‘Condor left us no option but to cut holiday short’
Tuesday 14th June 2011, 2:29PM BST.
Barry and Amy Mackay with their three children, left to right, Alfie, 7, Charlie, 3, and Georgie, 5. The family have had to bring their holiday forward after Condor announced delays. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 1147067)
A HOLIDAYING family felt Condor’s recent problems left them with no option but to go home early.
Barry and Amy Mackay came over with sons Alfie, seven, Georgie, five and Charlie, three, from Essex to visit relatives on 31 May.
The family said they were not told about the operator’s current technical issues until they were on the boat – when they were informed that the crossing would take more than an hour longer than planned.
Two of the three Condor vessels have been operating on three of their four engines.
‘We found out later that it’s been going on for a while, so rather than being told of the delays in advance or when booking it was as if they were trying to make out it was a rare occurrence,’ said Mr Mackay.
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Condor are ALWAYS saying that it is a ‘current technical fault’ that only 3 out of the 4 engines are running…. What??? When something happens as frequently as it does to those engines it becomes the NORM!!
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Indeed, this deplorable situation has been going on for years and should be remedied without delay. What a pity there is no competion for this rag-tag ‘cattle ship’ company which serves the Islands so badly.
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An hour delay is nothing, it can take over an hour to stand in a queue and get through customs at Gatwick if flying over.
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What short memories people have.
A few years ago we could have had P&O.
Condor offer the chance of a free trip to UK if you display a Condor bumper sticker. 10 000 cars suddenly become mobile Condor supporters club, States renew Condor’s contract due to overwhelming local support.
I bet if Condor did it again the same thing will happen.
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For goodness sake, get real!
As I said last week, any company who was running the route would have the same problems. Condor do their best – and at least they don’t tell lies – if it is a technical issue, that is correct as there are problems with an engine.
I think that those people travelling by air may have longer delays in the fog – don’t get problems like that travelling by sea.
. . . and yes, I do travel by Condor and did on Saturday. Why rant, rave and moan about it – just enjoy the time you do have wherever you’re going to!
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Yep! time for C and E to bite the bullet and put a stop to the ongoing “mickey taking” by a shipping company who have been heading downhill for a good number of years.
Jersey should toe the line and sort out their tidal depth problems, then boats could dock there as they can in most other 21st century harbours.
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It may go into it in the full story but why did the feel it necessary to cut the holiday short? Or was this just the hour delay?
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Interesting to hear the Jersey minister on the radio this morning. Threats and sanctions. Have they really thought it through? Refuse Condor ramp access tomorrow who steps in to run the service. Will they continue with the Clipper? Havn’t seen anyother firm queueing up to take it on. As to the comment about Jersey sorting out thier tidal harbour. Its been tried by Guernsey before and Jersey have said the cost doesn’t warrant it! So we are left in a no win situation.
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If only Condor had some competition they may sort themselves out. I for one would not use them again after my experiences. It’s about time there were consequences for their poor record. Fines? Automatic compensation to ALL passengers?
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What’s an hour’s delay worth?
Nothing! UK people must be used be it by car boat plane bus or train!
High speed ferry operators world wide get similar problems. I just wonder how many complaints Condor would get for ditching high speed for snail power conventional crossing? Could that dock in Poole folks?
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Jersey has tried very hard to improve the berthing facilities at St.Helier including constructing a new jetty,but still cannot cope with low Spring tides. When you consider that St.Malo has an even wider range of tides yet can handle the Condors at any stage of the tide.Why Can’t Condor study the tidetables beforehand, and not run on those odd few days throughout the year,at the same time giving them an opportunity to perform maintenance on their engines.
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Goodbye whingers, glad to see you made other arrangements to get back to where you came from. We`ll miss you all.
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4th June 2010, returned to Weymouth where we had booked tickets on the last train which should have given us plenty of time to catch it but after we had sailed the Captain informed us that we were running on three engines! so we would not make the train.
If we had been told before we could have stayed an extra night and travelled back on the midday boat.
We have had many good trips on Condor in the past but its the lack of information that really is a problem.
pbfalla,do you live in an ormer shell,some people come over to visit family and friends.
Our problem was last year so come on States get a grip of the problem.
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St.Helier’s tidal problems are caused by the bottom of the harbour being the bedrock so dredging is not an option. It is an historical spring tidal problem not something that has just popped out of nowhere.
Why cannot Condor inform those who are booking to travel to Guernsey on the effected days that the vessel will go to Jersey first and that their journey time will be much longer.
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No need to fret any longer. The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company would be delighted to show Condor how to run an effective and efficient shipping schedule with fully working ships snd to explain the meaning of customer services to them. They might even throw in the odd sailing lesson or two.
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