bendyone
Well-known member
Copy of email I have just sent, What a hopeless set-up.
Yesterday 31/8/09
I feel I must write a comment on the service we received from your company yesterday. We were booked on you 20.00 sailing from Dunkirk to Dover, We arrived with plenty of time but were stuck in the queue ( about 2 miles) to get into your terminal. This took about 1 hour to reach the check in. It was purely the volume of traffic and the inability of your staff to process the level of of traffic quick enough. When we reached the check-in we were told the 20.00 sailing was overbooked and that we would be put on the 22.00. ( at this time the ferry was still loading.) Your check-in man said it was complete chaos with too many bookings. There was no delay with both the French and British customs. What is the point of booking a specific time if you overbook the sailings ? This a bound to mean some people with booking wont get on.
I spoke with your ticket office in Dunkirk you said we should have checked in 1 hour before departure, He claimed it was on your website however I quote your terns:-
8.2 Vehicles and Passengers must be checked-in not later than one hour and no more than two hours before the scheduled departure time in the Irish Sea Route and at least _45 minutes_ prior departure for the cross Channel route.
He also claimed there was not a supervisor of manager on site to talk to. This I find it had to believe. He gave me a copy of your customer services in the Uk and said it was open 24 hours a day. This again was untrue, the phone number was for new booking etc. They were aware of the problem but unable to help. Your ticket clerk could benefit for some further training.
At your terminal we thought we would get something to eat or drink however the Bar/Bristro shut at 8 and even though it was before 8 the coffee / hot drinks had been turned off fro cleaning. Out side the big signs were still inviting us in to eat and drink. Half the vending machines were out of order and the others empty so no food.
Anyway we loaded on the 22.00 ferry, what a disaster on the catering front, the nice resteraunt had closed at 21.00, the upstairs bar was also closed, The self service was open but only one man serving (queues were long about 45 minutes) However you man was doing a fantastic job in serving far quicker than the tills could cope with so by the time you could eat the food was cold.
Why only one man serving hot food on a full ferry?
It was a Bank holiday we had all known about for years so there is no excuses for lack of staff or availability of food. It was obviously that your set up could not look after the numbers of passengers.
Your company had lost a opportunity to make considerable sums of money on this crossing as well as upsetting a load of customers, in these days I would have thought it vital to look after your customers as we all have a choose of ferries.
We have used your ferries on a number of number of times over they last year and have been happy however after last night we need a bit of reassurance from you that maybe it was a one off.
Your comments would be welcome.
Yesterday 31/8/09
I feel I must write a comment on the service we received from your company yesterday. We were booked on you 20.00 sailing from Dunkirk to Dover, We arrived with plenty of time but were stuck in the queue ( about 2 miles) to get into your terminal. This took about 1 hour to reach the check in. It was purely the volume of traffic and the inability of your staff to process the level of of traffic quick enough. When we reached the check-in we were told the 20.00 sailing was overbooked and that we would be put on the 22.00. ( at this time the ferry was still loading.) Your check-in man said it was complete chaos with too many bookings. There was no delay with both the French and British customs. What is the point of booking a specific time if you overbook the sailings ? This a bound to mean some people with booking wont get on.
I spoke with your ticket office in Dunkirk you said we should have checked in 1 hour before departure, He claimed it was on your website however I quote your terns:-
8.2 Vehicles and Passengers must be checked-in not later than one hour and no more than two hours before the scheduled departure time in the Irish Sea Route and at least _45 minutes_ prior departure for the cross Channel route.
He also claimed there was not a supervisor of manager on site to talk to. This I find it had to believe. He gave me a copy of your customer services in the Uk and said it was open 24 hours a day. This again was untrue, the phone number was for new booking etc. They were aware of the problem but unable to help. Your ticket clerk could benefit for some further training.
At your terminal we thought we would get something to eat or drink however the Bar/Bristro shut at 8 and even though it was before 8 the coffee / hot drinks had been turned off fro cleaning. Out side the big signs were still inviting us in to eat and drink. Half the vending machines were out of order and the others empty so no food.
Anyway we loaded on the 22.00 ferry, what a disaster on the catering front, the nice resteraunt had closed at 21.00, the upstairs bar was also closed, The self service was open but only one man serving (queues were long about 45 minutes) However you man was doing a fantastic job in serving far quicker than the tills could cope with so by the time you could eat the food was cold.
Why only one man serving hot food on a full ferry?
It was a Bank holiday we had all known about for years so there is no excuses for lack of staff or availability of food. It was obviously that your set up could not look after the numbers of passengers.
Your company had lost a opportunity to make considerable sums of money on this crossing as well as upsetting a load of customers, in these days I would have thought it vital to look after your customers as we all have a choose of ferries.
We have used your ferries on a number of number of times over they last year and have been happy however after last night we need a bit of reassurance from you that maybe it was a one off.
Your comments would be welcome.
