Ochoa Delivery "Service"

LuvtheDR

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Apr 4, 2004
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Don't ever, ever, ever, ever.......EVER get anything delivered from Ochoa! You will be lucky to ever receive it!

We were at the store on Imbert in Santiago last Tuesday (July 7) and ordered 85m2 of tile, 50 bags of pegamento, and 10 bags of cement. Normally, we only buy as much as our truck will carry....but when buying tile, if you have any hope of it all actually matching....you MUST buy it all at the same time.

We were told that it would be delivered to Sosua on Thursday (July 9). Now - I don't think we actually expected it to be delivered then....but it was nice to hope that maybe, just once, something would be done when we were told it would be done! Uh, huh.....:tired:

By late afternoon on Thursday, we decided to call and see what the status was. Yep….just as we suspected…..”it will be there tomorrow morning”. Did you know that “tomorrow morning” actually means 5pm? Anyway, we were just happy that they did show up……however….

There was NO cement, and they shorted us 4 boxes of tile. The delivery guys assured us that they would be back the next day (Saturday) with the rest. Uh, huh :tired:

Just to make a VERY long story short…..many phone calls have been made between Saturday and today (Wednesday) and we still have yet to see our stuff! We have been told story after story…..”we are out of cement and waiting for a delivery”, “we have the cement, but now we don’t have the tile”, “we have both the cement and the tile….but we don’t have any trucks available”, “we have a truck now, and the stuff is on it and will be there this afternoon” (that was yesterday), “I’m sorry the lady you talked to earlier lied to you – your stuff was NOT on a truck this afternoon” (DUH!) and the last update this morning “it will be there somewhere around 1 or 1:30 this afternoon” (Wednesday).

It is just after noon…..we shall see!

Just another example of Customer NONservice!! :mad:
 
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CFA123

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May 29, 2004
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LuvtheDR,
I don't doubt your experience at all... but I have a friend near Sosua who chose tile at Ochoa within the last 2 weeks & it was delivered in 48 hours as promised... and only two pieces broken. Sorry you had the problem/challenge.
 

sweetdbt

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Sep 17, 2004
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I think caution should be exercised before typing things like the first line of the OP. As frustrating and inconvenient as this series of events has been, it is anecdotal, and as CFA123 pointed out, it does not reflect everyones experience. My personal observation and the consensus of what I have heard from others seems to be that Ochoa is one of the better run businesses in the DR.
 

Bob K

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Aug 16, 2004
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I agree with sweetdbt. We ordered lots of tile, bath fixtures, grout, sinks etc from Ochoa and all was delivered as promised and complete. Once a load of stuff actually came a day earlly and they called in the morning to make sure it was ok. We also had an incorrect tile shipped (smaller then what was ordered). One phone call and they gave us the choice of them picking it up and delivering the correct tile or we could come down there to get it. In fact our maestro (sp) was heading to Sanitago that day to get other things and he replace the tile. They actually had the correct tile waiting for him.

So maybe this was just an unfortunate incident, but i don't think it is the norm for them.

Bob K
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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my personal experience with ochoa was great. they gave us a discount an a bill and they delivered just a day late with nothing damaged or broken. same with delivery from bellon in santiago.
my note, however, is that tiles and cement should not be taken in a normal jeepeta to save the cost and "trouble" of delivery service. a jeep in not meant to carry a heavy load.
 

AlaninDR

Mr. Chunky Skin
Dec 17, 2002
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I think the frustrating point Luv was making is that Ochoa promised on many occassions to make delivery at a certain time. Now we all know that to a Dominican, a watch is just an adornment as i'm sure most of them simply cannot tell time or read a watch/clock. What is by far the norm here, is that people are told things that turn out to not be true. So, the workers are making money doing nothing while waiting for Ochoa to perform.
I don't want to be confrontational to the other posters, but if Ochoa "hung the moon" so to speak with their constant on time delivery, why have I never heard or read anything about their prowess at customer service?
Apparently cement is a fixed price item so I took some to her jobsite to get the workers going. Better to buy locally instead of supporting companies that don't seem to care. Or put another way, they lie when the truth works better.
 
