Comments on: “They seem to have no compassion”

By: BucksterSF

BucksterSF — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:49:49 +0000

@Craig,Lianne,

I’m not saying tires etc are the same as a death, but transportation companies are in business just like tire companies. Both my parents live in another state and both are deceased and I’ve had to pay top dollar to travel for each event. What I am saying is this happens to to every person in America that has parents, which is almost much everyone. Tragedy happens to everyone – its not the company’s responsibility to subsidize that. If they want to for goodwill or some other aspect that’s fine, but my point was to expect it is wrong.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:57:35 +0000

I think that with the right phone call, compassion will assist people in their emergency travel…you just need to know who to ask. My mother came down with encephalitis while on vacation in Montana, I live in New England. She was not expected to live and the airline was gracious enough to let my brother and I on flights with the reduced tickets that as they pointed out “are reserved for the family of the deceased.”

By: kinsast

kinsast — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:57 +0000

EricR, your conclusion of the linked article are seriously flawed. Talking about it, the article in itself is seriously flawed and confusing.
Motorcycles, hell, which motorcycles, they care not to define that. Buses? anybody doubting that a half ways modern bus with 40 passengers will be way more fuel-efficient than a car! Besides, what kind of car. There are so many variables not defined or mentioned that the whole article is straightdopedly stupid.

By: Stephen Pickford

Stephen Pickford — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:23:01 +0000

Greyhound eventually gets their customer service act together, but there is a lack of connection between their website and reality in many instances. I had a friend staying in Montreal who wanted to get back to Indianapolis. The website quoted a specific fare, but one could not purchase it on the web, it said, because it was multi-leg and involved a joint operation with Coach Canada. Went to the local agent, he couldn’t sell it, because “it involves Greyhound”. Went 20 miles to the downtown terminal, agent look bewildered…and then said the only fare that applied was almost $100 more than what the web quoted, even though I had the print out with me. The local Greyhound supervisor looked at it, and basically laughed in my face. I didn’t bother to contact Greyhound customer relations, but took it up directly with their parent company, First America, at their Cincinnati HQ, and the matter was settled quickly. But just shows that there is a performance distance between what they advertise and what gets done at time of delivery, but that, eventually, they will do the right thing…perhaps a legacy of how the company has changed hands so often over the years (Armour-Dial, Laidlaw, First America), so there has been a lack of standardized corporate vision.

By: EricR

EricR — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:26:04 +0000

@Tom: According to the article linked below, the most fuel-efficient methods of transportation are – in order – Motorcycles, Trains, Airplanes, Buses, and Cars.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2917/is-mass-transit-a-waste-of-energy

By: Jim J

Jim J — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:11:09 +0000

My friends Joe and Martha live in Tampa. Their daughter lives in Memphis, about 1000 miles away. The daughter was expecting a baby – Joe and Martha’ first grandchild and they wanted to be with their daughter and child right after the baby was born. In most cases, it is impossible to know exactly when a baby will arrive. Advance puchase tickets air tickets could not be used. The least expensive round trip walk-up fare was over $2,000 for two people. Even though they could afford it, my friends did not want to spend that much money. Since there is not train service between the two cities, the only transportation alternative was Greyhound. Each one way trip was scheduled to take about 22 hours compared to less than 3 hours by plane. The difference in price was significant. $2000 for two air tickets vs. $250 for two non-refundable, non-changeable bus tickets with no advance purchase required. They decided that the savings of $1750 justified the extra time spend using bus transportation. They also pointed out to me that they didn’t have to arrive at the bus terminal two hours before departure time to go through a TSA inspection. They did not have to take their shoes off or walk through a metal detector. They could pack anything in their checked or carry-on bags and nobody would tell them that liquids need to be in three ounce containers and that all these containers need to fit into a one quart plastic bag.

When they returned, Joe and Martha told me that the trip in both directions was comfortable and uneventful. They also told me that while in Memphis, they used the $1750 saved on travel to start a bank account for their grandson.

By: Carver

Carver — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:22:18 +0000

@Tom

LOL. The reason that no one would mention using a bus for cross country travel is that it takes too long. Just for grins I checked San Francisco to Miami. Its a THREE DAY JOURNEY. Each way. The cheapest RT fare was $389. That’s more than most airlines charge.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:13:11 +0000

The problem with “The Customer is Always Right” philosophy is that in this day of entitlement, many customers have interpreted this to mean that they should get whatever they want, whenever they want, at whatever cost, and have any exception made for them in the name of “customer service.” And if they don’t get it, then the person across the counter attempting to do their job is considered rude. Furthermore, the more you do for someone like this, they more they want and expect. Many customers are no longer reasonable in their understanding and expectation, and what was once an admirable service goal has been corrupted by the very people it was supposed to be working for. Sad.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:41:58 +0000

It’s too bad bus travel has such a bad rep in this country. It is by far the most fuel efficient way to travel — much more so than trains, planes or automobiles. In some countries, buses are perfectly acceptable and carry no stigma, but in this country, nobody would mention a cross country bus trip in polite company.

By: Thalassa

Thalassa — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:18:55 +0000

@Chicky – if that’s the case, why would the OP say he had $250 worth of tickets?

By: Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:38:20 +0000

@Dick Jordan, it seems like that’s all I write about these days. The customer seems to never be right.

By: Dick Jordan

Dick Jordan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:33:48 +0000

Chris,

How much of your time do you devote to these “Sorry, we know we promised you (fill in the blank) and it’s entirely our fault, but you have to pay extra or fight us for a refund unless you can get Chris Elliott to force us to do the right thing” problems? What happened to “The Customer is Always Right” philosophy of doing business?

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:19:28 +0000

BucksterSF: maybe you haven’t had the experience of death in your family yet, but here is the reality. Burials are usually held within 3 days of death. Living 1300 miles away, it takes one long day (21 hours) of driving or 2 normal 11 hour days with a hotel stop and accomanying meals. Buying airline tickets for a family of four on the day of travel can cost a lot (in my case, almost $350/per person.) If I had the foresight of death, I could have purchased 14 day, advance tickets for about $160/per person. What most people want in a discount is to pay about the same price of the advance ticket, since it was an unexpected event and no pre-planning was possible. Most airlines (at that time) were not in a position to offer a good discount. Your other examples (food, tires, etc.) don’t seem to fit into the same category as air travel.

By: JS

JS — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:04:23 +0000

Nice job on helping him out, Chris.

By: Lianne

Lianne — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:01:01 +0000

@Buckstar

No one’s saying that a company *has* to give a discount due to tragedy, but many travel companies do. Unlike a tire, which generally has a static price, airline/bus fares can be highly dynamic. This is because their very complicated pricing structures are designed to “reward” people who purchase early with discounts and “punish” (though that’s not really the best word) people who wait until the last minute. Of course this is a gross oversimplification of their revenue management models, but that’s the easiest way of putting it. They basically are providing an incentive for people to plan ahead so they can maximize revenues.

Travel companies offer emergency/bereavement fares because they understand that this model penalizes people who through no fault of their own MUST book at the last minute as one can rarely plan to the day for the death of a loved one. It’s part of a very legitimate corporate model that fosters goodwill.

Back on subject…the most important part of this story is that an employee of Greyhound gave the customer incorrect information. They made their customer a promise and they needed to keep it.