Denied boarding after police closed road to ferry check-in

When we reached the check-in, none of the cars waiting to board had started to board your ferry.

Condor certainly run an extremely unfriendly user service, with such onerous requirements. I note the ferry left 13 minutes early, so there was absolutely no need to stop our journey and abandon one of their regular customers, travelling with pets, forcing us to stay at a Poole hotel and paying another £88.40 fare for the privilege and hotel costs.

If Condor thinks their service endears people to these lovely islands, they are wrong. Apart from their spiteful rules, as above, I moved to Guernsey eight years ago, after travelling many times on the then excellent ferry service, to and from UK, house hunting. At that time Condor ran a decent service, with ferry departure and landing times convenient for passengers. Ferries to Guernsey left in the early afternoon, avoiding the need for passengers to drive through rush-hour traffic in Poole/London. Similarly, ferries offered an arrival at Poole of late afternoon, allowing passengers plenty of time to travel onwards arriving in say London (three hours away) at a convenient time for restaurants/relatives, or to book into a hotel in Poole to enjoy a stay. It is no fun booking into a hotel at 10pm.

My last journey to Poole docked after 8pm. After nearly one hour to get off, we arrived at our son’s house in London after midnight. What sort of a welcome does that offer? Restaurants and pubs closed, whole family disturbed after midnight. Even if we had stayed in a Poole hotel that night, most restaurants would have been closed by the time we had booked in. Many times they have dumped us at Poole after 10pm, getting to London at 2am.

If they think their ferry service will thrive, they are gravely mistaken. I have spoken to their CEO in the past and he said he was listening. Ha.

Does anyone at Condor ever give a thought to the extreme inconveniences the early starts cause? Having to be at Poole at 6.30am for a 7.30 boat, means, if you stay in a hotel in Poole, missing breakfast. If you have to travel say, from London, it means getting up at 2.30am. What sort of a pleasure trip is that?

Holidaymakers arrive in Guernsey at 10.30am and their hotel room is not available until after 2pm. So where do they rest their weary heads for four hours while waiting for their room, exhausted from a 2.30am start? Condor’s sailing timetable is complete madness.

The boat should leave Jersey at about 8am, arriving in Guernsey at 10am and at Poole at 2pm, then departing back to Guernsey at 3pm, arriving in Guernsey at 6pm and Jersey at 8pm.

All those departure and arrival times are easy for passengers to get to and get home from, avoiding UK rush hour traffic and avoiding getting up times that most definitely deter holidaymakers from staying on these islands.

OK, I know there are issues such as tides to consider but surely, unless they are going to get another boat and return to the pre-Liberation fleet timetables, they are going to suffocate, by a slow death, all tourism to these islands and may well persuade people like me to return to the mainland. I would certainly not have moved to Guernsey with the present timetables.

STUART HENLEY,

Grange Hall,

The Grange,

St Peter Port,

GY1 2QJ.

Editor’s footnote: Ian Le Moigne, media relations manager, Condor Ferries, responds: We are surprised that your correspondent’s letter tries to unfairly apportion blame when they checked in late for a Condor Ferries sailing. We ask our passengers travelling with their vehicles to check in not less than one hour prior to the scheduled departure time on all our routes.

The minimum check-in times are published on the confirmation every passenger receives and we issue boarding cards by email prior to departure which also stipulate these times. A text message is also sent to the mobile number held on our system before travel.

As with all travel services, it is incumbent on passengers to note important information including check-in times. For Condor Ferries to operate sailings as per our published timetable, it does need all passengers to adhere to the published check-in times.

When we put together a schedule, it is a fine balance. It needs to address the needs of all passengers, so not only those travelling from Poole to Guernsey, but on all routes and between all of our destinations.

Before finalising, we consult with customers and the States in both islands to share information on travel plans and to discuss the plans fully. We take into consideration tidal restrictions at Channel Island harbours and reflect operational issues such as crew hours and maintenance.

Finally, the schedule complies with the operating agreement the company signed with the States of Jersey and the memorandum of understanding with the States in Guernsey.