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I want to travel from Seattle to Vancouver by Greyhound. I'm german and will travel to Seattle by plane and after a one night stay take the bus to Vancouver. As booking bus tickets in advance is much cheaper, I would like to purchase the ticket online in advance. I have the option to purchase a Print at Home ticket or Will Call ticket, but both of these options require me to enter an American-style telephone number which I do not have.

So, is it only possible to buy these tickets in advance if I have an American phone number?

I have read in another (german) forum that I can only buy Will Call tickets and no Print at Home tickets. Furthermore, they suggest to enter 999-999-9999 as telephone number, but I am not at all sure how reliable that information is.

Finally, if I understand the information at the greyhound website correctly, a Will Call ticket means that I can visit a Greyhound counter at the bus station in Seattle one or two hours in advance of my departure and get the ticket in exchange for a booking number. Is that correct?

Unfortunately, Greyhound support doesn't answer my emails, so I hope to be enlightened here :)

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    Just btw, you might consider looking at Boltbus - they also do Seattle to Vancouver, are owned by Greyhound but are considerably cheaper if you get the right day. Not sure if they also require a phone number tho.
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 13:05
  • Also, Greyhound Canada (I don't know about US) charge $5 if you pick the print-at-home option. In your case, it does not seem possible to buy Seattle-Vancouver from Greyhound Canada website.
    – Vince
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 14:33
  • @Vince: I didn't try their canadian website so far, but you are right: It tells me that "Online purchase is not available for this schedule.". Strange... Well, I will see how far I get with the .com website.
    – joergl
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 14:49
  • @Mark Mayo: For my particular connection, Boltbus is the same price as the Greyhound advanced purchase rate: 17$ one way. However, the phone number seems to be optional.
    – joergl
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 14:49
  • Yeah it depends on which dates you buy - but hey, at least it provides a workaround for the problem :)
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Sep 2, 2013 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

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  1. You could just enter an American style phone number into the greyhound web form. No one is actually going to call it. Just enter 999-999-9999.
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    In order to get a Google Voice phone number you need an existing US phone number.
    – Doc
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 2:53
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    My "fear" is that they automatically filter for classical fake numbers such as 10 nines and stop the booking or cancel it afterwards. Anyways, I'll book the ticket soon and notify how it worked out.
    – joergl
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 7:32
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    I finally booked the Will Call ticket with 999-999-9999 and made the trip. No problems whatsoever and the trip was also pleasant. Just somehow I wonder if there is a poor guy somewhere in the US with that number who constantly gets calls for other people ;)
    – joergl
    Commented Sep 8, 2013 at 17:33
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    @joergl, don't worry, numbers with a 9 in the second digit are not assigned; you can also use xxx-555-01xx numbers (in North America these are reserved for fictional use, which is why you see them in movies so often)
    – Max
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 14:58
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    @Max: Thanks for the info, I didn't know that :) I'll keep an eye open for phone numbers in movies from now on.
    – joergl
    Commented May 22, 2014 at 7:36
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Today, Greyhound support finally replied to my inquiry. I'll add a part of the reply here, as it also answers this question and is directly from Greyhound:

In reference to your question, International Customers may attempt your purchase by selecting a random State/Providence, if there is an error with reading the billing address. Also, you may type in as many characters as possible in the phone number field or you may type in 999-999-9999. This may be able to assist in regards to purchasing online. If you are to continue to run into an error while attempting your purchase, please Contact our Greyhound International line at, 800-246-8572/212-971-0492 to assist with booking your ticket. Our IT team is aware of the situation is currently working on fixating the issue.

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    ... Did they actually say fixating?
    – TRiG
    Commented Sep 26, 2014 at 14:58
  • @TRiG: Yes, this is an exact copy-paste from their email.
    – joergl
    Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 17:27
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    Obviously it is a complex problem/.
    – bmargulies
    Commented Nov 1, 2014 at 19:32
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    Providence or Province?
    – Ari Brodsky
    Commented Aug 9, 2015 at 1:23
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Here is a info for everyone still wondering about that:

I just was able to buy a print-at-home ticket from Austria also by entering 999-999-9999 as my phone number.

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