On Dec 7 I booked a return trip with Megabus from Toronto to Pittsburgh. It was to depart Toronto Feb 13 @ 9:30 AM, and arrive in Pittsburgh at 4:10 PM. The round trip leaves Feb 15 at 1:30 PM and returns at 8:15 PM. Megabus had a great offer on, and I got the tickets for a very good price.
Happy with that, I booked a hotel on Priceline later that week for Feb 13th and Feb 14th. I didn't bother purchasing the offered insurance as I trusted Megabus to follow through with their times. I've used Megabus for 3 other trips and they've always been good about leaving on time.
The hotel booked is a 20 minute drive away, so I intended to rent a car upon arrival and return it the morning before the bus departs.
On Feb 20 I received notice from Megabus stating they are unable to provide the return trip at the stated time. Rather, a trip departing at 7:15 AM would be the only option, or Megabus would refund the tickets. As I have a non-refundable hotel booked and paid, neither of these options is acceptable.
I'm now inconvenienced with a trip which is not only cut short, but I will now have the additional cost of using a taxi to get from my hotel to the bus station as I'll have to return the car on Feb 14th, along with the cost of a taxi back to the hotel.
I called up Megabus to discuss this at 1-877-462-6342 at 12:58 pm. The CSR explained that I would have to call their non-toll-free number to sort this out—very dissapointing. I called the number given, 1-908-282-7420, at 1:03 pm. The CSR (Jessica) refused to offer any resolution other than to refund the cost of the bus service. What a worthless offer considering their decision not to hold up to their side of the bargain is costing me a lot more than that. Worse, Jessica laughed at me when I explained the issue and requested further compensation. It took a lot of discussion with her to even get a mailing address for the company from her.
As it stands, not only will I never use Megabus again, but I will tell everyone I know never to use it again. Getting a great deal is of no value if the company flakes out at the last second.
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