Ferry service must improve online booking

I am the CEO of a boat/transport company with a detailed customer bookings system, we also deal with thousands of weekly customer bookings. I therefore have good insight into Condor’s operation and I hope this email receives the sincerity it deserves in my taking the time to write it.

I used Condor’s online booking system over the summer, finding basic booking system errors:

1. Unprompted requirement for unorthodox telephone number format. This is really 101 basic stuff in any booking system. Totally unnecessary, totally frustrating for your customers and brings the booking to a ‘dead stop’.

2. Email and password login. Your ‘guest option’ gives customers who’ve forgotten their login the opportunity to navigate around this obstacle. Your system brings them to a ‘dead stop’, informing them that their email address already exists. Once they go back it has then ‘updated cookies’ so they can’t reset password, again a ‘dead stop’.

I called your customer services over the summer and explained this to them. I’m therefore shocked I’ve just endured the same awful online customer service.

This proves that:

1. The developers have not checked it.

2. The internal technical department at Condor has not checked it and gone down the booking funnel themselves.

3. And most importantly that Paul Luxon [Condor CEO] has not checked his own online booking system.

It’s riddled with system bugs, frankly it’s just straightforward sloppy work on everyone’s part. It would have certainly put me off as a customer wanting to visit Guernsey.

Condor, you can do better.

PS. Nick (the American) on your booking team was Top-Gun fantastic. He completely understood the poor online experience I received and took the booking over the phone, deducting the £4 telephone booking fee. He basically saved the day and deserves a medal... the polar opposite of your management team (they deserve the plank).

CHARLIE MATHESON

Director, Thames Rockets Ltd, The London Eye and Tower Bridge.

Editor’s footnote: Condor declined to comment.