Ferry booking with club
Anyone else having this issue with the Caravan and Motorhome Club? We left a message on Brittany Ferries website regarding our issue because we are getting nowhere with the C&MC. Brittany Ferries rang us a couple of days later explaining they could not amend the booking themselves as we have gone through the C&MC. Brittany Ferries also told us that they are responding to emails from the C&MC. So now we are told by the C&MC, that even though we are allowed to book a dummy booking to move the payment dates, the C&MC say, because they cannot get hold of Brittany Ferries we have to pay the full amount for ferry crossings we will not use or lose the deposit. We are very disappointed in the way the club is treating us. When you ring the C&MC booking line the recorded message says " If you need to amend your booking because your balance is due choose option 2."
Copy of email below we received from C&MC after speaking to them again today. We were told twice that an email would be sent to Brittany Ferries to amend the booking as the call centre was not taking calls, this has been completely ignored in todays email.
Hi,
Thank you for getting in touch today.
I have spoken with Martine and Debbie in relation to your call earlier to move the payment dates to later in the year.
As explained, Brittany Ferries Contact Centre has been closed since March so they can cancel and move all the ferry bookings before the sailing dates. We are unable to call them and ask for the booking to be amended to dummy date later in the year.
As the balance due date cannot be changed Debbie advised you on the 10th June that on order to keep the booking live the payment must be made or the booking cancelled.
Once Brittany Ferries offices reopen in July, and we can talk with an agent, the booking can be amended to travel in 2021.
We are sorry, but we are very tied , it has been very frustrating not being able to talk with Brittany Ferries with regards to our bookings during this very challenging time.
We do thank you for your patience .
Kim Selby
Contact centre agent
Caravan and Motorhome Club
East Grinstead House,East Grinstead.RH19 1UA.
T+44 (0)1342 318813
W www.camc.com
Comments
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Are you wanting to cancel a ferry which will be running, or to rearrange your booking to a later date ?
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We are trying to rearrange the booking to next year. We were advised that the camc would move the booking to October, to keep it live, they would then email us, to let us know when it was done.Then we should ring them back to move it to similar dates for next summer when those dates became available in July. We then received a call, from the camc, saying that as they could not get hold of brittany ferries, we would have to pay in full to keep the booking live, or cancel the booking and lose the deposit. We declined to accept either of these proposals, as brittany ferries had already told us that the original plan was acceptable with them. So we spoke to another rep at camc who (again) said she would sort it out for us by emailing brittany ferries as the computer system knocked off the caravan if she tried on there. It seems to us that the camc keep changing their mind, what to do, but will do anything to get some money off us now, even if it means this, frankly, shabby treatment of us. We did "the right thing" by waiting till the deposit was near payment time as the message on the phone line said, only to be fobbed off with, "if you had rung before 1st ofJune we would have been able to issue a credit note". "All in it together". I don't think so. I am certainly reappraising my opinion of this club, now I see how they treat my concerns.I know these are completely different times from normal, but I am quite frankly, unwilling to give them the full amount, only to be later told, again, that they can't get hold of brittany ferries to amend the booking. I certainly won't be booking with them again, if this is how they behave. To be honest we have spoken to 4 people (well 3 & 1email)and had a different tale from all of them. My wife has just received a message (from yet another person, with another version of events) saying we must pay the full amount. I have decided to cancel the ferry, but will never book with them again as I feel the club has no respect for the loyalty of its members.
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I am sorry to read of your problem.
In the circumstances I would ask the Club plainly and directly to carry forward your deposit by means of a credit note to next year, but tell them you do not wish to pay any more at this stage. That needs to be done in writing, not over the phone. The Club staff are working in a difficult environment but I hope they can do that for you without you having to escalate it to a higher level of magement. Be calm but decisive and give them a clear written request.
As a memo for the future I think a number of people are deciding whether it is better to book a cheap ferry ticket via the Club - and they certainly can be cheap - or to pay more for a fully flexible ticket direct from the ferry company, which can be changed on line free of charge up to four hours before departure.
Please let us know if you get it sorted. Good luck.
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As a memo for the future I think a number of people are deciding whether it is better to book a cheap ferry ticket via the Club - and they certainly can be cheap - or to pay more for a fully flexible ticket direct from the ferry company, which can be changed on line free of charge up to four hours before departure
Def the way to go, I know these are difficult times, but this is not the first complaint re the club communicating with BF, I always do mine direct with no problems
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I have been using BF since 1990 and have only once had to amend a booking via the club which was done without any problem over the phone from Spain and, when they learned it was due to a bereavement, they waived the amendment fee.
It is unclear if the BF contact centre are accepting emails only but clearly, as the OP said, these are rather unusual times and it seems that as a customer the OP is being asked to accept that yet the club don't appear to be able to do so and return the deposit.
So far as the comment that booking direct is the way to go I would have to disagree.
The savings are considerable, my proposed booking this year was app £400 less via the club, and, whilst things can go wrong, choosing to pay that much more 'just in case' is not for me.
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The savings are considerable, my proposed booking this year was app £400 less via the club, and, whilst things can go wrong, choosing to pay that much more 'just in case' is not for me
Horses for courses, my total booking only came to a tad over £400 so for me the advantages of booking direct and being able to simply go on line and change at 4 hours notice outweigh any cost savings via the club.
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Well, my wife received the ultimatum from our lovely club bookings team,this morning, either pay the full amount or cancel, there's no vouchers or credit offered towards next year, so she's told them to cancel it. Not had any confirmation, but leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. What's making it worse is all the posts on Facebook, saying how great they were, 4 days earlier, than we rang them, giving full refunds to people who appeared to be in the same position as us. Not impressed with the treatment we've received but it's the way the club seems to be going unfortunately. As others say, not really a club, just a marketing company.
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In my experience as soon as you envolve third parties in anything there is more scope for problems. The crossings we like do not tend to attract any discount, particularly the St Malo one, which they can generally sell several times over. However even if there was a discount, it would have to be substantial to move me away from booking direct. For instance last year we used the Poole crossing. Booking through the club you got a free day cabin. Certainly not enough to make me use them. In the event we went overnight both ways and there was no difference in price.
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Reading the problems folk have had getting a refund from the club I'm glad that I booked direct with BF.
The crossing was cheaper than the club, the flexibility was better and they got in touch with us straight away and we have a voucher valid for 2 years. The return crossing is on flexi, I have only paid the deposit and have moved the booking forward to September. If not able to go then I will roll this forward to a time we can go.
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