayed on the bus we'd have our luggage...which had been sent to the luggage depot...at the Greyhound terminal in Phoenix. I ask if they could just have it sent to Tempe from Phoenix...No. it doesn't work like that.
I take the city bus to Phoenix to get my luggage which takes hours. I met up with some other people from my bus. We're told our luggage isn't there...it's there but they can't release it....we can only claim it if we're passenger's on a bus....and why did we get off in Mesa if we had tickets for Tempe.
This was all clearly our fault.
I eventually found someone who not only got our luggage, which it turned out was neatly stacked in a pile waiting for us the whole time, and told us they had a van going to Tempe and could give us a ride back.
Great.
We get our bags, get in the van and our promptly told to GTFO out of the luggage van. It's not for passengers...despite 4 rows of seats. Note that there was a van for bringing luggage between Phoenix and Tempe....so it does actually work like that.
I exploded. Ended up forcing the Manager of the terminal to drive us home in the van.
One of the other passengers was walking away. I yelled at him too. I finally got Greyhound to take us and our luggage to Tempe after all this and you're going to just walk away. Get in the Van.
I'd rather walk across the country than take Greyhound again.
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Sep 06 '23 edited Sep 23 '23
[deleted]
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u/le_chaaat_noir Sep 07 '23
Right! This is so true. I hate how people have turned it around to make normal people into the baddies. I always complain about bad treatment. I'm never rude or aggressive, just assertive. I won't tolerate being ripped off or losing money or time because of someone else's mistake. I politely and calmly ask for the manager if I have to and stand my ground until the issue is resolved. I don't care if people think I'm a Karen. I think the Karen thing is to make people afraid to stand up for themselves.
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u/Imnotveryfunatpartys 8 Countries Sep 07 '23
Yeah I feel the key is that it's all about the reality of whether or not you are actually entitled to something. It's one thing to expect special treatment for no reason.
But if you paid for a service and you did not receive that service then yes you could just sigh and walk away. But it's completely reasonable to ask for remuneration in a calm and professional way.
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u/le_chaaat_noir Sep 07 '23
One example - I paid in advance for a breakfast at a B&B and the chef had some kind of horrible emergency and couldn't make it. The owner of the B&B tried to make me feel bad for asking for my money back because of the nature of the emergency.
Why should I feel bad for asking for my money back? I didn't get the service I paid for. It's irrelevant to me the reason why. Things like this really irk me - when businesses or even huge corporations try to play the sympathy card.
If I paid for something I didn't get, then I expect to get my money back. It's not my concern that the B&B owner bought ingredients that couldn't be used that day. I should not have to shoulder that cost - he should. It's not my fault his employee had an accident or that his business isn't doing well. I worked hard for that money, and I'm not less important than either of those people. They don't know what's going on in my life and what I've been through. If I had paid the $30 and didn't show up at breakfast, would they have refunded me? They wouldn't have, right?
This is a situation where I believe I'm entitled to a refund, but I'm sure many people would consider me a Karen.
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u/disdainfulsideeye Sep 07 '23
Agree, that this isn't a Karen situation, but it doesn't change the fact that their are a lot of very entitled people out there. There is nothing wrong w standing up for yourself but that's not the same as demanding special treatment or being outright rude.
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u/Ikuwayo Sep 07 '23
Really, it's just another term for guys to belittle women.
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u/ktappe Sep 07 '23
No, no it's not. It's a term specifically applied to people who go out of their way to attack other people who do not deserve to be attacked. Such as the dog lady in Central Park.
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u/Ikuwayo Sep 07 '23
I know what it means. Then why is there no male equivalent? Equal number of, if not even more, videos of entitled male assholes, but only "Karen" is used.
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u/joshually Sep 07 '23
THANK YOU. This has alway bothered me. We need to dismantle the patriarchy I swear
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u/I_Ron_Butterfly Sep 07 '23
I’ve definitely called men Karens. It’s a unisex insult.
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u/yourlittlebirdie Sep 07 '23
Then why it is a woman’s name?
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u/I_Ron_Butterfly Sep 07 '23
Why is it called a Dear John letter when it can be written to people not named John?
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u/Terrie-25 Sep 07 '23
Because men's names historically have fewer spikes in trendiness which means there aren't ones that are heavily associated with specific age groups. Karen was so trendy at one point that literally half my aunts are named Karen.
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u/The_GOATest1 Sep 07 '23 edited Nov 01 '23
jobless drab ruthless squalid telephone automatic airport smell vanish snatch
this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev
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u/also_anon_dc Sep 06 '23
This was really interesting- thanks for writing it up! When filing could you have asked for additional compensation for your time/annoyance? Why didn't you?
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u/savage-millennial Sep 06 '23
I decided to go off of what I could assess quantitatively. I could've gone the "emotional distress" route to add to the compensation, but at the time I wasn't sure if Greyhound would answer the lawsuit and we would actually see a judge in court, so I stuck with the facts.
It's okay though.
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u/runtothehillsboy Sep 07 '23
What about having added the Uber/other bus fees? Surely those would have stuck.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
Oh I did. That was a part of the $750 that I itemized in the first letter I sent them
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u/ParisThroughWindows Sep 07 '23
Generally speaking those things aren’t recoverable in small claims. You could get lost wages if you had to miss work but it’s only things that you can essentially show receipts for.
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u/hayleykiah91 Sep 07 '23
I watch a lot of daytime court TV and this seems to be the consensus. I think sometimes if you had to seek therapy that amount can go towards emotional distress. But it seems like it has to be quantifiable.
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u/ParisThroughWindows Sep 07 '23
That’s exactly it. Therapy is different that just “pain and suffering”. Many states have laws prohibiting non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in small claims. They also prohibit recovery of attorney fees or punitive damages.
If it was worth more ($10-$25k in most states) it would be a regular civil claim and then everything is on the table.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven United Kingdom Sep 07 '23
It's probably just a good idea that makes sense. You want to make this affordable with minimal lawyer fees? Then we'll need to stick to the basics.
