planningforfailure.com
Given that the blog itself is called "Planning For Failure," I expected it to be about how Greyhound "knew" how to fail in a graceful manner. I read through about halfway until I realized it was just a rant about failure at various points in Greyhound's ticketing system.
Nothing wrong with that, just not the article I was expecting to read.
Greyhound's "failure" happened in reality long ago and what we see now is a company that is among the walking dead. This does not excuse what happened to this poor, hapless customer but it probably explains it.
1. In my experience, you don't need to provide any documentation unless the merchant disputes your chargeback. So you should keep documentation, receipts, screen shots, notes, but not worry about filling out a detailed initial incident report.
2. Some people have claimed that you risk running afoul of your credit card if you use this feature too often. I'd say I use it twice per year and I've never been hassled.
3. Morally, I think you're just obligated to make a single attempt to rectify a misunderstanding with a merchant.
4. My credit cards let me fill out a report online, which makes this extremely convenient.
they're also excellent about managing chargebacks, like when a chargeback comes through and you've already given a refund. this is so frustrating with Visa -- they'll actually still process the chargeback and ding you $20, even though you've already given the money back.
AMEX not only provides the best interface to manage chargebacks, but they also don't charge a chargeback fee at all.
Also it's a huge pain in the ass to dispute, even when the merchant is obviously right. Most small merchants fear chargebacks, not so sure about big companies though.
I cancelled a subscription to XM and they kept billing me. I called to recancel and get a refund, but neither happened. So I did a chargeback.
That's typical of the experience that would lead me to file a chargeback. If I was billed for a service that I didn't receive and my first attempt to go through customer service fails then I immediately ask my credit card for a chargeback.
That seems fair to me.
> Quality and service matter.
> Those who care, win.
Well, maybe. I mean I see his point, but the fact remains that Greyhound is probably the most successful bus company in the U.S. Could it be that customer service is not as critical to business success as the writer claims it is? I mean I wish it were, but this is reality we're talking about.
So it might be that Greyhound just doesn't have a whole lot of competition due to high barrier of entry.
I'm not quite sure what the MO of the drug transporters was; I never heard of any arrests so I think they must have been using it basically as a moving dead drop.
The few times I took it though were, sadly, uneventful. One lady did have a live chicken with her, but that was about it.
I bet Greyhound receives an extremely low call volume in comparison. After all, by default, you don't talk to a human. Most callers with special complaints are probably routed to people with scripts that have most arrows point to "I'm sorry, but I can't help you. Do you have any other issues today?", and Greyhound has made the calculation that this will not impact their bottom line.
Never do a big company a favor, especially when they won't return it. Sure, he could have gotten his money back by faxing stuff and mailing stuff and being glued to the phone for a day. Or he could fill out a form on his credit card's website, and now Greyhound has to do all the dirty work. Which would you choose?
Although I never called my credit card company to do a charge back. In fact, right until this moment, I did not even know I can do this. It's been a year now. I am a cofounder and sole developer of a startup, and I am working full time to pay my bills and for immigration purposes. Basically, I figured I would rather not waste time at all, since I am really out of it. So do you think it might be worth a shot to even try to get that charge back from my credit card company, after almost a year? In my opinion, it might lead to more issues. It's 50 bucks. What do you suggest? Worth my time?
(Side note, I only skimmed the article, but a good piece of advice is to mention charge back a few times when you're in this kind of situation. I find that it speeds up the outcome, succeed or fail.)
Having said that, Amex would kick ass on your behalf anyway, since their target market could have any card they wanted, they compete on customer service.
(I did toronto to vancouver and back a couple years ago. It's 8 days you won't soon forget!)
This company seems to have a monopoly in the long-distance bus service market. I also think the majority of their business is done offline (in-person sales at stations). So, unfortunately, these terrible systems aren't likely to change anytime soon.
Megabus, for example, only travels between about 6 or 7 cities in eastern Ontario and Quebec. Being from western Canada, our choices are incredibly limited here - Greyhound between major destinations along the Trans Canada highway, basically, or a regional carrier.
That said, the bus is one of my favourite ways to travel, as I very much enjoy having the option to read, code, sleep, etc. on long journeys. This is the same reason I enjoy train travel.
What I really hate about them is that they have a schedule, but not really. They constantly sell more tickets than there are seats on the bus. The good part about this is that since your ticket isn't connected to a bus, you can take one any time on that day. But then of course 200 people try to get on an 80 person bus. It's a terrible mess.
To make matters worse, none of the other bus companies in Southern Ontario actually go to Ottawa, so its Greyhound or nothing.
So now I only take the train. It is always a pleasant trip. Definitely worth the price.
Experience on Greyhound: forced to buy two tickets for the same trip. Experience on VIA Rail: picture with the Stanley Cup.
That makes Megabus the Southwest of Canadian bus service.
Bus travelers purchase tickets in person, on the day of travel, with wadded up old paper currency. That's the way it's always been, and always will be.
Now, I don't think this is a bad thing, but I wonder why more businesses don't offer a money back guarantee as policy straight up? I mean, if the customer wants their money back, the customer will get their money back; there's not much you can do about it. So why not have a liberal money back policy yourself? it prevents most chargebacks (but not all... some consumers are either just jerks or assume you will give them the run-around, those people will initiate chargebacks even if you do have an easy money-back policy) and you get a lot more goodwill out of a refund you give than out of a chargeback.
Ironically, it sounds as if he is going to a conference about improving public transport.