Sealink’s outrageous charges and practices
2012.03.30
Today I and Kangaroo Island lost its 4th booking since mid January because of Sealinks charges. Tourists make a booking for my home, on 2 occasions paying their deposit, and then cancel when they go to book the ferry and hear the exorbitant charges. Now multiply that by the 100s and see what the island has lost.
Last year I complained to a sales supervisor in Sealink that Sealink staff had actually talked my booked clients into an accommodation/ferry package through Sealink… I knew of this because of the clients cancelling and me talking to them. Sealinks comeback was basically ‘That’s business’ … well Sealink, let’s have some scruples.
Their booking commissions for renting a holiday home to tourists, are at the highest level of commissions. Yes, they are a private business and must make a good profit to be sustainable and to grow (particularly with their expensive infrastructure).
Yes, I’ll probably get payback from some community members for saying the above, but come on, how long should people shut-up and let things get worse, in government, private enterprise or in the laws and courts?
Jim Scattergood, Penneshaw
Published in The Islander of 2012.04.05 with a sentence edited out
[Note from the Webmaster: our own B&B business has been at the unhappy end of having clients and potential clients cancelling their accommodation booking or their reservation with us, following Sealink staff talking them into rather booking with an accommodation business part of their commissions system — which we are not part of. This has happened too often to our taste, and we have heard the same story from other businesses.
This business practice of Sealink is unfair to independent and smaller businesses, and illegal by all means. Sealink would be advised to stop it.]
There’s not much we can do about the level of Sealink fares except keep on at our political masters to recognise the problem that they pose to the island.
Sealink are right – what they are doing is just business even if a bit sharp. However, accommodation owners can play Sealink at their own game by offering to make ferry bookings on the spot for clients. That way, they don’t get hijacked by Sealink and you (as the booker) get a commission from Sealink instead of the other way around.