Argentine was sooo mean to me! Is this normal?

[ahava92]

I am supposed to come to Argentina for work in about 1 month.

I called the work visa woman at the Argentine embassy to ask her some questions and she was SO mean, impatient, and downright hostile and rude on the phone! She kept cutting me off on my questions and yelling "Next!" She also did some other extraordinarily rude things on the phone. I am kind of in a state of shock.

I have lived in other countries where outsiders view the locals as rude (Israel being one of them), but I have never experienced anything like this.

At this point I am second-guessing my decision to come to Argentina. I have never met an Argentine, she is actually the first one I have ever spoken with and I was treated in such a disrespectful manner.

Is this kind of behavior normal in Argentina? I understand that "everyone is different, you cannot generalize a country," my opinion differs slightly. During my time living in 5 different countries, I did notice that there were national trends and general attitudes and ways of doing things in each country.

I really want to hear from you guys, particularly people from the US/English speaking nations: have you noticed that Argentines are more rude than people in your country? Is it normal to be treated this way?

Thank you

 

[scottlyon]

Judging from your spelling of 'generalize' I'm guessing you are in North America. I've had no experience with the Argentinian embassy there however the one in London is staffed by some incredibly rude women who make a rather large issue of stating that "It is not their fault" whilst clearly screwing things up over-and-over again.

I'm with a group of around 10 people who all went through that embassy to get their visas, all at different times, and we all share a consistent sentiment about how unprofessional, rude and plainly inept they are were.

That said, our experience at the embassy in no way reflects the behaviour of most Argentinian people we've met. Generally people are friendly, intelligent, polite and of good humour. Like anywhere you get rotten apples but it's no more or less the case than in any other country.

There is a culture of Argentina which you will notice as you have in your prior countries, but it is not rude and abrasive as the embassy would suggest.

Perhaps there are loads of stresses working at an Argentinian embassy!?

I hope this helps and I'm sure others will share their experience of administration over here.

 

[ahava92]

Thank you so much Scottylon! I am relieved to hear that in your experience, Argentines have not met the height of rudeness that this woman exhibited on the phone today.

Yes, I am from the USA. It seems that the diplomats are not so diplomatic after all...

 

[Bella27]

I am from the Pacific Northwest in the US and we are known for being very nice people. That being said, I don't particularly find the people in Argentina to be particularly warm or welcoming. I haven't had any situation close to what you are describing but in the short time I have been here I find the people I have come into contact with not very helpful and give you air that you are disturbing them by asking questions.

It's funny you make a point to acknowledge differences in culture and you seem respectful to that. I haven't found that same aura here. Typically I will be asked where I am from but more because they want to gauge how much advantage they can take of me.

I'm in BA on a three month internship and had I known what I know now about Argentina I would have picked a different South American country to go to like Chile or Peru. With all the current dollar issues here, constant strikes, increased lack of security I'd make a different choice in country location. Not to say other South American countries are safe but at least you don't have this huge hassle of dollars and the black market, importation restrictions, and diminishing supply food. People will tell you can find just about everything here maybe, but that's if you are willing to spend an entire day looking for it and then pay an exorbitant amount for it. (Granted the means of transportation or workers aren't on strike so your efforts were fruitless in anyway.)

If you have read books about this place being inexpensive it's old news. Maybe Argentina, particularly BA, was a good place to come to about a year ago but things aren't going well here right how. I just hope things stay stable enough until I go home. Do some more research or even read around on this forum before you fully commit to coming here.

 

[fuccolini]

Embassy and consular staff are notorious dicks, pretty much anywhere. but generally you have to kiss ass for any type of tramite here in argentina especially, i mean reeaaalllyy kiss it. its par for the course.

 

[el_expatriado]

If you are dealing with the consulate in Los Angeles, this is totally normal. They are horrible. They attend the phone just 2 hours a day and are not helpful at all. The person who did my visa was very rude. Silvia, I think her name was. This is pretty normal for all government workers here. No one really cares about helping you out or doing a good job.

In Argentina most people use lawyers or "gestores" or other professionals to do their paperwork, when possible. The service is so bad and the government workers are so unhelpful that it has created a whole industry of people who help you navigate the bureaucracy. I had my visa done professionally and I only had to go once to the embassy and all my paperwork was already approved before the visit. It was just a formality actually.

 

[Davidglen77]

I think what you are seeing here is a typical case of government employees and their generally bad attitudes and inefficiency. I come from New York City and if you've ever had to deal with any government agency, motor vehicles, immigration, taxes, vital records, you would see just how inefficient and mean most of the employees are, and act like they are doing you a favor. Here in Argentina it's the same, a group of employees who get paid whether they work or not, always thinking about going on strike, get paid good salaries and have no incentive whatsoever to do anything for you. I don't think it's worse here than anywhere else in that sense.

 

[Panini]

If any of your questions related to this (http://www.embassyofargentina.us/v2011/en/consularsection/tramites/businessvisa.htm) then I'm not that surprised. Although the tone of the women on the phone sounds overly ruff.

Saying that if every person who wanted to go Argentina/ process a visa called to talk it out over the phone the staff would never get anything done.

My experience of the Arg Embassy in my country was great! I got my visa in 3 days after presenting my documents after phoning to confirm a time to drop my documents in.

Embassy's and consulates deal with lots and lots of paper work and it's illegal to not make sure the correct procedure/documents are obtained so people think they're mean because they're so strict but in reality they're just following the rules.

 

[PhilinBSAS]

All the people I've dealt with many times at the Argentine Embassy and the Charge d'Affairs In London have been totally brilliant being friendly helpful painstaking and meticulous and I was particularly impressed them going out of their way to find ways of minimising the charges involved in documentation which they needed to sort out for me when I was buying property.

However I havnt yet met the new Argentine Ambassador to London the one with the red hair and Mrs T approach towards handbags who learnt her manners from that famous charm school Aerolineas Argentinas apparently as a Trolly Dolly

Sorry to hear you had problems.

Not wishing to appear rude had you considered maybe it's the way you approached them?

Mind you Ive found "official telephone manner" in spanish speaking countries is very different from anglo telephone manner and does come across as abrupt curt and brusk .

Although I love Spain I would say on average Argentinians are much more friendly. Some ... and Im going to pick out Catalans ... boy oh boy now do they know how to be totally obnoxious right in your face. Fortunately I can be rude back if it hacks me off and the very best way is to refuse to speak to them in English even though clearly I am English and instead use my most annoying Rioplatense Castillian. Ha that's a terrific way of getting up their noses.

Also worth saying there is a big difference between the "big city" attitude of portenos (people from Buenos Aires) and most of the rest of the country which by common consent are not so pushy (typical of big cities elsewhere like Paris, London and New York)

 

[AngelinBA]

Panini, working in an embassy I can tell you that every single Argentine visa applicant does indeed ring up to check and double check all information published in our website. That isn't an excuse for rude behaviour.