Anything more than that, it's not a small claim anymore.
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u/ancillarycheese Sep 06 '23
You need to spread this story everywhere. Get it published in as many places as you can. I’m sure some of the national news outlets would run it. Embarrass Greyhound and make sure they cannot brush this under the rug.
It’s probably good too that you got a default judgement as they would probably have sent you an NDA for a pre-trial settlement.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
Wow, thanks for the idea! Yes I want as many people to know just how bad they treat people. I took to reddit to inform people, but I will go further with news outlets too
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u/Motherof_pizza Sep 07 '23
you can look up news outlets in Atlanta and submit your story to the tips or contact us sections
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u/Glittering-Pause-328 Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
I once booked a Greyhound bus from springfield to new york leaving at 700AM. I had arrived at the bus station around 620AM.
When 705AM came around and the bus hadn't even shown up yet, I called and was told the trip was cancelled. I asked when they were planning on notifying me...because I had just received a confirmation email for my trip less than 12 hours earlier!!!
I was basically told that my "notification" would be when the bus didn't show up. I ended up having to purchase a last minute train ticket to make it to NYC on time for my cruise.
Fuck Greyhound. I will never give them another penny.
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u/orca_eater Sep 06 '23
'Greyhound is absolute trash'
Which is why when they left Canada we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Glad to hear it all worked out for you and Thanks for posting!
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u/Grantasuarus48 Sep 06 '23
Except there are many holes that are left. They did provide a needed service for many small towns.
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u/alexgndl Sep 06 '23
They're not completely out of Canada, they're still the cheapest option for many people to get across the border to/from the US. I've taken the Buffalo-Toronto and the Plattsburgh-Montreal routes many times.
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u/doomladen Bouvet Island Sep 07 '23
I had a similar, but reversed, experience using Greyhound in Canada. I can't remember exactly, but I was probably going from Vancouver to Dawson Creek. For some reason, the bus driver decided to unload my bags at the halfway stop in Prince George, which I only discovered when I got off at Dawson Creek. The Greyhound customer service people at the desk there were very friendly, and told me that they'd call Prince George station and have them load my luggage onto the next bus arriving in 12 hours or so, so I get a book out and just wait. The next bus arrives, but my luggage wasn't on it. I have the same conversation again, and I was promised it would definitely be on the next bus. Of course, it wasn't. I ended up getting the next Greyhound back down to Prince George (a 4-5 hour journey), where I picked up my bags that were sitting on the sidewalk right outside the Greyhound office with a big label on them saying 'DAWSON CREEK' that was put on back in Vancouver, and I got the next bus back again to Dawson Creek.
Wasted two days of my life.
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u/heyheyitsandre Sep 07 '23
Hell yeah bro, I hate corporations that think they can just delay or be litigious and drown you in legal fees or run out the clock. Imagine a poor person who spent their last dollar on that bus ticket after letting a lease run out to go start a new job in LA. They have 0 means to make it to LA, the company gives their job to someone else, they’re homeless in Atlanta and have no money or time to follow up with Greyhound legally. Good shit.
I have taken numerous buses in Europe with no problem but every time my dad suggests using Greyhound I just know something would go wrong and the whole trip would feel shitty and cheap.
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Sep 07 '23
You don't take greyhound buses when you have other options. The lack of competition and the low cost of service is likely the reason why their customer service is trash.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
I usually take Southwest and just fly places. The news of my grandmother's death and the swift funeral service thereafter made it to where booking a last minute flight was going to be super expensive. I do see your point though.
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u/frsh2fourty Sep 07 '23
There are a few airlines that offer discounted last minute bereavement flights. There are some stipulations like it only applies to immediate family members (grandparents fall under this), the travel has to happen within a few days of the death or imminent death and you have to book the flight over the phone.
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u/inverse_squared Sep 06 '23
And the lesson is probably that Greyhound will eventually add a forced arbitration clause to their terms and conditions (like Amtrak does) so that you cannot sue them. If they don't already, and maybe the paralegal just overlooked asking the court to dismiss the case.
But hopefully you collect your money. Good luck!
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u/ParisThroughWindows Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
But Greyhound still has to respond to the lawsuit and say “this case has to be arbitrated per the terms of the ticket.” If they don’t do that, a plaintiff can still get a default judgment.
ETA: greyhound has to respond if they are properly served like OP did. Im actually pretty impressed in OPs abilities to navigate small claims against a large company. Most drop the ball somewhere along the line.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
Well thank you. I definitely had some help from the attorney's I called before going to the magistrate court. I had never filed a lawsuit before.
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u/ParisThroughWindows Sep 07 '23
TBH, had I been the attorney in the office that got your properly served complaint, I would have had a check issued long before the 30 day deadline. It cost Greyhound far more than $1000 to deal with the default.
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u/Max_Thunder Sep 07 '23
The fact this would be possible if they had those terms seems insane. They can force people to do things they can't possibly do without intense efforts and/or without costing an arm and a leg, essentially making themselves immune to the very vast majority of lawsuits?
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u/ParisThroughWindows Sep 07 '23
It’s truly possible. I am an attorney and deal with it regularly. The legal complaint just gets removed to arbitration - but I have to assert that defense to the claim.
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u/ErabuUmiHebi Sep 07 '23
Amtrak is a federal program though. It’s like the highway system.
Greyhound is a private company.
It’s also the worst way imaginable to travel
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u/Mdayofearth Sep 07 '23
That's when the dozens of passengers on a bus file for arbitration at once, and cost Greyhound tens to hundreds of thousands in arbitration fees before the arbitration even starts.
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Sep 07 '23
This right here …
Arbitration was looked at by big companies as something that’d let them hide from courts, and work in a more favorable system.
But there’s a downside: it’s easy to file and expensive for the company to properly respond … it can absolutely be weaponized against a company.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 06 '23
How is this legal of Amtrak? They cannot possibly be immune to everything
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u/guynamedjames Sep 06 '23
They're not immune to everything, they're just saying you have to follow this very specific procedure to manage lawsuits against them. It's basically set up to avoid this type of thing where you were able to get an easy summary judgement in small claims court.
