Montreal student uses social media to get Greyhound to pay for lost luggage
Greyhound tracks down Thomas Molander's bag, containing almost his entire wardrobe, after 3 months
Thomas Molander travelled to Vancouver Island to see his family over his Christmas break.
To save a few hundred dollars for his trip back to Montreal, the 24-year-old took a Greyhound bus.
Molander now calls that trip a big mistake.
"Somewhere along the way, Greyhound lost my luggage. We changed buses a whole lot, and I guess at some point they put my luggage on the wrong bus, or maybe somebody stole it off the bus or it fell off the bus," Molander told CBC.
He wrote a blog post about it on Medium.com in an effort to get the company to reimburse him of his losses.
Sometimes my roommate will lend me his clothes.- Thomas Molander, Greyhound customer who lost his luggage
In it, he describes the poor service he says he received.
"A Greyhound representative on the phone told me they've stopped looking for the bag. They also aren't working on my claim, and they aren't interested in working on my claim," his post reads.
"When I show up at the station, they're annoyed, and when I call them, they can't wait to hang up. I need the claim because, like anyone, I don't have enough money to just replace all of my clothing if someone loses it. I wear the same two or three things every day, and sometimes my roommate will lend me his clothes too."
Molander said losing his bags in the dead of winter was especially inconvenient.
"It was like minus 20 C or something and I had no winter clothing."
He said he lost approximately $600 worth of clothes and electronics in a hiking backpack – which were almost all the clothes he owns.
He said Greyhound has been giving him the runaround for months.
Bag found after calls from CBC
Molander said he sent a claims form to the company, but Greyhound told him they didn't receive it.
When contacted by CBC, the company first said it had never received Molander's claim. After looking into the matter further, it discovered that Molander's first missing-bag claim never left the Montreal bus terminal.
Greyhound said it's the bus terminal that puts out a tracer out for the bags – not the bus company. The Montreal bus terminal handles missing bag claims for all carriers, not just Greyhound.
"It probably sat right on the shelf. So we've contacted the agent in Montreal and we've inquired why they didn't follow the proper procedure," Wayne Binda, a Greyhound Canada district manager, told CBC.
Molander's bag was finally located over the weekend – about three months after it went missing – at a warehouse in Mississauga, Ont., where lost bags from Greyhound and all other long haul bus companies from across the country end up.
"My city manager physically went through all the carriers … He physically went there, one by one, until he found that one," Binda said, adding that a Greyhound manager will meet with baggage claim agents to ensure they go through every missing bag claim.
Greyhound said it plans to offer Molander compensation.
His luggage is expected to arrive in Montreal tomorrow.