P&O Ferries - will you use them?

[Inextremis]

I'm just wondering if anyone is planning to make future bookings with P&O after their appalling treatment of their employees? I can understand it if you booked months back and it would be highly inconvenient to change - but if there was an alternative route/carrier, would you book with P&O in the future? If you would, do you feel OK with that?

No

No. In fact I'm going on a ferry for the first time in about 30 years in a few weeks, and we deliberately chose another company so as not to give the business to P&O. I have no idea if it's less or more expensive, I didn't even bother checking the price with P&O.

I’d like to say not but I’m fairly sure all the main ferry operators use cheap non UK Labour on their boats too. Certainly all cruise boats do.
They quietly replaced their uk staff years ago. But didn’t sack them all overnight like p&o did. So better but only marginally.

Just said on news that they won't be running from Dover until Good Friday at earliest, must be losing loads of money, probably the shysters thought they could get a new cheap crew in and then be back sailing within a couple of days

No. If they are prepared to ignore the law because it is fiscally inconvenient, what else are they ignoring? Maintenance, training, food hygiene, refunds?

Every company should look to minimise costs but blatant and public disrespect of the law is another thing.

No, I was travelling with them when we were involved in a “marine accident” which left us adrift for hours, they claimed to have “fixed it” after 24 hours just for it to fail again just before departure. With such poorly maintained ships, I thought that being in expert hands some way removed part of the risk. In my eyes that risk has increased ten fold by replacing experienced staff with people who only has had 48 hours of training and who may not even have a good command of the language in an emergency and that is before we get to how appallingly they have treated the people who kept their boats afloat for decades!

@BIWI

Definitely not. Even if they were 'competitively priced' as *@ChoiceMummy* says, that would only be because they're undercutting everyone else by not paying their staff fairly.

Scum.

Totally agree with you, but Ryanair treats their staff even worse and to the point safety standards are neglected yet… they are never short of customers, price drives demand unfortunately, so although I would not use them, I am sure that 6 months down the line people would forget to care about the wronged staff and go back to them.

No,apart from the terrible way they have behaved which is enough to boycott them by itself. . wouldn't feel safe. How do we know that the new very badly paid crew are properly trained.

Ryanair are cheaper and I would never fly with them so I wouldn't use a P&O ferry, like everything else people don't necessarily use the cheapest.

@Aurorie11 I am just hoping they don't cancel. We're booked on a holiday that was postponed from 2020 to 2021 and now 2022. I can't book an alternative crossing for the dates we need as firstly I can't afford to pay for a new crossing without a refund from P&O, and secondly the only viable alternative is already booked up.

If P&O cancel then we will lose the money for our accommodation.

I wouldn't because some of their ships have been docked because the crews are too inexperienced/unsafe to sail them. How could you be sure that they're actually safe if they're being crewed by people who are paid about £4 an hour? Its not far off modern slavery tbh.

@User748956

Ryanair are cheaper and I would never fly with them so I wouldn't use a P&O ferry, like everything else people don't necessarily use the cheapest.

Yep, I don’t use Ryanair out of principle, but I am sure I am in the minority, and also I have this option because I can afford to pay more. Not a lot of people have that option.

Not a chance. We've booked DFDS for our regular crossing instead.

No, never.

Also i live in Kent and the m20 motorway has been stacked up with thousands of lorries with all the resulting pollution and lack of resources for lorry drivers. Happens a few times a year but this current stack is entirely due to p&o. The local a and b roads around dover are largely impassable due to lorries trying to queue jump. We need lorry parks down here but the NIMBYs keep arguing against it which means absolute chaos every time something happens at the port of Dover. P&o should be charged the cost of managing Op Brock. Out of the CEOs wages would be a great start.

OP here - interesting answers, thanks all :) I had to laugh at the suggestion that I'm a P&O marketing person - I'm not, I just happen to have a friend who - until recently - worked on a P&O cross channel ferry (as a chef). He's outraged at the treatment of his former colleagues.

I just wondered how people without a connection to the company felt and whether it would influence choices, in the future. Personally, I will never book with them again.

Nope. No bookings from me in the future. It will be the eurotunnel for us.

I remember the TV coverage of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster vividly. I have never felt comfortable on ferries and will always make sure I am near exit points etc. I spend the whole journey on high alert.

I just don’t trust P&O to have fully trained their new staff to the highest standards. It will all be very rushed.

I feel terribly sorry for the sacked workers and the whole communities in Dover dealing with the fallout. I also feel really sorry for the new crews who have most likely been fed a whole heap of bullshit about their new, “amazing” career opportunities.

No.

When the CEO said he knew he was breaking the law and he would be prepared to do it again it means that the penalties aren't tough enough. He should be preventing from ever being a director again, fined and sent to prison.

If those convicted of 'drink driving' were only fined £20 many of them would just carrying on doing it.

I won't ever travel with Ryanair either!

Surely they have an operating licence? If so, they are not providing the service they are supposed to provide, entirely due to their own law breaking.

Are there no penalty clauses in the contract? Can the licence not be taken off them for non compliance? Can delayed hauliers, especially those with perishable goods not take this to the courts?

Interestingly French staff were not sacked, because French labour laws are so much tighter.

Just to add to the shambles, as I previously posted in this thread. P&O cancelled family members crossing on Friday saying they will get refund, so rebooked with Stena. They had a phone call from P&O yesterday morning on their way to Cairnryan to say the service may run today!