In mid-March, I needed to get my 3-year old fridge serviced. So I reached out to the expat community and got a highly rated recommendation: Soluciones Técnicas. I trusted the expat who sent the recommendation – I’ll call them “JE” for sake of this story – so I didn’t do my usual paranoia-fueled pre-hire investigation. I reached out to Soluciones Técnicas via WhatsApp, confirmed that my need was within their wheelhouse, and set up the technician visit.

1. The Technician Visit
2. My Rookie Mistake
3. Diagnosis and Discovery
4. Seeking a Resolution
5. The Aftermath
6. Reminders and Key Takeaways

The Technician Visit

On the agreed-upon day, I was deep in the middle of a class with student, when my doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone at that time, so I paused my class and went to the balcony to look down and find out who the HELL was trying to get into my apartment. It turned out that it was the technician Miguel Realpe Ángel, he arrived a full 35 minutes early.

I was working… This is why I specifically told them AFTER 1PM, but I guess they don’t fuckin’ listen 🫤

I am a gracious host and I also have Basic Human Empathy… I didn’t want him to sit outside in the hot sun waiting to be let in, and my building doesn’t have a lobby, so I let him upstairs. I explained the fridge situation to him – the freezer gets very cold but not cold enough to freeze anything. I told him I was in the middle of work, so I was trusting him alone with the fridge to do his diagnosis while went back into my home office to finish working.

“Trust”?

Yeah, that’s precisely where I fucked up 😔

My Rookie Mistake

I’d been living for three and a half years in Colombia, and I STILL made the stupid mistake of leaving a first-time local helper/worker alone in my private space for more than 60 seconds.

I am starting to think I need to get tested for early-onset dementia. Because why the FUCK would a naturally paranoid guy like me, living in an unapologetically LDFG country (“LDFG” = Liars, Deceivers, Flakes, and Ghosts), leave a total stranger alone in my living room for 35 fucking minutes? Why the ever-loving FUCK would I dar papaya like that? Shit don’t make no sense. I must be fucking losing it. Aging SUCKS sometimes, y’all 😥

Diagnosis and Discovery

After I finished work and came back out to the living room, Miguel gave me the diagnosis and anticipated costs verbally – I guess he couldn’t be bothered to write anything down. I didn’t think to re-check the fridge to see if anything had changed from before his visit. I paid the 40,000COP diagnosis fee, and he left, while I went back into my home office to resume my busy day with the next student.

The following day, I plugged the fridge back in, opened the freezer to make sure the setting was still at Max… and the control knob immediately fell off… along with a piece of black duct tape that had been barely holding it in place.

WTF 🤨

Seeking a Resolution

I immediately took a video clip of the damage and sent it to the technician Miguel. Take note of the date and time stamps of each message in the screenshots below. Also take note of the “tone” of my messages. I am familiar enough with Colombian culture to know that they are allergic to accountability, don’t like being called out ON THEIR OWN MISTAKES, and never apologize (at least not sincerely). So, I was careful to not hurl accusations, call him names, nor express anger. I focused on the scheduling of a new visit.

But no, that didn’t work. He just jerked me around as if I were an idiot, wasting my goddamn time waiting for him. I should have known he’d never keep his word, because fatherless shitbags l like this have no honor.

My attempts at getting the dishonest technician Miguel to come back and fix what he broke were unsuccessful. Therefore, I contacted the boss/dispatcher (I am not sure that person’s role). Notice that once again, I didn’t get abusive… I merely stated the facts and what I expected as a client. I kept it professional (“focus on resolutions, not accusations or confrontations”).

So, both people ghosted and discarded me, a genuine, paying client… whose only “sin” was trusting them to be professional and take some accountability for damaging and lowering the resale value of my fridge.

That’s one of the hundreds of disadvantages to being a negro man (especially in a systemically colorist country like Colombia)… locals like my apartment’s management (S&B SAS) in Barranquilla as well as these low-IQ liars (Soluciones Técnicas) in Cali probably assume I’m an empty-headed, rap-music listening, criminal-minded, uneducated ex-con who’ll just tolerate disrespect and abuse without pursuing some sort of justice when I am wronged. I can say, with 99.99% confidence, that they’d not have treated a white man this way.

The Aftermath

At some point, I communicated with “JE” (the expat who had given me the recommendation). “JE” was understandably quite dismayed at this unexpectedly deplorable situation, because they’d never had any bad experience with Soluciones Técnicas. To their credit, “JE” was empathetic and supportive… we both agreed that while we recommend local helpers/workers and vouch for them based on our own experiences, we cannot predict nor guarantee positive outcomes when OTHER expats hire the same local helpers.

“JE” even went so far as to communicate with Soluciones Técnicas and try to “push” them to resolve this issue with me. Well guess what? The boss/dispatcher said that he “investigated” and that the technician Miguel said he didn’t break anything, that it must have been ME who did it 🤨

You know what? I wasn’t even mad 😄 Everyone already knows that Colombian workers almost never take accountability for their wrongdoings, and they have a “victim blaming” culture (especially when the victim is a foreigner, with limited or zero legal recourse). Therefore, I was not surprised AT ALL by this “he said, she said” feedback. I mean, WTF does one expect from these low-IQ, classist, colorist, myopic, mostly fatherless, victim-blaming, dishonorable scumbags who lie as easily as they breathe? 😂

I decided to stop contacting them and asking them to resolve the issue that THEY caused. I decided to write this article instead, write reviews about them online, and warn others the best I can about Soluciones Técnicas.

“I suffered, so that YOU don’t have to”.

Reminders and Key Takeaways

Like I said in a previous article, Colombia is an LDFG country (full of Liars, Deceivers, Flakes, and Ghosts) – the culture practically mandates dishonesty and NEVER taking accountability for wrongdoing. Even if I had sought out and gotten a second positive review about Soluciones Técnicas before hiring them, I am not sure that the outcome would have been different.

This is worth repeating: Recommendations for local helpers/workers are given in “good faith”, based on the experience that THAT particular traveler/expat has had with the local helper. It does NOT guarantee that said local helper will provide the same quality of service to the OTHER travelers/expats. This is why we should all consider using and supporting a FREE community-driven website like Ayudaka Expat Support Network.

Therefore, if you ever bring a local helper into your private space, be sure to:

• Get and write down the local helper’s full name and cedula number (get the ID card image if possible). If they cannot (or will not) provide these data, then don’t work with them – look for a different local helper.
  
• Be there in person with them, watching everything. Do NOT let your guard down. Ask questions, get clarification.
  
• If possible, have a camera recording the visit and interaction. A basic home security camera with audio recording should satisfice. And no, you don’t need consent to record in your residence, it’s your own private fucking space.

• If it’s a technician, get the diagnoses, repair steps, and price quotes in writing. If they cannot (or will not) do that, then set them aside and look for a different technician.

• Optional: If you’re not fully bilingual, have a bilingual friend or find a bilingual local helper present. Preferably someone who knows the culture very well and isn’t afraid to get aggressive/forceful if necessary.

Anyway, that’s my first – and hopefully my LAST – “I was cheated by a local helper/worker” story… one more in the weird saga that is my life 😆 I had let my guard down, dar’d papaya, and I had no choice but to accept the consequence – eating an unexpected cost.

Such is life, you know?