Greyhound

Booked a trip from Austin back home in San Antonio last week to ride on a Flix bus being driven by someone who did not speak English. I could not explain that I had to download my ticket using WiFi on the bus because the station I was to start my trip home had no internet.

I was able to show my email confirmation with my seat info and even the bus number. He did not understand me nor tried to even hear what I was saying after someone translated for me. He made me get off the bus and said to wait for the next bus. There wasn't one.

Called customer service and was given a new ticket 2 hours later and at a complete different station. I had no idea how or where I had to go, not to mention I had to be at work at 5:30. I ended up having to call into work and Greyhound said compensation for my experience could not be fulfilled because they gave me a new ticket.

If the driver spoke English like we do here in America, I never would have been late in the first place. But Greyhound doesn't see it that way and doesn't feel their drivers need to communicate with the people riding their buses.

This was my fourth bus transfer today, Thursday 12/11/2025, and although I am not very familiar with Greyhounds travel procedures, I believe all drivers should be trained in respect and proper customer service. Unfortunately, the driver on this trip behaved in an extremely unprofessional and alarming manner.

From the beginning, his attitude was arrogant and careless.

At one point, I became sick and was vomiting. I politely asked while he stopped the bus and stood outside, if I could retrieve water from my bag stored underneath the sitting area. The driver refused in a rude manner. An elderly passenger also asked him for assistance, and he dismissed her harshly.

His behavior frightened several passengers who became afraid to speak.

Throughout the trip, the driver repeatedly threatened passengers with statements such as, I will kick you off the bus and Call customer service if you want, but I am the winner. He stopped the bus twice without valid reason, claiming he heard music playing. Each time, he exited the bus and ordered everyone to stay still. His driving was also concerning enough that I found myself worrying for our safety.

Despite the bus having only about 20 passengers, when I moved to a different seat because I was sick and needed comfort, he refused to let me remain there.

Overall, this driver treated passengers with disrespect, intimidation, and a complete lack of compassion.

His conduct created an unsafe and hostile environment. I am requesting that Greyhound investigate this incident immediately for the safety and well-being of future passengers.

Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.

So I started at Searcy Arkansas, and my last destination was Denver Colorado, one way trip, I ain't going back to Arkansas.

Here was the schedule from the best of my memory

Searcy AR 4pm to Memphis TN 7pm

14hr Break

Memphis TN 10am to St Louis MO 7am

45m Break

St Louis MO to Denver CO 14hr ride

Here's why this sucked and why Amtrak would've been better

Firstly, this is not my original schedule. I was originally scheduled from Memphis to Nashville, with a five-hour layover (The company calls those breaks).

The bus to Nashville was almost four hours late, so by the third hour I contacted greyhound, and they gave me a free ticket to replace the extremely late bus. What happened was that in the system, and on the app, it was confirmed that the bus already left. They finally did announce really late Nashville Bus at around three o'clock in the morning when it was supposed to come in at around 11:25pm.

Because of this free ticket that I got, I had to stay overnight in the Memphis greyhound station, which was very dangerous. Memphis, Tennessee is very well-known to have organized criminals doing very illegal things during overnight hours when people should be asleep.

That night, I did see very obvious criminals come into the greyhound bus station and try to steal things from people, but someone was protecting me. So I have God to thank about that one. I was unable to sleep the entire night.

Once I caught the Flixbus that went from Memphis to St. Louis, I was very relieved that this bus was on time, and I was not going to miss it.

The biggest issue was I was kind of sleep-deprived, and my assigned seat was right next to some teenagers that were toking up weed on the bus. The final destination for that bus was Chicago, which is a city I used to live in, and I know that weed is legal there. My impression is that the teenagers sharing weed on the bus were going to Chicago to part, and I wasn't too happy about them being rambunctious on the bus since I didn't have enough sleep.

Once I got to the Saint Louis bus station, it was very confusing because it doubles as an Amtrak platform. This bus station has doors you cannot go through, but those same doors are the fastest and easiest way to get to the actual area to wait for the bus.

The way the station is set up is you have to go to the end of the bus area, which leads you to the Amtrak area with a food court. You have to go backwards in order to get to the bus waiting area. There's supposedly even is an underneath, like a lower level that also has buses. At first, my ticket said to go below, but then they changed the gate to where you have to go backwards from the Amtrak station.

I almost completely missed my bus over this.

The Saint Louis bus was full of people and luggage almost didn't fit. My biggest complaint here was that they were trying to fit as many people going West as possible, even as far as Las Vegas. Some buses have three compartments to put extra luggage into, but this bus only had two. We were all lucky as passengers that the extra luggage fit.

There was a very big incident in this bus, and when I say incident, it was a miscommunication from the driver to the passengers.

This bus was only going to Kansas City, Missouri, and everyone's tickets said either Las Vegas or Denver, and everyone was very confused.

In the world of Greyhound, a transfer means another bus that is visibly clearly on your ticket. A break means a layover, and a stop means that the bus will stop and give passengers a breather to go get food or smoke. The other terminology they use is a reboard where passengers get off of the bus, and it's treated as a stop or a layover.

The bus driver on May 3rd, driving us to Denver Colorado, well, he told the entire bus that it was going to be a transfer and there are no extra buses on tickets, so people were worried that they would have to be refunded or have to buy a ticket again.

What really happened is that when we got to Kansas City, all we did was reboard the same bus with a 20-minute layover/Break. Even after people were begging this guy to explain what he meant by a transfer, he would not clarify.

I personally think that drivers like this need to get some sort, of course that allows them to talk to people better.

This driver literally panicked the entire bus because he didn't clarify what he meant.

There was another Stop once we got to Topeka, Kansas on May 3rd going into May 4th and at that point, the driver was switched for the remainder of the ride. From Topeka Kansas, all the way to Denver Colorado was really nice, and that driver was a really good driver even though she was in training, and it was obvious.

The biggest reason I chose greyhound for this trip was because I had four very large bags that I was carrying, and I knew that Amtrak wouldn't allow that.

Amtrak used to be less strict, but nowadays, hey limit you pretty heavily pretty much like the TSA.

These very big four bags, was literally my entire room that I was moving from state to state, and I couldn't think of any other cost-effective alternatives to Greyhound that could accommodate that much luggage.

All in all, the most enjoyable part of this experience was when we changed drivers in Topeka, Kansas. I wish my entire trip was as smooth as that ride was from Topeka.