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A mixed review for Boltbus
I'm riding the Boltbus today between Washington DC and New York with my girlfriend. You may have heard about the new budget coach service that operates along the Eastern Seaboard and offers tickets starting from 1$. Their main selling point is that they have in-seat power and wireless internet, so you can work or Youtube or whatever for the four hour ride between cities.As I write this article, I'm working from my girlfriend's Sprint Broadband card. Why? The coach's wireless service is encrypted and nobody can figure out the password. The driver had a card with a 26 letter code, but between myself (on a linux Thinkpad) and another guy (on an Iphone), neither could connect. We called HQ, but they couldn't help either.
Why would you encrypt a wireless signal on a MOVING BUS? Is someone going to hack it as they drive by at 65MPH? If someone wants to drive alongside and steal internet from a bus as they drive down the highway, I say we GIVE IT TO THEM. It would be much easier to hack someone at the local coffee shop.
Other than that, the in-seat power port is nice. We were able to plug in our notebooks and work (via broadband) for the entire trip. Coaches are new, clean and largely spacious, although similar in configuration to other carriers. Our current bus has 10 passengers on it.
I suppose once the internet is working properly the Boltbus will be a significant improvement over other Chinatown buses. But until they get their wireless working properly, you're probably better off going with whatever best fits your schedule.
Filed under: Transportation
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David H Apr 18th 2008 9:35PM
Grant,
Thanks for trying the service and we
are sorry you had some trouble with
the 26 digit key.
Want to know the truth... we don't like
the 26 digit key either... we run credit
card transactions over that network and
the encryption is meant to protect those
transmissions.
This weekend... we are loading new
programming and eliminating the key.
(not a moment too soon) Hopefully
by Sunday (or Monday at the latest)
we'll have the upload complete and no
more key....
We are serious about doing all elements
of BoltBus the right way... safe travels.
David Hall - BoltBus
Dave Sanders Apr 28th 2008 12:25PM
David H --
That is cool that you're replying online.
I'm riding BB now, and emailed a suggestion to webmaster@bb, regarding the showing of movies on board: when your drivers offer a vote on which of 3 movies to show, could they also include "no movie at all" as one of the options? Most of your passengers bring their own entertainment and do not want a movie over the public loudspeakers (let alone a bad, violent movie about torture and serial killing). I assume you'll get a copy of the email, but let me know if you don't.
--Dave
Gargamello Apr 22nd 2008 9:20PM
That's pretty cool that a company rep replied to your issue. Probably more of a response than any Airline would give.
David H Apr 27th 2008 8:10PM
Dave,
I hope the overall ride (sans movie) was
good. Actually we are not going to show
any movies... if we ask 100 customers...
70 say no to movies... in this case I'm
sure the driver is just trying to be nice...
We've started great (Thanks to our customers)
but the reality is we've only been running
one month... and still have start up pains.
We'll work out this kink... and any others...
Thaks for the feedback.... safe travels.
David Hall
Dave Sanders Apr 28th 2008 12:28PM
Thanks, Dave. I appreciate the followup and concern.
Good luck and best wishes!
Steve May 15th 2008 7:35AM
I like a cheap bus ride as much as the next guy. I'd love to ride with BoltBus but I'm not going to unless they have a toll-free phone number.
Things go wrong and there's nothing like a phone-that-gets-answered-promptly when they do. I'd certainly pay a bit more but I'm not patronizing a company that won't talk to me.
Antonio Mar 3rd 2009 11:43AM
Hi!
I'm riding with BoltBus next Friday, so I still don't know what it's going to be.
Problem was, I booked the tickets wrong, and I got a bit scared for the comments about not having a phone number. Not a visible one in their website, at least.
I went to my bank and they were able to provide me their phone number (it was in the bank statement, I could have got it myself). So I just called them and I've been able to rebook the tickets.
The girl on the phone was actually very nice.
The phone number was: 866-473-9468
I'm glad they could help me out, because I was afraid I wasn't going to get it.