BY CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT

Jessica Wehner’s worst travel nightmare turned into a reality just before a busy holiday weekend. That’s when her daughter, Samantha, tried to take a Greyhound bus back to college. But the motorcoach left without her.

And then Greyhound decided to keep her money.

“Greyhound offered me a promo code for $7 as a ‘goodwill gesture,’” she says, which covers the taxes for her unused ticket. 

Whoa! Can Greyhound deny you transportation and keep the money you paid for your ticket? Wehner is certain that the company is wrong, but a closer look at the terms of her daughter’s ticket suggests the real answer is complicated. 

Let’s break it down:

• Is Greyhound required to keep its schedule?
• What are Greyhound’s rules when you miss a bus?
• How do you get a refund for a missed bus?

But before we get to that, let’s find out what happened to Samantha Wehner.

“I feel they broke the contract by leaving 20 minutes early”

Wehner paid $78 for a Greyhound bus ticket for her daughter to travel from Glendale, Calif., to Santa Cruz, at 1:30 p.m.. She needed to be back in Santa Cruz in time for her classes, which started the day after her return.

“We arrived at the Glendale Bus Stop at 12:55 p.m.,” recalls Wehner. 

There was no one working at the bus stop, and a bus was sitting at the station. Wehner assumed it wasn’t her daughter’s bus because that bus wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another 20 minutes. 

“That bus left at 1 p.m., and the driver made no announcement to the other people waiting on the sidewalk that he was leaving,” she says.

Her daughter’s bus never came. 

“I began to worry,” she says. “I called Greyhound and was on hold for about 15 minutes; when I finally was able to speak to someone, he told me the bus had left and there were no other buses Samantha could take to get back to school. I asked why the bus had left 20 minutes early, and the operator told me that he didn’t know.”

(Well, this may be the first complaint my advocacy team and I have ever gotten about a bus leaving early.)

“I ended up having to drive Samantha to Santa Cruz that night,” she says.

Wehner called Greyhound to request a refund of her daughter’s bus fare. An “unhelpful” agent told her she had to file the request through the website, so she did.

Greyhound replied that it could only refund the “unused” portion of her fare, or $7. That was puzzling to Wehner since her daughter had a one-way ticket. In reviewing the correspondence, Greyhound probably meant to say it could only refund her taxes.

“I feel they broke the contract by leaving 20 minutes early,” she says. “Not only did I lose money, but I ended up having to drive 11 hours to get my daughter to college.”

Is Greyhound required to keep its schedule?

Actually, no. Greyhound’s terms and conditions of travel say its published schedules, departure and arrival dates, departure and arrival times, bus types, and similar details reflected on the ticket or in the published trip schedules “are not guaranteed and are subject to change.”

Interestingly, the same contract requires that passengers be at the boarding location “15 minutes prior to scheduled departure time.”

In other words, Wehner’s daughter had to be at the bus station early, but Greyhound didn’t have to be there at any time in particular — or at all.

Bottom line: This is a ridiculous adhesion contract written by lawyers to protect Greyhound. Of course, Wehner had a reasonable expectation that her daughter’s bus would depart at the scheduled time. And if it didn’t, Greyhound must refund her ticket. 

What are Greyhound’s rules when you miss a bus?

More contract craziness. Greyhound can miss its scheduled departure, and, according to its contract, doesn’t have to compensate you or refund your ticket.

But if you miss your bus, all bets are off.

First, if you’re not present for boarding at the scheduled departure time, the contract says your ticket will be voided and the seat may be sold to another customer.

“Customers will be notified via text message, email, or push notifications of any delays or changes to the departure time,” the contract says. (Greyhound did not notify Wehner.)

And finally, “Except as required by applicable law, a customer shall not be entitled to compensation of any kind if the passenger has been notified and is not present at the modified time and misses the departure. It is the passenger’s responsibility to provide accurate and current contact information.”

In other words, Greyhound could leave early and keep Wehner’s money. And that’s exactly what it did.

How do you get a refund for a missed bus?

Greyhound claimed it followed its own rules and was under no obligation to return Wehner’s money. At the same time, the “adhesion” contract it forced on Wehner’s daughter was unconscionable, and I believe it would not have held up in court.  

But there are no consumer rules that require a refund of a bus ticket under Wehner’s circumstances.

So is she out of luck? Not necessarily.

Wehner tried to call Greyhound to fix the problem. Instead, she should have written the company through its site (she eventually did).

If that didn’t work, she could have sent a brief, polite written appeal to one of the Greyhound executives whose names I publish on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.

Even after several appeals, the best she could get from Greyhound was a frustrating form response.

“We regret any inconvenience caused and sincerely hope for your understanding,” it said. “Similar to other modes of transportation, we are occasionally subject to circumstances beyond our control. Safety remains our top priority, and we are committed to ensuring the well-being of our passengers.”

Greyhound apologized for “any disruption to your travel plans” and added that, “we are continuously striving to minimize delays and cancellations to the best of our ability.”

At that point, she could have filed a complaint to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and copied Greyhound. Although it’s unlikely the FMCSA would have done anything, the complaint might have shaken something loose from Greyhound. The federal government keeps a complaint database, and I’m sure Greyhound doesn’t want to be in it.

Wehner could have also filed a credit card dispute, since Greyhound made a promise it didn’t keep. That’s often enough for a bank to side with a customer. 

Will she get a refund for her bus ticket?

To recap, Greyhound had left the station 20 minutes before its scheduled departure. The least it could have done was apologize and offer her a prompt refund. I was as offended as Wehner with the $7 promo code. 

I contacted Greyhound on her behalf.

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused to Ms. Wehner during her recent trip with us,” a representative told me. “Our company takes the quality of service very seriously, and our team members make every effort to ensure customers reach their destinations as reliably and comfortably as possible. Whenever issues arise, we thoroughly investigate to understand what happened and identify ways to improve.”

Greyhound refunded Wehner’s entire bus fare.

Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at [email protected].