LivingInPatagonia.com

The Pacific Bell Award in Argentina

September 19th, 2007 Posted in business, day to day

Written by Shanie 

There are two things that the Argentine culture has taught me: patience truly is a virtue and go with the flow, it’s easier that way.  This became apparent to me after a phone call from ADT, the alarm company for our house.

Let me back up a bit here and give a little history.

When we bought our home in Bariloche it came with an alarm system.  The previous owners, unbeknown-est to us, didn’t change out the alarm battery when needed.  We had a rowdy Patagonian storm and lost power for multiple days.

It’s the night of our fifth wedding anniversary.  A night when lack of power is not such a bad thing.  We come home from a romantic, candle lit dinner to find our power on.

Great!  Power equals stereo.  Sexy music is on the horizon…

We climb out of the car, eager to continue celebrating our big 5th.  But…wait…what is that high pitch, siren noise that is screaming from the house.

We ran up the stairs, unlocked the door, entered the code.  Silence.

Jamie turned to me.

“Champag….”

The high pitched squeal cut off his words.  The alarm would not turn off.  Each time we entered the code the noise would stop for a few seconds and then continue its alarming job.

Not so great for a romantic vibe, let alone the eardrums.

We called the alarm company, hoping they would have some remedy.  A very kind girl answered the call.

Jamie explained the situation.  She was very apologetic, concerned and understanding.  She was trying to find a resolution to the problem.

After fifty minutes of “no me corta, por favor” and “un segundo mas, por favor” she came back on saying a manager was going to talk with us.

His in-genius idea…tape a pillow over it.

Laughing at the response of the company and attempting to stay lighthearted about the situation, we continued trying to find a way to STOP THE NOISE.

Then Jamie had a great idea…to disconnect it at the source.  The company’s response…okay, but you will have to pay for a reconnection fee.

Yeah, I don’t think so.  But we can talk about that after the alarm stops going off every ten seconds. 

By the way, we are into the conversation with ADT for over an hour by now.

So Jamie disconnects the stupid alarm. 

Once again love is in the air.  Now, where were we…

Fast forward a week: we have talked to the company multiple times to come out and fix the system and replace the battery (which the company decided was the causing factor to the alarm not shutting off).  They have done the common Argentine government/city appointment action of a no-show multiple times.

Finally the technician graces us with his presence.  He says that the entire panel is broken and that will be $500 pesos.  Wait a sec…the problem was the battery.  Are we getting gringoed?

But then it turns out that he doesn’t have the part needed so he’s going to have to come back in ten days. 

“En diez dias…” is a common phrase here.

Fast forward a month:  so now we have not had an alarm system for almost a month and a half.  It’s not the biggest deal in the world, we have good guard dogs.  The only problem is, is that they are still charging us (and we are getting to know the hold music much to well).

We continue calling them everyday trying to get the technician to come out.  We receive every excuse in the book.  From “It is snowing and he can’t make it,” on multiple blue bird days.  To “He will call you in a few hours.”  We probably heard that one around ten times, never to receive a call.

So enough is enough.  They’re fired.

We hired another company.  After some Argentine mate moments and the usual paciencia needed with any Argentine company, we finally had a working alarm system.

Fast forward one more time: we fired ADT over a month ago.  I answer the phone.  It’s ADT.

“Hola, it’s the technician with ADT.  I am here.  Where is your house?”

Are you guys for real?

I politely explain that we ended our service with ADT a month prior and had no need for a technician.  Thanks anyway.

But to top it all off they called us again tonight.

Back in the States we had what we called ”The Pacific Bell Award”, given to those companies that didn’t know the meaning of customer service. 

Well, I give ADT the Pacific Bell Award ten times over. 

I guess I should be glad that we never needed to use their intended service.  We would probably still be waiting for the police to show up.