Ivy Media – GotoBus.com

I had to attend an interview at New York City. A one way ticket on an airline was $ 400. So I assumed booking a ticket on GoToBus was a «wise» choice. It turned out to be «UnWise» really quick. GoToBus booked my ticket through a bus provider «Panda Bus» or «Panda NY». The bus was supposed to pick me up at 2210 (10:10 PM) at Colonial Heights, VA. I was there at 2150 (09:50 PM). The bus never showed up. I waited until 2320 (11:30 PM) for the bus to arrive. It never showed up. Called a couple of numbers and they just kept ringing. I ended up taking another bus «Number1Bus» which was another adventure in itself.
After I got back from New York City, I contacted GotoBus via live chat. Initially they offered me another open ticket. I told them, the first time, the bus never showed up. What is the guarantee that it would show up again? They said they were not able to provide a refund through Live Chat and I had to send them an email. I sent an email and there was no response. I contacted my credit card company and disputed the transaction.
I would never recommend GoToBus to anyone, nor take it even if it’s the last bus on the planet rescuing me from mayhem.

Gotobus does a consistent job in providing a platform that reserves seats on buses on behalf of bus companies, processes payments and provides a customer review system. It allows someone to operate a bus service, charge very little money, and stay in business because they do not have to pay rent for a ticket office or pay a hosting company to run their own e-​commerce web site. I for one am glad that they exist and have used them to book regular travel to and from Philadelphia (where I work) to Boston (the place I am proud to call home, where my wife and my cats are)
The actual buses are operated by a variety of companies, some of whom are responsible for the negative reviews posted on this site… I have ridden with Focus Travel, the (now defunct) YoBus and Coach Run and have had acceptable to good experiences with them. Your mileage may vary though, and I probably have low expectations.
A reserved ticket typically is not refundable. That’s the bus companies’ decision. In many cases these tickets aren’t even exchangeable if you want to rebook for a different date /​schedule on the same company. For people who are not sure about their schedule, some companies (but not all) sell non-​reserved paper tickets in their ticket offices (if they have them), but of course you can’t get on if the bus is already full! The GotoBus system can only reserve one leg of the trip at the time, so I have to book my Philadelphia to New York and my New York to Boston trips separately. The Greyhound website does have the feature of coming up with suggested itineraries when there is no direct route… The company I use from New York to Philadelphia (Focus Travel) has frequent service so they can rebook me on a later bus if traffic in CT and the Bronx is too bad for me to make the connection; but in general, make sure you have enough slack in the connection to adjust for holiday or rush hour traffic!
That said, a bus is always going to be cramped, so if money were no object, I’d take the train or the plane. But I’m cheap, and I love real Chinese food for dinner between buses.
Areas of improvement I would suggest to GotoBus would be tracking REAL travel times (announced travel times for a given trip are inconsistent from one company to the next …), the ability to book multi-​part trips on one order, and refusing to work with carriers who don’t deliver. Yes, you get what you pay for. And in my case, it happens to be good enough.
Read the reviews for the bus companies on the Gotobus site before you book to reduce surprises. Make sure of ticket exchangeability /​refundability for your particular company. Have a back-​up plan if the WiFi doesn’t work. And bring a USB port charging cable as well as your standard power cord as some buses offer USB-​style charger outlets, not AC outlets.

I took the Goto bus from Philadelphia to New York and back. I had a job interview before I left for New York, and needed to push back my departure time. This was super easy and convenient using the website. When I arrived early to the bus stop anyway, I was able to take the earlier trip. The bus itself was super clean and the drivers were friendly.

I used the gotobus website to book a weekend trip to New York City with my family. We picked the cheapest ticket for $ 18 on a Friday night after work.
The trip went very smooth– on time, confortable bus with reclining seats, and it was nice to have wifi on the bus.
The driver made the boarding process very quick by taking our e-​ticket information from the phone.
I didn’t have any problem and will definitely use it again.

Due to my limited budget, I need to buy a cheap bus tickets travel to Boston from NYC during Thanksgiving. I used to travel with Greyhound all the time, However, the price of Greyhound and Mega bus raised the price to $ 55 per way during the thanksgiving which is quite unaffordable to me (Usually I pay $ 18). However, I found Gotobus is selling bus tickets for a bus company called Coachrun, and the price is just $ 25 during the thanksgiving. I had no choice but decided to give it a try. The service turned out good, compared to the price you pay for. At least the bus took me to Boston safe and on time. I think I am going to use Gotobus again next time.

I took GotoBus from Johnson City, Tennessee to NYC. It’s an overnight route and I had to book it at the last minute. Overall, they got me from point A to point B safely and 45 minutes early. However, you should keep in mind that you will get what you pay for with this company. The bus was about 20 minutes late, though we did ultimately arrive early, there was no way to know when the bus was coming and that can be a little frustrating when you’re waiting at a gas station on the side of a highway. The bus was old, it didn’t even have a logo on the side, it was just a blank white bus. The bus was also dirty, there was a wad of a napkins stuffed in the air vents above my seat (maybe the previous rider was cold?) and there was a little bit of trash on the floor. It was just clear the bus hadn’t been swept after the last ride (s). The things I have listed so far aren’t that bad, however, the reason I gave this company such a low rating is because there were roaches on the bus! And not one roach, lots of small roaches crawling in and out of the AC units on the floor of the bus. It was disgusting! I don’t care how cheap a bus ticket is, roaches crawling all over the floor is unacceptable!

