(The following letter was sent to BC Ferries customer service and copied to Coast Reporter.)
BC Ferries:
I’m a Sunshine Coast commuter, and I’d like to give BC Ferries insight into our customer service appreciation and what getting home to the Coast, at 6 p.m., means to us commuters.
As you will be aware, Pacific Ferries suffered an accident last Thursday, May 25. We want you to know what part of our collective “bottom line” thoughts are on the company that gets us to the Coast by 6 p.m.
We all were very concerned, you could say afraid, that we potentially could lose Pacific Ferries as a result of their accident. At this point in time, let’s all just hope that Pacific Ferries gets to keep on getting us home, but my main point is that even though the company had an accident, we greatly feared the possibility of losing our only proven ferry passenger service that delivers us to the dock, in Gibsons, at the decent hour of 6 p.m.
BC Ferries, you basically represent a huge stress to commuters. We believe that you simply do not care about us. We have spoken to BC Ferries in public meetings, we have emailed you, we have tried our best to basically beg you to pay attention to us and to care about us, but to no avail. The realities of your extreme lack of customer service, again, to commuters, makes us feel frustrated and very much not appreciated. We basically feel sick at the thought that we may have to once again depend on your company as we now know how absolutely fantastic it is to leave a dock at 5:20 p.m. and to set foot in Gibsons at 6 p.m. Until you yourselves have experienced our feelings in regard to getting home at 6 p.m., you won’t really have any idea on how much better and less stressful it is and how much better our health is because someone has come up with a passenger ferry service that cares, about us.
I completed your survey earlier today, regarding your suggestions to make our 5:30/5:50 commuter ferry even later now. You should be ashamed of yourselves for subjecting us to the thought of getting home later and later.
How about if you make your starting point to keep both the 6:20 a.m. ferry departing Langdale and the 5:30 ferry, departing Horseshoe Bay, all year round? Has someone in your company used this base point in your various upcoming changes to our ferry run’s schedule? Start with us, the Sunshine Coast commuters, and make it happen, BC Ferries!
Rosemary Roberts, Gibsons