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LuvtheDR

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I would have "exercised caution" if what I was saying was embellishing the truth. But it's not....so I don't believe I have to be cautious at all. I'm glad that there are "good experiences". Maybe a situation like this is not the norm....but it is certainly frustrating when the bad experiences seem to outweigh the good (at least in MY opinion with people that I have talked to over the years)......

BTW....it's 5:00....and still no delivery! Tomorrow will be ONE WEEK since their first "promised delivery date", and one day past their last (of many) "promised delivery dates".
 

b.batista

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I think caution should be exercised before typing things like the first line of the OP. As frustrating and inconvenient as this series of events has been, it is anecdotal, and as CFA123 pointed out, it does not reflect everyones experience. My personal observation and the consensus of what I have heard from others seems to be that Ochoa is one of the better run businesses in the DR.
Your post makes sense but you missed the important point. Yes Ochoa is capable of delivering an order with no problems. So can anybody. It is not a complicated task but when they do screw up then is when the problem begins. They lie lie lie lie and lie some more with every BS excuse in the world. If they told the truth and did not leave the client waiting for days and weeks with false hopes from their daily lies then it would not be so bad. Wait until your turn comes with an order that goes wrong and you phone them up and they tell you it is all fixed up and please standby and wait for the truck to come it is on the way and then they never come. Ya. Then you will know what Mr Luvthedr is talking about.
 
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LuvtheDR

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Exactly my point! Thank you Miss B!

If they would have told us from the beginning that it would be a week before they could deliver....I would have been TOTALLY fine with that! But don't feed me bull$hit answers just because you think it's what we want to hear!

I am paying employees to hang around doing a whole lot of nada....waiting for a delivery that is CLEARLY not leaving Santiago....even though I was told (many times) that it would.....and even worse....that it HAD left and was on it's way!



Your post makes sense but you missed the important point. Yes Ochoa is capable of delivering an order with no problems. So can anybody. It is not a complicated task but when they do screw up then is when the problem begins. They lie lie lie lie and lie some more with every BS excuse in the world. If they told the truth and did not leave the client waiting for days and weeks with false hopes from their daily lies then it would not be so bad. Wait until your turn comes with an order that goes wrong and you phone them up and they tell you it is all fixed up and please standby and wait for the truck to come it is on the way and then they never come. Ya. Then you will know what Mr Luvthedr is talking about.
 

CFA123

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May 29, 2004
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LuvtheDR, B.Batista... go back and read my post. I didn't say that I doubted the bad experience at all. I've got more than a little experience with things here in DR. It was the "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever.......EVER get anything delivered from Ochoa! You will be lucky to ever receive it!" part that made me want to point out that not everything always goes wrong - for the sake of giving others a realistic view when they find this thread while doing research on DR1 in the future. Plus, if you don't want to order tile & supplies from Ochoa - where do you recommend for superior service?

At no point did I say the bad experience is not true or the frustrations are unwarranted. As a matter of fact, I said I was sorry you had to go thru it. I too know how things that go wrong can snowball here. I just try to expect the worst & be pleasantly surprised when those expectations are exceeded.

Now, how 'bout a group hug?
 
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beeza

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Nov 2, 2006
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I feel your pain I know exactly what you mean. Although I've had stuff delivered from Ochoa to Cabarete on the day they promised and with no breakages.

What gets me is that there is little regard for customer service in this country. It seems like it is better to lie to a customer and give them empty promises, rather than actually apologise for a mistake. The fact that you have wasted your day waiting for something they never intended to do, is irrelevant. And when they do finally turn up, hardly ever an apology.

There is one thing a Dominican can never do, and that is lose face! I don't think that "Lo siento, perdone me or soy incorrecto" is in their vocabulary!
 

LuvtheDR

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LuvtheDR, B.Batista... go back and read my post. I didn't say that I doubted the bad experience at all. I've got more than a little experience with things here in DR. It was the "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever.......EVER get anything delivered from Ochoa! You will be lucky to ever receive it!" part that made me want to point out that not everything always goes wrong - for the sake of giving others a realistic view when they find this thread while doing research on DR1 in the future. Plus, if you don't want to order tile & supplies from Ochoa - where do you recommend for superior service?