I’ve done GoTo a number of times for the price, but… just don’t. I’m done.
Random stops that could extend a trip HOURS. Questionable drivers. The occasional breakdown. And, if you make a mistake booking or need to change something, expect nothing but rudeless and an utter lack of help.

They promised to call me and take care of things more than a week ago, I knew they were lying. BE WARE OF ALL TAKETOURS, GOTOBUS AND IVY MEDIA BUS TOURS!!!
They do not treat you well… Especially if you are coming from outside the U.S.A.

This is the worst bus service ever. I was scheduled to go to NYC from NC on the July 4 weekend, and the bus did not show up at the bus stop. There were 4 other passengers with me and we waited for like 3 hours for them to show up. We couldn’t even contact their customer service. It makes more sense to travel with a reliable provider like greyhound or megabus. I had to book a flight last minute which cost me about 350 $. They’re the worst. I would totally advise against ever using this bus service and I wish I had read a few reviews before booking tickets.

If I could give zero stars I would. Wish I had read reviews before trip. Co worker recommended this company, never again!!! I was thrilled because it stops in little town where my family lives in North Carolina 20 minute drive vs rocky mountain 1 hour drive away. The price unbelievable, 60 $ round trip. You get what you pay for ppl. First off the office is small & very crowded & dirty. There are many bus companies in this area traveling to the south for some strange reason all the other companies where empty & clean, that puzzled me. 2 buses pulled up at various times no announcements were made or anything, these two weren’t my bus. My bus finally arrived 2 hours late, I guess that should of told me something. Everything, everyone is unorganized everyone just crowds onto bus. The outlets & a/​c are not working, lucky it didn’t get that hot on bus. Many passengers were complaining about outlets & a/​c not working. We made three ¹⁰⁄₁₅ minute stops before we finally got to my destination. All the above I can deal with, I was still very happy to get to NC for 60 $ round trip. Here is where it all goes to hell!!! My return trip from hell. I was at the scheduled pick spot at 1:30 /2:00 am. The pick up time is 3:30am so I am very early. 3:30am comes & goes. 4:30am comes & goes. I call the company in NYC several times all I get is a voicemail mailbox that is full. I’m stranded in NC in the middle of the night/​day. I call
which is based in Massachusetts, everyone that answer phone is asian & it’s hard for me to understand them etc. All they tell me is that the company in NYC is closed & they have no way to contact driver. The office opens at 9am. I continue to stand outside waiting thinking they are just late, like we arrived late. Frustrated & extremely upset (emotional) I walk to a motel 6 at 5:00am and check in for the night/​morning. I had appointments back in NYC to attend to etc. I finally get in contact with the New York company and the lady explained to me that their computers went down the night before and they had no way of knowing they had a passenger waiting for them in my part of North Carolina. We are in 2015 you only have one passenger rooster??? There should be a manual list of the passages besides a computer generated rooster for reasons such as this!!! Your computer went down and you have no idea where your passengers are. Therefore I was stranded in North Carolina for 24 hours and no one wants to reimburse me my hotel 53 $ or my trip fee which is just a lousy 60 bucks for my inconvenience my frustration and in consideration!!! I would never travel with this company again I don’t care if it is 10 dollars round trip to the moon and back. I will never travel with this company again!!! Buyer beware you get what you pay for people. I will take the greyhound, train the plane and pay the price whatever it is. This bus was smelly, no tissue in bathroom (good thing I carry my own) no light in bathroom. The outlet and AC did work on this bus. At this point I didn’t care I just wanted to get back to New York.

Awful awful service. I purchased a ticket to travel from Times Square to Woodbury Commons. The bus never came. And there was no answer when I tried to call.
This is a scam, and is unfortunate because it is advertised at the top of the Google searches !!

Lies. The bus was described as having power outlets. I would not have taken this bus without that feature. At first the driver pretended that he didn’t know how to turn the outlets on, and then after he was forced to and we were on the road for an hour, the power outlets went out and he claimed it was broken. If they wanted to cut down on fuel cost by turning the outlets off they should advertise NO OUTLETS. This is obscene.

I will never, ever use this service again.

FRAUD! FRAUD! FRAUD!
The call center is in Asia. Good luck speaking to someone. They refused to rebook my ticket from Tucson to LA instead Phoenix to LA. When I called to rebook they aggressively refused to despite my receipt and the website saying otherwise. My bank called to DISPUTE. Choose GREYHOUND not this bus company not located in America.

