Complaint Regarding Poor Service and Unresolved Ticket Rescheduling

We booked a bus service with Greyhound for 18 passengers travelling from Phalaborwa, Pretoria, and Midrand to Durban, with departure on 15 January 2026 and return on 19 January 2026.

Unfortunately, our experience with the company was very poor. Greyhound refused to refund the unused tickets, even though the situation was not our fault. As a result, we were financially inconvenienced and had to spend additional money to make alternative travel arrangements.

We attempted to use and reschedule the unused tickets and sent several emails to customer service, but we received no response. The only time we heard back from Greyhound was when they issued an apology; however, no solution was provided other than advising us to reschedule the tickets.

Despite trying to reschedule, the call centre was unable to assist, leaving us without any resolution. This experience caused significant financial and emotional distress. Based on this experience, I would not recommend using Greyhound’s bus service, as customers risk being inconvenienced both financially and emotionally due to poor support and lack of accountability. See below emails sent to them. In addition to the request for a refund, please note that we attempted to reschedule the ticket on 22 January 2026 for travel on 23 January 2026 by calling your call centre.

We were advised that the ticket had been successfully rescheduled. However, when the passenger arrived at the bus at Acornhoek Station, her reference number and name were not on the bus driver’s list, and she was refused travel. The bus driver further stated that she was attempting to commit *****.

Kindly investigate who handled my call at the call centre and why the travel dates were not updated as advised. For reference, the call was made on 22 January at 16:35Your apology does not address the actual issue, nor does it provide any solution or indicate what your company intends to do to resolve the inconvenience and financial impact we have experienced since 15 January and again on 23 January. An apology without corrective action is ineffective, as we have not been compensated or assisted in any meaningful way.

To further explain our concern: yesterday we attempted to reschedule a different route in order to utilise the available funds. The new route was from Pretoria to Port Elizabeth, which is priced differently from the original trip. We were advised that because the Port Elizabeth ticket costs R650 and one of our tickets is valued at R430, we would need to top up the difference. This does not make sense, as we currently have a total credit of R1,290 that we are trying to use, especially since your company is refusing to refund us.

Requiring us to pay additional money while we already have unused credit is unreasonable. An alternative provided was to use two tickets and forfeit the remaining balance. There is no justification for us forfeiting our money, and there has been no explanation as to why the unused balance cannot be refunded.

While we understand that your company operates under certain terms and conditions, this matter should be considered separately given the ongoing challenges and repeated inconvenience we have experienced. We are not requesting another apology; we are requesting a fair and practical resolution.

Please do not repeat what the call centre has already advised — namely, that there is no other way to use the funds without topping up or forfeiting money. We do not regularly use bus travel and therefore have no future trips on which to utilise these tickets. Additionally, when we attempted to reschedule, your call centre agent did not assist us correctly, which resulted in further financial inconvenience. There is proof that we contacted your team and were advised that the ticket had been rescheduled, and on this basis, a refund is reasonable and justified.