BC Ferries / British Columbia Ferry Services
reviews and complaints

So my ferry was suppose to leave at 8:30pm from departure bay to horseshoe bay on July 26th,2023. It’s still sitting in the port delayed at 9:10 with no reason why it’s delayed. This is ridiculous and people have stuff that they need to do once back in Vancouver. This is so unprofessional

I don’t understand why this is taking so long and everyone’s on the ferry including the cars.

Hello.

I boarded the Queen of Vancouver Island from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, for the 7pm sailing on June 7. I was one of the last vehicles to board. In front of me was a full sized 4X4 pickup, so my forward view was obstructed. Off to the left, I could see a tall fellow guiding the traffic onboard. The truck hesitated before he started driving, but he started moving towards the right and I could then see the fellow motioning me to go to the left. Maybe 2 seconds later, he changed his mind and was motioning me towards the right, and I caught sight of his colleague, a petite Asian woman flagging me off to the right. As I was already moving left, I had to go round the woman to follow the white truck into the inside lane on the right hand side. I was half way down, but the last vehicle in that lane.

When it came time to disembark, the inside lines go first, but the same petite young woman motioned me to stop after the white truck had exited. She then let all of the other rows go first until I was literally the last one off when she walked past the front of my car, not making eye contact and motioned me off. I rolled my window down and asked her if was there a particular reason she had held me back? She replied, Yes. And when I waited for her to elaborate, she said, "You went around me." I must have had a puzzled look on my face, because she added, "When you were boarding, you went around me." Her colleague was approaching about 20 feet away and I explained that HE was motioning me to go to the left. And she curtly said, "You still went around me."

I was flabbergasted... I asked her if she was paying me back for something I couldn't avoid doing, and she replied, "YES!" I asked her for her name. And she replied, "NOPE" with a big smile on her face and laughed while she went over to her male colleague.

She may have had a bad day, or this could be the norm for her. I could understand her pulling this sort of thing for guests who were obviously misbehaving. I am a 70 year old grandma, who was the sole occupant of my car - so behaving badly? Definitely not. My complaint is about her malicious intent. It obviously tickled her that she had the 'power' to do that - everyone on board those ferries has to be customer focused as they represent the brand... Most of the staff are wonderful --- this was on a whole other level of pettiness and it just soured the end of a lovely trip to Victoria.

Thank you for reading.

Kind regards

Heather Andrews

Booking Reference: B233092729

Hello,

We parked the car in long term parking in Sechelt Langdale on Dec. 19th planning to return from vacation Dec 29th.2022.

Due to our flight being cancelled at YVR twice we returned Dec 23rd and drove home. I phoned the parking company in Victoria the next day to request a refund for the 7 unused days but never heard back from them.

I was able to get a flight and hotel refund and now I would like to request a parking refund. If you need to see our flight cancellation and parking stall receipt info I can send them to you via gmail.

Best Regards,

Maryanne Roy

[protected]

I was charged for ferry service that I did not take (with 8-days cancellation notice) Reservation numbers. The current 30-minute cancelation / refund policy is absolutely not acceptable and not reasonable for any rational person (assuming the reservation is at least 48-hours in advance of the actual trip). There is no point in making reservations if the goal is to take taxpayers money regardless of using the service. On October 10, 2022, I reserved a ferry trip from HorseshoeBay to Nanaimo for Oct16-2022 (#B224361174) and also reserved a ferry trip from Nanaimo to HorseshoeBay for Oct19-2022 (#B22361182). Due to a family medical need, on Oct11-2022 (less than 24hrs after making initial reservation) I went online to cancel the reservations. When I clicked the "cancel" button, it was not clear I only cancelled the Oct16-2022 trip. There was no indication I had to login again, which means the online portal is poorly designed and no one cares about customer service. The Cancellation / Refund Policy must be revised to reflect reasonable standards, it cannot be 30-minutes after making a reservation, then charged a trip fee regardless of a cancelation. What is the point of offering cancellation option if taxpayers will be charged regardless?

For a while, both the Island Gwawis and the Island Kwigwis were docking, at the Nanaimo terminal, with their exhaust stacks pointing seaward (away from the nearby residential building on land).

This past Saturday and Sunday, plus today, the Island Kwigwis has continued to do so, but the Island Gwawis has docked exclusively with the exhaust pointing directly at our building.

My wife and I live in unit 506 of 158 Promenade Drive (aka The Gabriola). Our condominium is level with the exhaust stacks at most tide levels and directly faces the stacks. If the Gwawis docks as described and we have an east or southeast wind, not only is our patio unusable, but our condo becomes uninhabitable, due to smell, even with all exterior doors closed. In addition, we have significant soot or unburnt fuel deposits on the rocks in our patio's perimeter border which suggest a hazard to our health.

Over the past 12 months authorities in BC have witnessed a surge of complaints against BC Ferries for discrimination and racism by BC Ferries staff. Various communities across the province have voiced their concern over the apparent different way BC Ferries interacts with people based on their look or background. "It is seriously troubling," said one victim from Nanaimo, "The Trump effect seems to have gotten way over BC Ferries heads and they are violating our rights as citizens with their aggressive behavior towards people of immigrant background." One man of indigenous background says he was threatened with a K9 dog and aggressively kicked out of the terminal for smoking a vape while a caucasian male was only given a warning not to smoke when he was smoking a vape. "They are treating us differently," said the woman "and I hope someone does something about it soon, this is just not right and it is not what Canada is all about." BC Ferries said every case is treated differently and declined to comment on the specific cases mentioned above.