BC Ferries Reviews 17

I travel on and off Vancouver island for work. BC ferrie is the worst option. From late sailings, poor maintenance on boasts. The facilities at the terminals are run down, bathrooms are always dirty. Food at the restaurants is expensive and awful on and off the boats. This organization needs a complete overhaul from the CEO to dock workers.

Horrendous Service! Endless cancelations and the website freezes so you can't rebook. The only thing that changes with BCFerries is the price, which continues to go up. We need more competition as BC Ferries cannot handle it!

I arrived at 6:32 with a prepaid reservation.
they said I was "late" and was put in standby.
Along with people with no reservation and even behind them. So was held back a sailing and lost my job because it was my second week. I took the ferry every day twice a day for a week. it was late 4/10 times... one was 45 minutes late. completely unreliable. overpriced and terrible attitude from staff. Need private services to compete. Embarrassing.

Even if you make a reservation, be sure to be there 30 minutes prior to the sailing. This is a very strict policy that they follow as it was explained by the agent in an arrogant tone when I was 2 minutes late. I was input on the standby lane and was unsuccessful catching our 7 AM ferry.
The policy of showing up 30 minutes prior to the sailing is an absolute joke and unnecessary.

I had a fall on the b.c ferries terminal and they had the nerve to pass the blame onto me.
They're lucky i wasnt an old lady and broke a hip or it would have been a massive lawsuit instead of the polite reachout they received from me.

6 hour delay. Completely threw off any plans I had for the day. Actually theft

Very very bad. No ferry running after 7pm and then the ones that went weren’t even full!!! So I got stranded in Vancouver for the night. Awful experience. Now I’ve been here for 4 hours waiting for the stupid boat that keeps getting “delayed”… you call this a business I call this a scam.

If you are a tourist trying to book a reservation, it’s a nightmare. We were not allowed to pay online, and on top of that, the service is especially poor.

The fact that BC Ferry makes you book a reservation a month or two in advance in order to get on a sailing and if you arrive 2 to 3 hours before the ferry sails and you have not made a reservation, you will be lucky to get on that ferry. BC Ferry is extracting money from people that make reservations instead they should raise the Ferry price and give everyone a chance to get on. They should be ashamed of themselves -thoughtless and greedy.

Maria in bc ferry costomer service is really great, her espectful behavior satisfy every disappointed customer.
Bc ferry should be proud of having such a member.

As usual, the ferry was late this morning without any real explanation. We left twenty five minutes after the scheduled departure, which I guess was “on time” for them.

In May, we waited over two hours with no information as to why we were delayed. We try to avoid using BC Ferries whenever possible.

I guess they think we’re a captive audience so what does it matter what we think, after all, we’re just the people paying for their “service”.

Apparently, they’re a terrible in employer too. I friend of ours worked there for a few months and said, “to hell with this!”

This organization is absolutely archaic and has zero regard for customers.
Had a reservation and due to traffic was 4 minutes past the cut off of their archaic window and as a result the lady just shrugged and said that’s a 3 sailing wait you won’t be leaving for 3.5 hours for a 4 minutes delay!!!!
Then I sit and watch them for 3 hours loading giant commercial trucks onto a Friday afternoon sailing window with families waiting in the blistering heat for 3 sailings to go.

We went this afternoon from Mill Bay to Brentwood for dinner, forgetting to check the time of the last sailing, and arrived back for the return home just as the last crossing from Mill Bay arrived. So no ferry ride back. The cost of a stay at the Brentwood Inn is steep and there are no water taxis. As we were trying to figure out what to do, the same man who always greets us with a smile asked how he could help. In the end he insisted on driving us the 40 or so km to Mill Bay to pick up our car and refused to accept any form of pay back. On the trip we learned from Hardeep how his family has been in the country for several generations, how his daughter is doing grad work and his son is starting uni this fall, how they all speak 3 languages and this is his post-retirement job. He also explained that the Mill Bay-Brentwood ferry is run by 4 folks who, like Hardeep, work together to make everything work as well and smoothly as possible. We really did try to give him something to show our appreciation but he insisted that "No thank you. This is the way we do things around here". Thank you Hardeep. See you soon.

We arrived for our scheduled sailing and it was cancelled. we had to wait hours for the next available boat!

I arrived 29 minutes before sailing and 10 minutes before loading even started having paid extra for a guaranteed sailing only to find that you had overbooked and sold my place to someone else. I was put on stand by and missed my guaranteed sailing and had to wait for two 1/2 hours. Not a single word of explanation. Your business practice is criminal and your communication utterly appalling

My main grievance concerns reservations.

Anyone who has ever traveled on board BC Ferries knows the anxiety of sailing with a vehicle. Will I make it on the next sailing?

Just beware the reservation system doesn't actually provide
an unconditional reservation.

You will be penalized to travel standby and the reservation fee forfeited if you do not show up in the defined window period preceding your sailing.