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‘Stena took my stressful situation, crumpled it up like a piece of paper and tossed it in the bin’

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Conor Pope
Mon Mar 26 2018 - 00:00

We’re fond of good news stories on this page and while we get them pretty rarely we’re happy to highlight them when we do, particularly when they chime with our mantra that the best way to make your customers happy is by being sound.

"In the past few weeks my wife and I had been on an extended trip to Austria, " starts a mail from Gerard Tynan. "We booked an outbound ferry with Stena Line one way. We were not sure when we would return as we were looking to meet with friends in several countries and get some skiing in if the snow was good."

Sounds lovely.

"Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short and decided a return schedule which was to arrive home on the 20:30 Stena sailing from Holyhead on March 14th. So I got on the phone and booked a Landbridge from Calais using Eurotunnel and ferry."

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He says they had some concern as the Eurotunnel people did not send through a booking reference and a confirmation of time. But “another quick call and it was easily sorted and then emails arrived both from Eurotunnel and Stena. Happy days.”

So the couple left Austria and stayed with friends in Frankfurt before driving to London on the Monday to stay with family with the plan being to drive to Holyhead on Wednesday.

“To my surprise I received a text from Stena on Tuesday afternoon confirming the ferry was running to schedule and we should check in by 8pm. Had they made a mistake? A quick review of about five emails from Stena regarding the booking confirmed my worst fears. I had booked the wrong day.”

The following morning he called Stena and spoke to a “very calm and nice lady. I explained I had mistakenly booked the wrong day and we were still in London and would it be possible to rebook for that night. She offered to check the availability and after a few moments returned to confirm that she had amended the booking and we had our place. When I inquired as to the cost of the amendment, she replied that where a genuine mistake is made they do not penalise the customer. I was so relieved. Stena just took my stressful situation, crumpled it up like a piece of paper and tossed it in the bin.”

See? Sound.

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