I had the most horrific travel experience of my life with Stena Line. My sister and I booked a…read moreticket from Dublin to Holyhead for an 8:20am ferry. We were flying in from New York and arrived in time to rush over the port. We arrived approximately thirty minutes before departure but had difficulties finding the check-in since the terminal building was dark for someone looking from outside. We finally entered at 8am and were told we would not be allowed to board despite the fact that the sign prominently displayed outside flashed the message that boarding for the 8:20 ferry was open. I asked and almost begged to be let on and explained that we had booked round trip train tickets and an Airbnb and paid for our activities in London which all would be a loss if we were not allowed on. One of the employees, a man by the name of Owen, insisted that we would it be allowed to board and that, despite being only 4 minutes past the hour, we were over 20 minutes late. He was smirking, mind you, when I pleaded that he reconsider and instead offered that another ferry copy working 15 minutes down the way at he next terminal had a ferry leaving at 9 which would cost us 40 Euro and be a fast ferry. Neither of these things turned out to be true. By the time we arrived at the next terminal (by foot because we had sent away our taxi) the other ferry was already leaving port and the next ferry was at 9 PM. The Stena Line ferry, the one we were supposed to have boarded, was still at port. We rushed back to the Stena terminal to plead our case again but by the time we walked the 15 minutes back to the terminal the ferry had left. I demanded an explanation as to why we had been misled to think that the other ferry company would be available, why the sign outside had only just changed to say that boarding was closed, and what would be done to compensate for our ill treatment. Owen, who had been so glad to keep us from boarding and, I'm sure now, intentionally misled us into leaving by essentially waving us off with a flippant "you'll want to be going now" remained behind his desk in the corner while one of the other employees told us that "boarding was still opened for vehicles only" (so if we had been in a car we would have been allowed to board?) and that, inexplicably given what she had just told me, we couldn't have been let on because the loading bay was being lifted when we arrived at 8am (how exactly were the vehicles being loaded if that was the case?). All of this did not make sense because Owen had, so graciously, informed us that he had waited 10 minutes past the 30 minutes prior to boarding mark (until 8am) to let the ferry crew knew that they should go ahead without us. So in 4 minutes, while we explained our situation to Owen (that we had been lost outside the check-in Dock because the building was otherwise dark, that we would lose significant sums of we weren't allowed on, that we had traveled from the airport to the docks) the feet crew had pulled up the ramp so much that we could not board even when we noted that it was 20 more minutes before the ferry left?
They offered to change our ticket to a 3pm ferry but kept our return trip as it was which meant that we would have arrived in London at 12am and would need to return the following day at 1pm. This also would have required that we change our train tickets which would have cost us 44 euro per ticket for both our outboard and return tickets to cancel and rebook. New fares for two people on the train would have cost us 189 euro per person per trip. Meaning would would have ultimately spent close to 800 euro to make the necessary changes to get to London simply to be in the city for a handful of hours.
We were flustered to say the least and when we called the company to complain on the spot the customer service line offered nothing but to reimburse us our fate minus 40 euro for their troubles because we were "choosing to cancel our tickets." No one offered an apology or to help. We lost, all told, over $450 USD because of the callousness of the Stena Line employees. I've had better experiences at airports where employees have held planes for those who are running late and offered calls. This all did not add up and I intend to file a complaint with Stena Line and with the Irish equivalent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for damages and distress caused. I'm writing this to let others know what kind of customer service Stena Line provides and the completely inconsiderate and, as another Irish fellow we met characterized it, disgraceful way in which we were treated. I travel widely and this has really been the worst trip I've ever taken. I couldn't believe that they would treat two young women traveling alone in a foreign country in this way.
