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Complain to P&O Ferries

P&O Ferries complaints: email complaint@poferries.com, the 25% to 50% of the ticket price a late arrival earns, and the 2-month deadline to claim it.

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Contact emails

customer.services@poferries.com

Customer Service

complaint@poferries.com

Complaints

Make a complaint online(opens in a new tab)

P&O Ferries handles complaints through its official online form.

@poferries

Public complaints often get faster responses

How to complain to P&O Ferries, step by step

  1. Complain to P&O Ferries in writing

    Email complaint@poferries.com, or use P&O Ferries’ online complaints form. Say what went wrong, what you want back, and keep a copy.

  2. Give them time to answer

    P&O Ferries aims to resolve complaints within 14 days. That is its own target, not a legal deadline.

  3. Escalate if they say no

    If it stays unresolved, use the escalation steps further down this page, and the small claims court after that.

Laws that protect you

Maritime passenger rights (Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010, retained in UK law)

Rights when travelling by sea: refreshments once a departure is held more than 90 minutes, re-routing or a refund within 7 days if the sailing is cancelled, and 25% to 50% of the ticket price when you arrive late.

Article 17Article 18Article 19Article 24

Consumer Rights Act 2015

A crossing is a service, so it must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and you can ask for money back where it wasn’t.

Section 49Section 54

Tips for P&O Ferries complaints

  • Email complaint@poferries.com rather than the general customer services address. It is the Care Team inbox P&O Ferries names in its own complaints procedure, and it promises the complaint goes to someone who wasn’t involved in it.
  • Put the booking reference, the route and the sailing date in the subject line. P&O Ferries aims to answer in full within 14 days and says every complaint is fully replied to within 28.
  • If you are claiming under sea passenger rights rather than just complaining, say so and send it within 2 months of the date you travelled. That deadline is in the regulation and P&O Ferries repeats it in its own policy.
  • For a late arrival, ask for the percentage rather than an apology. It is at least 25% of what you paid for that leg once you land an hour late on a crossing scheduled at 4 hours or under, and 50% if the delay doubles.
  • Cancelled, or held more than 90 minutes at the port? You get a choice: a later sailing at no extra cost, or your money back within 7 days. Being told to wait is not that choice.
  • Keep the receipts. Past 90 minutes you should be offered refreshments, and if an overnight becomes necessary, accommodation, which the carrier may cap at £70 a night for up to 3 nights.
  • Bad weather cancels the payout, not the care. A carrier can refuse the ticket-price compensation where the weather endangered the ship, and still owes you the meals, the accommodation and the refund or re-routing.
  • If the Care Team says no, ask the Customer Relations Manager to review it. P&O Ferries offers that final review in its own procedure and aims to come back within 5 working days.

If P&O Ferries doesn't respond

  1. 1

    P&O Ferries Care Team

    14 days for a full reply, 28 days at the outside

    Email complaint@poferries.com, or write to P&O Ferries, Maybrook House, Queen’s Gardens, Dover CT17 9AH. A passenger rights complaint has to be in writing within 2 months of travel.

  2. 2

    Customer Relations Manager

    5 working days

    Ask for the final review P&O Ferries offers when the Care Team’s answer doesn’t fix it.

  3. 3

    Maritime and Coastguard Agency

    The National Enforcement Body for sea passenger rights. It investigates whether the rules were broken, but says in its own guidance that it will not act on individual claims for compensation or act as an appeals body.

    Visit website
  4. 4

    Money Claim Online

    P&O Ferries is not an ABTA member, so no arbitration scheme covers it. For the money itself the route is the small claims track, for claims up to £10,000.

    Visit website

P&O Ferries’s own response target

14 days

P&O Ferries aims to reply in full within 14 days and says every complaint is fully answered within 28. A passenger rights complaint must be sent within 2 months of travel, after which it has 1 month to say where the complaint stands and 2 months to give a final answer.

Frequently asked questions

Email complaint@poferries.com, the Care Team address P&O Ferries publishes in its own complaints procedure, or write to P&O Ferries, Maybrook House, Queen’s Gardens, Dover CT17 9AH. Lead with the booking reference, the route and the sailing date, say what went wrong and name the outcome you want. P&O Ferries aims to reply in full within 14 days and says every complaint is fully answered within 28, by someone who wasn’t involved in it.

complaint@poferries.com, singular, and it is the Care Team address named in the P&O Ferries Complaints Handling Procedure. customer.services@poferries.com is the general customer service address on the same site and also reaches the Care Team, but the complaints one lands on the right desk first time. Keep a copy and note the date you sent it: that is when the clock starts.

It is a share of what you paid for the delayed leg, not a flat sum. Sea passenger rights set at least 25% of the ticket price once you arrive an hour late on a crossing scheduled at up to 4 hours, 2 hours late on one of 4 to 8 hours, 3 hours late on one of 8 to 24 hours, or 6 hours late on anything longer. Double those and it becomes 50%. Payment is due within a month of a substantiated claim, and a carrier may set a minimum threshold of no more than £5.

A cancellation, or a departure held more than 90 minutes, gives you a choice: re-routing to your destination at no extra cost, or your money back, paid within 7 days. Past 90 minutes you should also be offered snacks or a meal, and where an overnight stay becomes necessary, accommodation, which the carrier may cap at £70 a night for up to 3 nights. Weather that endangered the ship removes the compensation, not the refund or the re-routing.

No. ABTA’s own member register returns nothing for P&O Ferries, and ABTA only takes disputes about its members. Government guidance does list ABTA as the complaint handling body for ferry services, and P&O Ferries’ own complaints policy points at ABTA too, so expect to be turned away if you register a dispute there. Brittany Ferries and Condor Ferries are ABTA members; P&O Ferries is not.

None. Ferry operators have no ombudsman, and P&O Ferries is not in ABTA’s arbitration scheme either. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is the National Enforcement Body for sea passenger rights and will look at whether the rules were broken, but it states that it will not act on individual claims for compensation or act as an appeals body. So the ladder is the Care Team, then the Customer Relations Manager, then the small claims track if you want the money.

For a passenger rights complaint, 2 months from the date the sailing ran or should have run. That deadline comes from the regulation and P&O Ferries states it in both its complaints policy and its terms of business. An ordinary service complaint has no such cut-off, but write early: it is easier for them to check what happened, and a breach of contract claim in England and Wales still has to reach court within 6 years.

No, and complaining to the wrong one costs you weeks. P&O Ferries runs the Dover to Calais, Hull to Rotterdam and Cairnryan to Larne crossings and was bought by DP World. P&O Cruises trades as Carnival UK Ltd. from Southampton, is part of Carnival Corporation, and is an ABTA member with a completely separate complaints route. They share a name and very little else.

Tools & guides for your P&O Ferries complaint

Free calculators and explainers that strengthen the case you make to P&O Ferries.

Further reading

Not sure what the law actually entitles you to? Start with our UK consumer rights guide - refunds, faulty goods, and how to enforce your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Work at P&O Ferries? Reply to complaints here.

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Disclaimer: NoReply is an independent consumer advocacy platform. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to P&O Ferries or any of the companies listed on this site. Where an address is marked verified, we read it on P&O Ferries’s own site or a complaint sent to it arrived. Addresses marked not verified have not been checked, and ones marked bounced do not reach P&O Ferries. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.