Warning - Aktio/Cleopatra Marina - Ripped off at yard for repair

[Niall1975]

I had to return to work at short notice so we berthed the boat at Aktio/Cleopatra Marina at Preveza. Very reasonable prices, very friendly staff and very helpful. Our generator was not working and we decided before my wife returned to the UK we would get it fixed. She walked over to the yard and one of the guys arrived the next day.

After 2 of hours fiddling the generator sprung into life although he was not able to tell us what he did. My wife was then presented with a bill for 250 Euro's !!!!!!

Emailed the marina to complain and they simply say it was a technical repair and had difficult access.

Be warned i'd recommend carrying on else where unless you have to or have a very deep wallet !!!! I certainly won't be returning there again !!!!!!!!

Niall

 

[Richard10002]

Why wouldn't you ask what their hourly rate is for that job, or that technician, or in general?

 

[Niall1975]

Ive been sailing in Greece now for 4yrs and have a fair idea what id expect to pay. As i said above, i was at work in Angola and still am. Regardless of whether i asked or not, its no excuse for ripping off customers. Ill do what i always do, vote with my feet and not return. Just passing on a warning to others to be careful if they are there

Niall



Niall

 

[Chris_Robb]

Ive been sailing in Greece now for 4yrs and have a fair idea what id expect to pay. As i said above, i was at work in Angola and still am. Regardless of whether i asked or not, its no excuse for ripping off customers. Ill do what i always do, vote with my feet and not return. Just passing on a warning to others to be careful if they are there

Niall



Niall

Par for the course at Cleopatra - no one from outside the yard can work on your boat - NOT AT ALL. Much better to be at the more down market end of Aktion Marine - lots of good workers - all freelance - but good - mainly German, English etc. Very fair prices and NO restrictions or commission to pay to the yard. Ask other yachties out there for references on who to use. Stephan the engineer is A 1 and he has a good apprentice too - Stephan is always in the back ground if more tech help needed. Hourly rate for a good technician should be no more than €50 per hour.

At least in Prevesa you have the choice of yards. Most places you are stuffed and you MUST get a quote or agree the hourly time and material rate BEFORE letting them near.

 

[macd]

Par for the course at Cleopatra - no one from outside the yard can work on your boat - NOT AT ALL.

I agree that Cleopatra's money-grabbing attitude is hard to take, but the assertion that no-one from outside the yard can work on your boat is patently untrue. Yes, any such workers need to be registered in some way with the yard, and yes, the yard imposes a levy on their fees. But work in the yard they most certainly do.

 

[sailaboutvic]

charging a Levy for work done is wide spread in Greece and not letting outside works In the yard Is also the norm , when a friend of our damages his keel Messilonghi in the begin they wanted 40 % of the job and they didn't want outside contractor to do the job , in the end they accept 15 or 20% of the job and allowed an out side contractor to do the job . another time in the same yard , a well know UK company send three guy out to do a warranty job after the first day they where stop and told to leave the yard ,the guy had to take the boat else where to get the job finished under warranty ,
Kos marina some years back all the outside contractor where told they could no longer work in the yard , all jobs had to be done by guys the marina recommended . Again the marina wanted a cut , some may say , if fair for the marina to have a percent of the price of the job , but who do you think is paying it , it not the contractors .what is even worst is that the workmanship can at time be very bad and when things go badly wrong the marina does want to know , instruction you to take it up with the contractor.

Lucky we do all our know work and one of the first thing we ask before getting lifted is if we can work and live on the boat while it in the yard , if the Answer to them question is no we just go else where .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[Palarran]

I had arranged to have a Yanmar Mechanic from CYS in Levkas adjust the valves on my new motors when the boat was in Messolonghi. The staff at Messolonghi had sent me an e-mail saying it was ok for the mechanic to do the work but didn't mention anything about charging a fee for outside services. When he arrived they said he couldn't do the work. What I told them was we would pull away from the marina, anchor, and use out tender to bring the mechanic to our boat. They then said no problem, don't worry about it, and the work was done at the marina. It is common for the yards to charge a fee.

