GreyHound shipping WARNING
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 4:38 pm
I've recently lost a kart to GreyHound shipping. I thought fellow vintage karters might want to know that items shipped standard do NOT get tracked in any way. The shipping documents have an ID number and barcode, but apparently they aren't used for tracking once the item is on the bus. Once the item is on the initial bus it's basically a crap shoot whether it will arrive at it's destination. I was told by a shipping agent that if an item is removed to make room for luggage that the item would be scanned and a record kept. The same applies at any transfer point. In actuality the employees that remove the items do NOT scan them or keep any records and GreyHound Corporate has no policy in effect that requires them to keep records. I learned this by talking with each location the bus would have stopped at while on its journey from Wisconsin to California. Only priority packages are scanned. If standard items are removed to make room for luggage or priority shipments, nothing will be recorded. Standard shipping items are just placed in a holding area to await the next available space or for the transfer bus to arrive. Since no records are kept of regular shipments there is nothing in place to keep an employee from setting your kart aside and helping it leave or just setting it out to wait for the next bus and leaving it unattended for anyone to take. Either way, your vintage kart is subject to theft and with no way to verify where it came off of the bus during its journey. Their max insurance for reimbursement is only $300. That rarely covers the actual value of a kart. I've left numerous phone messages with the claims office and so far no one has called me back. There doesn't seem to be a readily accessible number to get to speak to a real person. Their system only lets you use an automated system or to leave a message. Be aware that we are taking a big risk by entrusting GreyHound with our karts. It's an affordable way to ship them, but as it turns out, that price comes with a big risk. In retrospect it may have been a good idea to remove the wheels so the kart couldn't be easily rolled away.
Michael
Michael