Greyhound Bus Line, Silver Spring, MD - rude service experience

Greyhound Bus Line, Silver Spring, MD - rude service experience

From:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am reporting a terrible report of service (or should I say ‘no service’) given by Greyhound bus employees on December 28, 2003, at the Silver Spring, MD bus station. My mother purchased a round trip ticket on December 17th,using the company advance tickets promotion for rides to and from New York’s Port Authority, to Silver Spring, MD. On the way to Md. She had no problem; they lined up for the bus at the appropriate section and were allowed to board.

However, on the return trip service was appalling. My mother’s scheduled bus was to depart MD at 4:30 pm; we arrived at 3:30pm. When my mother approached the attendant named Ralph from New Jersey, she asked where was the line for passengers boarding the New York bus. Ralph yelled at her saying, “don’t you see all these people on line.” If one was looking at this line you could see there was no way of possibly fitting all these people on one bus, where it says on the side, seating capacity is 55. At 4:15 the bus arrived and people began bombarding the bus in no kind of order, Ralph and his assistant Ralph were tossing people’s bags under the bus.

Ralph then assured us another bus would be arriving in five minutes due to them overbooking they could not fit any more people on. This was clear as the 4:30 bus pulled off with passengers standing. Needless to say another bus was not coming. While we were waiting in the cold of December night air, no one wanted to move from the line afraid they would not get a seat on the five-minute later bus. At 5:15 I asked Ralph from New Jersey when this bus would be arriving, again he said in five minutes. No bus arrived going to Port Authority until 6:30pm, which was the next scheduled bus, now you have the remainder of 4:30 passengers and 6:30 passengers scrambling for this bus.

And to top things off Ralph and Henry are giving people ripped pieces of paper with numbers on them going to the highest numbers of 117. How is this possible on a bus seating only 55? The men explained these are the new boarding passes, not your Greyhound ticket which was purchased at the counter. You need on to have these ripped pieces of white paper with numbers. After standing in the cold for 2 hours I was outraged, I demanded they call the police. The refused service to my mother and would not accept her ticket on the 6:30 bus when she had been on the front of the line with an advance purchased ticket. Your policy states ‘first come first served’.

Then why were so many skipped over, left behind, and refused service on a cold December night. The officers have been reported to Internal Affairs for ignoring safety procedures by myself, and I am willing to go to full lengths, whether it be media or protest, or strike to get Greyhound to investigate so many people being overbooked and packed onto buses. Not to mention, if these two men had generic tickets passed off as “new” boarding passes, whose pocket was all the extra money going into? Sincerely, Yaisa Simmons

# 23 December 30, 2003

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This is a terrible experience for anyone, let alone an elder.

Has Ms. Simmons reported this to the BBB as well?