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FROM
CUBA
Stores of terror
Rafael Ferro Salas,
Abdala Press
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - November (www.cubanet.org)
- The deterioration of services to the general
populace marches hand-in-hand with the disaster
of the Cuban economy. This situation occurs
in both the chains of stores where sales
are in convertible currency and in establishments
for Cuban currency.
What's clear is that good service for consumers
was lost a long time ago. The State in Cuba
is the absolute master of as many commercial
establishments as function. No one is the
owner of anything, and it's precisely there
where respect for the customers is lost.
What has happened to various people who
gave statements about their shopping days
is proof of this:
Aida Camero Delgado, 42, works as an office
clerk. She says she went to shop at a store
where products are bought with convertible
currency (equal to the U.S. dollar). "I
bought a radio made in China for ten pesos
there. I took it home and it didn't work.
I went back to the store and the woman who
sold it to me said she couldn't replace
it because I'd already left the store. I
found the manager who told me the same thing
and treated me with disrespect. I sent my
complaint to the provincial management for
that chain of stores, but they haven't responded
at all up till now. Now the radio has lost
its guarantee and I've lost my money. There's
no respect for the customer now."
Manuel Arronte García, 56, had to
confront a similar situation in a cafeteria
for sales in national currency.
"The cafeteria is located on the main
street of the city and is called "The
Anon." I bought a ham sandwich. All
of a sudden I smelled a disagreeable odor
and realized it was my sandwich. The ham
was in a bad state, rotten. So then I complained
to the man who sold it to me and he told
me he couldn't replace it because I had
bitten into it. I called the manager. He
was a fat guy and bad-tempered. He told
me my case had no remedy and to complain
wherever I felt like it. Those were his
words. Here in Cuba what's needed is a return
to capitalism to see if respect for customers
can be recaptured."
This reporter toured the city and was in
a bakery in the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
neighborhood. There were quite a lot of
people in the place forming a long line
to make purchases. A white lady of some
60 years of age was arguing with the man
who was serving at the counter. The woman
complained about the poor quality of the
bread. She said it was old and looked bad.
I was able to hear the employee's reply
in the face of the dissatisfied customer's
complaint:
"You can leave it and not take it,
lady. At the end of the day this business
isn't mine and I don't lose anything. One
thing or the other, it's all the same to
me."
I also heard what the woman replied: "This
happens here in Cuba because things have
no owners. Under capitalism you would have
already been fired for showing disrepect
to me as a customer. There's no one now
who can stop the bad joke about services
to the people in this country."
A few days ago I talked about this very
topic with a neighbor friend of mine. I
told him services were going from bad to
worse and things appeared to have no solution.
My neighbor answered me with sure conviction:
"They'll never have a solution. At
least as long as there's a system like this
where the motto is everything belongs to
everyone. That doesn't work in any part,
man. Businesses need owners to move forward."
That's the way things are in Cuba. Services
to the general population are near collapse
and people have no other alternative than
shopping at stores while carrying a permanent
stigma: the terror of abusive treatment.
Versión
original en español
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