Made to wait in a ‘hot shed’
FURTHER to Mr Groves’ letter to the Press (Open Lines, 25 September), we too were booked on the direct ferry from France to Guernsey. We would definitely not have booked it had we been advised that it was going to Jersey first. We were not pleased to find out that the direct ferry we booked was now no longer direct.
Like Mr Groves, the ferry docked in Jersey and, to our further aggravation, we were told we had to disembark in Jersey. Many of the passengers were not young. Some had wheelchairs and one man had to be led by his wife. We all shuffled through long tunnels and eventually into Jersey terminal. The checking of passports was barely a glance and then we were herded, like cattle, into a tin shed. There was not nearly enough room for people to sit down and many of us had to stand for about half an hour in this hot shed until we were herded back down the tubes and onto the ferry. There was no one offering a helping hand to the aged and infirm and there were a good few people in their 90s. I thought this was an appalling performance and I took a picture of us all packed into the shed.
Surely this cannot be an acceptable or dignified way to treat anybody, least of all elderly travellers? It is disrespectful to mislead customers about the route and this is a shocking performance to drag people off and on the ferry, mid-way through their journey.
I hope Condor can make alternative arrangements, otherwise their passengers surely will.
CHRISTINE SMEDLEY,
La Jachere de la Grange,
The Grange, St Peter Port.