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Greyhound gets my goat! A long rant about stupidity in security! This may not happen to you so if you want Click here to skip to next section..
We planned to take the Greyhound to Vancouver WA, about 300 miles that usually
takes about 8-9 hours.
You can't make reservations on Greyhound, as I discovered when trying to do so by phone from home the week before the trip. Could I book and pay for the tickets in advance I asked the operator? Yes, but there was a US$15 service charge for that. Thinking that doing so would ensure us of a reservation I agreed, only to find out almost by accident as the transaction neared completion that was not the case. I could do just as well by buying the tickets an hour before departure, and avoid the charge, very hefty on a US$40 ticket!
After leaving Vancouver on time and passing through US immigration as descrived above, we proceeded on the bus to Seattle WA where we had to change busses after a about an hours break.
The miserably inadequate food at the franchised restaurant in the bus stop was so uninspiring we resorted to muesli bars from our trusty food box.
When it came time to board the second bus disaster struck. I had brought with
me a Swiss army pocket knife tool kit, with a bottle opener, corkscrew, scissors,
nail file and a small blade, etc, which I had packed in my checked baggage for
the flights, but was now carrying, the first bus there was no problem, but this
time they used a metal detector. When the security officer objected to it I
said I would put it into my checked baggage which would be carried in the baggage
hold underneath the bus, where I could not possibly get access to it during
the trip.
This was not good enough, I would have to "give it to him" or I would
not be allowed to board the bus. No weapons were allowed on Greyhound buses
at all, not even in the checked baggage under the bus. This was company policy,
he could make no exception! This despite the fact that the passenger in line
in front of me was found to have a very large screwdriver in his hand luggage,
and was simply allowed to put it into his checked bag to go into the baggage
hold under the bus.
I pointed out the inconsistency to no avail. My Swiss knife was considered a "weapon", apparently a 12 inch bladed screw driver was not. I demanded to see the station manager, who obviously could see the absurdity of the situation but didn't have the gumption to tell the contracted security officer to use a little common sense. What possible security threat does a 57 year old tourist with a small tool kit knife, packed into a bag in the baggage hold under the bus pose? I refused to relent and protested vigorously at the apparent discrimination and stupidity of the situation. These Swiss knife tool kits are worth around $60, and for all I knew this imbecilic security officer was possibly running a racket of some kind.
By this time we had missed the bus, and I approached the manager again to see what could be done and again pointed out the inconsistency with the case of the big screw driver which he initially claimed to be unaware of. Did they have any facility to forward such items to travellers by mail, I was willing to pay costs? No, they had no such arrangements, they just put such items into a locked box! What was then done with them was unclear, presumably after a respectable interval they would go missing mysteriously!
Well I could get a refund of my unused ticket and go on by train? Yes he said I could get a refund, but this would have been even more inconvenient, I didn't want to do that. I wanted some common sense to prevail.
Then I suggested what if I simply lost the knife, as the manager had explained that they had no authority to search checked bags. However he wouldn't go for that one. Poor fool would have lost altogether too much face.
I suggested would it be OK if I posted the item to myself, and disposed of it that way? Yes that would be fine. So I had him explain where the Seattle Post Office was and indicated that I would go there
We retired into the crummy restaurant to collect our thoughts, and wait for the next bus, due to depart in about two and a half hours. One of the Greyhound. staff seeing the stupidity of the situation, approached us and suggested that we really need do nothing more than quietly put the offending item into one of our check in bags and merely pretend we had posted it.
What a bloody comic farce! Well I am afraid I was not going to give any chance
for these idiots to claim I had done just that, and cause me further delay,
inconvenience and annoyance. So after waiting a half hour, I conspicuously left
the bus depot and headed to the post office. I planned to return with some evidence
that I had at least been there, that would put them on the back foot, before
I really gave the so called manager a piece of my mind.
I priced a padded bag, and asked the postage for the parcel to Vancouver WA, and wrote the details on a blank envelope I had found on the counter, then asked the mystified but pleasant and helpful lady behind the counter to stamp it with the post office official stamp, so I could prove to the "manager" that I had been to the post office.
Returning to the bus depot I was ready for action, irrefutable proof of my visit to the Post Office in hand. The manager who was serving at the counter saw me coming and put up his "closed" sign, sensing perhaps that I was not at all a happy camper, and that I was loaded for "manager"!
I stood in line and at my turn asked the serving counter attendant if I could please see the manager, as I wished to lodge a formal written complaint to Greyhound.
Apparently quite a lot of Americans can get quite loud, hot and bothered under such circumstances, but I was determined to not do that but to very politely tear strips of the manager in a refined but perhaps quite sarcastic manner, which he probably found so unusual that I doubt he'll forget the incident in a long while.
