directferries.co.uk > Reviews (11)

We had a horrible experience with Direct Ferries. They were supposed to notify us of a change in the Ferry Schedule as noted in the DESCRIPTION section below. Because they weren't notified, we weren't notified. Belearia, the ferry company, claims that they sent me an SMS notifying me of the change in schedule. However we never got the SMS AND they sent us the SMS on the day the ferry was to leave which would have made us scramble to rearrange our schedule if we had received the SMS.
Ultimately Direct Ferries took NO responsibility. At the bottom of the voucher they sent, there was the following message:

All business transacted by Direct Ferries Ltd is subject to our trading conditions that you accepted at time of booking; written copies available on application or online by clicking here. On your card statement, debit will be shown as Direct Ferries.

When you go online and read the fine print, it says that no matter what happens, Direct Ferries has no liability, i.e., it is up to the customer to check Ferry schedules, a difficult thing to do when you are traveling in a country and don't speak the language. We also believed, naively, the Direct Ferries would notify us of any changes in the schedule.. So Direct Ferries took no responsibility at all.

WARNING: DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THESE GUYS. THEY DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF RUNNING A BUSINESS IN AN ETHICAL MANNER AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE MEANS.

DESCRIPTION OF WHAT HAPPENED:
My wife and I purchased tickets from Directferries.com to take the Balearia ferry departing Alcudia, Mallorca and arriving Ciutadella, Menorca on Saturday, June 11 at 1:00pm. A copy of the receipt from Directferries.com, indicating the time of the ferry, as well as other information, is attached. We arrived promptly at 12 noon as we understood that was the time we were required to arrive and asked a Balearia employee when the ferry was leaving. He told us, incorrectly, that it was running late and to come back at 1:30pm. We returned at 1:30 and waited. Finally at 3:30pm, a Balearia employee who sold ferry tickets told us that the ferry we wanted had already left around 7:00am or 7:30am and that there were no other ferries to Ciutadella until the next morning. She also told us that the ferry schedule had been changed about 10 days before. We basically wasted almost ½ day of our vacation, which was to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, waiting for a ferry that was supposed to be scheduled to leave at 1:00pm. The Balearia ticket seller then processed tickets for us for the ferry to Ciutadella for the next day, June 12, at 9:00am. The cost of the tickets was 221.20 euros but we paid Direct Ferries 247.14 euros. They certainly didn't earn that commission. In addition, we had already prepaid for the period June 11-17 at the Audux in Menorca. Hence we not only paid for a night that we didn’t use (Saturday, June 11) at the Audux because the 1:00pm ferry on June 11 did not exist, we also had to pay 135 euros for a room in Alcudia at the Hotel Cas Ferrer Nou Hotelet for the night of June 11th.

THIS EVENT NOT ONLY LED TO A DELAY IN OUR VACATION, BUT ALSO EXTRA CHARGES FOR THE NIGHT WE HAD TO STAY IN ALCUDIA SO WE COULD TAKE THE FERRY THE NEXT DAY - PLUS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE COST OF THE FERRY. WE ALSO EXPERIENCED SIGNIFICANT STRESS AS A RESULT OF NOT BEING ABLE TO PROCEED AND HAVING TO REARRANGE OUR SCHEDULE AND SPENDING THIS TIME WAITING FOR A NON-EXISTENT FERRY.

We requested that Directferries reimburse us for the 152 euro charge for the unused hotel night at the Audux and for the difference in fares of 247.14-221.20 = 25.94 euros for the extra charge for the ferry that Directferries charged us. (The fact that Balearia did not notify Directferries of the schedule change was beyond our control, and therefore we expect that it is the responsibility of Directferries, not us, to deal directly with Belearia.)

Direct Ferries, as noted at the beginning of this posting, took no responsibility.