Beneteau Oceanis 48 - 5 cab. with 5 Cabins - Sailing Yacht (2018) - DESROCHES

Terrible Avoid Dream Yacht Charter Gouvia – Poorly Maintained Boats, Misleading Information, and Aggressive Management We chartered a boat from Dream Yacht Charter in Gouvia, Corfu, for one week, and it turned into one of the worst customer experiences we have ever had. Before departing, we checked the fuel gauge and noticed it was only showing around three quarters full. We raised this immediately with the branch manager, Thianis, who reassured us that the gauge was faulty and not to worry about it. In good faith, we trusted what we were told and departed. From the very first day of the charter, problems started appearing. None of the drains in any of the three showers were working properly. Black sediment and silt were actually coming back up through the drains, meaning the showers became effectively unusable for the entire week. We had to physically bail dirty water out ourselves throughout the trip. On top of that, the bow thruster had virtually no power. When we returned to Gouvia at the end of the charter, we filled the boat with diesel before handover and suddenly the “faulty” fuel gauge was working perfectly fine. We then had to put over €300 of fuel into the boat at our own expense. It became very clear at that point that the gauge was not faulty at all, despite what we had been told before departure. When we calmly raised these issues on return, the women in the office were actually lovely and professional. Unfortunately, once the branch manager, Thianis, became involved, the situation deteriorated badly. He entered aggressively and demanded the member of staff we had been dealing with move out of her seat so he could take over the conversation himself. He then started writing down figures claiming we had completed 56 hours of motoring and used the generator for 6 hours. This is completely false. We completed approximately 24 hours of motoring during the entire week, with the rest done under sail, and the generator was never turned on once. We were never shown any official logs or data supporting these numbers. They were simply figures he had written down himself. When we challenged these clearly inaccurate claims, his behaviour became confrontational, aggressive, and intimidating. It was honestly one of the worst customer service experiences we have encountered. We had multiple people onboard who have been chartering boats for over 35 years, and every single person agreed they had never experienced anything like this before. Poorly maintained boat, misleading information about fuel, major onboard issues ignored, and unacceptable behaviour from management. I would strongly advise people to avoid this branch entirely.