My letter to Megabus regarding our experience on Sunday trying to return from HOPE.
Dear sir or madam,
I would like to request a refund for the tickets I had purchased for the 9PM bus from NYC to DC on July 15th.
The experience we had that trip was horrendous. To begin with, the bus left very late, leaving us to wait in the rain for at least half an hour longer than we should have. Then once we boarded the bus, the AC was broken, making it extremely hot an sweaty. On the upper deck of the bus it was not unlike a sauna, which was not a good thing. Before the bus even left the terminal I could hear a whine like a dying inverter and people were complaining that the outlets, which you advertise, were not working. This made it impossible for us to charge our devices, many of which were drained from the 3-day conference we had been attending. Then, after suffering through the heat and discomfort for more than three hours the bus driver finally stopped at a the Chesapeak House rest area so we could get some cold water and cool off. At this point, my companions and I spent just over $100 on bottles of cold water which we handed out for free to YOUR customers to prevent people from suffering heat stroke. I’m sure could have easily resulted in an expensive lawsuit for your company. Then, after about a 15 minute break we all reboarded the bus, only to find that the driver was unable to re-start the bus. I assume there was a problem with the alternator, which would explain the problems with the power outlets and AC as well. Needless to say, nobody was thrilled about being stranded with a broken bus. Worse yet, it took over three hours for the replacment bus to arrive. When it became clear that we would have to wait three hours and not arrive in DC until about 5 in the morning (4 hours later than scheduled) I was forced to call a family member to come pick us up. So on top of everything else, your service didn’t even get us to our destination, we had to find our own way.
Based on the fact that no part of the service was acceptable, and was not even sufficient to get us to where we were going I would like to request a full refund of at least the $76.00 we spent on this trip. However, if you expect to keep myself or my companions as customers in the future, you will also reimburse us for the $100 worth of water bottles we purchased for YOUR customers to prevent a serious medical situation. (If you require, I can scan the receipt and send it to you.)
Regards, Ben Mendis