At no point did I say the bad experience is not true or the frustrations are unwarranted. As a matter of fact, I said I was sorry you had to go thru it. I too know how things that go wrong can snowball here. I just try to expect the worst & be pleasantly surprised when those expectations are exceeded.

Now, how 'bout a group hug?

And I never said you did say any of it! Actually.....if you go back and read my post....you'll see that I said that I was happy that there are "good experiences".

Ok...sure, fine....I probably should have said I will never ever, ever have Ochoa deliver anything ever again. But if anyone doing research on this subject actually reads my OP....they would probably understand why I said it the way I did.

Ya, I'm ticked.....but you can't tell me that you wouldn't be too. I'm trying my best to be pis$ed off nicely......;)
 

b.batista

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Feb 21, 2008
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LuvtheDR, B.Batista... go back and read my post. I didn't say that I doubted the bad experience at all. I've got more than a little experience with things here in DR. It was the "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever.......EVER get anything delivered from Ochoa! You will be lucky to ever receive it!" part that made me want to point out that not everything always goes wrong - for the sake of giving others a realistic view when they find this thread while doing research on DR1 in the future. Plus, if you don't want to order tile & supplies from Ochoa - where do you recommend for superior service?

At no point did I say the bad experience is not true or the frustrations are unwarranted. As a matter of fact, I said I was sorry you had to go thru it. I too know how things that go wrong can snowball here. I just try to expect the worst & be pleasantly surprised when those expectations are exceeded.

Now, how 'bout a group hug?
It is good that I know you are one of the best and most honest posters on DR1 otherwise I would be all over you for this post. I did not quote your text and I did not mention you not believing me and luvthedr did not either so I am writing it off to too many Cuba Libres. I have observed your posts and they are always excellent and fair until this one. It is interesting to note that nobody is saying to not buy at Ochoa. It is being said that it is not wise to use their delivery service even if nine out of ten times it works. It just can't be trusted and if you are in the middle of a big job it can be very costly.
 

AlaninDR

Mr. Chunky Skin
Dec 17, 2002
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Many years ago I had a problem with customer service at Plaza Lama. I vote with my feet and money. Since 2002, I have not been in Plaza Lama. I have no intention of EVER buying anything there again. Ochoa, IMO, acts like they're the only game in town and they act like it. Since Luvthedr is a friend of mine, I will make this proclamation for what it's worth. I will not spend another peso at Ochoa. Hell can freeze over and my pesos will not be spent there. Luv is a friend, and if she's mad at them, I will support her. Ochoa acts as though they're the only game in town but they aren't. Afterall, what are friends for but to support a person in their time of need.
Ochoa, you can kiss my a$$. Bellon is just down the street and several others are in Santo Domingo.
 

mike l

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Sep 4, 2007
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Wow,

Never expected to hear this from anyone that's been here this long....kind of scary !

I can only attest that it's a direct result of the economy as I now have deliquint accounts above 8% of sales....it's all related!
 

sweetdbt

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Sep 17, 2004
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I have no disagreement with anything the OP said other than the blanket statement that NOONE should EVER use Ochoa's delivery, which they later acknowledged should have been simply that they would not ever use it again themselves.

As far as not using the delivery service because 90% reliability is not adequate bbatista, all I can say is.........................?????? If you can't haul it yourself, then you will need delivery, and if you know a Dominican vendor whos delivery service is more than 90% reliable, I'm sure we would ALL like to hear about it!!:bunny:

I admire your loyalty Alan. Just remember there are only so many places you can put on the lifetime s**t list before run out of options.;)
 

LuvtheDR

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Apr 4, 2004
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They finally showed up today......10 bags of cement arrived safe and sound, however they only brought 4 tiles.....instead of 4 boxes of tile!

The level of incompetence is incredible! :tired:
 

El Tigre

El Tigre de DR1 - Moderator
Jan 23, 2003
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Oh lord they are just not treating you right!

BTW...how much is a bag of cement going for now a days?
 

AlaninDR

Mr. Chunky Skin
Dec 17, 2002
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I admire your loyalty Alan. Just remember there are only so many places you can put on the lifetime s**t list before run out of options.;)

Fortunately there are very few places with such egregious behavior that warrants being put on my s**t list. Ochoa has made the list.