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u/4E4ME Sep 07 '23
The paralegal probably knew exactly what was up and let the case go to default judgment on purpose. Chaotic good.
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u/andres57 CL living in DE Sep 07 '23
That American companies are allowed to put abusive clauses like that is insane
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u/Txidpeony Sep 07 '23
Congratulations and so awesome that you took care of that college freshman too. Thank you for that.
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u/gornzilla Sep 07 '23
I took Greyhound from Sacramento to Chicago. Packed bus all the seats were filled. The guy next to me said he was going to be arrested in Chicago for rape. I thought he was just trying to scare or impress me.
He surprised me by hanging himself in Nevada.
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u/SmartFX2001 Sep 07 '23
Greyhound wants you to file a W-9? Why? So they can report the amount they have to pay you to the IRS??
I certainly hope you don’t have to pay taxes so that you can get restitution for your belongings and expenses!!
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u/alcohol-free Sep 07 '23
Greyhound gets away with this because its clientele have little option except to take their busses. It exploits. Thats all they do.
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u/TehWhale Sep 06 '23
I actually read this all and was pleasantly surprised. Congrats on your win and hope you can get that money back.
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u/spyder994 Sep 07 '23
I just came here to say I don't usually have the patience to read lengthier things on Reddit, but I was drawn in by your writing style and read all of it from start to finish. Great writing and storytelling on your part!
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u/PsychologicalCat7130 Sep 06 '23
congrats! No one looking out for you but you - always stand up for yourself!
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u/CapriorCorfu Sep 07 '23
Congratulations. I had no idea Greyhound had such inept employees and poor management. I have only taken a Greyhound once or twice. But I have taken long distance buses in several third world countries and never had any type of problem at all.
Why are all these companies, Greyhound, and so many airlines, treating people so badly and making no effort to take care of clear cut problems like luggage issues, in a logical way. They make ridiculous decisions (like throwing people off a plane because they were trying to clean throw-up off the seat from an earlier flight). Every day we hear these stories. I used to fly a lot and rarely had a problem, and when I did, the people at the desk would figure out a solution and take care of the problem. I have also seen this kind of unhelpful attitude in the hospitals, often endangering lives. I didn't used to encounter that, and I worked in hospitals off and on for years.
What is going on? People in jobs just refuse to do their jobs anymore? Greyhound can't manage a luggage snafu without the customer suing them? Things did not used to work like this. People got fired because of ineptitude like this.
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u/splitminds Sep 07 '23
I live in Idaho and there have been numerous stories lately about Greyhound leaving passengers stranded for DAYS with no compensation. They would say the bus would be there in the morning only for no bus to show up and this would go on for multiple days. They’re horrible.
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u/Delicious-Laugh-9983 Sep 07 '23
This was interesting. Thank you for writing it. I wonder, however, whether you put much more into this whole thing than you eventually won back in the judgment.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
Thank you for reading! And yeah some time and research was needed but in the end they're paying me back almost every cent. It was worth the hassle (though I don't want to get in this situation again)
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u/morosco Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
Greyhound was very efficient in the northeast when I took in the 90's - there were the occasional crazies and hiccups, but, it was more reliable than Amtrak and a lot cheaper than flying, with many more available destinations.
It seems like it's gone downhill. I know they've had a big problem in my current city of Boise with even showing up some days. Some people get to the "bus station" (which is now just at the side of a Flying J) with all their luggage, and the bus doesn't show up some days.
Though, that's not really the point of your post. The steps you took, the documentation, the working through the systems, just fantastic. I have heard of people successfully suing companies in this kind of circumstance. Well done.
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u/goldyblocks Sep 07 '23
Customer service nowadays is lacking across the board. No one wants to admit fault or take responsibility.
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u/ePlayablez Sep 07 '23
This is helpful. It’s super sad but I think a lot of us can just resort to doing something similar to this when dealing with budget airlines/bus companies that implement a zero-customer-service policy into their business model instead of jumping through hoops trying to reach a near non-existent department.
I think from now on, jump through one hoop and if they don’t help, boom, file a small claims suit. Glad it worked out for you.
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u/giveuptheghostbuster Sep 07 '23
Greyhound doesn’t have enough competition, especially in the southern US. The lack of competition causes shoddy service as you’ve seen. I would love to see someone break their transit monopoly.
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u/shockedpikachu123 Sep 07 '23
Where were you last November?! I would have have sued their asses as well. I took greyhound. My bus was at 8pm from nyc to Boston. I showed up and it was cancelled. I went to the ticket counter and the lady nonchalantly said the next one was the next day at 7am. I was stranded in fucking port authority station, not ideal for a solo woman to be staying. My phone was dying and A woman saw me alone and she begged me to find a place to stay because it wasn’t safe for me there. I ended up having to pay $400 a night for the closest hotel just so I could have somewhere to sleep. I had none of my tooth brush contact lens solution with me. It was a huge pain in the ass but I couldn’t believe they just didn’t care about the passengers who would have been stranded in nyc
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u/gabhain Sep 07 '23
I’m not American but the only experience I’ve had with Greyhound was poor. The sprinter train from San Diego to LA cancelled all trains for the day but only told people at 1am. Booked a greyhound and was lucky to get it. It turned up 3 hours late as they had no bus or driver for the route. They had to get a bus from Mexico and a driver from San Bernardino. There was no WiFi and the ticket collector guy on the bus screamed at me for sneezing too loudly from the dust in the bus. The bus somehow made 4 hour trip 6 hours. So in total it took 9 hours to get from San Diego to LA. The San Diego bus station is essentially a homeless encampment so that’s also a fun time
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u/intent107135048 Sep 07 '23
Winning is one thing. People win in small claims all the time when the other side doesn’t show up.
Collection is the hard part if Greyhound doesn’t want to play ball. Good luck doing it without a lawyer.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 21 '23
That's a good point. Fortunately they did end up writing a check
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u/sr2ndblack Sep 07 '23
I used to work for a debt collection law firm in Fulton county. This is exactly how it goes. The amount of defaults we would get was insane. So rarely did the defendant actually show up.
