CalMac vows to fix new ticket system glitches

CalMac has apologised for issues experienced by its customers since the launch of its new booking and ticketing platform on Wednesday May 17, and reassured these will be resolved.

As it migrated to the new system, CalMac said customers could not buy any new tickets or make any amendments, by phone, online or in ports, from 4am Saturday May 13 until 5am Tuesday May 16.

However, CalMac extended this “downtime” by 24 hours, “due to the complexity of bookings affected by recent disruptions”.

Over the weekend, CalMac cancelled ferry bookings to Mull at the last minute, causing one local pensioner to miss his birthday party.

On Friday May 19, a Mull resident tweeted: “79 year old uncle drove from Sheffield to Oban today. CalMac cancelled booking to Mull and put him on 22:35 sailing tomorrow night, getting him to Mull at 23:35 and home after 00:30 Sunday. It’s his birthday tomorrow and will miss his birthday party.

“80 year old man – on his own – expected to wait 36 hours for a ferry and drive an hour from the ferry really late at night, to arrive home at almost 1am – not one, but nearly two days after his original booking. Priority should be given to elderly locals!”

That Friday, a visitor posted on a Mull social media page:

“Thanks CalMac! Booked the Oban to Mull ferry six months ago. Phoned during the week to see if we would have to rebook as the timetable had changed – assured we didn’t.

“Actually went down to the CalMac pier this afternoon at Oban to check it was definitely going OK tomorrow – confirmed it was and reminded when to turn up. Sitting in our overnight accommodation which was booked in Oban so we were close to ferry and so we wouldn’t face any delays on the road.

“Then at 10pm tonight got a text from CalMac (after their office is shut) to say our booking is cancelled for tomorrow (no reason) and advised to drive the long way round to Lochaline (over 100 miles) and try to get the turn up and go ferry which you can’t book.

“I really don’t know how islanders who rely on this lifeline service can cope with the ongoing disaster that CalMac is having throughout the whole fleet.”

CalMac could not comment on these individual cases, but said there were issues with the migration of people on the waiting list over to the new system, and it prioritised islanders whenever possible.

A spokesperson said: “CalMac is working through network disruption and reduced capacity on some sailings, which it chose to manage in the new system and is conflating some of the pressures.

“Booked customers are being offered new sailings where possible, or refunds. Several bookings migrated to the new platform did not have account or email information which is slowing this process.

“CalMac’s supplier is working on several issues, the principal of which relates to customer accounts. A small proportion of migrated customer accounts have been affected where the account may not be visible to the customer via the internet.

“Customers’ receipt of emails has been delayed in some cases by email services (such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft) automatically deferring delivery because of a volume of emails from a new source.

“There is a specific issue in relation to Islay bookings which shows as two separate routes. Customers can make a return booking to different ports using the multi-island feature – but this will be made clearer.”

‘I really don’t know how islanders who rely on this lifeline service can cope with the ongoing disaster that CalMac is having...’