Boataround

When I made the reservation in December 2019 I did it because the cancellation was guaranteed by Botaround until June 2020, it was written in the order confirmation, then when I asked to cancel in March the cancellation was denied because of COVID-19. In the communication on the website and even in the email cancellation policy instead was guaranteed with no exception.
We finally decided to go, customer service was supportive in the weeks before the charter, except the boat I booked was for 12 people, no discounts for reduced crew were envisaged, nevertheless when I asked to have bed linen for 12 the charter company responded that I had only 10, if I wanted more I had to pay.
The charter was from Marina Gouvia on 8/8/2020 for 2 weeks, check-in at 5pm, boat name Amethist. When I arrived there at 1pm to see the boat and leave my car before going to supermarket, the boat was not there, nobody from Golden Compass was there and nobody had sent me any communication. I called Golden Compass and the lady that answered the phone did not know anything, she sent me first to an harbour then to another and when I asked support she responded “Go and take a coffee, leave us working!”.
When I arrived to the second harbour I called another number at 4pm and a man told me that the boat was there. It was no true and I told him, lately at 4.40pm arrived a Cyclades 50 named Paraiba different from the one we booked and that never arrived. Then the guy called me and said to take Paraiba, which I did. We saw Amethist lather during the cruise with another crew onboard.
During all these troubles I called and wrote also to Boataround, customer service always answered with courtesy but they were unable to deliver any results or change.

The Harbour, NOAK, did not have electricity nor available water at the dock, for the water it was possible to call a lorry.
No check in was made and clearly no maintenance check nor proper cleaning had been done before handing the boat to me, in fact:
• The forward left cabin hatch was missing the blind
• 2 pillowcases were missing
• The freshwater pump was not working (dirty filters)
• One of the fridges was not working and the related bilge pump was always on
• 2 wc were leaking dirty water from wc base and drain
• The tank of forward left wc showed a “Full” indication also if empty
• Freshwater tanks gauges were incorrect
• The boat was delivered with freshwater tanks pretty empty in a harbour where freshwater was not freely available. We put 360 litres to fill them.
• Boat was dirty, in the backward bathroom I found (and showed to Golden Compass representative) worms
• The wire of the outboard starter broke up the very first time we used the outboard.
• Autopilot was often going out of order, had to be restarted
• The engine belt was noisy.

Many of the problems were fixed by Golden Compass upon my claims but it took the time to discover and communicate, 1 full day plus an intervention that was made in Paxos 2 days after. The guy that gave me and took back the boat, Iannis, was nice to me and the crew. When I told him that by contract means the boat was available late and I had the right to be reimbursed for the time lost, Golden Compass discounted us the 160€ of the outboard renting. I have to tell that at the end of the charter they did not reimburse 100€ that we spent to fix the outboard starter since we did not have the receipt.
I have chartered boats with different agents and charters (i.e. Globesailor, Marenauta, Dreamyacht Charters) many times getting also bargains and offers but never experiencing such a nightmare. Not only I would not recommend Boataround and Golden Gompass but I will recommend not to work with them.

I was surprised by your quick reaction when your employee (Petra I guess) called me during the booking process and explained everything and even contacted the charter beforehand to check availability. On Sunday evening. Thank you very much.

Well, I used boataroud.com many times, for me it's the best boat finder for European seas. Thank's a lot for their helpful informations about boats, operators are very friendly, willing, express....

I was looking for a sailing boat in Athens on short notice (3 weeks ahead), back in October '19.
I had some extra requirements regarding deposit, arrival, departure, changes, and tight budget.
Basically we had crew changes resulting in the budget changes and wanted a Ferrari for the costs of Fiat punto.
I planned first time Greece, not knowing the quality of different charter companies and other issues.
Boataround.com supported me and even proactively reached me by pone, so we solved all open items in short time,( late arrival on Sunday night, leave us a boat open for overnight, earlier check out, improved commercial offer.)
I can only recommend Boataround.com and wish that other booking servers operate the same way.
I really felt secure when booking with them...

Already a second experience this year and again a great service, incredible speed of reaction and top customer service. Thank you!

I have been a return customer for several years now. Jana and her team are always available to help out whatever the issue. They have helped us book many great holidays. Keep it up!

I was very precise with my boat specification for a Croatia bareboat charter this summer (2020).Jana was superb and worked tirelessly to find alternatives for me until I was happy with the final choice. Great job Jana. Now looking forward to getting out there and onto the high seas. Thank you.

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