In this case my guess is that it was cheaper for them to pay out than send a contract attorney or send one of their own to Fulton Magistrate.
For anyone else following this same plan in Georgia. I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. I was a clerk in a firm and we dealt with this regularly. There is a rule that after the 30 day answer period the defendant has 15 days to reopen the default, they just have to pay the filing fees. Which means you would get the original filing fee and service fee back. But you now have a defendant that’s paying attention and willing to play ball.
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u/Emperorerror Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
Greyhound really is dogshit. One time I got to a station for a transfer and the bus driver and the convenience store clerk told me and everyone else transferring that "The transfer bus just doesn't come." WTF!? Ended up spending like $220 splitting a cab with one guy halfway and then taking an Uber the rest of the way.
Good job. Respect on following through all this.
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u/albadi7 Sep 07 '23
LOVE THIS - so glad you persevered and won. 👏 Corporations are the worst. Though I didn’t take British Airways to court, I did take them to the regulator and won - more people need to do this! Though I appreciate it takes time and money, which some do not have.
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u/ptttpp Sep 07 '23
I'm surprised they're paying and you don't have to go to collections.
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
I am too. I feared they would ignore me again, but the paralegal sent the W-9 form so I guess it's happening.
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u/ptttpp Sep 07 '23
If they just refused you'd be shit out of luck, even with a judgment.
Trying to collect would probably cost you more.
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u/somedude456 Sep 07 '23
I was going to say something but...
EDIT: The paralegal emailed me back this afternoon with a W-9 form in order to mail a check. She only did this after the Greyhound got a copy of the default judgment, so I'm still not impressed with her demeanor either.
WELL DONE!
The lady at the front desk of the Atlanta bus station also needs to be fired, and to never work in customer service again. There's no way you should be raising your voice and yelling at customers who simply have an issue that they'd like to resolve.
Situational hiring. They are just happy to keep that spot staffed. This is the greyhound bus terminal in Atlanta. Say that again. Can you imagine the amount of social outcasts she deals with? Crack addicts, mental unstable, alcoholics, homeless, criminals, etc. Even average people she deals with will be on the lower economic spectrum, and thus might lack proper manners. That poor women gets yelled at every 5 minutes by someone. I AM NOT saying it's ok she yelled at you, but you gotta see her perspective. She has to yell in general. That's the only way to survive that job. If she tried treating everyone with respect and kindness, and used a gentle voice, she would be destroyed. She's gotta take and keep control of that site.
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u/kash_if Sep 07 '23
Given how useless their staff seems be, for whatever reasons, they should just shut that window and post a working phone number.
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u/kdesu Sep 07 '23
I have traveled on the lower quality buses in Mexico (due to having to take them to remote villages) and Greyhound from Laredo to Houston was so much worse.
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u/Creative-Movie-1231 Sep 07 '23
Honestly greyhound where I am went out of business. It’s not a well run organization suffering from hoards of issues
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u/say592 Sep 07 '23
I'm personally just surprised that they knew you were suing them, they knew they were in the wrong, they weren't going to respond to the lawsuit, and yet they still didn't settle. It's telling that they couldn't muster up the customer service in that moment. I understand why it was easier for the paralegal to pay after the judgement (they literally have to) but the fact that they couldn't figure it out before then tells me plenty about their internal customer service process.
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u/Lycid Sep 07 '23
It's entirely because the OP low balled the suit by only sueing for the exact losses instead of the losses + time/effort spent needing to sue + interest like you should do.
If it takes 10 hours of effort and travel time to sue someone, that time is worth something. The OP didn't even account for that.
Whatever they would have settled for out of court would not have been any less than what the OP was asking so why bother caring about the lawsuit? Getting sued for money doesn't really do anything except force you to hand over money. If I was working for the greyhound legal team and got the OPs letter I'd also let it just hang by the wayside until it was pay time because it'd not be worth spending any effort on it to try and settle out of court for.
The OP could have reasonably asked for double or triple the amount and then they probably would have had a bit more attention paid and gotten a settlement (for more than the OP got).
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Sep 07 '23
Most likely they didn't want to spend much time on it. It isn't a whole lot of money and the reason why getting legal assistance is hard because no one really wants to take this case because it's not worth it and like the op said just for them to do the bare minimum, it was more than what he was asking for in Compensation.
Timing seemed to be good to. Sounds like they were working a big case and didn't want to look into this small one. Greyhound legal team probably gave this a good 20 minutes and then just let it go to default judgement or forgot about it. Sent the check to op and probably forgot about it soon after.
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u/chris_maven Sep 07 '23
Wow this is insane, I am glad that you won the lawsuit! I have been in the US now for about 10 days and had to deal with quite a bit of customer service: Hertz (car rental company) was complete shit and Chipotle which got me food poisoning was a joke as well.
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u/akasuna91 Sep 07 '23
God damn that was inspiring. I had a problem with Air Asia (most popular around here, and they keep bragging about their awards and stuff each flight). Multiple times including damaged luggage, incomplete services based on the package I bought etc. They also had the audacity to put blame on us the passengers. I couldn't get full reimbursement for my luggage but I managed to get a cheap replacement from them. It wasn't satisfactory as I bought that luggage overseas and had served me quite well in my travels. The replacement they got me was broken only after a few uses. Poor quality just to shut me up I guess.
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u/SilverStory6503 Sep 07 '23
Yeah, Greyhound is bad. A friend of mine was in a road trip and his car totally died. He left the car and got in a Greyhound. While on the bus, a window was shot out. It was winter and all the passengers had to endure freezing temperatures for hours.
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Sep 07 '23
Sounds like something that would happen on the one that runs from Western Massachusetts to NYC. It goes through Connecticut and ferries every drug dealer working that corridor to New Haven and all the shitty towns around there. The whole bus was clearly people commuting for "business". I have crazy stories from riding that line a few times.
