I don't take Greyhound, but my girlfriend has tried it several times. I drove her to the Greyhound terminal each time (1 to 2 hours before the departure time on her ticket), and every single time we ended up waiting there for many more hours, because the buses that arrived were repeatedly full. Each bus, arriving about an hour apart, had 1 or 2 spots available, while 20-30 customers were waiting in line (a couple of them told us they had been waiting since the day before — they finally got on a bus before my girlfriend). Once my girlfriend had to travel to another city, a couple of hours out of the way, and make a connection from there in order to get to her destination that day.
Another time when she was finally able to get on a bus, a woman who was also waiting there begged my girlfriend to give her spot to her student son. The woman and her son looked completely distressed, while my girlfriend ended up feeling guilty because she couldn't do that (when it should have been Greyhound that felt guilty). All of these people, my girlfriend, the woman's son, and dozens more customers waiting there had tickets for specific buses at specific times. Yet each time, Greyhound obviously oversold the tickets for their buses, without any regard to their customers. Greyhound knew these people would be waiting, but they didn't even give their customers any advance notice so they (the waiting customers) could go do other things like eat, browse a bookstore, etc.instead of waiting at the terminal not knowing when they will get on a bus.
So why does Greyhound put a specific bus (departure time) on the tickets if you're not guaranteed to be on that bus? Well, we learned the reason for that too when my girlfriend tried to change her ticket to another day. Greyhound wouldn't allow this and she had to pay for a whole new ticket. Now I would understand this if her spot on the original bus was guaranteed. But Greyhound treats these tickets as if they are city bus tickets when it comes to themselves and don't reserve your spot, yet they treat the exact same tickets as if they are for reserved seats when a customer wants to change them. Greyhound have their cake and eat it too. They can't/shouldn't have it both ways. Either guarantee the seats (in airline fashion) and charge for any changes, or don't guarantee them and don't charge for changes. I will pursue this further with consumer rights associations to see if what Greyhound is doing is even legal in the first place. If you're Greyhound that's reading this, how do you justify this policy? Why was she charged again if her original ticket isn't for a guaranteed spot in the first place?
Greyhound is a greedy company that oversells tickets to their buses, period. They rely on their monopoly and treat customers in ways that a customer should never be treated. What they don't realize though is that people have alternative options.
Rent a car, take a plane, beg your parents/friends to drive you to your destination, but don't take Greyhound if you want to keep your sanity (my girlfriend uses the first two options now). How do they get away with this?!
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