Brittany Ferries customer attitude. (1 Viewer)

[escapecommittee]

Although I did not take my moho on this trip, the BF strategy for dealing with legitimate complaints may help other readers. For this trip in my SUV we booked 3 hotels and a return crossing to Santander. In BF speak , that is a holiday and it entitles you to a good discount on the Ferry price. It has worked for me several times in the past.
On this occasion we decided to modify our return date. We had booked the parador for our return but it was not available. I was told that there was no cancellation charge and they offered an alternative at an additional charge of £87. So one night's accomodation is costing £87 plus the cost of the paradore, not a cheap option in my view. When I checked the hotel's online price for my new date, the cost was 113 euros. It looks like BF were not being at all shy with their pricing. I complained and got the usual call centre apporach and complained again. I reproduce the content of the letter below.
Interestingly , I wrote to the CEO about this and his reply was a mirror image of the email. I can only assume that since BF have a monopoly on this route that they don't feel the need to offer a good cutomer experience. In the bigger scheme of things it is not a lot of money but I will avoid them in future if at all possible.

All they have ever done is to say that they have done nothing wrong (presumably over charging is OK for the customer?), and I should go to a third party to arbitrate. An amicable understanding would have led to a happy customer. I am not one of those. You can make your own mind up, not if I am right or wrong, to a degree that is irrelevant. But is this the way to talk to your customer?

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email with your additional comments.

I'm sorry we've been unable to reach an amicable understanding on this matter and I regret that you remain disappointed with our responses.

Having reviewed the correspondence between us, I'm content that our position in the matter has been explained and clarified and that further exchange will not prove productive. I have tried to answer your submissions candidly and personally but cannot justify protracting the correspondence beyond this email.

We quoted a price which you accepted at the time and we cannot be held responsible for the fact that you found a cheaper price elsewhere at a later date. We have not contravened any travel regulations.

Whilst I continue to regret your ongoing dissatisfaction we will not respond further unless called upon to do so by a relevant third party/arbitrator.

I am mindful this is not the response you will be hoping for but trust you can understand our need to move forward and perhaps rely on a third party opinion to achieve this.

Once again, my apologies we have been unable to agree a mutually agreeable route forward.


Yours sincerely


Charlotte Murray

Senior Customer Services Officer

 

[funflair]

Not sure I understand, what's the "paradore"

Martin

 

[escapecommittee]

Paradores are hotels originally set up by the spanish government. High standards, expensive by spanish standards. check www.paradores.com

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Not sure I understand what your problem is unless you're saying they should price match which they don't do and are under no obligation to do.

 

[Geo]

Sounds like a very professional and polite response to me,
Seems harsh you complaining about them not accommodating your change of plans at your price

 

[bellabee]

I'm not quite sure what you're saying. Is it that you booked and paid for the parador, but the amended your booking to a date when the parador was not available, and had to pay an additional fee for a different hotel?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[escapecommittee]

To be clear, I have paid for a pretty expensive hotel which is not available for a revised date. The option offered to me was a further £87. So for one night I am paying £87 plus at least £75(for the first hotel) so at a guess £160 in total. Booking the new hotel direct would have cost 113 EUROS. I did not expect them to price match but nor did I expect to pay silly money. I won't be doing so again.
Most travel companies that I deal with accomodate changes especially off-season, and there were no cancellation costs. BF may be within their rights but that is not the point. My aim was to warn others not to change their arrangments. It seems that some folks did not find my post useful. Fine!

 

[sallylillian]

My experience with BF and customer service has been more than satisfactory, a lorry was directed by loading staff onto my RV mirror. No quibble $900 replacement plus gave me £50 credit against next booking.

 

[jollyrodger]

You should have gone with them back in their early days onboard the Tregastel and be thankful to have made the crossing in one piece ,and retained your breccy

Last year Cherbourg-Poole route ,ferry left an hour & half late because of an engine problem. 25% returned as a gesture of good will . A dried up overcooked meal resulting in me complaining in the review they asked for resulted in a cheque for £20 ,so not all bad .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[funflair]

To be clear, I have paid for a pretty expensive hotel which is not available for a revised date. The option offered to me was a further £87. So for one night I am paying £87 plus at least £75(for the first hotel) so at a guess £160 in total. Booking the new hotel direct would have cost 113 EUROS. I did not expect them to price match but nor did I expect to pay silly money. I won't be doing so again.
Most travel companies that I deal with accomodate changes especially off-season, and there were no cancellation costs. BF may be within their rights but that is not the point. My aim was to warn others not to change their arrangments. It seems that some folks did not find my post useful. Fine!

As a warning to others to not change their arrangement or at least to be aware when they have booked this type of package deal, your post is very useful.

The problem is that we are all trying to understand your complaint against BF and with only a smattering of information we are not really convinced what they have actually done that is so wrong.

Martin

 

[escapecommittee]

OK I will endeavour to take this post down. It seems not to be useful to whoever "we" are.

 

[gus-lopez]

You should have gone with them back in their early days onboard the Tregastel and be thankful to have made the crossing in one piece ,and retained your breccy

Aah ,the good old days.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[funflair]

OK I will endeavour to take this post down. It seems not to be useful to whoever "we" are.

I did say "your post is very useful" sorry if you missed that.

"We" are the people trying to get our heads around what you were saying.

Martin

 

[DBK]

I know I'm thick but I still don't understand. Of course it is possible BF are in a similar position. My experience of BF when the Pont Aven broke down in May this year and when I had to cancel a sailing to Roscoff at short notice in September was their customer care was excellent.