I asked for a form for a written complaint, that he explain the complaint handling procedure, give me his name, the name of the security officer principally responsible, the name of any higher manager at the Seattle Station, and also the address of the President of the Greyhound Corporation, as regardless of any local complaint procedure that I intended to write direct to him too.
The local process for handling complaints on the form he gave me seemed to provide every facility for the matter to be simply ignored by local management, and never brought to the attention of senior management.
I explained the points of my complaint.
The apparent inconsistency and discrimination in allowing the big screw driver, a far more potent "weapon" than my much smaller Swiss knife, to be simply put into the checked baggage. Again the "manager" claimed to be still unaware of this, although it had been pointed out to him at the outset.
The stupidity of the claimed company policy of not allowing any so called weapon on a Greyhound bus, even if it were packed into the baggage hold. Not even the airlines object to this in the case of such items as a pocket knife packed into checked baggage.
The absurdity of the situation where Greyhound never search or X-ray checked baggage, and hence would neither know nor it seems care if such an item were in a passengers checked bags, but refused to allow it to be placed there as described.
The lack of any proper procedure to forward such items to a passenger, at the passengers cost if need be.
The request by the security officer that I should simply "give the item to him", (his exact words, without making any explanation as to what was to then happen to it) suggesting to me that he had simply taken a liking to it and saw an opportunity to secure it for himself. This impression being reinforced by him allowing the passenger in front to move the big screwdriver into checked baggage with no hassle.
The security officer's refusal to acknowledge any inconsistency in his treatment of the two items, even when pointed out that a large 12 inch flat bladed screwdriver was far more of a potential weapon than my multi functional Swiss Army knife-tool kit. Absurdly claiming that he could exercise no discretion, when clearly he had just done so in the matter of the screwdriver.
The lack of any application of common sense in assessing a real security threat, and realising that a 57 year old tourist, with a small knife in a bag under the bus poses absolutely no threat.
The "managers" failure to direct the security officer properly, when it was immediately apparent when I called him over, that he could see the stupidity of the situation that had developed, but clearly lacked the resolve to exercise any managerial authority.
The generally brusque and abrasive attitude of the security officers manner. I had also previously observed an almost offensive dictatorial attitude in dealing with several other passengers, particularly black persons, who had apparently lined up at the wrong door or advanced too far from where the queue was supposed to be in his opinion
Well the manager pathetically tried to defend his position, rambling on about terrorists with box cutters and the plane hijackings of last September, but of course being unable to make any logical connection with the current situation. I told him he appeared to lack any common sense or managerial acumen` and that in my view he ought to consider a career move to something more in keeping with his level of competence.
I really get the impression that some Americans have been so traumatised by both the 911 incident, and the continuous propaganda following it, that they have lost a grip on reality. If a country is living in fear, jumping at shadows, then despite all the official bravado and propaganda, they can bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age, if it wasn't there already, but the terrorists, whoever they were, have won!
Terrorism is principally a psychological weapon and the assessment of victory or defeat must be measured in terms of the effect on the ability of the victim to get on with life and business as usual, not by how many Afghan peasants, terrorists or whatever have been killed.
Having secured the names of all concerned and advised him of the points of complaint, and assuring him that I would be writing to Greyhound's President, I retired again into the café to await the next bus, having had my tickets reissued for the following service.
This time boarding was without incident, the security officers with their metal detectors did not check any of the passengers on our bus, being busy with another bus which was loading.
Along the way we stopped at many small towns to pick up passengers, who had clearly not had any security checks, and we were free to leave the bus and mingle with locals during smoking or snack breaks.
What a farce this was. They made us miss the bus, delayed us for two and a half hours, and yet most passengers were boarding with no security check at all. All to achieve absolutely nothing, but annoying and inconveniencing passengers.
Get a brain Greyhound.
It was interesting to observe many of the passengers travelling on Greyhound, clearly a lot of them were people who appeared to be a bit down at heel, perhaps lacking in the confidence to complain at bad service, or accustomed to being pushed around by society, and now by imbecilic security staff, some of whom would have been more at home in a concentration camp than a bus depot.
We stopped for a meal break at a Gas station with a small store. Their stock of delicacies consisted of four mini boxes of pizza, almost stone cold, despite the assurance from the counter jockey that they were hot, bloody liar!
We gave the cold and probably stale pizza a wide berth and bought two bananas and again raided our trusty food box for some cracker biscuits, muesli bars and chocolate.
Now I am no fan of fast food, but surely in the many miles between Seattle and Vancouver WA there must be something better than the crummy dump the driver chose to stop at. Clearly Greyhound management needs to take a long hard look at some of the things going on in its organization.
