“Got to St Malo in plenty of time for the ferry, but were held in a line that didn't move for ages. We were amongst the last to be boarded, by which time the self service restaurant at which we had hoped to get breakfast was closed! Nowhere to sit comfortably as everyone else had got to the seats first. An absolute joke.”
“Brittany Ferries
This is not so much a complaint about Brittany Ferries as a complaint about their customer services who think it is fine to relinquish any responsibility for the actions of there staff.
While queuing in my motorhome to get onto the ferry at Santander port one of their staff indicated for me to change lanes, no idea why, as I was next up to the immigration booth behind another motorhome and there were many other vehicles waiting that could have driven straight in. This was not going to be an easy manoeuvre for a 7.5 meter motorhome in a tight space and up close behind another vehicle, but the man was very insistent and started to guide me back and around the vehicle in front, in doing this the rear of the vehicle clipped a gate post and damaged the rear bumper etc. I got out and the reaction of the man guiding me was to shrug his shoulders and say I’ll report the incident to customer services.
When I eventually managed to find an email address for customer service I contacted them with my complaint.
I eventually got a response after 35 days with their version of the indecent, supposedly from a report written by the man who shrugged his shoulders, which said that I moved lanes of my own accord and no one directed me in any way.
They also stated that I moved from the left hand lane to the right hand lane which, was incorrect as I moved from right to left, so I’m not sure if you can take any of their version seriously.
The question is 1) why would I move lanes when I was next up to the booth and 2) why would I make a difficult manoeuvre in a tight space without being guided the answer to both questions is, I wouldn’t.
I replied to their response with another email suggesting that they review the CCTV footage in that area which would show that my version of the incident was correct. Again after yet another 35 days and a excuse that I hadn’t received their reply because I had changed my email address, which was not true. In their response they said that they don’t own the CCTV footage, it is owned by the port authorities and as far as they were concerned the case was closed.
They also said that If I wanted to look at the footage I would have to contact the Santander port authorities, knowing full well that there is no way they are going to give this information to me five months after the incident.
The moral of this story is, don’t take an notice of the loading marshals because if they back you into a post they will deny they had anything to do with it and leave you with a big bill for repairs.
Also don’t expect to get any help from Brittany Ferries customer service because they are really not interested in giving customers any service at all.”
“Even though this dreaded Co I’d pandemic is still very much with us, Brittany ferries deems it “acceptable” to share a cabin with a complete stranger on their freight route from Caen to Portsmouth!
The ticket for this crossing costs in excess of £1.300 one way and you are expected to share a cabin?!? The crossing was also on Saturday night with very few lorries making the crossing at the weekend.
As I select the channel crossing I use for my company.. this is the last time I will use Brittany ferries… losing them around £10,000 per year in lost revenue from my company.”
“Never ever book the outward and inward journey as one ticket. There is no saving by booking a return, so make two bookings, one as an outward one way and one as an inward one way. If you book a return, as soon as you depart t&cs change.
When i changed my ticket, i was charged twice, when i raised this with them they lied continuously. When i asked them to listen to the tapes, they came back to me with even more lies.
I had to do a charge back to get my money back. You cannot get the recordings of conversations, only the transcripts. The woman who i was to send my appeal to, was the same one that had lied to me throughout the call.
The company is an utter disgrace.
Find alternatives if you can.”
“BRITTANY FERRIES ARE RIPPING CUSTOMERS OFF, THEY HAVE DOUBLED MY COSTS, MY FERRY WAS CANCELLED BY THEM AND I RE-BOOKED FOR AFTER COVID, THEY THEN DOUBLE THE COSTS OF YOUR CROSSING OR CANCEL YOUR BOOKING, THE DO NOT REPLY TO EMAILS, YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH ON THE PHONE, IF YOU DO THEY CHARGE YOU AND TAKE AWAY YOUR BENEFITS OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP, THEY ARE AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE, I WILL NOT BE TRAVELLING WITH THEM AGAIN, THEY STOLE £1000 FROM ME EVEN THOUGH MY BOOKING ONLINE SAID I OWED A FEW HUNDRED. THEY SAID PAY OR CANCEL, IF I CANCEL I LOSE MY MONEY.”
