Poor shipping service

Satish Nakched, Suva Every afternoon the boat trip to Levuka originates from the Suva carrier stand at 1 pm. Passengers are picked up for the drive to Natovi jetty from where passengers connect by the roll-on roll-off ferry service to Buresala, Ovalau. The journey terminates at Levuka town and the entire travelling can take up to four hours. On Monday afternoon 15 January, 2018 there were about 100 passengers patiently waiting for the bus. At the Suva end, the small shelter provided was overflowing with intending travellers with their baggage. There were a lot of parents with their children who were returning to Ovalau for the start of the new school year. It was at about 1.30pm when a company representative arrived to announce that the trip was cancelled and quickly disappeared before any further clarification could be sought. Due to the confusion many of the passengers left but some waited until 4pm hoping that the bus would come. I telephoned the shipping firm's main office in Suva and, finally after many attempts got through and spoke to the front desk customer service officer. He told me that on the morning the shipping company had already done two trips to Levuka for the day. That was the most they could do for passengers bound for Levuka. I then asked him why the shipping company sold tickets to the passengers last week with the reporting time on the ticket as 1 pm. Some passengers had bought the tickets on the day. The customer service officer then told me that due to strong winds their ship could not possibly berth at Buresala This really annoyed me as I was now getting two different explanations. I asked the person whether there was any advisory issued through radio broadcast. Or the passengers informed by phone but my call was transferred to another executive which was never answered. I then rang their manager who referred me to a female company executive who did not answer the phone either. This is a very poor customer service provided by the shipping service which has neglected the very people that the company has been servicing for many years. We do understand that there are risks in any business which may hinder the operation and negatively affect their delivery of service. But equally important is the timely and the accurate dissemination of the information that must be transparent. There were a lot of the people travelling from the other parts of Fiji via Suva to get to Levuka and were consequently stranded for the night. It was noted with great disappointment that no company representative came down to check on the welfare of the passengers.