9/11/2008Glaswegian couple cancels trip to Bute after frustrations with ferry service
Commenting on a previous s1bute news story titled: "Community council plans to canvas opinion with Bute ferry survey", a frustrated potential visitor to the island describes his experience on Sunday the 9th of November:
Deciding to travel down to Bute today, me and my girlfriend were advised by the downstairs ticket office in Glasgow Central that some sailings were travelling from Gourock but to check with the upstairs office.
The upstairs office called Caledonian MacBrayne who advised the sailing connecting with out train WOULD be travelling from Wemyss Bay, we though 'great' as we were on a tight schedule and didn't have the time to travel the hour or so journey from Gourock.
Arriving at Wemyss Bay, having both shelled out for train returns we were disappointed but, frankly, not surprised to see the incoming boat change course and head for Gourock, the rather unhelpful and rude woman working at the ticket office in Wemyss Bay confirmed that the sailing which earlier had been confirmed by CalMac as travelling from Wemyss Bay, was now sailing from Gourock with an hour's delay.
As we were both travelling back the same day, my girlfriend asked Mrs Cheerful behind the desk whether this would impact upon later sailings back as we couldn't afford to be stranded, ''Don't know'' was Mrs Personality's helpful and constructive response.
Having weighed up the risks we decided to cancel our day trip to Bute and return to Glasgow on the next train home.
Bad show from a poor company, though hardly unexpected.
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I personally think it's unwise to travel when there are adverse weather conditions being forecast over national news. I'm not agreeing with "Mrs Cheerful" by any means but they must get some dreadful flack from the public, when boats have to change course at the last minute because of weather conditions (or break-downs).
My daughter & son-in-law travelled from Edinburgh on Friday evening to catch the 7pm sailing, to come and visit us - but they knew high winds were forecast, so went back Saturday early evening instead of Sunday, to ensure they got back for work Monday. That's the joys of living on an island!
I do think CalMac staff have to learn that they are dealing with the public and put a smile :-) or pleasant tone of voice on when these sort of conditions arise.
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I must add my own opinion to this discussion, as quite frankly, who do these people think that they are - possibly Mr and Mrs Silly, attempting to make a journey in adverse weather conditions knowing that clearly staff have no power over the weather, which can change dramatically in the time that it takes to travel from Glasgow to Wemyss Bay. Mrs Cheerful I no doubt was only doing her job, and working with the public myself I can imagine what sort of abuse she had been subjected to from other travellers. I use the ferry service myself on a regular basis, however would not attempt to travel when I'm not sure if I was able to get where I was going on time, or at all.
Maybe CalMac should consider employing Mystic Meg to see if she can tell you whether or not to travel, however I doubt that even she would know, as all those who come from the West of Scotland will know, the weather is rather unpredictable here.