# Brittany Ferry diverted



## MEES

On good Friday ferry to St malo was diverted to Cherborg.

We had a motorhome and two cars with 6 adults 4 babies and two dalmations on board en route to Carnac.

The journey to Carnac should have been 2 hours arriving at 11am.
Following a lengthy delay disembarking and a long tedious journey we arrived at 4pm - and used a lot more fuel  

I felt we should at the very least be compensated by the difference in cost of the two ferries.

Brittany Ferries say we will get nothing!

What do others think am I unrealistic?

margaret


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## mikebeaches

On the face of it, I would have thought you should be compensated - at least for the fare difference, as a minimum!

What was the reason for the diversion?


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## MEES

We were told a boat had damaged the landing stage at St Malo so vehicles could not disembark.

On the return trip one of the dogs could not use the kennel booked and paid for because the deck crew had parked vehicles so the doors could not be opened to move dog to kennels (there is a sticker on vehicle indicating dog on board) Apparently that is hard luck too. 8O 

A strange attitude to customer service I thought


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## Grizzly

Many, many years ago, November half term, we did a week around St Malo via Brittany Ferries. When we got to St Malo for the return trip- 6.30 pm, car full of children, appalling night, we were told that the storm was too strong for the boat to dock at St Malo and it would go from Cherbourg. We were given a £10 fuel voucher and told to get there quickly or the boat might go without us.

We'd not got the road map with us and had only a hazy idea how to get to Cherbourg at all but we eventually made it to find that the boat had not arrived and we had to spend the rest of the night on the dockside.

As far as I remember that was it. No compensation, no apology, no refreshment vouchers and we had to argue our way to a cabin next morning so that we could get a little sleep on the way home.

Those were the days...we didn't realise we might have a case to get compensation.  

G


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## Rapide561

*Ferries*

Hi

Without boring you with details, I do not think you are entitled to any compensation. Passage by sea is covered by various rules and regulations, as is international coach travel - such as a Eurolines Coach Service from London to Alicante.

Airlines are different and EU 261 directive covers a multitude of sins.

Ryanair quite rightly pointed out how unfair it is that a ferry can be cancelled and the operator can say - "go away, stay overnight, pay for your own hotel", yet the airline has to foot the bill in a similar scenario. I rarely agree wth Mr O Leary but on this one, I am with him 100%.

Any refund/compensation is purely discretionary as far as I am aware with the ferry operator.

Russell


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## asprn

MEES said:


> I felt we should at the very least be compensated by the difference in cost of the two ferries. Brittany Ferries say we will get nothing!


Russell is correct to point you to the regulations. If you research them, you'll find out what you are or are not entitled to. They will be the bottom line, not what you feel you are entitled to.

Dougie.


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## aldra

Margaret, I think like most holiday arrangements they bank on the fact that no one has the energy nor the patience to pursue claims

The conditions for dogs on P&O from Hull were awful, We were given to understand he could have a walk on the car deck once ship sailed (accompanied by crew member)
In fact we could go down to visit him with a crew member but he was not allowed out of his cage from 5pm-8am-- complaining did no good Will never travel again with them on that route. Fortunately he managed without having a wee or we would have had a very wet, smelly dog on board!!!!

Use the tunnel now

Aldra


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## Nordet

Unfortunately it is normal practice with shipping, ferries or cruiselines, to vary the itinerary without notice or compensation. Normally covered by factors outside of their control.

I worked on a cruise ship where we went through 2 cruises of 7 night duration back to back and the only port we saw was our home port of San Pedro (Los Angeles) to deposit and pick up more passengers. It was only near the end of the third cruise we got into a scheduled port. This was all due to the weather. 
Even in the USA, no compensation.

A little off topic, one ship I was on had a fire while cruising, the families of passengers were suing for 'mental anguish' even before we had evacuated the ship.


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## raynipper

Typical Brittany Ferries.
It's amazing and ironic they stay in business. The customer is the last to be considered after the port, dockers, crew and driver.

We have been delayed, cancelled, diverted, damaged all without any apologies.

And yet they bleat 'unfair competition' if any other service looks at Cherbourg.

Ray.


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## Stanner

Why bother accepting and playing by the ferry company's rules?

Why not try a Sales of Goods Act action, as you didn't receive the service you paid for and (if you paid by Credit Card) also a Customer Credit Act action involving the card issuer as you didn't receive the goods or service you paid for - you booked one route but they provided another one of lesser value. 
To my mind that is no different to ordering a 3 piece suite and them only supplying the 2 chairs.

It's worth a try.


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## Techno100

I drove from Abbeville to Dieppe(after La Ronde Picarde cycle sportif) to catch my return on the sea cat to Newhaven only to be sent to Calais because sailings were cancelled for rough seas. If you study the map you'll see that was a right barsteward of a day


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## raynipper

Interesting concept Stanner.
I bet there will be some cross border get out.

