Just 14% of respondents to independent survey say their last Condor sailing was on time

Tuesday 01 March 2016

Only one-in-seven people polled in a Jersey Consumer Council survey say their last Condor sailing to the UK left on time.

Although passengers have praised the staff at the ferry company, they say that delays, cancellations and late notice make them feel “frustrated and under-valued” by the ferry company, which is increasingly under pressure over poor service levels.

Condor have responded, saying that they run their own “larger-scale professionally researched” surveys on a year-round basis.

They also say that they have installed a new £1 million booking and operations system which goes live today, and which they say will improve their service.

In total, 739 people responded to the online survey, which said:

-       14% of Jersey to UK sailings were on time, and 20% of return sailings were on time.

-       29% of customers said they were not told about changes or dleays.

-       75% of customers said they didn’t receive timely information from the company.

Jersey Consumer Council Executive Officer Anne King said that some passengers were having awful experiences with the company.

She said: “Our main finding was that, of our respondents’ journeys, less than 20 per cent of them actually ran on time!  And, according to three quarters of the respondents who completed our survey, Condor did not advise them about the delay - or altered timing - to their sailing.  This is clearly leaving passengers feeling frustrated and under-valued, especially after many had to endure some awful travelling experiences. 

 “However, over 56% of passengers felt that Condor staff are attentive and 73% of passengers said that they felt that on-board staff were helpful and courteous.  This suggests that the problem is not with Condor’s frontline customer service staff, but with the delivery systems for necessary and important communications.”

On behalf of the company, Captain Fran Collins, Condor’s Executive Director – Operations, said that they were committed to listening to customer feedback.

She said: “We are acutely aware of the inconvenience and frustration experienced by travelling customers over recent months and have been listening, and will continue to listen to, all customer feedback. The Condor board, management, crew and staff are all committed to delivering a reliable and safe Channel Islands ferry service for all customers on all our ferries, whether freight, car or foot passenger.

“We are also continuing to invest in improvements, including the installation of a new £1million booking and operations system which goes live today. In the past three months, we have also extended the opening hours at our call centre until 2000hrs on weekdays. In recent weeks, we have also seen a big increase in the number of calls being answered in a more timely manner by our teams, when compared to the same time last year.”