Bad Customer Service

It is not common here to receive good customer service. It seems as if many Bolivians just don't know how to do it right (in my opinion). I have gone into numerous stores here where the sales person does not even greet me, but looks at me more as an inconvenient disturbance to whatever they were looking at on their cellphone. I leave many stores thinking to myself, these people do not know how to sell stuff at all. On top of that, if you ask for something extra, the usual answer is no. They do not go out of their way to accommodate you. It's either: take it as it is, or leave it.

In restaurants no one greets you either. Today, Alicia and I were looking for a place to eat lunch. One place looked really crowded, so we went in. No one greeted us, and I had to ask someone else how to order food. The person I had asked pointed towards the back of the restaurant, so I went over there and asked the man standing there, "do you work here?" and he replied "no." That's all. No help, and no clue how to order food. So we left and decided to give another place our business.

We went to a place around the corner that looked "ok." I went inside and asked the woman at the register what was for lunch. She named two dishes I had never heard of before. I asked what they were, and she tried to explain but did not do a very good job, and I didn't know if she was talking about two dishes or just one. I asked her if there were two options or just one, and she said "what do you want?!?" getting annoyed. I said "fine, I'll take it!" "Which ONE??" she asked. If only she had answered my first question...

Lunch cost us each just about $2. We had a basic soup to start off, and then a plate of whatever it was I couldn't understand before. We got one of each to try both. Both were served on a bed of minute rice. Vegetables were nowhere to be seen. Rice, potatoes, a few small pieces of meat, and I think I saw something that looked like egg. We were pretty full already, but then came dessert: jello! So we left there feeling full yet unsatisfied because the food was not very good. My conclusion is that if you want healthy and tasty food, you really have to pay for it. It’s no wonder so many people are not getting proper nutrition here. The majority of what people can afford are carbohydrates. But at the same time, vegetables are so cheap! I don't get it! Perhaps I will choose to investigate this further in my research.

Another time, we decided to go to a chicken restaurant (there are a lot of restaurants here that just sell chicken and french fries, rice or noodles). This one was owned by a Chinese woman. When Alicia and I entered, we tried to order food and she kind of screeched "yes?! What do you want?!?!" with a weird look on her face. Not very friendly at all. I said, "isn't this a restaurant? Can we eat here?" and I made eating motions with my hand, brining an invisible fork with invisible food from an invisible plate to my mouth; a universal gesture I think. I guess she got the point. "What do you want?!" she asked us again. Between me and her, neither of us could understand each other. Can you imagine a Chinese woman speaking Spanish with a Chinese accent? Eventually I had to ask some locals sitting at a table what she was talking about. Between me, the Bolivians at the table (who could understand me just fine) and the Chinese woman (who couldn't seem to understand me one bit) we were able to order. We sat down with our chicken and rice and soon thereafter some stray dogs joined our table, begging for food. The front of the restaurant was very broad, open, and faced a busy street, so stray dogs could just walk in as the pleased. Alicia felt sympathetic and decided to give some chicken bones to one of them. Sadly, the dog was too blind to see the favor Alicia had done for him. Another dog ate it. Although beer was on the menu, they did not have beer. A large screen at the back wall of the restaurant was playing Chinese action movies. Apparently (Alicia told me later) when I asked the Chinese woman something, she gave me that same mean look as she did when we arrived, but as soon as I turned around and started walking back to our table where Alicia was sitting, she put on a strangely large smile.

I don't think we will be returning to either of these restaurants...

Anyway, change of topic. Check out this post Christina Somerville wrote about me in her blog! We met on the flight to La Paz and hit it off well :) http://tmblr.co/ZICFVqvjYdc3 Thank you for your kind words, Christina! I wish you the best of luck and I hope we meet again someday! (check out her blog at http://asasojourn.tumblr.com/)!