Greyhound Package Express

[bigtubby]

In another forum, Matt Walters wrote:

I'll only ship via Greyhound if you give me an extra $1000 to compensate that I have to give up a vacation day, rent a bigger vehicle, rent a body guard for half a day, pay the tolls and parking fees to drive to Newark,NJ, carry the box from god knows how far away, stand in line, drive back forever getting caught in a traffic jam, drop off the bigger car, drop off the body guard, and go immediately home to take a shower.

I've decided to implement this policy for any transaction, incoming or outgoing.

Only three times have I been involved with this alleged service, all three on the receiving end.

The best case scenario was a couple of years ago when an eBay seller sent me a cheaply purchased 4/4 Amati 4 valve tuba. It arrived "promptly" (in about two weeks) at the nearest Greyhound station "capable of handling packages" - a four hour round trip from my shipping address. Yeah, add the gas and drive time costs to the deal and the shipping costs were far out of line - even ignoring the long transit time.

About nine months ago I "won" a sousaphone on eBay and again the shipper decided to use GPX. The bell arrived in a bit over a week but the body has never been seen since it left the shipper. Thankfully the fact that it was an eBay deal meant that I received a refund - of course sans interest or recovery of time/money lost in tracking attempts.

Today, two days short of a month since it was received from the shipper, the current GPX shipment arrived and I was able to drive 1-1/2 hours to pick it up, wait two hours for the GPX guy to return from "running out to get a sandwich" and then an hour and a half return to my home.

This was after spending over seven hours in total on the telephone with their so called customer service department. In that month, no one has the first hint about where the package might be.

Two out of three ain't good.

Greyhound Package Express is far and away the worst commercial service that I have ever experienced.

Folks should seriously consider using a more organized and reliable shipping service. Over the last fifteen years or so I have shipped and received well over 200 packages using USPS without a negative incident and quite a few via UPS with only one incident (poorly packaged, not UPS fault). For grossly oversize shipments, freight is expensive but much more accountable.

Out of curiosity I weighed and measured the current package and ran it through the USPS Postage Price Calculator: for $8.45 USD less this current package could have arrived safely at my doorstep in three business days. No wasted time and money in attempts at tracking or driving halfway across the state to retrieve that which was being shipped to me.

[The Big Ben]

Making shipping choices seems to be the bane of a tubist's existance. So many stories, so many answers...

[bisontuba]

These carbon-copy threads all eventually end with...

If it's important enough to you, get and your car and either take it to them or go get it from them.

+1

[Michael Bush]

It would be great if we had a posted FAQ post pinned to the top with a few links to carbon-copy GPX threads, Chinese tuba threads, finish threads, and whatever else gets posted about again and again. Give it a title that says "Newcomers Please Read Before Posting."

[tofu]

A couple tips from my experiences with GPX. I ship infrequently so I'm sure those that ship regularly probably have better tips.

1) ship to and from actual Greyhound GPX stations
2) deliver horn to station 30 minutes to 1 hour before bus leaves for destination
****doesn't guarantee there will be room on bus - see below - but reduces the chance of theft/damage/getting lost sitting in station waiting for a bus
3) ship mid-week
***from my experience the buses seem to be less full during the week so a better chance there will be room
4) tape hinges and lock shut if shipping in case
***not only does this lessen the chance of hinges accidentally opening, but also lessens the chance of non-counter employees out back taking a peek inside
5)stick on outside of case on both sides the name/address/ph# of shippee and stick inside the same info along with your info - tie shipping tags with same info on hinges & handle -
6) encourage buyer to pick up asap when it arrives to minimize bad things happening while it sits at station

My most recent experience this week:

On Thursday I delivered a sousaphone in case to the Chicago Greyhound station at 5:40 PM outbound for Phoenix,AZ
Greyhound tracking showed it was loaded on the bus 15 minutes later. At 6:15 the tracking showed it was outbound on the bus.
It was unloaded in Phoenix,AZ at 12:15 PM Saturday (42 hours after leaving Chicago) and 1 minute later it was in the Final Sort Center (12:16 PM) and picked up by the buyer 1 hour 45 minutes later at 2 PM. All of which GPX tracking notified me of as well as a POD with signature capture. Horn arrived safe and buyer is very happy. So in less than 2 days it went from my hands to the buyer hands for a very reasonable price with no damage.

The tracking is a huge improvement from the no tracking before. It's not the level of FDX or UPS tracking, but the cost to ship is not the level of those guys either and my experience has been it is a lot safer and just as quick.

[michael_glenn]

I haven't ever had a good experience with greyhound. The last time I used it was because a buyer requested it and I regretfully agreed. After driving an hour and a half to the nearest station, I proceeded to wait two hours for them to get back from their "lunch break" (2-4 pm). After trying to explain to the employee that I was trying to ship (she clearly had no idea what she was doing) I finally managed to get it shipped and sent off to the buyer. According to the buyer it took about three weeks for it to arrive. After spending my entire day waiting and driving, I have no intentions of ever shipping through greyhound again unless the buyer is willing to cough up a significant amount of money above the cost of shipping. My aunt has a UPS account, so I can ship at a discounted rate. I've never had issues with UPS. Greyhound? Not so much.