'Customer Service in Uruguay' Business

Wilbur Corncob from Punta del Este - 10/15/07 17:01

Some people say that in Uruguay the customer is always wrong, ie that customer service isn't important for businesses. This leads to comments that one shouldn't bother complaining when they receive poor service as it doesn't matter.

Is this really the case, that a business doesn't care if a customer is upset and takes their money elsewhere?

Do complaints fall on deaf ears?

One could possibly say that in the USA it is completely opposite and people complain just to get something for free.

Comment #1 Santiago Torres from Montevideo, Uruguay - 10/15/07 20:44

There's an increasing trend of business that understand the importance of the customer's opinion. Of course, still remain a large number of business that don't get that key aspect of a modern capitalist economy. Specially, those small business run by older people, who belong to the culture of a closed economy, but not exclusively.

A law of consumption relations (usually known as "in defense of the consummer") is already in effect. And there's a government body that can jump in defense of decveived customers in some cases. Anyhow, there's a long way to learn how to reach maturity. Both parts need to learn a lot. The business and, so too, the customers. Sometimes, customers think they can get away with anything.

In the long run, bots sides will reach a sane equilibrium.

Comment #2 Wilbur Corncob from Punta del Este - 10/16/07 06:26

I find it is much like the united states in that:

The small businesses tend to offer much better service than the larger one. The corner mom and pop store will bend over backwards for you.

For example I ordered a water filter online. The man who delivered it called the same day I made the order, made an appointment to deliver it at 8pm that day. He also set it up and had presoaked the filter so it was ready. A couple weeks later he called to make sure everything was ok.

In contrast the Cable company made it almost impossible to terminate service and 1 day after they finally accepted my cancellation they were on the phone asking if I wanted a new contract! Those called continued for a couple weeks. What part I didn't want their service anymore could they not understand?

Comment #3 Abbie (109.111.97.136) - 05/10/10 04:04

I think there should never be any rule like customer is always right or the owner is always right. What would be best is that anyone who is right should always be right, no matter if you are the customer or the owner of the establishment. At some places the customers would tend to claim that something is wrong with their orders to be able to get that meal free.

Comment #4 Alberto (1) from Montevideo - 05/10/10 09:01

"Provider's and Cosumer's Culture."

Santiago made an acqurate description of the situation. Specially in his comment about an old culture of family driven small shops accostumed to a closed economy with little alternatives and a generally low quality of services and products. That is slowly changing and as usual the better will prevail in the new economic environment. I would just add two things: First, there still are some monopolies, or near monopolies, wich are difficult to turn into customer satisfaction driven enterprises. We all know the State monopolies, but there are also some private de facto monopolies or near-monopolies out there. Second, the consumers also have a role to play, and their culture is also slowly changing. People didn't use to claim a lot a decade or two ago. Now it is starting to change and you can see more claims at the counters and at the Consumer Defense Comission. Some years ago a phrase resuming Supplier's and Consumer's culture became a motto of Uruguay: "Es lo que hay, valor" ("It's what you can get, folk."). Maybe it'll become out of use in the future...

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