Megabus Coach Canada Refuses to honour tickets Elizabeth, New Jersey

On Dec 7, 2011 I booked a return trip with Megabus from Toronto to Pittsburgh.  It was to depart Toronto Feb 13, 2012 @ 9:30 AM, and arrive in Pittsburgh at 4:10 PM.  The round trip leaves Feb 15 at 1:30 PM and returns at 8:15 PM.  Megabus had a great offer on, and I got the tickets for a very good price.

Happy with that, I booked a hotel on Priceline later that week for Feb 13th and Feb 14th.  I didn't bother purchasing the offered insurance as I trusted Megabus to follow through with their times.  I've used Megabus for 3 other trips and they've always been good about leaving on time.

The hotel booked is a 20 minute drive away, so I intended to rent a car upon arrival and return it the morning before the bus departs.

On Feb 20, 2011 I received notice from Megabus stating they are unable to provide the return trip at the stated time.  Rather, a trip departing at 7:15 AM would be the only option, or Megabus would refund the tickets.  As I have a non-refundable hotel booked and paid, neither of these options is acceptable.

I'm now inconvenienced with a trip which is not only cut short, but I will now have the additional cost of using a taxi to get from my hotel to the bus station as I'll have to return the car on Feb 14th, along with the cost of a taxi back to the hotel.

I called up Megabus to discuss this at 1-877-462-6342 at 12:58 pm.  The CSR explained that I would have to call their non-toll-free number to sort this out--very dissapointing.  I called the number given, 1-908-282-7420, at 1:03 pm.  The CSR (Jessica) refused to offer any resolution other than to refund the cost of the bus service.  What a worthless offer considering their decision not to hold up to their side of the bargain is costing me a lot more than that.  Worse, Jessica laughed at me when I explained the issue and requested further compensation.  It took a lot of discussion with her to even get a mailing address for the company from her.

As it stands, not only will I never use Megabus again, but I will tell everyone I know never to use it again.  Getting a great deal is of no value if the company flakes out at the last second.