“I was on Their New ferry the Salamanca from Bilbao when It broke down (It Happens) however Dealing with this company to resolve refund and additional costs has been nothing short of appalling. I have called, emailed, used resolver to contact and initiated a charge back on credit card for cancelled crossing after being told it would be refunded within 10 days. No contact. It has been 4 weeks since my first email”
“As a tired freight driver en route from Spain to ireland on Wednesday 8th March 2022 I requested a single cabin as covid rules still apply on board the connemara ship. I was refused a single cabin and forced to share with another driver.The desk clerk bare-faced lied and said they were fully booked the ignorance was unbelievable. "If you don't like it, go Irish ferries is what I was told" Absolutely disgraceful attitude from the freight book on desk. I would understand in peak season but the ship was half empty. FREIGHT DRIVERS NEED TO START STANDING UP TO THIS UNFAIR TREATMENT.”
“Hopeless communications. No email replies. Advanced Passenger Information form doesn’t work. Spent over 3 hours on and off waiting on the phone for some advice then got disconnected when I finally got through. Completely stressed out. Never again. I would rather swim the channel than use Brittany Ferries.”
“I recently traveled on Brittany’ MADE IN CHINA Galicia from Portsmouth to Santander. The cabin and overall facilities were good, the French crew were very pleasant and helpful and the food was surprisingly tasty. But they run all these dirty tricks designed to milk you out of a few more hundred pounds once you’re onboard. Example: They tell you breakfast it’s included. You get your eggs, bacon and sausage and… they ask you for £11! You ask why and they reply that “hot breakfast” wasn’t included. “Cold breakfast” (a choice of croissant or yogurt) was.
AND THE NASTIER TRICK: Has the ship docked in Spain and we were inside the car driving out I switched the roaming on my cell phone. I arrived home and got a NASTY bill from a few seconds in which (they claim) my phone connected to the ship’s satellite instead of the Spanish telecom. WHAT A RIP OFF!!! NEVER AGAIN!”
“I was booked to travel from Cherbourg, France to Rosslare, Ireland on the afternoon of 7 December 2021. On 3 December, I was notified that my sailing had been rescheduled until the night of 9 December becuase of an approaching storm. The sailing would also take 24 hours instead of the usual 16. The only option I was given was to take this sailing or cancel and be refunded. There was no offer of rerouting with another company. I had a non refundable hotel booking and Brittany Ferries would not cover this expense. I cancelled and travelled with another company.
I wrote to complain and it took over a month to be told as it was a weather delay, they accepted no responsibility and they offered no discout voucher etc for future use.
Absolutely terrible customer service.”
“I tried eating a sandwich ! A very expensive, very soggy sandwich.
The hot food looked so unappetising that the forlorn looking sandwich was my only option.....mistake, big mistake !! There was no label on it and it was a choice of 2. After playing ibble obble chocolate bobble in my head I chose left. I believe that once upon a time it was a vegetable sandwich, it may even have reached the heights of a roasted Mediterranean sandwich, there were maybe 2 slithers of sun-dried tomato hence making it Mediterranean, the slimy, I think asparagus, added to the whole sogginess though and made me question the roasted part.
On a plus side, the salt and pepper sachets were free and even though I will be drinking gallons of water tonight to dilute the salt needed to add a modicum of flavour it was worth it.”
“What has happened to Britanny ferries? Zero customer service. Awful, and to think they were once a good company!! All the negative comments on this forum are all the evidence needed. Sort it out you absolute muppets in charge!!”
“On the 20th of September I was travelling with my wife and our daughter and after being on the road for over 6 hours driving from Portugal we arrived in Santander where we waited about 1 hour until reaching the check-in counter.
Myself and my Daughter are Portuguese citizens and my wife is from Macau holding a Macao SAR passport although we all reside in Portugal where she holds a EU resident card, the staff without checking immediately assume my wife was Chinese and demanded a visa without consulting the passport in hand.
I explained to the staff that my wife is holding a Macau SAR passport which grants 6 months visa free travel to the UK, however the staff simply refused and didn’t bother to check.
I showed the staff the official web site from the https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa where it shows the 6 month visa free travel, I also showed previous entries on the passport to the UK but this was disregarded.
I asked to talk to someone in charge but the staff said the person cannot come nor could he/she talk over the phone.
Being stuck I had no option but to drive from Santander to Southampton by taking the Euro-tunnel. This took us two days and more expenses for travel than original budgeted.
