CalMac Anmeldelser 

Trying to register an account is a waste of time, it just doesn't work. Booking tickets ends up with frequently having to start again as the system falls over. It took me 1 and a quarter hours to book a simple return ferry crossing. Absolute shambles.

This website is as much use as their ferries.I have never wasted as much time trying to book ferries in my life.Not fit for purpose and needs major overhaul.😡😡

I am surprised to see so much negativity towards CalMac, much of it for trivial things that can happen when you are dealing with ships that are dependant on so many factors, not least of which the Scottish Weather. Whilst I have experienced occasional minor issues with CalMac, overall this is a good company to deal with for many good reasons. Their prices are fixed, so if you buy 3 months in advance you pay the same as if you buy the day before, they don't price gouge closer to departure date with dynamic pricing the way that train & plane companies do. If you phone them you talk to someone in this country, not a call center on the other side of the planet with no idea what is going on. If you need to make a change you can do so for free, again most other travel operators would charge a fee for that, many simply wouldn't let you change & you would have to buy a new ticket. Even if you have to cancel, they just charge a flat £10 fee, which is fair enough as they have unrecoverable costs associated with your booking (card transaction fees etc) We recently had to make changes to a booking involving multiple vehicles, plus passengers, plus dogs & CalMac were incredibly helpful & sorted it all out for no charge. There are very few companies that will do that for you.

Book our tickets months in advance for a holiday in Tiree. For a a car, child, dog and two adults. At the last moment my son was available to come with us. So we amended our ticket to add him.
Now our return tickets for a week later were for the 10am sailing. The night before we were about to leave we checked our tickets to make sure everything is OK. We are a neurodivergent family (I'm autistic as are my two children and my wife has ADHD). So we're very particular about our routine and schedule.
Anyway when we checked we found that they'd changed our departure time from tiree to 19.00. We phoned customer service and they couldn't give an explanation and were less than useless.
We got up extra early after not sleeping well with worry to try and resolve the issue at the ferry port. Same result. Spoke to customer service, same result. No one could give us a reason why it had been changed. Because we certainly wouldn't have done it. On top of that we needed to be back to relieve my mothers carer the next day as she has dementia.
It's a shocking way to treat disabled people. I'm currently sitting in the standby queue hoping we'll get on worrying about my mother who is unable to look after herself and whether I or my kids are going to have a meltdown as a result of this ineptitude.
The online booking system seems to be unable to distinguish between a 17 year old boy and a ford kuga. And does what ever it likes.

Total waste of time describing anything as an integrated Transport service.
If there is a single tourist driving it less than 60 miles an hour between Lochranza Brodick .
You will never arrive in time to make the connection for 5 to the hour. After this job's worth on the gate at Brodick ferry terminal and you have no chance at all and I getting on the ferry you were the connect with.

Tried calling them twice today to change booking, listened to messages then held for 5 minutes listening to awful music, voice said connecting you then cut off.
Useless

We had traveled with CalMac from Portavadie to Tarbet, ferry staff are very good , they refund us the extra tickets we got by mistake , just I like to said thanks so much to Lorna the assistant and Fiona from the office , they made our day . Very professionals and very friendly and kind, Thanks

Ardrossan-Campbeltown ferry cancelled for the entire 2024 season! Fortunately I am just a tourist and don't depend on these incompetents

The Gourock - Dunoon CalMac ferry should not be described as a “service”. The vessels are old and not fit for purpose resulting in multiple cancellations. Transport Scotland has arranged the timetable to maximise the delay in connecting to the rail network with the ferry arriving at Gourock pier in time to give its passengers a view of the Glasgow train pulling out and facing the longest wait. Contrast this with the highly dependable private, unsubsidised, Western Ferry service a mile along the road. Why don’t we let them replace Calmac, provide a service, and save taxpayers’ money.

I arrived on terminal 18:19, I appreciate that last sailing was 18:25 and the check in close 10 minutes before so should close at 18:15 and I was late technically but when I arrived, ferry already departed so why on earth ferry left 6 minutes early but kept displaying on the board sailing 18:25? This is not right and I was not the only one stranded as another driver arrived a minute earlier to same experience. I called customer service to find out why ferry left early and he had no idea and was not helpful at all. Next time, remember to come much much earlier in case ferry goes earlier!!

Your male staff need some training in customer service. I say that as a retired professional woman who has helped senior leaders develop their own skill sets. Recently travelling to Tiree and back… there was a huge difference in the treatment and the way staff spoke to women and men in the restaurant. Men were addressed as “sir” no one addressed women as “ma’am”. They were courteous and helpful to men as they chose their full Scottish… barely patient with women. I found it altogether offensive and quite honestly given such changes in society, behaviour from a world way in the past. I expect to be given equal respect. That is my right.