 

[Bailey58]

So you booked three hotels and got, in your words, a good discount on the Ferry price. You then changed the date of your last hotel and although there was no cancellation fee you were still charged. The fact that you had to pay their price for the alternative booking which you later found cheaper is neither here nor I would suggest. Nor is the fact that you were still required to pay the original charge for the cancelled night. The only positive is there was no cancellation charge but why would there be if they had already covered the cost of the room? I read their response as quite reasonable but still a warning worth heeding.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Flamenca]

I have been using Brittany Ferries for many years and have always found their customer services team very helpful and they have tried their utmost to resolve any issues I have raised.

 

[MikeD]

We have always found BF customer services fantastic.

Never had an issue with them and have changed our return ferry from the booked one almost every year.

 

[Emmit]

I take it that this must have been in the heady days of nearly 1.40€ to the £.

I make it that 113€ for the alternative to the Parador equals 1.29€ to the £ if comparing it to £87.

How much more expensive was it that makes it worth your while complaining that you found the alternative hotel cheaper by booking direct.?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Just smiffy]

It has worked for me several times in the past.

7 to one odds..... not bad .... and the bad one not really their fault...

 

[Minxy]

I too had a bit of difficulty understanding your original post, however you've clarified it so it makes sense to me now.

You are right to make others aware of the cost to change plans but, to be honest, that's what happens - we changed our return crossing with Eurotunnel this year by about 5 days and it cost us quite a bit to do so - if we'd booked the new date when we'd made our original bookings it wouldn't have cost us anymore, we weren't overly happy but that was the situation, take it or leave it, hubby wanted to take it which we did.

From what you have said, the original hotel had been paid in full by BF and the hotel cancellation policy would appear to not allow refunds and/or not after X days beforehand, so you were then faced with booking, in effect, an 'extra' night which BF offered you. The cost of the extra night was £87 which equates to around €100 so on the face of it LESS than if you'd booked it direct with the hotel at €113 (the £75 you paid for the original room is irrelevant due to the hotel's refund policy), so whilst it's a shame you couldn't get a refund on your original hotel that's not BF's fault - they don't own the hotels so are restricted to the hotel's policy.

As for Paradors - posh hotels owned by the state usually in refurbished and restored historic properties - they are a very expensive way to holiday but are quite unique and you pay the price for using them if you wish to do so.

Please don't let your extra expense cloud your memory of the holiday, most people won't ever have stayed in a Parador, or be able to afford to do so, so just remember the good part of being able to stay there.

 

[eddie]

Well my take on the letter from Brittany Ferries is clear. You changed your mind, we accommodated you and told you what the changes would cost.

Retrospectively you have found a better deal and want us to accommodate more changes which we are not prepared to do.

This won't stop me using Brittany Ferries to be honest, as they seem to have been open and fair

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Minxy]

OK I will endeavour to take this post down. It seems not to be useful to whoever "we" are.

Not sure what this means but I assume 'we' are those on the forum who you are 'talking' to??

You can't take this post down, it's here for eternity unless someone has a right slanging match and Jim removes it ... but then that person would get banned so counter-productive really!

 

[hilldweller]

The cost of the extra night was £87 which equates to around €100 so on the face of it LESS than if you'd booked it direct with the hotel at €113 (the £75 you paid for the original room is irrelevant due to the hotel's refund policy.

The whole thread in a nutshell. BF1 : Gentleman in SUV 0

My experience is changing your mind at the last minute always ends in financial tears. One crazy day I had to cancel a booking, which I was allowed to and buy a brand new one way sailing with another line which was cheaper than changing our original booking. Free WiFi at Calais let me pull this one off.

 

[BONZO]

Traveling is my life and we love it and there are always downs and ups about doing it . The one thing that I learned is to move forward and enjoy the good bits. About travel . I hope you don't fall out with us we all love to here what funsters get up too .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[EuroTrotters]

In fairness, I think the hotel costs do seem high. As a Gesture of good will, I feel that some kind of refund along with an apology would have kept you as a loyal customer. One who it seems spends highly.

My experience of Brittany Ferries is that their customer services are, for most part. Very good.

 

[magicsurfbus]

On a ferry-related note, it's worth mentioning here that although P&O and DFDS say that bookings made at their cheapest rate cannot be rescheduled, and cancellations will not be refunded, the reality is that (if asked) they will credit your account with the amount paid, and reschedule within a given number of months. DFDS will actually create a dummy booking on a date you don't want until you can decide on an alternative that you do want. That's what they did with us last year anyway. We cancelled a MH trip in the Spring and my wife took the car abroad for a short trip using the credit later in the year.

 

[dabhand]

I've got a brand new pair of roller skates!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[DBK]

In fairness, I think the hotel costs do seem high. As a Gesture of good will, I feel that some kind of refund along with an apology would have kept you as a loyal customer. One who it seems spends highly.

My experience of Brittany Ferries is that their customer services are, for most part. Very good.

I suspect BF are just passing on the charges and terms of the hotel. If the hotel wasn't prepared to give a refund then it would be unreasonable to expect BF to stump up the difference. The usual hotel argument is if they don't have time to re-let the room then the person cancelling pays.

 

[EuroTrotters]

I suspect BF are just passing on the charges and terms of the hotel. If the hotel wasn't prepared to give a refund then it would be unreasonable to expect BF to stump up the difference. The usual hotel argument is if they don't have time to re-let the room then the person cancelling pays.

Agreed now you put it that way

 

[Lot lover]

Hard hat in place and ducking into bomb shelter.

This thread clearly shows one of the ills of the modern world - it is always the fault of another.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}