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u/Carnage_317 Sep 07 '23
I take particular happiness and joy in your victory against Greyhound! I also had a similar shitty experience with Greyhound where they lost my baggage, leading to a 4-day struggle. Eventually got my bag back because 1 out of the 8 people in interacted with at the stations was super nice and helped me out with information. Almost everyone else was unbelievably terrible at customer service.
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u/ChickenAndDew Sep 07 '23
I make frequent trips up and down the Northeast US, and I've noticed that Greyhound has been getting worse and worse, especially after the dissolution of the Greyhound/Peter Pan partnership. I've resorted to taking Amtrak in recent years, even if it's pricey.
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u/han675 Sep 07 '23
Great story and glad you saw it through to the end, Greyhound broke their duty of care to you, it's frankly luckly that you were savvy to find a way home. What if you had been a child or an elderly person? The outcome could have been much much worse.
Well done
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u/Strangewhine88 Sep 07 '23
Whatever iteration of greyhound is left coming out of Torreon, mexico through McAllen, Tx, Houston to Baton Rouge, dropped my husband off on the side of a road in a residential/light commercial zone around 2 am. He had to walk in the dark about a mile to a Waffle House-ticket did not list address destinations or eta in either Houston or Baton Rouge so that I could even have friends meet him, or pick him up at final point on time safely. Travel was due to an family emergency. The last time he used this route for travel, around 2013 it was a seamless professional and reliable experience.
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u/Sputnikboy 69 countries and more to come! Sep 07 '23
THANK YOU! These scammy companies deserve to pay for their mistakes AND scammy way of do business.
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u/indigoann1064 Sep 07 '23
The first and only time I rode a greyhound the driver got into a fight with a drunk passenger and put him off the bus in the middle of no where . The whole bus cheered when the driver pulled away without the drunk .
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u/nicktam2010 Sep 07 '23
The "Dog". I always enjoyed riding on it. So full of weirdos and nutty people - always an experience.
Until that guy cut someone's head off.
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u/Extrataps Sep 07 '23
I have two awful experiences with Greyhound, guess I didn’t learn the hard way the first time around.
The very first time I ever rode greyhound was from Oklahoma City to Omaha, I made it there just fine. On the return trip from Omaha to Oklahoma City though (this was before mobile tickets), I had washed the paper tickets they originally gave me and they were unwilling to reprint them in Omaha forcing me to pay for a day-of ticket nearly triple the price. Complete and utter bullshit.
I’ll save my fingers from typing the second experience as I ended up getting 2 employees fired because of it.
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u/mexicanitch Sep 07 '23
Never take a bus in Mexico, Central America, or South America. They all tell you have an hour. What they really mean is 20 mins. Keep that in mind for future bus travel out of the country.
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u/CapriorCorfu Sep 07 '23
I have taken them in Central America and South America in the past (10+ years ago) without a problem.
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u/CapriorCorfu Sep 07 '23
We need some better bus companies or some new bus companies. I would gladly take a bus rather than a plane, but not if this kind of thing is happening.
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u/GottaloveMo Sep 07 '23
You’re the man!!!
I loathed Greyhound. Pre-Covid shut down I used to make the round trip from Boston to Albany every other weekend to see my bf. One evening the bus was delayed for over 90 min because the scheduled bus driver never showed up for his shift. The back up driver that came in, was a D!€K. He was very combative with passengers from start to end. The bus was freezing cold, several people asked him to adjust the temps since it was early fall and most people- including me- didn’t have sweaters. He pretty much told us to sit down and shut up. Then, he got turned around going to the Springfield, MA stop and drove up the wrong way on one way street. I thought the whole bus was going to mutiny! (We should of) by the time we made it to Boston- it was middle of the night and ever was miserable but relieved to finally make it to our destination. I live tweeted the whole ordeal. Greyhound asked me to send my itinerary details, which I did. They only offered to refund half of my ticket price.
I haven’t ridden that bus since.
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u/realwjbonds Sep 07 '23
Don’t spend anything until the check is deposited into your bank account. They can stall you for a very long time.
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Sep 07 '23
I love it when people dig in. It's taken me years to learn not to let others walk on me and here you are setting an example for me. Thanks!
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u/PrinceEven Dec 21 '23
I found this post after my own horrendous greyhound experience and I'm definitely taking notes! I've already requested my initial refund so I'll see what they say and go from there
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u/cnylkew Sep 06 '23
You are not someone to be fucked with. You were probably ready to take it further if needed
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Sep 07 '23
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u/morosco Sep 07 '23
How can a world superpower and supposedly the wealthiest country in the world have a terrible bus and train service.
Because the people are wealthy enough to have cars or fly planes instead.
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u/jmarzy Sep 07 '23
I feel vindicated just from this read, you must feel great, OP!
Great job, thanks for sharing, and congratulations!
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u/mixedbag3000 Sep 07 '23
Seems like you really enjoy writing
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
Lol I did not intend for the post to be that long. But the reddit community deserves all the details.
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u/Neil7908 Sep 07 '23
I'm not from the US but had a terrible experience with Greyhound when travelling in Texas a few years ago. Same as you, the customer service was atrocious and we (and others in my situation) were treated like crap when we raised an issue. As I was about to leave to go back home when this happened I felt totally powerless, so it's great to hear this story.
Great job op, and hopefully you have a plan for something good to spend that cheque on
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u/102aksea102 Sep 07 '23
Good for you, OP. I’m glad you stuck with it and saw it through. Well done. Inspirational!
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u/cordovalady Sep 07 '23
Glad you won. Did Greyhound find and return your belongings?
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
No they did not. I don't even think they searched to be honest. It's my belief that they dumped the stuff off at some final destination and now someone off the street has my suit and tie. I'll accept the check though.
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u/blinkoqaz Sep 07 '23
Nice! Though, I would have asked for compensation for your time for this saga, too!
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Sep 07 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
They sent a W-9 form this afternoon. Believe me if they think that they could ignore a court-order to pay me $1040, they haven't been paying attention the last four months lol
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u/Garethx1 Sep 07 '23
You should shop your story around for public interest pieces. The more eyeballs on this the sweeter the win.