The staff in Santander are clueless and heartless people and the person in charge should be fired immediately for this issue.”
“Not all Brittany Ferries fault
Traveled to Bilbao in August 2021 from the UK, as I was moving house to France. Arrived in Spain no issues, once through passport control I was pulled over by the port authorities to check my van, I had all the paperwork to hand, full list of what I was bringing, dates purchased and value. I had done the same journey 2 weeks before but drove through France, this time was me bringing my dogs and last bits over, tools etc. The port authorities in Spain were shocking, aggressive, rude, ignorant. Although everything I was bring to my new home was at least 5 years old they insisted I had to pay a tax. Told me UK wasn’t in the EU anymore and now we pay, we are a third world country now. 4 Hours later, and after getting them
Down from €1500.00 I paid €136.00
I wasn’t the only one how suffered this, Brittany Ferries should at least put something on there web site giving customers the heads up that they will be taxed on goods.”
“BF CANCEL THE OUTBOUND SAILING, BUT AS THE RETURN IS GOING AHEAD 4 WEEKS LATER NO REFUND !!!!
Received an email to say our sailing 26.05.21 had been cancelled and if we wanted a refund to email within 7 days. So I sent the email requesting this and also advising that we obviously would need a refund from Spain to UK on 24th June, as we wouldn't be there.
Had a call the day before due to travel saying did I know it was cancelled. I confirmed I would like a refund, even though they hadn't replied to the email yet. The lady checked and finally reluctantly agreed to refund the outgoing crossing. However, the homeward journey is still going ahead this would not be refunded. As it wasn't booked as one booking. I did two separate bookings within an hour of each other, as I was advised to do by one of their Customer Service Representatives advised, as I was using their vouchers.
Not sure if we are supposed to teleport ourselves to Spain to be able to come back in 4 weeks time ?!?!
Given we accepted vouchers last year, to support BF and also lost our money on a sailing to France later the same year, I expected better treatment for those who tried to help and support last year. I have travelled with them for many years, but that is it now, NEVER AGAIN !! I will be doing whatever it takes to get this refunded, I am not willing to lose an additional £700 of my money to BF and I still waiting for cancelled crossing refund to be credited to my card.
Be warned don't book with current uncertainty, as they appear helpful when you book and pay, but once they have your money, they will try anything to keep it.”
“Owing to Covid lockdown last year we chose to postpone our sailing to Santander with Brittany Ferries rather than seeking a refund. The pandemic is far from over and with health vulnerabilities and the risk of getting stranded with school age children we have decided again not to travel. Brittany Ferries have refused to refund the deposit (£800 +). Smaller hotels have all refunded in full to us so why is this company refusing to do so? I would understand losing some of the deposit , but All!!! I am choosing not to do any further bookings with this company and strongly suggest that people check the company's terms of agreement fully and do not book unless you are certain that you will travel. Short sighted customer relations Brittany Ferry. Shame on you . I only wish i could give zero stars.”
“We travelled on Galacia on 27/03/21 when we left our car deck the amount of people pushing to get to the lift was horrendous. When we got to our cabin it stunk of fumes as did all of deck 8 it was horrible. The staff in the restaurant couldn't be bothered to serve you hence the food being cold on arrival at your table. There were good covid measures on board. Theach workers at the poRte when we got off were very rude because cars were going different ways to what they wanted. A hand held torch or fluorescent gloves would be good as we couldn't see his hands.”
“We sailed from Santander to Portsmouth on 2 December 2020. We were told that we would be boarding according to colour so that Covid protocols could be observed, dinner slots were also reserved according to colour. We finally boarded 30 min late-no leaving their cars according to colour at all - everybody just ran and crowded onto the ship- we got to our cabin and there were already people inside - in our new cabin the television didn't work, the wifi also not ( but we could buy 1GB for 25 euro that only works in the lounge???) Dinner was a disaster - the time slots overran their time so the next group had to queue for 45 min to an hour with no social distancing because there were too many people - only 1 restaurant open and the ship was full - they allowed people to sit on chairs that were originally taped off just so that they got get more of them in- when we wanted to shower the next morning we had no water in the cabin. We ordered a Gin and Tonic but they had forgotten to load tonic on board? Because we had no TV we wanted to buy magazines at the shop but that they forgot that as well- disembarking the ship was a free for all - it didn't matter if you were in the red, pink or green group - never again!”
