healdav Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 Be aware that you friendly neighbourhood cross-channel ferry company, nw charges DOUBLE the advertised ferry fare if you pay at the check in. This is, apparently, due to administrative costs! I discovered this as the last time my wife and I went to Britain we were uncertain whether when we would be coming back. We bought a one way ticket on-line. We didn't know until the last minute when we would be coming back exactly, so drove early morning to Dover and paid as we checked in. Having paid around £45 to go, we were rather astounded to be charged £95 to get back. A complaint to P&O has revealed that this is because the advertised prices are only for booking on-line. I haven't tried to get any explanation of this remarkable administrative expense. I just shan't travel with them again (we only did this time as their ferry was the first to leave, and it was quicker for us to get on the south bound motorway than from Dunkirk). The Channel Pirates are back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 That's because on-line prices are renowned for being (usually) cheaper. It's not a scam by P & O or any other operator. Try turning up at an airport and buying a ticket to leave on the next available flight, you'd soon see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 2 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 2 April , 2015 A scam is a scam. I have yet to get any rational answer as to why I have to pay 2X to fly today when if I had booked the same seat yesterday I would have paid X. The real reason is that they have you by the................. and know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 The same with rail fares. Book early is the answer and plan ahead or get a flexible ticket. For example, last year I went to London from Hereford via Birmingham for £5, with £26 for the return journey. This was booked 3 months ahead I know but last minute decision making will cost you dear. I use my local station booking in Mid Wales. He is a real expert and has clients as far away as Glasgow. All done over the phone and then the tickets are either collected or posted. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 Oh well, we tried......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 2 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 2 April , 2015 Have you found the website (I've lost the connection) which sells you cheap rail tickets by doing a journey from place to place rather than straight through. For some bizarre reason that is much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 No but if you PM me I will let you have the contact details of the person I mentioned who, if you are going from A to B, may take you from A-C and then to B, sometimes on exactly the same journey as A-B because there may be special offers/prices on part of the journey. Therefore you may have 2 tickets instead of 1, if you see what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 I think the term of optimising company revenues is called management yield and companies strive to execute it whenever possible.It seems that a consumer cannot buy a service,other than by on line without incurring an uplift in charges. The right to pay cash seems to have disappeared yet the consumer is changed extra for using a credit card where the monies of transaction are instantly transferred to the supplier and clearly have a revenue advantage. I had a look at the Dartford crossing this week to get acquainted with the charging procedures.Not a chance of paying cash as the option on the French Autoroutes.Its all by telephone or on line ...penalty charges follow if payment is not made by 2400 on the day following the crossing...seems to be a procedure to initiate financial penalties from a crossing whichm if records can be believed has been paid for.by tolls. Looking at the ferries,I notice,certainly, on the western routes,that BF appear to have jacked up their prices from last year and there does not appear to be attractive offers available by booking cut off dates.Incidentally, from what I have seen,any ferry booking change request incurs a charge of £25 in accordance with the company's T&Cs Regarding Dave's experience with P&O.I remember coming back early in 2008 from France a day early,a Saturday instead of Sunday...turned up at 1900 at Calais with a return ticket.The lady in the booth said that will be £65 but before the transaction could be done..she declared that the computer had crashed and said your lucky,got us on the sailing for no charge....hardly any seating left but happy to have made it from the Limousin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 2 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 2 April , 2015 Frank, exactly the same happened to us last year when we were riushing to England for my father's funeral. We had a ticket for a day later (the weather was goin to be very bad so that the ferries were saying they wouldn't be running the next day). They refused to honour the ticket as it was for the following day when they themselves had announced that they wouldn't be running ferries! Of course, they were running ferries the following day. It was all just a rip-off. It amazes me that people go out of their way to justify being ripped off. Some bloke at Dover doing a survey once asked me why I travelled by car and ferry rather than train or plane. I pointed out that in the time it now takes to get to the plane I can be half way to Calais, in the time it takes at Heathrow for Britain to condescend to let us in I can be over the Channel and on to the M25. The train is so expensive it is cheaper to go by air. Go to Denmark and travel to Sweden (same distance as Calais Dover) and the price is half and reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 Oddly, I have often in the past found tickets can be cheap if you just turn up. Not now. I too have just been hit with a £95 each way fee, when online I saw prices of £45 to £55. In my case it is usually because I am never quite sure when I will have the chance to go, or when I will come back. However, I was informed at the port that you can buy (online) a flexible ticket which leaves the return journey open. £95 each way is shock enough. Then you have to come to terms with what you have bought with all that money. The fleet apparently now comprises sordid, scruffy old tubs with sticky carpets, piped musak and an astonishingly powerful smell of chip fat and stale beer. Perhaps that is what they run them on. Yuk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 2 April , 2015 Share Posted 2 April , 2015 That 95 quid has paid the day's pay for 1.5 'admin' staff on minimum wage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelab Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 I booked a crossing on the shuttle online last year, and for no very good reason did it late at night - so late that it was effectively a booking made on the day. I was shocked to find I had to pay twice the usual rate, but I suppose it was entirely my fault for not making the booking a day or two earlier. Lesson learnt. Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eairicbloodaxe Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 'Tis Supply and demand in action. Not a scam, the cheaper early booking price is a discount off the normal/full published price. You book in plenty of time, you have choices. Other operators, other modes of transport, maybe even flexible on dates. So they need to offer discounts to compete and secure your business. They have plenty of unsold space and don't want to run an empty ferry... Early bookers help give an idea of how popular that one will be. You rock up on the day; you HAVE to travel then. Probably little choice. Cheaper options might already be full. They now have limited space left... Why would they give the remaining slots of a limited availability away at anything other than full price? Of course, if you gamble and wait for the last 5 mins, they might let you have it cheaper again. If there is any space left... If their yield management system allows such final flexibility. It's like a eBay auction, but with a buy it now price that can't be exceeded by competing bidders. The more people bid, the higher it goes until it stops at the published price. Regards Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 3 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 3 April , 2015 On the day we travelled this last time, there were 20 cars on the boat. Don't tell me they were trying to attract people. At least, if they were the signally failed to the tune of about 1000. Prices simply don't move according to space availability, it moves according to what they think they can rip you off for this morning. Too often do I discover that at 0900 the price is X, and yet when I make the booking at 1000, miraculously the price has gone up (never down) to X+ (often a big percentage). Can anyone explain why we have to book, anyway? The boat is there, it sails at a given time, it gets to the same place, and with the same number of cars, etc on board. It isn't a case of them saying "we will only sail if a decent number of vehicles turn up". Much simpler (too simple, perhaps) to sell tickets as people arrive at the port, and stuff vehicles on to the next ferry to go. Any which turn up when its full wait for the next. It works for the Torpoint ferry, and has done for decades or even a century or so. It works for Dartford, and a whole host of other ferries, and yet cross-Channel they treat it as though they are doing us a favour letting us on, and that they have to make usre there is cabin space available for the 6 month cruise. It's a bus service, that's all. Forget all the marketing rubbish. Anyone want to book a seat on the Number 9 bus into town, and pay depending on whether you decided to go to the library last night or last week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 Well, if you don't like it so much you can always choose yo use alternative methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 One might also mention special introductory offers to potential new customers, with loyal customers who renew paying far more. Magazine subscriptions, ISP and telephone contracts and car and house insurance come to mind. As one's contract nears its end, it usually pays to compare rival providers, but that's a bit difficult if one wants a particular magazine. Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 I have always contended that they did it the wrong way round ... they should have filled in the Channel and made a tunnel for the ships to go through ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 I recall reading that the more sophisticated booking websites manage to note your first exploration and recognise your return so pop the price up a little automatically. Using a different system to make the booking can circumvent this. I once tried it on an airline site, and managed to get back to the original price by abandoning the pc and making my third visit via data access from my phone. Worth checking out. These systems are too d....d clever. I used my alternate email address as well. keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 I recall reading that the more sophisticated booking websites manage to note your first exploration and recognise your return so pop the price up a little automatically. I think I've seen this with Hilton hotels. Whenever I'm going to have a couple of days at the National Archives, I always have a nosy round the prices at the local hotels. That includes the Hilton at Brentford where I stayed once as it was even cheaper than the Travelodge. A couple of times I've looked at their website, noted the price, gone back to check to find it had increased - hence never staying there since that first time. I'd sort of assumed I'd either wrongly noted the price or had just been unlucky to be trying to book at a time when they were increasing prices. Hadnt occured to me that they had, almost literally, seen me coming. As for that and the ferry prices, I do wonder why anyone would be surprised. Companies are in the business of maximising profits for their shareholders not minimising them for the benefit of customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 3 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 3 April , 2015 How do you suggest that we use a different method for getting over the Channel? All the ferry owners are in cahoots and so is the Chunnel. They know they have you by the ................ and couldn't care less. For as long as the British are taken in by this book early garbage, and by the ferry companies advertising, "Cruise over...." they will continue ripping you off. If you don't believe me, how come you can get ferry (P & O) from Denmark to Sweden always at the same price, and a good bit lower than the Channel crossing. You can even spend a pleasant evening sailing across and back, having dinner on the way in a first class restaurant. Try that with the smash and grab on the Channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pighills Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 Um, fly? But then you'd have to book early to get the best prices, if you turn up on the day they tend to charge you more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 3 April , 2015 Share Posted 3 April , 2015 There is a lingering on going case by the Competition Commission against Eurotunnel who bought a couple of French ferries when the French pulled out and branded them MyFerryLink.The Commission's case that Eurotunnel own too much of the Cross Channel capacity as to adversely affect free market principles.They have been instructed to sell off the fleet to an independent operator or cease operations. There used to be a good crossing available from Harwich and Newcastle to Esjberg and Hamburg,then changed to Cuxhaven to reduce costs but DFDS have finally withdrawn from these routes over the years, being unable to compete latterly against the budget airlines.The Esjberg route had been in service from 1868,continuously apart from war, as the original"butter boats" and closed down last autumn. One reason quoted was additional costs from by tighter emission controls ... a lower more expensive fuel oil sulphur content being demanded for reduced emissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo Posted 4 April , 2015 Share Posted 4 April , 2015 Be aware that you friendly neighbourhood cross-channel ferry company, nw charges DOUBLE the advertised ferry fare if you pay at the check in. This is, apparently, due to administrative costs! Can't you turn up to the port and buy a ticket online using a phone or tablet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green_acorn Posted 4 April , 2015 Share Posted 4 April , 2015 It seems to me that some have also forgotten the cost of employing a human cashier to sit there and take the last minute bookings, which would account for a small part of the additional costs. Cost reduction is exactly the same reason you have the Oyster card and high costs for other bookings. Cheers, Hendo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 4 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 4 April , 2015 It seems to me that some have also forgotten the cost of employing a human cashier to sit there and take the last minute bookings, which would account for a small part of the additional costs. Cost reduction is exactly the same reason you have the Oyster card and high costs for other bookings. Cheers, Hendo So have the same price however and whenever you pay. If you give X for -50% one way it is pretty obvious that you have to up the price for another way of paying to get X. Even my maths tells me that. And we aren't talking about discounts here. We are talking about paying the proper price of you pay in advance (see other crossings on ferries) and double their money because of their greed any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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