I was the 10th car in line at the Tobermoray port. Despite there only being 8 spaces in the first line the staff on the ferry boarded cars cars from line one, which included two cars chancing their luck. They then would not remove the cars from the ferry leading to me having to spend two hours waiting with an 18 month old infant for the next ferry. Clear lack of a suitable process to fairly manage boarding. It’s put me off using their services to go to any other islands while on holiday due to risk of getting stranded or heavily delayed. How hard is it really to count up to 8 and then take cars from the second queue, or put a member of staff monitoring the queuing process.

I'd booked tickets to the Isle of Mull and needed to make some changes. Called customer service and spoke to Grant. What a really helpful person. He sorted out most things but couldn't get into one of the sailings so asked me to call back the following day. When I called back he again was most helpful and sorted everything out for me. A great credit to the company.

Arran ferry
Booking cancelled at short notice and was then rescheduled for TWO days later.
Reason given was bad weather. It wasn't and I have the photos to prove it.
Real reason is that their ferry fleet has been decimated by lack of maintenance.
To avoid claims the weather is given as the reason which makes it much more difficult to claim. Cynical, very cynical.
As you will see from other reviews this is their normal operating procedure.
What is really sad is that the CalMac staff have to deal with this and it's a thankless task. What also became apparent is the the islanders are totally demoralised because it is adversely affecting their lives.
Visitors numbers are suffering because the service is so unreliable.
Nobody in a position of authority is prepared to admit how bad this or to commuting to fix it.
We like the Scottish Islands but will not go if Calmac are involved.

You cancelled 2 of our planned ferry journeys at less than 24 hrs notice, the second one depositing us back on the mainland over 50 miles from where are accommodation was booked. What a shambles. This does nothing to encourage tourists to visit the islands, let alone what it must do for the lives of locals

I recently interacted with Jude, and had a fantastic experience. Jude was professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly helpful. He listened attentively to my concerns, provided clear answers, and simplified complex information.

His friendly demeanor and genuine empathy made me feel valued as a customer. Jude went above and beyond to resolve my issue promptly and followed up to ensure everything was satisfactory. His dedication and excellent service have greatly improved my perception for CalMac. I highly recommend Jude for his outstanding customer service skills.

Thank you, Jude, for making my experience exceptional.

Our return ferry from Port Askaig to Kennacraig was cancelled without notification, we weren’t informed until we arrived at the port. The CalMac port crew gave us a card with a QR code to claim for hotel and meals etc but that was it. We were moved into a standby queue for the next ferry the following morning with no guarantee there would be space for us. To keep the place in the queue we couldn’t move the car to drive to a hotel so looked like we would need to spend the night in the car. Luckily we got two rooms at the hotel at the port, confident that CalMac would cover the costs. When I submitted the claim for the hotel rooms, it was declined as apparently the ferry had been cancelled due to poor weather! There was no poor weather and CalMac are unable to provide evidence to prove the actual weather conditions but will still not honour the claim. I suspect they are lying to get out of paying for a valid claim and using weather as an excuse. A note for other CalMac users, when they cancel your ferry crossing (high probability) your ticket is null and void and you have to rebook but are given no priority - in our case the next bookable crossing was not for another 2 days so we would have been on the hook for £400 of hotel accommodation plus unplanned time off work. You also do not get any priority on the next ferry crossing, the travellers with a booking on the crossing are loaded first and the standby lane is only loaded if there is space left. You really are left high and dry. Islay really is a lovely place and great to visit but I will never go to any of the Scottish islands again until this shambles of a company loses the monopoly on these routes and a competent company takes over.

Prioritise those who have not booked in standby over those whose bookings they have cancelled. Sadly will not book island trips for some years as not worth the stress.

They don't have a clue what they are doing.. when l booked online. They took all my details and blue badge number and l paid. When l turned up l was told the car wasn't booked in. But l could park it and go as a foot passenger even tho l am disabled..l managed to get to passenger entrance just in time and joined the prepaid ticket queue and was lucky to get on that as we were the last ones on and they turned down passengers who had also had prepaid tickets..it's a poor way to treat your customers and l would not recommend you use them

CalMac are now a national disgrace. Saturday 4th May was an utterable shambles. You must arrange to transfer this Arran service to some party like Western Ferries immediately like by July 2024.