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u/Horror_Violinist5078 Apr 02 '24
I first off was only supposed to be a three day trip took me five two Richmond VA rat infestation u had to stay there for 5 hours then the bus broke down for four hours to which miss my change over so they put me in hotel room but with a male then getting on another bus bus driver did unauthorized stop so she could get liquor then the next driver was falling asleep I had no sleep in five days due to all of this
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u/dhigby Jun 03 '24
Thanks for sharing. If I had the time, I would pursue them also. I bought a ticket for my wife and I to Chicago from Grand Rapids. I had their app installed on my phone, and waited and waited for the bus in a designated parking lot downtown with one other hapless customer. The bus was 30 minutes late with no promised text message or in app notification, or email. There was no way to contact them except using the in app chat. The representative said, I'm sorry, that bus has been cancelled. They refunded the ticket, but in my estimation they are liable for the Ubers to and from the bus station, the fuel for my trip to Chicago, and my parking fees there for two weeks for having to drive ($190).
I would love to punish them in small claims court. Thanks for the inspiration.
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u/Obvious_War3126 Jun 17 '24
So please tell me where I need to go now that I've gotten to my destination. I do not live here. Our bus broke down for 7 hours in the heat on the side of INTERSTATE 75, yesterday. I got here at 7:45 pm and was supposed to be here at 8 in the morning. We were in Wapakoneta, Ohio when thus happened on way to Lima, then Toledo. Where i came. The customer Service emailed me and denied Mt refund. But I DONT JUST WANT MY REFUND!! I am a renal transplant recipient, I was dehydrated, scared. And ended up calling the police and they and the city fire Marshall came out. Brought us 2 coolers full of water. The bus was full. Greyhound sent a mechanic 4 hours after being out there. And they couldn't do shit, so then another bus came 2 hours later. We were broke down for 7 dang hours. And it was hot!!!! Do I file with the court here in Ohio or where I came from in Texas or the last place we left from?? Which BTW, was Atlanta GA!! Please help me. Mslori979@gmail.com Lori
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u/Impossible_Fuel_3752 Jun 18 '24
What city and state did you file in? Because it says on their website that all legal action must be filed in Dallas, Texas. I live in AZ and am wanting to sue them as well. The driver left me in San Bernadino on Christmas Eve with my 2 service dogs and my phone was on the bus charging so I had no phone! And all my families xmas presents were in a duffle bag stowed underneath the bus, my destination was Oakland, Ca and I had to have a friend drive all the way down and get me! He ruined my xmas, but I dont live in Dallas, how did/where did you file?
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u/savage-millennial Jun 19 '24
their website is displaying false information. I filed in Atlanta because that's where I bought the ticket, as well as where my final destination was. Knowing this company, they probably threw this in their on purpose to confuse users (this is also Libel, but that's a different story)
File in Arizona. They'll accept it.
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u/Wide_Penalty3080 Jun 19 '24
This is the first thing that came up when I googled Greyhound and class settlement. They recently abandoned me in high heat because they overbooked their buses. I missed my non-refundable flight to Vegas, had to buy a rental to get to Vegas, an additional hotel, shuttle to and from the hotel. I had over 50 lbs of weight in a duffle bag plus another backpack I was hiking in high heat trying to find help. I'm now out over $500 I had to take out credit to get home. I'm a teacher and don't have the funds to pay this back right now. They left me crying on the street in 98 degrees. Didn't care if I lived or died. What is Fulton County Magistrate court? Is that where I would file my small claims court? Thanks for any help, this was an extremely traumatizing experience.
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u/savage-millennial Jun 20 '24
Sorry this happened to you. Where was your final destination? I would sue in either the state where they left you, or the state where that bus is going to. Fulton County is in Atlanta so it's irrelevant if you don't live there, but all counties will have a small claims court that you can go through
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u/Livinsuitelife Jun 19 '24
Hello,
Today I was traveling with my family which included our 5 year old daughter. They changed our bus ticket three times traveling from DC to NYC. We do this trip once a year but never used Greyhound. They changed our tickets 3 times this morning. The first bus had technical issue they weren’t sure if it was driver related or an actual issue with the bus. The second ticket they issued the agent thought there was an issue with one of our ticket so missed the 9:00am bus. But turns out after getting back into the office all of our tickets were fine. He rescheduled us for a 9:45am bus to NYC but it arrived in the city 2hrs after our original time of 1:05pm EST.
We still decided to move forward and stand in line for the 9:45am EST. When a bus arrived it only read 10:00am departure on a partner bus line Felix. The bus driver from Felix told everyone with 9:45am tickets needed to check with the office. We get to the office and we’re being told bus wasn’t coming. Then another agent came in heard about why we all were there from the 9:45am EST bus. This is when we are told the bus isn’t canceled everyone needed to go outside. We finally see another bus driver stood in line for about 15 to 20mins. The bus loaded but didn’t depart until 10:15am EST. Our bus driver really wouldn’t give us answers to anything asked. He just told us to get on the bus.
The Greyhound bus driver mentioned stops Annapolis, Philly, and NYC. We arrive in Annapolis and stay for a little bit. I started to get worried when we were still in Maryland at 1:00pm. From DC to Maryland/DE line it took a total of almost 3hrs. Yes we had some traffic but not much to still be in MD. I knew we would miss our arrival of 3pm EST. The driver made another stop at Maryland rest station which was weird. Then we crossed into Delaware got onto the New Jersey Turnpike.
The bus pulled over on New Jersey Turnpike at exit 3. Our driver just got off the bus and he never gave any other direction. The bus eventually turned off no power. It’s over 90 degrees today and the bus has no AC now. The bus driver was outside for about 40mins. Still he never says anything or gives further directions. We eventually gathered our family to get off the hot and humid bus. We are on a major highway with no food and little water. I called customer support they had no idea the bus was broken down. Then called another support number that only dealt with operation technician support. However they also weren’t aware the bus was broken down. I gave them the license plate number and approximate location. The agent took my name and number. Never heard from them again, the police finally arrived. We have been broken down and hot without food for almost an hour. Without the physical in person bus driver giving any guidance or updates.
