Well if you cant handle an English accent is there any hope? Even if you get put through to the French side (I keep the UK number on my phone) its very well spoken English. What is wrong is if you want to book at 9pm and the phones are closed.
Itās always puzzled me that DFDS donāt want to encourage online bookings eg by offering the discount to those booking this way. Many businesses offer savings to those buying goods and services online, since it presumably saves on expensive labour costs ultimately. It has been suggested that they perhaps want to informally check whether the person sounds as if they could be 60+, which obviously canāt be easily done online - if people lie. I was offered the 20% discount without even my asking when I last booked by phone.
Strangely the discount isnāt at all obvious on the French language site, but is very obvious on the UK site. DFDS didnāt have a clear answer when I asked why this happens.
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I think verifying age is why they do it.
On my last call the agent had a strong French accent. I also struggle to hear clearly and especially dislike using the phone. If you prefer the phone, please donāt hesitate to use it
Surely that info comes up in (or could be checked via) the legally required Advance Passenger Information?
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Some years ago our Paris club organised a car trip to Corsica and anyone over 60 could get a special discount on the overnight crossing ā¦ I know we had to prove our agesā¦ and think it meant sending a copy of our passportsā¦ so the Club could pay the correct price upfrontā¦
If thatās a problem for you then Iām surprised that you still visit France 
Language is a battle for me, spoken language doubly so, and then French is another level up from that.
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Telephone conversations, in French and English , are often a bit difficult for meā¦ and I usually have to ask the person to speak more slowlyā¦
Family and friends do know this, although they sometimes forget and I have to gently stop them in midflowā¦ 
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Only thing is the API is not required at the time of booking, when I call they recognise my phone number and have my information up on their screens quickly.
Clearly the chosen one
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Nah just the tech side of phone systems
@Ancient_Mariner Apologies AM, I had to call DFDS this morning to extend our trip and the system has indeed changed, calling the UK number I was still put through to the French booking side.
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Thanks for that - at least I know Iām not being singled out.
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This thread is a little old but I am reminded of it as I get ready to use the crossing again. The clunkiness I referred to before is that you can only book by telephone and so only during business hours. For booking itself that may be fine, but if you need to change your booking for any reason and you happened to book to sail at a weekend it is impossible to do so unless you call in to the port. I had to do this last time and was quite nervous driving 7hrs not being sure if I could sail or not (thankfully outside peak periods the ships are rarely full).
BTW all calls, even for the UK telephone number, are handled by the team in Dieppe. And yes, I agree with others that the staff are unfailingly polite and helpful, it is just the working hours that sometimes can prove a problem.
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