A MAN had to cancel plans to travel to the Isle of Wight to see his elderly parents when Wightlink moved his bookings — with the return journey scheduled before the arrival.

Keith James was desperate to visit his parents but after two phone calls to Wightlink, each with a one-and-a-half hour wait, and numerous texts from the ferry operator rescheduling the timings, the family abandoned all hope and gave up.

His original plans to come for lunch and bring his 17-month son over to see his grandparents were scuppered due to flagship ferry Victoria of Wight being out of service, when he was finally offered a 2.40pm return, but a 3.40pm arrival the same day.

"How is that even possible?" he asked the County Press.

"My parents literally can't travel as my mother has Parkinson's, and they haven't got space for us to stay, so we were looking at a day return because to add in a hotel stay makes it very expensive.

"We booked the ticket in advance but kept getting texts to say the times had changed. The times weren't practical on top of a long journey with a baby but each time I tried to phone them I was on hold for an hour and a half.

"Why aren't they working overtime or drafting more staff in to man the phones if they are that busy?

"At one point I sorted it over the phone and thought it had been resolved but the times got changed again, by text.

"There was no compassion, no consideration for our predicament, and they don't seem to understand the ferry routes are critical to the Island's prosperity.

"It's the biggest cock-up I've heard of in my life."

Wightlink told the County Press it had 'significantly increased the capacity' of its contact centre with more people answering customers’ calls and working longer hours.

They said they were sorry the lines are still busy at peak times.

A spokesperson said: "All contact centre staff need to be skilled in dealing with our complex booking software to help customers. It’s a specialist job that requires training and we have drafted in all the trained people we have available."

Keith's father Barry, 78, of Shanklin, said: "It is patently obvious Wightlink didn't have a contingency plan, and after their showing on this I would hesitate to put them in charge of a used bus ticket.

"My son's journey was in the end looking completely pointless, set to leave before he had arrived, and the journey is so expensive at the moment.

"We haven't seen him since last summer and have only seen the baby twice since he was born. We are really disappointed."

Social media is awash with people complaining about their ferry times being moved to early morning or late night sailings, and people waiting more than an hour to get through to customer service.

County Press reader Gary Ash had to cancel his mainland hospital appointment when Wightlink moved his booking back to two hours after he was meant to be seen.

He is calling on the ferry operator to highlight people who are travelling for medical appointments.

He said: "Most people, when booking crossings, time them to coincide with the hospital. If hospital bookings were highlighted this sort of problem could be avoided by offering an earlier crossing not a later one, so as not to cancel appointments.

"I know they've got ship problems but people wait months for hospital appointments and have enough to worry about."

Wightlink told the County Press: "We are looking at ways of identifying people who are travelling for hospital appointments and giving them priority."

One County Press reader asked us why the currently-redundant Yarmouth ferry couldn't be utilised on the Portsmouth crossing while Victoria of Wight was out of service.

Wightlink said: "The two car ferry services have specific and different operational requirements. All crews need to be fully trained and accredited if they are required to sail on another route.

"We do have a third Wight Class vessel on the Lymington-Yarmouth route but we do not have spare trained crews who could operate it between Portsmouth and Fishbourne.

"Permanently cross training crews and maintaining competency between ships at opposite ends of the Solent is not practical for what is a very rare unplanned and extended outage of one of our vessels."

They said they did have a contingency plan, which was to schedule additional evening and night services on the Portsmouth-Fishbourne route using St Faith and St Clare.

The spokesperson said: "This gives us enough capacity but not always at times that customers would prefer."

The following advice was offered: "Wightlink apologises that the travel plans of many of our customers have been disrupted by essential repair work on the engines of Victoria of Wight.

"A large number of customers have had their bookings rescheduled, but we know these alternative crossings will not be convenient for everyone.

"We are offering everyone affected the opportunity to rebook to a different sailing, take a voucher for travel at another time or get a full refund.

"All affected customers will be contacted by Wightlink to advise them of their new booking."