Gillian Maccabe said passengers were queuing for two hours at the Condor information desk in Poole, only for the company to close the desk leaving many people with no accommodation, refund or idea as to when they would be able to travel.
Mrs Maccabe and her husband were due to travel home on the 3pm crossing from Poole to Jersey on Thursday afternoon. The couple had been visiting family in Scotland and had made the journey south in order to get home.
However, Mrs Maccabe said that with minutes to spare until their scheduled departure they were informed by text message that the Condor Voyager would not be sailing due to technical issues.
The couple were forced to pay an extra £500 to book onto another crossing and to extend their stay.
Mrs Maccabe said: ‘The whole situation was so chaotic. After receiving the cancellation text we were told to go on the company’s live chat feature on their website but it kept crashing.
‘No one would answer the phone and so we queued at the passenger desk for two hours but no one could help us.’
She said: ‘There were families whose holidays had been ruined and there were kids crying. The workers behind the desk just took off and left everyone there stranded and high and dry. We were all left to our own devices.
‘Many passengers had no accommodation for the night, no one had been given a refund or knew if they could be rebooked onto a different boat.
‘Luckily for us we were able to sort ourselves out. We found some accommodation and paid the extra money to book another boat online, but for those who cannot afford to pay the extra money, they will struggle. The company should be refunding people and helping them find accommodation but Condor do not look after their customers.’
A number of people took to Twitter to express their frustration at the situation.
One user wrote: ‘@Condor_Ferries our whole ferry cancelled with 15 minutes to spare before departure. Whole holiday ruined, no alternative ferry as the one tomorrow is fully booked. appalling customer service, expecting a full refund as well as compensation for our hotel tonight and the holiday.’
Another user said: ‘@Condor_Ferries any chance of you honouring a call back and keeping the phones lines open to help the people you’ve walked away from at Poole ferry terminal with no way of rebooting apart from online chat.’
In a statement released by Condor, the company said: ‘We are currently experiencing delays across the fleet caused by gale force winds and extremely rough seas in the English Channel.
‘Commodore Goodwill, Commodore Clipper, Condor Liberation and Condor Voyager are all running behind schedule due to the effect of Storm Evert so we are seeing 4.8m waves and winds gusting to 49 knots in the mid-Channel.
‘This means revised timings and delays over the next two days.
‘Voyager has also experienced a technical issue with one of her four engines so her sailing from Poole [on Thursday] was cancelled and passengers transferred to today’s departure.
‘Our contact centre and port teams are notifying and re-accommodating passengers and we apologise for the disruption and inconvenience caused.’
