Saturday, February 11, 2012

Greyhound

The weekend before Christmas my son went to see his Girlfriend in northern Arizona & meet her family. He decided to take a Greyhound bus to Flagstaff, that's as far north as it goes & she would drive down & pick him up there. I saw him off here in Phoenix & he had a great time while he was gone.

Until his return trip turned into a nightmare. He got back into Flagstaff on the morning of his return trip, the bus was to leave after 2 in the afternoon. He checked in & they told him his bus had been canceled & they were putting him on an earlier one, around 1. So they went & had lunch, a little disappointed that their time together would be shortened. :)

When they came back to the bus station for him to leave he was told the Bus had broken down, they were working on it & would try to get it there at 7 that night. He asked what if I go back home with my girlfriend & leave another day? They said if he didn't leave today he would have to purchase a whole new Bus ticket.

So they hung out in Flagstaff & headed back to the station at 5 (to be there 2 hours before departure time like they always tell you to) They get there & the station had CLOSED at 4! Which they neglected to tell him that much needed fact. His girlfriend needed to leave, we didn't want her driving home for hours alone too late a night.

So he would have to sit alone, outside in the cold & snow in a strange town, for 2 hours to wait till 7:00, to see if they were able to get the bus fixed & there. And if it then didn't show he (who does not have a smart phone) would then have to find a way to find a Taxi to come pick him up, find a hotel to have them take him to, then make his way back again in the morning to the Bus station to try to get another ticket home. Does this sound reasonable to anyone?

So I told him to have his girlfriend drop him off at the Flagstaff mall. I knew it would be open, warm & safe, & he could eat. Then my husband & older son left for the 6 hour, round trip, drive up to Flagstaff to pick him up.

Yes, Greyhound abandoned my son. He is a college student who works every summer at different National Parks around the country & could have been a very good, long time customer of theirs if he had just gotten basic customer service, but they didn't even afford him that. He had no issues what so ever traveling alone before with the Airlines.

The way I see it, at the very least, Greyhound owes him reimbursement for half of his $66.00 ticket price, since they only took him half of his trip! And for our tank of gas for the trip we had to make up there to get him. I guess were out of luck for the wear & tear on the car going up & down the mountains in the snow, and the time this Mother spent worrying about her child.

I can not tell you how disappointed in this company I am. It is pretty safe to say that I will never let him, or anyone I have influence over, to travel by Greyhound ever again.

1 comment:

Inspiration CAN be found EVERYWHERE said...

So sorry he had to go through all this - but sorrier still for all your worry. I agree I would NEVER let greyhound have any more of my money - but they still owe you a HUGE apology - at a minimum. I'll be passing this along to all I know too.