We'll Take You There..Well Actually, We Won't!

Last week I was left stranded and speechless with two fellow passengers as the 5pm ferry left at 459pm by the Max Electronic Board which shows departures. We were actually there at 458pm. We argued with the guy closing the gate - the ramp was already up - but he insisted that he 'had let three people on already' (a quota of late people??) and that the 'Captain's watch' said it was time to go. In vain did we show him the Max time, the other clock time, and our own timekeeping devices! All this while a crew member who could have let down the ramp was clearly in view. Two of us missed commitments on the island. What was especially galling was that this member of staff (Brian) didn't even apologise, not once.

We decided to fill in the half hour between ferries by filling in synchronised complaint forms. In their reply to my complaint, Fullers say 'they agree that there is an issue with the synchronisation of clocks on the wharf' and 'have in fact just discussed this matter with ARTA'. No apology for the rude member of staff. They do promise that they are working on this 'to ensure that there is a standard departure time our customers can rely on', but no timescale for this is given!

I'd really like to know, too, whether the ramp goes up at the point of departure, or a minute or thirty seconds prior. They need to be absolutely clear about this. Is the last boarding time actually one minute to departure? People could be forgiven for thinking that if the ferry departs at 5pm, they can get there just seconds before. It wouldn't do any harm for Fullers to be completely clear about what their boarding processes are, would it? Of course, this would necessitate seeing things from the point of view of the customer, something that monopolies don't have to do..