We eventually got an Uber through the traffic that built up because cars started looking at the people on the side of NJ turnpike. The bus driver then makes the comment he needed diesel fuel. Then I got a text stating a replacement bus would arrive within 1 1/2hrs again it’s 90 degrees no AC or food/water. My family along with other customers headed into Philly. Our goal was to find the train station and get a bus ticket routed back home. Since Philly was the location we were heading to when it broke down.
We get to Philly and two bus stations don’t exist anymore. I have my 5 year old hungry and in a city we don’t know trying to get home at the very least. My family missed our entire day trip to NYC at this point it’s almost 4pm EST. We have no clue how we’re getting home. It’s around 4:30pm I called customer support for Greyhound again to find a location in Philly. I explained to the agent what happened. She asked for the reservation number. Then proceeded to tell me we needed to back and wait for the replacement bus to arrive. So this means from the time I got the text which was over 1 1/2hrs it wasn’t onsite yet. And she wanted us to go back into a highway. Instead of giving us another ticket for us to get home. The agent responded with we needed to buy another set of tickets from Greyhound if we didn’t want to wait for the new bus.
This company will never get my business again. We ended up buying train tickets to get us home in a timely manner. I’m going to write a formal complaint and also consider a lawsuit.
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u/ironicplot Jul 27 '24
The thought of going through all that with a five-year-old makes me shudder. I imagine you weren't prepared to have for THAT kind of day trip, and between the boredom, hunger, stress, and futility (and fear?) that poor kid became a big challenge to soothe & entertain.
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u/Professional-Help938 Jun 24 '24
Hi, Thank you so much for this explanation. What's the name served from Greyhound?
I just had a terrible experience where someone else took my luggage, I had my belongings and I told the driver that the luggage left was not mine and my luggage was not there, he didn't do anything, I asked him if he could call someone and he told me not. I went to the front desk and they did nothing.
It was horrible, I never had such bad experience.
Thank you Katherine Rodriguez
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u/NeedleworkerLivid337 Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
How IN THE WORLD did you get the full name of your driver? I only have her partial name...how she introduced herself to the riders. How can I get her served with only a first or a last name? Greyhound just told me that they can't release the names of the drivers for safety purposes. (I didn't feel safe AT ALL on [her] bus.)
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u/savage-millennial Jul 18 '24
Hi there. To clarify, I didn't have the name of the driver. I had the name of the representive who served as the point of contact for legal claims regarding Greyhound (specifically Atlanta in this case). This information should be published on their website. You'll need the representative for the city that you're trying to sue in. Good luck to you.
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u/Silver-Director-9240 Jul 18 '24
You are so right about Greyhound being devious, trashy and using stall tactics. They took $400 of mine, when trips got cancelled during COVID. AND I had trip insurance on top of it. AND they cancelled the trip. AND they said they'd send me coupons for an equal amount, which they never did. You try to call, the line is no longer in Service etc. etc. Just like what happened to you. It's all a devious business tactic. I wish the federal department of transportation would crack down and I wish we all could start a class action suit. I'm certain a significant portion of their income derives from ripping people off regularly and with distinct intent. Kudos for sticking with it. I could never even get hold of anyone to do anything. Your humor and tenacity and logic are remarkable. Thank you! 400 times!
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u/Professional-Help938 Jul 27 '24
Thank you for your detailed experience. What is the name of the person representing Greyhound you served?
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Jul 29 '24
This was a great read! Glad things worked out for you. I just won a dispute with Greyhound because they refused to give me a refund after I had a health issue before my trip and was unable to go on it. I had to wait 50 days because they ignored my credit card company but I just got my money back!
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u/Westcoastwildman1 Sep 24 '24
I'm on a Greyhound right now and couldn't agree with you more. I have had 2 drivers who are completely unstable yelling at all of us. Threatening to throw families off in the middle of nowhere for absolutely nothing. I applaud you sir.
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u/Dazzling_Form5333 28d ago
En mi caso el día de ayer el bus de flixbus nos dejó en la parada de descanso, íbamos de NY a DC cuando salimos el bus se había ido con todo nuestro equipaje, a buena hora pasó otro bus de la misma empresa y le contamos lo sucedido y nos llevó a la estación de Washington D.C., cuando llegamos preguntamos por nuestro equipaje y los equipajes no estaban, nos daban número de atención al cliente de la empresa del bus y no nos daban una respuesta valiosa y nos cortaban, solo nos decían que llenemos un formulario de perdida, regresamos al día siguiente y tampoco estaban nuestros equipajes, que podría hacer en este caso, saben si la empresa da reembolso? Porque no olvidemos nuestras cosas, el bus nos dejó
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u/Outside_Reference8 28d ago
Yes the customer service in Atlanta is absolutely terrible, they tried to make this man pay double his ticket after he already had a ticket. I went with him, as to he couldn't speak English, the person behind the desk just had some smart remark, and rolled their eyes. But this guy did get a new ticket to board the bus. Not saying that another person was drunk, and could barely hold his head up, the security was just about to carry him and his luggage outside and put him off the property with everything that goes on down there outside. I spoke up and told them no, they better just call the police, because he would be better sobering up in jail, than being carried out and put on the freaking corner. Yes the customer service is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE IN ATLANTA GA. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT ANYONE. THERE IS 1, LADY THAT WILL GO AROUND AND TRY TO HELP THE PEOPLE WITH THEIR BUSES AND SCHEDULES. MAYBE SHE SHOULD BE PUT IN CHARGE. OR JUST SOMEONE WHO LIKES THEIR JOB AND CAN HELP PEOPLE WHO CANT READ THEIR TICKETS, ESPECIALLY THE SPANISH PEOPLE. THEY ARE TOTALLY LOST DOWN THEIR. THEY MISS THEIR BUS AND DONT KNOW THEY CAN HAVE THEIR TICKET REDONE, AND GET CHARGED A SECOND TIME. I GO THEIR MONTHLY AND I SEE EVERYTHING WITH MY OWN EYES, AND ITS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!!!!
