Shame on you BC Ferries!
I would do anything possible to help my kids! And I mean ANYTHING! So when someone does something to make me worry about my kids, they are gonna hear about it from me.
Last night was one of those nights!
Seth took a trip to California/Utah/Idaho for a few weeks so he could be there for the July 4th celebrations. He has a lot of friends down there from school, so we are never very worried when he goes(except when we hear about the earthquakes in California). For some reason he would love to just move there...Haha.
Whenever he goes back to BC though, he has to travel through Vancouver. I always worry about him when he is traveling in Vancouver alone. What makes it worse is when he is travelling at night. Last night was one of the worst trips yet.
Just so you know how his day started, he was staying in Idaho, so it was a 3 hour drive to Utah for his flight. He left from Salt Lake City at 1:35 pm and since this was an international flight he had to be there extra early. 2 hours early. He was trying to save money, so he planned to wait on eating until he got to Vancouver.
When he arrived in Vancouver, he collected his luggage(2 large suitcases plus his personal bags), and figured out his bus route. He figured he would have plenty of time to eat when he got to the ferry terminal. He grabbed the skytrain and then waited for the bus that would take him straight to the ferry terminal. He waited, and waited, and waited some more. His bus didn't come for a long time. Eventually it came and we found out there was a car accident that was slowing down traffic. By this time, his chances were pretty slim on making the ferry. He was on the express bus though so we had some hope.
I put a call out on Facebook to see if anyone we knew was in Vancouver....just in case. It turns out his Aunt and Uncle were already at the ferry heading home. Unfortunately they were already in the ferry line up. I called every BC Ferries number I could find on Google! Even the one for the ticket booth at Horseshoe Bay where he was going. No one answered and all recordings said the offices were closed! Why on earth don't you have a phone line that can be answered during business hours?!?! All around very poor customer service! And this is definitely not the first time something like this has happened.
We were watching his movement on Google Maps, to see how close he was getting. When he arrived at the terminal, he ran!! He went straight up to the ticket booth. It was 10:31pm. Exactly 1 minute after cut-off time!! 1 minute!! The guy at the booth just straight up said, "No". Seth said "Dude I have nowhere to sleep and no food," and the guy said, "You were late."
Seth was floored by that response! He walked up the foot passenger bridge so he could find a place to possibly wait until morning(although he definitely was not excited about that idea at all!). He actually made it all the way up before the ferry left too....now remember, he had over 100lbs of luggage with him. He made himself a spot to lay down in the waiting room with his luggage. He decided it wasn't worth it to carry all his stuff down the road now to get food....He would wait until morning. Also I think everything would've been closed by then. He chatted for a while with me trying to figure out if there was a better idea. He decided to just stay there and we said goodnight. Just as he got settled, a ferry worker came up and told him he had to leave the terminal until morning. Are you freakin' kidding me?!?!?!
So here he was, a young guy, traveling alone, and no affordable hotel nearby. What was he going to do? We had people offer to pick him up and bring him to their house for the night, but they were all so far away(Chilliwack and Abbotsford) and it was midnight(4am for us, which is why it made me even more mad!). Seth didn't want anyone to have to drive that far.
Luckily I picked my phone up again because of a Facebook notification. I wouldn't have known he was kicked out. I was livid, and I'm sure he was very upset by now! Thankfully, we got an offer from a very generous friend(Thank you so much to "sisters" Ward and Jungheim)one of them we had only ever met once! It was a really big life saver for Seth. I'm pretty sure he wasn't doing very well with not knowing what he should do. Even though we were helping as much as we could, we felt so helpless being on the other side of the country! We were so grateful for this offer. She drove to the ferry and picked him up and took him home to sleep on her couch. The sad part is, she pretty much lives near the airport where he started from, so he had to do the trip all over again the next morning! Poor guy! So glad he had to buy another $14 bus day pass. Thank you BC Ferries! :(
It is now 7pm the next day. I don't think I've ever sat and stewed about anything for this long in my life! Seth just called to tell me he was safe at Auntie Becca's house in Nanaimo, like 6 hours after he got there!...Haha. Kids! I can't wait to talk to BC Ferries head office tomorrow. They are not gonna be happy they did this to my kid, that's for sure! Just so everyone knows, I may have written this very calmly, but I was not calm, and I am much angrier than my writing! I just figure I will save it for them. :)
Last night was one of those nights!
Seth took a trip to California/Utah/Idaho for a few weeks so he could be there for the July 4th celebrations. He has a lot of friends down there from school, so we are never very worried when he goes(except when we hear about the earthquakes in California). For some reason he would love to just move there...Haha.
Whenever he goes back to BC though, he has to travel through Vancouver. I always worry about him when he is traveling in Vancouver alone. What makes it worse is when he is travelling at night. Last night was one of the worst trips yet.