As a price guide, CYS charged me 35 euro from the time the mechanic left Levkas until he returned per hour. I though that was very fair and he was very good.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I agree that Cleopatra's money-grabbing attitude is hard to take, but the assertion that no-one from outside the yard can work on your boat is patently untrue. Yes, any such workers need to be registered in some way with the yard, and yes, the yard imposes a levy on their fees. But work in the yard they most certainly do.

Don't agree entirely. Stephan the engineer at Aktio was not allowed into the Cleopatra marina extension at Prevesa town. full stop. We had to tow the boat to the town quay.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I had arranged to have a Yanmar Mechanic from CYS in Levkas adjust the valves on my new motors when the boat was in Messolonghi. The staff at Messolonghi had sent me an e-mail saying it was ok for the mechanic to do the work but didn't mention anything about charging a fee for outside services. When he arrived they said he couldn't do the work. What I told them was we would pull away from the marina, anchor, and use out tender to bring the mechanic to our boat. They then said no problem, don't worry about it, and the work was done at the marina. It is common for the yards to charge a fee.

As a price guide, CYS charged me 35 euro from the time the mechanic left Levkas until he returned per hour. I though that was very fair and he was very good.

Yes but things have change a bit now , I can promise you , that wouldn't had been the case if Yannis was still running the yard , he tried to charge me for having some S/S delivered and just ask Swedish Peter who still winter in Messilonghi what happen to him, or poor mata in the office who try to readjust my bill when he tried to over charge me for power , by 110 euros , the poor women got thrown off her chair and was taken to hospital , the problem is when people go off home there don't really see what's going on in the marina , OK things I under stand have change now and it about time too , here a very good example . Germany guy come back in March , at the time quite a lot of the people there who had problem with the marina , we heard him say , I been here for four years and I never had a problem there are very good here and the Staff are just the best I ever come across , then a guy moored next to him who been there all winter pointed out the chips on his hull gel coats where the staff quote ""are the best he ever came across end of Quote "" spend the winter throwing a fish fork at fish feeding off his hull and quite a lot of other boats , . some how the way he shot up to the office I don't think he still thought the same about Spros and his mate , thank god they have gone too , at last Joe got a chance to make a go of the marina .

Even the time you ask me to take a look at your battery's , the reason I could get your keys was because your battery wasn't plug in and they where trying to get charge into them before I got to check them .
I not having go , but the truth is people who just dump there boats and go off for the winter haven't got a clue what going on , I sure when the cradle leg broke and the staff was informed but it took them three days before moving the boat ,it was the Liveaboard at the time who propped it up with a stump to stop it falling over . if by chance the boat fell over the owner would had never knew his boat was sitting on a cradle this just three legs holding it up .
Messilonghi may have change , I couldn't say as we not been there since that winter , I hope it has .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[Palarran]

Even the time you ask me to take a look at your battery's , the reason I could get your keys was because your battery wasn't plug in and they where trying to get charge into them before I got to check them .
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

I had suspected as much. Thanks again for doing that.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I had suspected as much. Thanks again for doing that.

That isn't a problem , always happy to help a fellow sailor , one day I also may need someone help .

Bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[vyv_cox]

There have been several reports from CA members about shoddy workmanship by Cleopatra yard. One I recall vaguely was to steering, which failed after a few days. The owner brought the boat back, Cleopatra fixed it again and it failed again after the same time.

 

[fliti]

If you check the archives, you will find our sorry tale of incompetence, greed and abuse from Cleopatra. As I replied to a thread earlier this year enquiring about Cleopatra, DO NOT touch their engineering service. They nearly sunk me and I am by no means alone. There are good people working in Preveza and Lefkas but they are not working for Cleopatra!