Greyhound reliability

[Biggs]

Perfect thread to come back to after a week off the TN grid.

[KembleTuba]

I didn't read the thread, but I'm here to post my story with greyhound.

I traveled the country on a greyhound from San Fransisco to Maine. I was forced to ship the tuba that I brought rather than take it as luggage. The policy with greyhound (which may or may not change depending on who your bus driver is) is that luggage is more important than shipped items. With big items this makes them the last priority. Long (6 days to be precise) story short, I ended up in Maine five days before the tuba arrived.

I was separated from the tuba in Salt Lake City, but prior to that I observed them chuck the tuba into busses disregarding the "fragile" and "this way up" signage on it. It ended up with a massive dent in the bell when I opened the case back up. Obviously(?), they don't take liablity for any damage to things that they ship unless legal action is brought up.

Costumer service and package tracking? I called several times to inquire about where my tuba was and was told that the instrument could be in Texas for all they knew. I realized I was on speaker phone once when the manager along with the entire office laughed at the story then hung up.

I also don't recommend actually riding their busses, but that goes into more stories and near-death experiences.

Tldr; Poor delivery time, mishandling of packages, lousy costumer service, and the non-existence of a modern package tracking service are the reasons that you should NOT use greyhound.

[bort]

Maybe next time I will sell on consignment, and let someone else deal with all that hassle.

[SaintPeteTuba]

I didn't read the thread, but I'm here to post my story with greyhound.

I traveled the country on a greyhound from San Fransisco to Maine. I was forced to ship the tuba that I brought rather than take it as luggage. The policy with greyhound (which may or may not change depending on who your bus driver is) is that luggage is more important than shipped items. With big items this makes them the last priority. Long (6 days to be precise) story short, I ended up in Maine five days before the tuba arrived.

I was separated from the tuba in Salt Lake City, but prior to that I observed them chuck the tuba into busses disregarding the "fragile" and "this way up" signage on it. It ended up with a massive dent in the bell when I opened the case back up. Obviously(?), they don't take liablity for any damage to things that they ship unless legal action is brought up.

Costumer service and package tracking? I called several times to inquire about where my tuba was and was told that the instrument could be in Texas for all they knew. I realized I was on speaker phone once when the manager along with the entire office laughed at the story then hung up.

I also don't recommend actually riding their busses, but that goes into more stories and near-death experiences.

Tldr; Poor delivery time, mishandling of packages, lousy costumer service, and the non-existence of a modern package tracking service are the reasons that you should NOT use greyhound.

That sounds similar to a lot of experiences I've heard about. I have had a couple pretty good and one bad experiences with the hound and agree they are a little rough with things when they want to be.

[SaintPeteTuba]

Maybe next time I will sell on consignment, and let someone else deal with all that hassle.

Isn't there a shop out west that sells tubas on consignment for people?

[vespa50sp]

I just purchased a tuba from a Tubenet member, shipped by Greyhound from El Paso to St Paul arriving yesterday. I thought I'd throw up my experience.

The Tuba weighed 32 lbs, left El Paso on Jan 10, went through Dallas and Kansas City, and arrived in St. Paul Jan 15

$74 to ship w a little insurance. Shipped in a strong cardboard box. Tuba was in a gig bag with some additional packing in the box. No damage.

The good
Good price, quick enough service and no damage (good use of duck tape may have helped : )

The bad
Greyhound tracking is the pits. They can tell you when it leaves and call you when it arrives. So I suffered a little anxiety wondering where it was.

All in all a good experience for the price.

[bort]

Glad it worked!

WHAT"S IN THE BOX?!

[vespa50sp]

Glad it worked!

WHAT"S IN THE BOX?!

EMC's 4 valve Eb La Sete. Nice little player. Picked up an Eb Herco mouthpiece off of Ebay that was a perfect fit also (small shank tuba size), so I'm a pretty happy camper

[bort]

All right! Looks good! Congrats!

We really do need to have a Twin Cities Tubenet gathering...

[vespa50sp]

All right! Looks good! Congrats!

We really do need to have a Twin Cities Tubenet gathering...

Somewhere with beer...

[bort]

Bort no function beer well without.

[roweenie]

Greyhound came through, but next time I'll put DALLAS as a destination and avoid the wait for them to find a different bus for the final leg.

this.

Larger cities with real bus terminals (not waiting rooms that double as something else) have actual "parcel rooms" where your package will be stored safely before you come to pick it up.

Once, I had a horn shipped to my local bus station, and when I got there to pick it up, it had been sitting in the same place where people wait for the bus, across from a public newsstand. Anyone could have walked off with it, no questions asked.

Another time, my item drove around in the baggage hold of a local bus for over a month (!) - it was only discovered when the bus was in for maintenance....I got a call from the maintenance garage to come and pick it up (thank goodness my phone number was on the outside of the box).

Once the package leaves a Greyhound bus or facility (to be put on a local route bus), you are on your own.

[roweenie]

...so, in West Memphis, Arkansas (like, forever) there has been a dog track (gambling establishment...racing).
When I was little, I confused Southland Greyhound Park with Greyhound Bus Lines.

Interesting article:

https://m.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/arc ... und-racing" target="_blank

It's a fairly old article (2012) - I hadn't realized that greyhound racing was still in existence here in the US.