CalMac Omdömen 

The service provided is nothing like that advertised. I booked from Ardrossan to Brodick. About 1 months before the outward crossing I was told this service wasn't running and moved to an earlier crossing from Troon to Brodick. I did not want to sail from Troon, it is a longer crossing and the port is not near the station, unlike Ardrossan. In addition the new time was too early (i was flying to Glasgow so would not get there on time). Unbelivably CalMac then locked down all the crossing on the date for a couple of days so you could not change bookings online, nor would they do it over the phone. You had to phone back several days later to change the booking, which I eventually managed to do.

It was not weather related, it is because so many of their ferries are broken.

Then a week before the return, which was meant to be to Ardrossan, they cancelled that as well. Unable to change online again and not able to get in touch by telephone in time (and no phone signal where I was staying in Arran) I had to book a new ticket on the website via the hotel Wifi.

Again the new sailing was earlier, meaning I eventually arrived on Arran later than the original time I should have and had to leave earlier too.

CalMac should not sell tickets in advance if they can't provide the service. I understand the service from Ardrossan hasn't actually run for some time (over a year I think), yet they continue to sell tickets for it, then cancel them and move you to the Troon service.

In addition the ferries I travelled on had no catering at all in either direction, yet were advertised as having catering when I booked. There was a food counter, but closed both ways. The only option was a vending machine, but it was jammed so no food / drink available at all and you also had to board via the car decks both ways.

A very poor service, nothing like that advertised when I booked and paid for the tickets, and I cannot recommend this company. it feels like they take your money and but provide a vastly inferior service from what they advertised when you paid for the ticket. Unfortunately, there is no other company so if you wan to go to Arran, you are stuck with them.

Had to change car registration number on 2 bookings and also claim a refund for a ticket I purchased in error online. Jackie on the customer service line sorted everything out efficiently, professionally and in a friendly manner. I've had numerous customer care calls in Scotland and its been a mixed bag - this was my best experience to date.

I bought a ticket to Arran costing £10.20 for 2 weeks time but I need to cancel it because I can no longer go. The admin fee for cancelling my ticket was £10, so really it was pointless to cancel the ticket at all! This fee is exorbitant!

I had an excellent impression of Cal Mac as a company from start to finish. Ease of booking, the patient and professional assistant I got from their helpline when I had to amend my booking, the customer focused approach - in terms of keeping customers informed and managing them on and off the boat - I was even helped with my bag and greeted as I got onboard. The hospitality staff were friendly and couldn’t do enough and made sure I was catered for as I was a single passenger with a dog (and the dog travelled free!) There are many companies who would do well to follow their approach. Carolyn Hickman

Disappointed there were no vegetarian sandwiches and the crew refused to make one.

Utterly useless. myself and a group of friends booked some months ago on the 13.50 sailing from Malliag to Armadale (Skye). we have all booked time off work, and have booked accomodation. we are travelling from the central belt so will take several hours to get there. And today we got a message advising that our sailing now departs Mallaig at 12.30 that day. I phoned to ask if we could be swapped to a later sail that day and was told that no we couldnt. it was that sail or nothing. We have zero chance of making it for that time, so CalMac have wrecked our trip. Utterly useless!

We booked a ticket to travel to Arran from Troon. The boat was supposed to leave Troon at 10.50 (check in at 10:20).
We were caught in heavy traffic so we arrived at the check in at 10:30 (10 mins late). Because of that we were told the booked ticket is not valid as we are 10 mins late (!!) and directed to the "no ticket" queue. You never know, in that queue if you will get in the ferry or have to wait other 3h in Troon - it depends if extra space for 'no booking' and how full the ferry is.
Meanwhile the boat was late - instead of 10:50 it left at at 11:30 - 45 minutes late ! All in all - as customers with a booked ticket and more than 1h to wait we were made to and waste 3h+ in Troon, because we were 10 mins late (because of the traffic) for a 45 minutes late ferry ! ...

Every time I book holidays to Scottish islands, I either get the sailing cancelled or time amended - today included. I am used to their words: "disruption", "apologise", "sorry", "inconvenience", "rebook", "alternative". The following should be Calmac's motto:
"Calmac - forever sucking all the pleasure out of Scottish Island holidays."

If I could leave no stars I would. Rubbish service. No seat's available due to unfair loading system. Am disabled and couldn't get seat. No first class options. Unfortunately due to the sh** service I won't be travelling to anymore scottish Islands. Calmac ferries need competition. Rubbish

I have sailed with Calmac over 20 times and always found they're service to be excellent. We have only ever had one ferry cancelled due to bad weather but we were quickly refunded and found another route. I recently turned up at the ferry terminal only to find I had got my dates mixed up, Calmac still allowed me to sail without any additional charges.

Travel regularly on the Dunoon to Gourock route. On the 1245 ferry from Dunoon today and the crew member issuing tickets appeared out of his office just over 10 minutes before arrival. He managed to issue o ly around 9 tickets. There was probably 15 to 20 passengers who travelled for free. This is a regular occurrence. Calmac need to explain if this down to the malfunction of the ticket app, and what they are doing to resolve the problem.

I am only reviewing the app/website and not anything to do with sailings etc.The app/website is shambolic and pathetic.You would think it was designed by an 11 year old with aspirations to be a web designer.It is poorly laid out with little or no logical sequence to the links to open to get timetables and fare booking.It frequently crashes without warning.I had to hit approx.6 links to get to the fares page,and,even though I had selected the route I wanted to travel on in an earlier link,when I got to the fare page I had to select the route again from a drop down menu.Just one example of how user unfriendly it is.

Not worth the effort going into great detail about this shambolic company other than to say they cancelled our sailing date as well as our departure times on three occasions totally ruining my birthday trip and leaving us £400 out of pocket. They are a embarrassment of a company who are accountable to no one and treat their customers with the utmost contempt.

The new app is a complete shambles. Previous app was far more user friendly and did not continually freeze like the new one. Another faux pas in the CalMac never ending saga.

The new - updated - (but not improved) website / App is a complete shambles, sometimes it works other times you need to delete the app and reinstall it to get it to work.

Tonight some - but not all - of the timetables cannot be downloaded as there is no data.

I've used CalMac quite a few times now and personally not had a bad experience with them

Their fleet is pretty old overall but it depends on the boat.

Prices are reasonable, especially just passenger tickets. Good you can take your bike on for free as well.

They've been on time whenever I've used them.

Their staff are really great and friendly, especially the ones on board.

False information provided on tickets and website leaving passengers out of pocket, company take no responsibility and fob you off to Transport Scotland.

New App!

Even worse than the app it replaced.

As I have little choice but to use their deplorable service I am considering moving somewhere I will NOT have to use Calmac.

I keep saying this cannot continue/deterioate further then, the service worsens again.

The Calmac App, which used to be so useful, has been 'upgraded' and is now a horrible and unuseable mess. Who wants to refer to routes with abbreviations like 'GBBDI' and 'GBCAD'?

What a shit company. Website is continuously unavailable. Last minutes cancellation, phone isn’t answered. Let somebody else do the job please.