Greyhound Bus Lines

I really had a bad experience with Greyhound, when I was in NYC, waiting for my bus to go back to Montréal. There had been a snow storm the day I had to leave, so they just decided not to send any bus, without saying it to anyone. So we all waited hours at the station, until midnight or so, until someone of the station (even not from Greyhound!) came and told us that no bus would come before the next morning! How nice! So we spent a night in the station, at –20°C, with absolutely nothing. Some people had children. Absolutely awful…

Well I took 4 buses. Plattsburgh to Montréal
Montréal to Ottawa
Ottawa to Montréal and Montréal to Plattsburgh
None of these 4 buses had a working wifi
And the us buses are newer and nicer than the Canadian one

I think the service and ridership in Canada is different form that in the U.S. The drivers have all been very nice and the boarding process is orderly and without hassle. People are not loud on the buses.
One thing does remain the same though. Inconsistent wifi. There are, however, outlets! The buses could also use window shades…

Sometimes you have to.
The bus was clean. The station at Montréal is newly renovated and nice. They have literally one of the worst websites remaining on the internet I think. I was physically unable to purchase tickets online, it just bugged out at the point of sale, and so I called and it was bizarrely hard to get a person online and when I did she was super nice and sold me my tickets over the phone and then charged me $ 10 for the privilege of buying them over the phone and then waiting in line 30 minutes to pick up my tickets at the counter. Not her fault, she had no other options, and all she could do was give me a number to call to get «help with using the website.» Which makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Also, the driver was nice but literally drove like he was being chased by all the hounds of hell and more than once I feared for my life. So there’s that.

Albeit that I had started off with my first departure being cancelled due to a snow storm– I found that my bus drivers were good.
Mr. Monroe gets a 5 (drove back from white river junction to mtl) — the bus lacking wifi gets my «meh» 3…
Going to Boston is a long ride– most definitely suggest the overnight bus. As far as new drivers? Could potentially make your bus an hour late on arrival– «but, you didn’t hear that from me» xD…
Also– when purchasing your ticket, remember! Deciding to postpone can mean all of an extra 40 – 50 $ (around 3 weeks to departure date) just don’t be tardy.

Wow, Greyhound on the East Coast is so bad that I’ve taken all measures to avoid taking it to NYC or Boston ever again. Now I need to go to Ottawa, and find that Greyhound is the only bus that runs there.
In addition to charging $ 23 one way for a 2.5 hour bus ride, right before one clicks «Purchase,» one sees that they have tacked on an «Adjustment — Service Charge» of $ 6.
What precisely is this «service charge» for? Greyhound claims it’s for updating and repairing their bus stations. Apparently this last minute service charge has been instituted in all Canadian web transactions for a few years– and their bus stations still look the same.
Read: This is a «Bait and Switch» tactic to get more money at the last minute. Why not be upfront and list the total charge right away, like a regular honest and customer-​oriented company.
Greyhound staff are ubiquitously tone-​deaf to customer complaints of all varieties. When any customer expresses a complaint, they respond, robot-​like, repeatedly with the same vague, blanket statement which never addresses or even acknowledges the issue the customer is concerned about.
If this company did not have monopolies of routes on half the East Coast, I surmise they would be out of business by now… I usually don’t post very negative reviews, but this company is just audaciously bad.

Having taken the MTL-​NYC over a dozen times I can say that Greyhound is a hit or miss. They brag about student discounts but rarely ever give any (and I mean RARELY aka I’ve been offered it ONCE). Sales are few and far between, I’ve ony seen 2 in the last year and they were limited to unpopular routes. Pricing-​wise I wish MegaBus did this route but sadly I’ll have to live on. I’ve learned to rideshare when I can to avoid Greyhound and have found myself wondering why Amtrack hasn’t smartened up and started the overnight train yet. (otherwise you lose the whole day, same reason I suggest the overnight bus).
In terms of staff friendliness, I have been the type to bring cupcakes or cookies to the late night staff. The MTL crew is friendly for the most part, NYC is decently humorous but reflect the rush of the city. The stop over in Albany is where they need to decide on working with their partner. I have seen riders get kicked off buses and had the cops called on them just because the drivers were being assholes and didn’t like being scorned for forcibly shoving a passenger, I’ve been mistreated by the Albany terminal staff, even sworn at for asking if the restaurant is going to be opening (since they don’t post operation hours).
As for the ride itself, don’t expect your wifi to work. It generally functions 1 out of every 7 trips I take. Despite your ticket saying so, not all buses have outlets. I’ve also seen passengers turned away and told they need to wait for the next bus (4 hours later) because the driver was using all 4 front seats for their belongings. An absolute insult to their customers. I have had a lot of other bad experiences with Greyhound but will keep them to myself in hopes that they are one time incidents that would otherwise reflect poorly on the company. Greyhound gets my business because its easy for last minute trips when they run the busses on the route so often, but they are becoming more and more low-​end.