North West Spain 2006
The promised refund wasn't paid into our account, so I wrote to Brittany Ferries. This was their reply:
Dear Mr Crawshaw
We are in receipt of your recent letter concerning
the disruption to your travel plans (and those of your companions) on 22 May.
Please accept our apologies for the
inconvenience you were caused by the withdrawal of our vessel Pont- Aven from
service. As you will know, this was because she had sustained damage at sea
on a previous voyage. We hope you will understand this was a situation over
which we had no control.
For those passengers travelling with vehicles, we did refund the one way portion
of the journey we were unable to deliver. For those travelling on foot or
with bicycles, we provided coach transportation from Santander to Roscoff
and a Channel crossing, in lieu of the journey booked. In this case there
is no refund due as we took responsibility for getting everyone back to Plymouth.
Once more, please accept our apologies and we hope that despite this isolated
incident you will not be deterred from travelling with us again in the future.
To which I replied:
I refer to your letter dated 30th June in connection with our cancelled crossing on the Pont Aven from Santander to Plymouth on 22nd May. Your assertion that the promised refund did not apply to foot passengers is outrageous, and conflicts with the assurance made in your “Passenger Information” bulletin handed out to all passengers. There was no intimation to foot passengers that the refund applied only to motorists, and we all expected the cost of the cancelled crossing would be in our accounts by the time we were home.
We paid a premium for the sea crossing in a cabin as opposed to flying for reasons of comfort, then had to endure the most uncomfortable night of our lives in a cramped coach with minimal legroom overnight for 15 hours. We then had to hang round Roscoff until mid-afternoon and then stay overnight in Plymouth. The following morning we had to buy single rail tickets back to Bangor at £98 each as our return tickets were no longer valid and return to work one day late.
Yes of course we understand that you were not to blame for the rough sea conditions but I would expect a responsible company to have contingency plans for such an event, which would include recompensing passengers for their extreme discomfort and delay.
That got nowhere, I considered seeking legal
advice but decided to just drop it, however I shall not be sailing with that
bunch of sharks again.