According to its website, Greyhound views itself as an “icon of bus travel, providing safe, enjoyable, and affordable travel to 6.5 million passengers each year.” Count me as one of the 6.5 million who won’t be looking for the running dog next time I want to leave the driving to someone else. An annoying recent experience with the bus company has made the decision easy for me.
I was travelling from Jasper to Edmonton. The bus was waiting at the terminal when I arrived, one hour before the scheduled 1:00 p.m. departure time. The driver was there too, but clearly in no hurry to leave. He kept the passengers waiting more than 30 minutes before allowing us to board. He offered no explanation or apology for the delay. Nor did he tell us what time the bus would now be arriving in Edmonton. He just gave us the standard spiel about no liquor consumption or smoking allowed on the bus, the location of the washroom, and so on.
There were no weather or traffic issues to slow the bus down en route to Edmonton. The roads were bare and dry, and the weather was clear. I assumed the driver would be able to make up for the lost time on the five-hour trip, but no such luck. The bus was 35 minutes late when it left Jasper, and 45 minutes late when it arrived in Edmonton.
If the driver had given us a reason for the late departure, that would have been appreciated. If he had given an apology, that would have been appreciated even more. Where was the common courtesy? Where was the customer service? I wrote a polite letter to Greyhound’s senior vice-president for Canada asking for answers.
He did not bother to reply.
July 26 update: Greyhound’s senior vice-president for Canada – his name is Stuart Kendrick – still has not bothered to reply.
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Just read the story about your Greyhound experience. I just wanted to express how I “SO” relate with your concerns and questions regarding common courtesy and customer service. I am speaking from a Manitoba perspective with family members who frequently use the Greyhound travel “service” and have faced frustration after frustration with delayed/no show buses with little or no explanation, rude/disrespectful treatment by employees/drivers, and regard for the safety of customers. I must say this does not reflect all employees but because these actions are allowed to continue, the behaviour is a reflection of the whole. I was planning on sending a letter/note to Stuart Kendrick but it seems it may be a useless attempt in my process to bring forward the issue of “common courtesy and customer service” or professionalism. Poor man’s travel, for the most part, will continue to be a “need” and change will come in the increase of prices rather than quality of service.
I have travelled in Greyhound a number of times and I must say that each ride has been comfortable and memorable.
Would you be able to forward me Stuart Kendrick’s contact information?
Tonight Greyhound stranded my daughter (she’s a minor) at a deserted bus depot at 10:35pm on a Friday night. The bus driver told her the bus was full and that another one would be by in 10 minutes. An hour later she called me in tears cold, afraid and wanting to know where the other bus was. I called Greyhound and was told that another bus would not be by until 9 in the morning, and that the customer service line was closed until Monday and that I could open a complaint then……
I would really like to contact Stuart Kendrick and let him know what I think about that.
On the 17th of March 2013 at 6:45 minutes at Greyhound station in Ottawa , Gate number five, a huge line and horrible bottle neck situation brought me to complain to the city manager who showed no respect to myself as a customer and ignored my complaints while focusing on my attitude claiming that I was shouting; instead of solving the bottle neck problem that made me and other many customers wait in a huge double line that goes from the beginning of the fifth gate to almost the back of the station. When I insisted that he has and he is supposed to do something to solve the problem he kept claiming that I am not respecting him and that my attitude was not proper and refusing to add more checking stations and threatening me to not let me go on the bus.. He went looking for police and the security agent called 911 to arrest me and remove me out the bus station.. A thing that I find miss respectful especially towards a customer who is asking to improve the service by eliminating the waiting time. After a long useless conversation with Stephan I finally made it up to the bus, however 5 minutes later while I was nicely sitting in my seat, plugging my computer in and trying to to get ready for the bus to move and my trip back to Toronto to start after a delay of plus of 35 minutes… One of Greyhound employees came up and call me to come down the bus to the station’s floor, when I am there, I get surprised that two of police agents were waiting for me to make me feel that I am making trouble and disturbing the passengers, this is incorrect and insulting towards a customer who was asking for better service; I did not know that we have to stay hands tied and mouth shut up even when we are paying a lot for away Unsatisfactory service and when we raise our voice to speak up we got punished and kicked out of the station, accused by trespassing and disturbing passengers … the City Manager called it making a Scene.. So what should we call a horrible Bottle neck and more than 35 minutes extra waiting time wasted out of my time…
For Greyhound’s knowledge, there is no other bus company that treats its customers this way and check their belongings in a miss respectful way even for passengers’ safety. If this is really a concern (passengers’ safety), then install scanning machines where security agents won’t be able to touch passengers clothes, objects and belongings only in the case of doubt and if they represent a real threat !! This is very unprofessional and completely wrong approach to customers’ safety.
Knowing that there is no other bus company that relates Ottawa to Toronto and the earliest train is on 5:30 am the next day.. Greyhound did not only made me wait more than 35 minutes in a huge waiting line where another security screening station can be added to solve the issue and speed up the process, but it did not deliver the service that I paid for and made me miss regaining my activity on Monday as It should be..
Terrible experience,time wasted and $ loss accounted.
Can’t imagine Greyhound has detoriated so badly. I used Greyhound in 2009 in August to travel from Calgary, Canada to Banff, Canada. Banff is a hill station.
Greyhound was quite remarkable at that time. Don’t know what happened.
How to get the grievances to Stuart Kendrick..?