RUN RUN as fast as you can! don’t do the same mistake we did!
this is the most terrible experience you could ever get period.
1. no customer care, all numbers on their cards, website are either disconnected or the rep will tell you that they are not
2. I got tickets from san diego to las vegas and the bus was terrible, TV was in spanish most of the time, restroom was dirty and smelly. the bus was shaking like crazy for 10 hours and there was a very loud noise coming from the engine for almost half of the way to vegas. I explained to the driver that we could not sleep or even live with this noise (its like a dinosaur dying in the back of the bus) the driver did absolutely nothing!
3. the bus spent more than an hour doing unscheduled stops in LA which was not on the gotobus website
4. the bus was more than 1 hour late to get to las vegas
5. gotobus lied about paying the resort fees for our hotel (we had to pay it there, $ 64 a night/​room)
6. I could not cancel our going back tickets and they still charged me for it with all the tries to cancel (simply there is no one to talk to, just like a scamming company)
7. RENT a car and drive, you wont be sorry believe me. I had a great car from Dollar at vegas which I returned in San Diego for $ 105! gas was $ 30 while the stupid gotobus tickets were around $ 220 for 5 people.

If I could leave zero stars, I would. Used this service to travel round trip from NYC to VA. To sum it up: bus left 45 minutes to an hour late, both trips. Website said we would have wifi on both trips… Lies. Site also said there would be plugs on both trips, only had a plug one way. Seats were TINY, no leg room… My husband is 6ft tall and could hardly fit in the seat. Buses were filthy. Checking in process in VA was a chaotic mob scene. Staff was unprofessional. I called to complain while I was on the bus and the operator told me if I wanted a refund (for false advertising) to TELL THE DRIVER TO PULL OVER AND LET ME OFF THE BUS. Wow. Never again.

Worst bus trip ever! Will never do this again. Left from China Town NY an hour late. When I asked, he said that there had been a change of schedule. Unfortunately, I wasn’t notified. Made stops all night. First we stopped for thirty minutes which was fine, then we stopped again two hrs later to get gas (why didn’t we do that when we stopped the first rime). Now we are stopped somewhere in Virginia while the bus driver has a conversation with another Chinese guy about what I really don’t know. No telling what time I’m going to make it to Atlanta as we are already two hrs behind schedule. Pay for greyhound or a train bc if u have a schedule, this isn’t worth it. Bus has wifi but it’s hot and it smells old.

I will give it 0 Stars if it was possible.
Please read for your own safety.
We bought a round trip from NYC to Philadelphia for the same day.
We took the bus back at 10 pm from Philly on the Mon, Jul 21, 2014.
15 minutes after leaving Philadelphia we started to notice a little zig zag in the driving, the bus was getting too close to other vehicles and moving from one place to another in the highway.
At one point two people realized the driver fell sleep and yelled at the same time «DRIVER YOU OK?!» and he responds «yeah yeah». He stopped the bus ten minutes later for a coffee break.
The rest of the trip was a horror movie, everyone was stressed and trying to keep an eye on the driver who at that point was driving leaned on the side… everytime a little bit more.
Of course a couple of trucks and cars honked the horn to the bus.
When we get to the Holland Tunnel he hit 5 to 6 of the orange cones in the tunnel.
NEVER AGAIN.

Nachdem wir uns alle Berichte durchgelesen hatten, bekamen wir es mit der Angst zu tun. Wir waren auf das Schlimmste gefasst. Doch es kam ganz anders. Bei unserer Fahrt von Washington nach New York City war alles super. Normalerweise hätten wir 5 Sterne gegeben, da aber die Haltestelle verlegt wurde, was auch auf einem Zettel angeschlagen stand und die tatsächliche neue Haltestelle 8min entfernt war, gibt es lediglich 4 Sterne. Unser Trip war operated by Washington Deluxe…
–pünktlich, 15 min vor Abfahrt war Bus und eine Mitarbeiterin vor Ort
–klimatisiert, kalt, aber Busfahrer wies auf Jacke hin
–WLAN an Bord und es funktionierte
–moderner Bus mit sauberer Toilette
–Fahrer ist zügig und ordentlich gefahren, ohne stop
–pünktliche Ankunft an beschriebenem Ort
Wir waren sehr zufrieden mit Preis und Leistung und würden uns definitiv wieder dafür entscheiden.

I give this service 0 stars.
I booked tickets from Boston to New York City, and when I got to the bus station, the bus did not exist. The customer service person was extremely rude and not helpful. They book you through an actual bus service, so do not book through gotobus next time, just use the actual bus service.

A true cultural eye-​opener.
This is travel-​roulette where the buses are concerned because although they may state on the website that there is an 8:30PM, 9PM and a 9:30PM service there really isn’t — there’s one bus. Whether this bus has the power outlets and wifi that you chose it for is something you’ll find out when you get to your seat because as GoToBus say, the buses are provided and operated by third parties.
I have used this service a couple of times to travel from NYC. This means the buses leave from Chinatown and that fact should strike fear into the heart of any Westerner because they will be exposed to incessant coughing, hawking, spitting, and eventually, thick, phlegm-​based snoring. Prepare to be sickened.
FAIR WARNING: these bus routes are based around the China-​towns of the cities that they travel to so the passengers are overwhelmingly Chinese. The conversation will be loud, phone calls will be made on speaker, movies will be watched without headphones and those plastic bags hooked over the arms of the seats that look like they’ll be used for garbage will be used for spitting in.
Yes, the trips are cheap. But you will get way less than you pay for. And you might throw up.