February 2002,

To anyone considering buying an Alpha Autopilot, please consider our experience with the company before you buy one!

When my wife and I realized we had a problem with the drive unit of our Alpha 3000 system, we emailed the factory for suggestions to what might be wrong with the unit. “Send the whole unit back to us” was the reply. As hard as that is to do while being in Mexico, we sent it in. Two weeks later the reply from the factory was “the heads good but the drive unit has extensive water damage, $1695.00 to fix and only $1700.00 for a new and improved unit. We will not repair until check or money order is received here at the factory.”

Our friend Don Mitchell called the factory and spoke with Chris, telling him that we were on a very tight budget and to send the unit to him, which Chris promptly did after charging $114.00 for telling us what he could do for us. Don is talented in the art of tinkering, he spent 2 hours tearing apart, cleaning and lubricating the unit. In the process he installed a bearing (1 for $9.00) from a local bearing house. 2 hours and a 9 dollar bearing later the unit is working as good as new. That is quite a markup on the repair quoted by Alpha! While Don was in the process of disassembling and re-assembling the drive unit he called Chris a number of times with a question and all Chris would say over and over was “you assemble it.” Before long Don got the clue that he was getting no information at all and was also, annoying the tech support department (Chris). From our experience Alpha has no tech in the support department.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Paul Petraitis

S/V Expresso