It's always worth a letter to head office but BF head office is in Brittany.

Ray.


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## thegamwellsmythes

I know people are sounding a bit gloomy about you chances but I would definately send a letter or email as if you don't ask you don't get.

Do the usual thing of making your point sensibly and not getting into a rant.

Good luck with it.


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## DTPCHEMICALS

I can only praise BF. Never had a bad crossing in over sixteen years.
When we learned of our sons death whilst on holiday in France I rang them, rebooked an earlier ferry , commodore cabin free of charge.
Meals brought to the cabin and given the use of the satelite telephone to arrange organ donations.

We do not use them now due to the price.


The Cherburg peninsular is a long drive .



Dave p


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## camper69

MEES said:


> We were told a boat had damaged the landing stage at St Malo so vehicles could not disembark.
> 
> On the return trip one of the dogs could not use the kennel booked and paid for because the deck crew had parked vehicles so the doors could not be opened to move dog to kennels (there is a sticker on vehicle indicating dog on board) Apparently that is hard luck too. 8O
> 
> A strange attitude to customer service I thought


I would of thought you had grounds to complain about ther kennels as you were denied the use of them by their staff not loading the vehicles correctly.

However on the change of port what were the ferry company to do as the landing stage was was damaged by another ship. It would not be their fault.

Derek


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## Stanner

raynipper said:


> Interesting concept Stanner.
> I bet there will be some cross border get out.
> 
> It's always worth a letter to head office but BF head office is in Brittany.
> 
> Ray.


I got the value of 6 (out of the 10 bought) crossings back from NatWest when Speedferries went down - and surprisingly easily at that.

I simply argued that I hadn't got what I'd paid for and that is all the CCA requires you to prove.


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## jimmyd0g

Like Dave (DTP), I've never had a problem with Brittany Ferries - most of my trips being in my pre-motorhoming days. Indeed, about 4 years ago, shortly after Mrs j. (as she now is) & I got together I got the date of a Plymouth / Roscoff crossing wrong by one day (we were 24 hours late in Plymouth). BF staff booked us on the following morning's crossing at no extra cost & with a lot of hard work on their part. Having said that, I do sympathise with the o/p and realise that it's a b***er when these things happens.


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## DTPCHEMICALS

Look on the bright side.

Much better than being stuck in an airport with planes grounded by an ash cloud.


Dave p


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## MEES

OK Guys thankyou for your input!

The general consensus seems to be we wont get anything  

If it had been just us I wouldnt have bothered but as I was paying for the hol to treat the kids I was a bit disappointed it got off to a pretty grim start.

The extra journey with the toddlers/breastfeeding babies/dogs after the previous days jouney from 'up North' was had work

I had carefully compared prices against tedious journey and discounted the Cherborg crossing 8O Thats why I felt especially cheesed off.

I have written politely and had the standard refusal so have replied again politely will let you know what happens.  

Aldra the kennel arrangement was really rubbish-had I known they could stay in van I wouldnt have used them. You had to leave them in car and then go down with crew member , muzzle them , bring them up to horrible cages. When later we went to 'exercise them' It was perfeclty possible for them to jump ship :roll: :roll: They were so terrified neither would wee.

On the return crossing son in law was so jammed in he couldnt get dog out to put her in kennel. he was allowed to visit her and she slept peacefully in the car for the whole journey


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## teemyob

*Travel*



thegamwellsmythes said:


> I know people are sounding a bit gloomy about you chances but I would definately send a letter or email as if you don't ask you don't get.
> 
> Do the usual thing of making your point sensibly and not getting into a rant.
> 
> Good luck with it.


We travel regular with POSl. Mainly North Sea (Hull). When we had a bad trip with them on their now closed Bilbao route, I wrote to them.

I got a personalised letter stating that they blamed the other passengers, despite the fact that it was the crew as I outlined in the letter.

Take it or leave it was the short and tall of the next reply.

TM


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## finyar

All, 
We had a very bad experience with Seafrance on Dover Calis a couple of years ago when we were stuck in the lift going down to the car deck for disembarkation for over 30 minutes.

The lift was tiny and there was five of in it including my wife and three small sons, two of which got very upset.

When we finaly got out we found our camper in the middle of the deck that they were re-loading for the return crossing.

I complained to the first senior Seafrance person I saw on the port and he really didn't care telling me that ships are a mechanical thing and they sometime break!

I wrote a stinker of an email and got back a half price voucher for a single crossing which in reality was useless as I live in Ireland and normally buy a combined ticket.

I would hold out no hope of Margaret getting compensation

Raymond


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