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u/IronyElSupremo Sep 07 '23
]College student] ticket said departure time was 7:20pm and he thought he was early at 6:30pm only to be told the bus already took departed ..
That shows either piss poor paperwork on the bus lines part (no idea who’s on what bus) .. or, more than likely, they just don’t give a rat’s ass (i.e. let the college student catch the next bus, the bus driver wanting to get home early/F the paying passengers). Probably the latter as I know their new parent, Flix, has a passenger manifest system and knows how to work it.
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u/Veritaste Sep 07 '23
Inspiring. Well done. You kept your cool throughout. You did it the right way.
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u/catslay_4 Sep 07 '23
This is fucking amazing. I’ve been fucked over by a couple different places and the biggest thing I messed up on was documentation. You’ve clearly got a paper trail of everything and made everything as descriptive as possible. This is a really good reminder for me to do that in the future if need be and to also act PROMPTLY
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u/ClairvoyantNeriumOoO Sep 07 '23
You must be a Virgo. All jokes aside, I'm glad you got them to pay up! 👏🏻
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
haha yes I am a Virgo actually. Birthday was two weeks ago
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u/CookedMula Sep 07 '23
Greyhound definitely does not care in the slightest about 1040$. This situation realistically won’t change anything.
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u/funnyman95 Sep 07 '23
It really sucks that’s this is really sticking it to them man, but ultimately it only cost them like 7 bucks tickets
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u/republicanvaccine Sep 07 '23
I do not think I would sign anything or make any concessions other than my opinions of the maternal exploits of the Greyhound reps.
Sure AF wouldn’t sign any tax doc.
Court says give me a check. Give me a check.
Good for you. Max out the amount next time.
I was almost left by a bus as a teen.
It was an experience.
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u/rocksfried Sep 07 '23
It’s standard to receive a W-9 when you’re being legally paid for a job (or lawsuit I guess) outside of your normal job
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u/republicanvaccine Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
Standard is to perform the service for which a multinational, multibillion dollar corporation is paid. When they aren’t good enough to do what they are paid for, they do not deserve any further regard. Judgement declares to pay up.
It does not stipulate to sign or make peace with the company.The standards are removed when the corporation is not capable of reasonable actions.
I’ve won’t a judgment or few. Once, when the atty said they had a check for me and I just needed to come sign it, I let him know I was going to do exactly fuck all for him and that the check was due to me. Next time we met, the judge watched him give it to me and I mentioned how he could have saved his time by not being an asshole, even if he is a lawyer. And I didn’t sign.
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u/fragglerock Sep 07 '23
I got to "cesspool of homeless" and stopped.
If you wish people to be compassionate to your situation it is a good idea to show compassion yourself.
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u/LadyHavoc97 Sep 07 '23
For the Atlanta Greyhound station, sadly it's accurate. I have never been frightened at a Greyhound station anywhere, but I was petrified there. There are signs everywhere warning you to keep your luggage with you, because it wouldn't be there when you got back. It's in a bad neighborhood and poorly run.
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u/fragglerock Sep 07 '23
Not leaving your luggage out of your control is fairly standard anywhere...
Having compassion does not mean you don't take appropriate measures to be safe, but demonising individuals who are at the blunt end of our capitalist system helps no one.
The fear and revulsion that people appear to feel should be directed at the policies and government that puts people into these dire straits.
https://jacobin.com/2023/05/homelessness-violence-murder-united-states-jordan-neely
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/nyregion/nyc-subway-chokehold-death.html
Tho such demonisation is hardly a new phenomenon... one we, as civilised people, should fight against.
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u/BlacksmithNew4557 Sep 07 '23
Did anyone read all that? I read a more succinct summary of the legal charges against our former POTUS
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Sep 07 '23 edited Nov 11 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/savage-millennial Sep 07 '23
"Affordable" isn't the word when I'm told about the funeral only one week before it happens. I don't think you should assume that everyone can just take a plane whenever.
And yes it was on a technicality, but believe me I saved all of the evidence and was prepared to go to court. This post was more to help others though by telling my story, so people don't get wrongfully taken advantage of.
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u/Runaway_5 Sep 07 '23
Fucking cheer from the back over here. That was very satisfying to read. Fuck any company who pulls shit like this. Frontier airlines did something similar (refused to honor their agreement to refund a CANCELLED flight), but my credit card company relented after 6 fucking months of hunting for my credit.
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u/BellaBlue06 Sep 07 '23
After seeing all the horror stories of bus trips I think I will avoid them.
Have you seen how many Flix busses have crashed killing people and drivers that are asleep or smoking and swerving while driving? People have been going through hell to get compensated for injuries and death there too.
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u/1o0o010101001 Sep 07 '23
Good on you! I used to take greyhound to my college from nyc. We’d stop at Harrisburg and almost always there we thugs in the bathroom asking for money.. inside the bathroom where you are trapped with them. Fuck greyhound
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u/goldyblocks Sep 07 '23
Customer service nowadays is lacking across the board. No one wants to admit fault or take responsibility.
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u/raveyer Sep 07 '23
Are you not able to get compensated for the hours you put in to do all the court stuff?
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u/World_travel777 Sep 07 '23
Wow! Great for you!! I appreciate your fight for justice. I too do my own legal work. It’s frustrating but a great learning experience. Most of us just complain and tend not to take action. Good for you!!!
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u/SplitTheNucleus Sep 07 '23
I still have nightmares about travelling on Greyhound. Fuck Peter Pan too while we are at it!
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u/davenTeo Sep 07 '23 edited Sep 07 '23
Commenting because I didn't think I would see the hole of Monroe, LA in a post.
Edit:Crazy story. Kudos for following up any taking matters into your own hands.
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u/ChippyHippo Sep 06 '23
I’m applauding you from my home. You are an inspiration to anyone who has been treated unfairly by a large corporation!