Called into Palermo after an autopilot failure on a recently-purchased 70-year old classic making a passage, with two on board, from Greece to her new home in Majorca.

Good: berthed on the inside of harbour wall of La Cala right next to the fuel berth. Very well looked after by Roberto, the berthmaster. He chased hard on our behalf to get the Raymarine agent to come and have a look at the autopilot problem. (Roberto doesn’t have English but a boat-owning friend acted as an interpreter)

Disaster. The Raymarine agent in Palermo, TechnoTeam, was awful. We arrived on Sunday, I sent a full email with photos describing our problem to TechnoTeam that day, and had a good introductory call first thing Monday morning. It went downhill from there:
– Monday: ‘I’ll be on board at 10.00’. No show, Didn’t answer my phone, or respond to emails or texts. The berthmaster (Roberto – see above) chased on my behalf, and got a promise the agent would be on board at 14.00. No show
– Tuesday: further chasing by both Roberto and his yacht-owning colleague.No show
– Wednesday: gave up, and arranged for a friend to fly out to join us so we could hand-steer for the rest of the trip. Then 17.00, the Raymarine agent arrived unexpectedly. Diagnosed the problem as a failed central computer. It’s an old ST70+ system, so he wasn’t sure he could find even a secondhand replacement, but promised faithfully to communicate (either way) by 14.00 Thursday
– Thursday. No communication. Calls/messages/emails not answered. New crew member arrived late evening.
– Friday. Sailed at 08.00.

No complaints that Raymarine’s agent couldn’t solve the problem. And I’m sure he was technically competent. Major complaint about his service and communication: he shouldn’t make appointments he can’t keep; he shouldn’t blank me so I don’t know what’s going on; and if it’s a ‘sorry, it’s summer holidays, I’m overwhelmed with work and I can’t help’ then that is useable information from which I can take decisions.

PS learned from local boat-owner (above) that the agent is notorious for awful service.
PPS the Raymarine website has the wrong telephone for the Palermo agent – one too few digits and anyway the wrong number