Buenos Aires - not for the faint hearted

[Davidglen77]

So today I am in my store, organizing all of the Christmas merchandise as this is the busiest week of the year for us retailers.

About 10:00 two inspectors come in and tell me that my store is not within guidelines for businesses allowed in the area and that they would have to shut me down. So I protest and they start taking notes saying "Villa Urquiza" is a historic district and my habilitación application is expired (it's not). They ask me for proof of insurance, to show them the bathroom, fire extinguishers, all of which are present and in order.

They leave and told me they would be back in a few minutes. So they come back about 20 minutes later with the police and tell me that I am being closed down. They make me lower the gate and put a big red sticker over the gate that says "clausurado".

So I go to the office of the gobierno de la ciudad de Buenos Aires that handles habilitaciones and of course I am treated with the same indifference as always. Make 4 copies of this and that take this number and go to the 1st floor on your right give the brown folder to the skinny guy and the red folder to the short guy and so on and so on. They proceed to tell me that I am not allowed to operate my business until I present my case in front of them formally, they proceed to make more and more copies, make me sign and sign and sign and then stamp each page about 4 times.

I am supposed to come back to their office tomorrow in the morning to try and get this worked out, but somehow I have a feeling that this is going to be tough.

Buenos Aires is a great city, fun, exciting, great looking people, but if you do business here, BE CAREFUL, all of the odds will be against you. Between the robberies (have had a gun pointed at me) and the constant inspections which nobody can tell you what they are for, you will become either totally beat down or will pull your hair out.

I still love Argentina, I met the person of my dreams and if I could just stop having all of these crazy things happen to me, it would be a big relief!

 

[Bigboxer]

Sorry to hear of your "shakedown" it's pure extortion as far as I can see....I have seen many business's shutdown in the same fashion. Money is all they are after...sad.

 

[French jurist]

Did you say "Pero hay algo que se puede hacer?" with a smile?

Sorry for you

 

[mini]

Last week my friend had to pay a couple thousand US$ to get stuff out of the duana. They were boxes of printed material, binders, name tags, etc for a conference. They keep telling her there were "textiles" in the boxes even though they couldn't seem to show them to her....

 

[Davidglen77]

Did you say "Pero hay algo que se puede hacer?" with a smile?

Sorry for you

They didn't respond to any comments, and I didn't make any to that effect. I will not pay bribes. This is all being made VERY VERY public by the way and even if I don't get anything out of it, the people that are responsible for this will be put in the spotlight.

 

[MizzMarr]

I'm so sorry to read about this happening to you. You seem like a nice, straightforward guy who just wants to make his business succeed. I hope you're able to resolve this quickly and relatively painlessly!!

 

[French jurist]

It's all to your honor, but sometimes it's difficult to swim against the stream.
Obviously (why do they show up before Christmas?) those guys wanted a propina.

Not condemning your reaction though, I would act the same way (it's the only way to make things change... Bribes take money out of education and so on).

Congrats on your reaction then, you stand for what you believe and few people act this way nowadays.

 

[Celia]

So sorry to hear this, I hope you get it resolved soon, have been trying to go through habilitacion myself and heard all sorts of stories like this about extra-curricular payments that so far put me off....have had personal experiences of corruption too. But don't give up and don't let them ruin your xmas.

 

[nikad]

So today I am in my store, organizing all of the Christmas merchandise as this is the busiest week of the year for us retailers.

About 10:00 two inspectors come in and tell me that my store is not within guidelines for businesses allowed in the area and that they would have to shut me down. So I protest and they start taking notes saying "Villa Urquiza" is a historic district and my habilitación application is expired (it's not). They ask me for proof of insurance, to show them the bathroom, fire extinguishers, all of which are present and in order.

They leave and told me they would be back in a few minutes. So they come back about 20 minutes later with the police and tell me that I am being closed down. They make me lower the gate and put a big red sticker over the gate that says "clausurado".

So I go to the office of the gobierno de la ciudad de Buenos Aires that handles habilitaciones and of course I am treated with the same indifference as always. Make 4 copies of this and that take this number and go to the 1st floor on your right give the brown folder to the skinny guy and the red folder to the short guy and so on and so on. They proceed to tell me that I am not allowed to operate my business until I present my case in front of them formally, they proceed to make more and more copies, make me sign and sign and sign and then stamp each page about 4 times.

I am supposed to come back to their office tomorrow in the morning to try and get this worked out, but somehow I have a feeling that this is going to be tough.

Buenos Aires is a great city, fun, exciting, great looking people, but if you do business here, BE CAREFUL, all of the odds will be against you. Between the robberies (have had a gun pointed at me) and the constant inspections which nobody can tell you what they are for, you will become either totally beat down or will pull your hair out.

I still love Argentina, I met the person of my dreams and if I could just stop having all of these crazy things happen to me, it would be a big relief!

Hey David, just a small hint, when they are fooling around with you, just tell them you will be calling some friend on some TV show, pick up the phone and let them know you will make it pu will make it public. You will be amazed at wha t that can do ;o) You can take it further and tell them how much your friends at the pink house or judges will like to inspec that procedure ;o) Say it nice and friendly.

 

[nikad]

After you do so and if you get no results, hit me up