Comments on: Bus Travel in Manila, Luzon

By: Alexia

Alexia — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:45:54 +0000

ive had my fair share of problems with these buses most especially non-air-conditioned buses. although i don’t ride them but bus drivers are reckless. tonight, i got hit by a bus with no plate number. he drove away like nothing happened. i was too shocked to even chase it. they drive like it’s an empty road and they don’t have any passengers to think of. && they are pretty much the cause of traffic. && during the wee hours, some buses would race along the highway. urgh. too bad our government is pretty useless.

i really don’t recommend buses in the philippines. better take the mrt or jeep or taxi.

By: Roth

Roth — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:08:43 +0000

Can be out of topic, because I did not travel, but I have an experience with Raymond, too, particularly in the Alimall Terminal. Everyone, including the booking staff are GREEDY indeed. I had to send a package to Lagazpi, and the “auditor” said that I should ask the conductor. The conductor then said I should pay any amount I want so I gave him Php75. That is the normal flat fee rate bus terminals charge for terminal to terminal delivery. When I asked for receipt, he said no need. No need? In my mind, I was, like, “ano to, under da teybol?”. Greedy bastard. I refused. But it gets worse.

I went back to the “auditor” (you must have noticed the quotations by now) and told her that they are asking for more than what I should pay. She then whipped out her receipt booklet and signed me a receipt for the right amount. What he heck? She is in connivance with the greedy conductors. She and a few others even scolded me for getting mad. I just scolded her back, “miss, I may look young but I’m more mature than what you expect. You can’t cheat me.” Then I asked for the management’s number. That’s when everyone stopped trying to scold me.

Lets just hope the package arrives safely at Legazpi. I won’t use their services again. Greedy and rude bastards. Even that “auditor” is a greedy piece of shit. I was an auditor and shes giving the good name a bad rep.

/end of rant

By: ernie

ernie — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:38:20 +0000

hi
if you need to complain, you need to do it in writing and make sure
you copy furnish concerned government agencies – LTO, LTFRB, DOTC,
and even DTI (Complaints Department). make sure you send them
registered mail with return notice. verbal complaints do not count.
try it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:59:06 +0000

Hi Sol, from what I have noticed for some of the overnight trips, that the bus has two drivers, taking shifts..I am not too sure if that is the norm for most bus companies. But when we took the night bus from Daet (Camarines Norte) to Manila; they have one other driver sleeping at the back of the bus and then they take turns driving,

By: Sol

Sol — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:37:30 +0000

I have one concern though, like for night trips, I hope the drivers won’t get sleepy on the wheel. Especially I’m looking forward to travelling from Vigan- to Manila.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:37:10 +0000

hehe .. there are conductors like that.

it must be either they are ill-paid, no sense of accountability, or simply don’t care about their job.

I had my share of such treatment. I complained but nothing came out of it. the only recourse (or course of action) is to simply BOYCOT the bus company as a whole.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:33:13 +0000

as ANOTHER rule of thumb: ordinary buses are filthy as an unbathed homeless person.. yes, they are “economical” but would you risk getting a skin infection or TB on that 1 ride that you decided to “save money”.

Also, observe the bus companies. If their buses are of different make and models, there is a high probability their fleet of buses have been pieced together from other companies. In layman’s term, their buses are 2nd hand (or even 3rd or 4th hand).
Look for bus companies where 99% of their buses are alike.

Those that I don’t recommend are

SUPERLINES (hygenically dangerous),
JVH (will take anything on board including fish, crabs, and dogs),
BOBIS LINER (if the bus is half empty, you’re most likely to be transferred to another bus that’s close to half full),
RAYMOND TRANSIT (conductors are liars and just plain gready)
and GOLD LINER (they run their buses 24hrs and only have it rested when it needs repairs).

how do I know these?
because my job requires me to travel from Manila to Matnog, Sorsogon and back almost every other week.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:52:42 +0000

Hi Allan,

I would suggest that you call and complain the Jasper’s main office, make sure you take note of the bus number and the place and date where the incident happened. I am not sure but maybe you could also report this to the LTO/LTFRB/MMDA (although I doubt it if they are going to do something about it).

I hope this incident wont happen to anyone ever again. I would also advise everyone to write in English so we could warn non-Filipinos about similar incident like what happened to yours in the future.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers

Ryan

By: allan

allan — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:12:55 +0000

i have exprienced na bastos yung conductor ng JASPER bus line(Jasper jean services inc) although hndi nman cguro lahat ng sa jasper (pero sana hindi lahat)..nkaupo kme with my friends and the conductor approaches us para sa bayad instead na sir itawag smen the conductor called us “kupal bayad nyo?”..and pinaulit namen and he still say “kupal” and hiningi nmen ung name nya and binigay nya “Gago daw name nya”…to jasper..ganito po ba mga conductor na kinukuha nyo..ang babastos..passenger kme ang you should treat us with respect..ngbabayad kme ng tama and sana good service naman ibalik nyo smen..lagi ako smskay ng busses nyo around metro pro mdalas d2 s rotonda going to ayala and jasper lagi pinipili ko..but this time hindi na bcoz of your bastos na mga conductor…

By: Kuffour

Kuffour — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:17:20 +0000

It’ll be great if you can provide some photographs of the conditions of the buses mentioned. I had very bad experiences with taking long distance buses throughout my travel, sometimes you can even find rats / cockroaches in some of them – and not to mention that some of the seats are just so badly damaged, that i had sore back after the ride. Horrible.