Just so you know how his day started, he was staying in Idaho, so it was a 3 hour drive to Utah for his flight. He left from Salt Lake City at 1:35 pm and since this was an international flight he had to be there extra early. 2 hours early. He was trying to save money, so he planned to wait on eating until he got to Vancouver.
When he arrived in Vancouver, he collected his luggage(2 large suitcases plus his personal bags), and figured out his bus route. He figured he would have plenty of time to eat when he got to the ferry terminal. He grabbed the skytrain and then waited for the bus that would take him straight to the ferry terminal. He waited, and waited, and waited some more. His bus didn't come for a long time. Eventually it came and we found out there was a car accident that was slowing down traffic. By this time, his chances were pretty slim on making the ferry. He was on the express bus though so we had some hope.
I put a call out on Facebook to see if anyone we knew was in Vancouver....just in case. It turns out his Aunt and Uncle were already at the ferry heading home. Unfortunately they were already in the ferry line up. I called every BC Ferries number I could find on Google! Even the one for the ticket booth at Horseshoe Bay where he was going. No one answered and all recordings said the offices were closed! Why on earth don't you have a phone line that can be answered during business hours?!?! All around very poor customer service! And this is definitely not the first time something like this has happened.
We were watching his movement on Google Maps, to see how close he was getting. When he arrived at the terminal, he ran!! He went straight up to the ticket booth. It was 10:31pm. Exactly 1 minute after cut-off time!! 1 minute!! The guy at the booth just straight up said, "No". Seth said "Dude I have nowhere to sleep and no food," and the guy said, "You were late."
Seth was floored by that response! He walked up the foot passenger bridge so he could find a place to possibly wait until morning(although he definitely was not excited about that idea at all!). He actually made it all the way up before the ferry left too....now remember, he had over 100lbs of luggage with him. He made himself a spot to lay down in the waiting room with his luggage. He decided it wasn't worth it to carry all his stuff down the road now to get food....He would wait until morning. Also I think everything would've been closed by then. He chatted for a while with me trying to figure out if there was a better idea. He decided to just stay there and we said goodnight. Just as he got settled, a ferry worker came up and told him he had to leave the terminal until morning. Are you freakin' kidding me?!?!?!
So here he was, a young guy, traveling alone, and no affordable hotel nearby. What was he going to do? We had people offer to pick him up and bring him to their house for the night, but they were all so far away(Chilliwack and Abbotsford) and it was midnight(4am for us, which is why it made me even more mad!). Seth didn't want anyone to have to drive that far.
Luckily I picked my phone up again because of a Facebook notification. I wouldn't have known he was kicked out. I was livid, and I'm sure he was very upset by now! Thankfully, we got an offer from a very generous friend(Thank you so much to "sisters" Ward and Jungheim)one of them we had only ever met once! It was a really big life saver for Seth. I'm pretty sure he wasn't doing very well with not knowing what he should do. Even though we were helping as much as we could, we felt so helpless being on the other side of the country! We were so grateful for this offer. She drove to the ferry and picked him up and took him home to sleep on her couch. The sad part is, she pretty much lives near the airport where he started from, so he had to do the trip all over again the next morning! Poor guy! So glad he had to buy another $14 bus day pass. Thank you BC Ferries! :(
It is now 7pm the next day. I don't think I've ever sat and stewed about anything for this long in my life! Seth just called to tell me he was safe at Auntie Becca's house in Nanaimo, like 6 hours after he got there!...Haha. Kids! I can't wait to talk to BC Ferries head office tomorrow. They are not gonna be happy they did this to my kid, that's for sure! Just so everyone knows, I may have written this very calmly, but I was not calm, and I am much angrier than my writing! I just figure I will save it for them. :)
This is my Facebook Rant:
Dear inconsiderate BC Ferry staff
So my son Seth flew in last night from Utah, travelling by himself. He had everything all planned out, his SkyTrain card, his bus schedules, what ferry he would get to. After getting off the train, his bus was super late, because of a car accident! He got to the ferry with 9 minutes to go, but the guy wouldn't let him on. He actually walked all the way up the foot passenger bridge before the ferry left(to see if he could make it) and they still wouldn't let him on. Now this is my child that they left stranded in the middle of the night in Vancouver. He had his entire life in these 2 suitcases, so he was pretty upset that he wouldn't be able to sleep without worrying about himself and his luggage. He was starving, because he hadn't eaten since before his flight at 10am yesterday. Then to top that off, after he made himself a comfortable enough place to stay for the night, ferry staff kicked him out of the terminal for the night. He had no money for the minimum $250 hotels in the area and nowhere safe to sleep outside. I can understand that people come late all the time. I can understand that some people doing this would delay a ferry. In this situation my son was pleading with the guy at the counter. His response? "You were late"
How do people like that sleep at night?!?!! It was the last ferry of the night. Have a little compassion! We were all coming to terms with him missing the ferry, but to then kick him out with nowhere to go? Your head office will be hearing from me Monday morning BCFerries.
A VERY ANGRY PARENT!!
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