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Monday, July 25, 2011

A Botched Robbery / Rebeca Monzo

A Botched Robbery / Rebeca Monzo
Rebeca Monzo, Translator: Nina

A friend from Spain sent me a package in the mail, on July 6th,
containing medicines, two cell phones, one for myself and the other one
for another person, with their corresponding chargers, three flash
drives, and some office supplies.

The package arrived in less than fifteen days. When I was notified of
its arrival, I went to pick it up to the Ministry of Communications
facilities. At the moment that the package was handed to me, the
employee noticed that outside of the box protected by a transparent
plastic from the TransVal Company, was a loose cell phone battery. After
we opened it up to look at its content, we saw that the two cell phones
declared on the original invoice were missing. Only the batteries were
left (botched robbery) whose models corresponded to the different
brands, and the empty box of one of them.

The box arrived with an expected note saying: Unfortunately your
shipment arrived at our services with damages to its packaging.

I immediately went to make my claim to the Technical Department of the
Postal Zone Six for Services to the Population. There, they also charged
me $25.00 pesos. I don't know if that was because of my mismanagement or
what.

It is assumed that the mail is inviolable, and especially when the
contents have been declared to the pertinent authorities. How is it
possible that accidentally all packages, including mail, even a simple
magazine from a foreign university, get here damaged, and come along
with the obviously expected note?

Right there, an employee, very kindly, informed me that if I wanted to,
I could go to Calle 100 and Boyeros, where all the packages arrive
before they are processed by the Ministry of Communications, but the
problem was that they did not serve the public there. This seemed a joke
to me, but the woman told me this very seriously.

I decided to write a letter, to explain this story with every detail,
and send it to the Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) Newspaper, which has a
section called Acknowledgment of Receipt, where they use to receive and
publish this type of complaint. What turns out to be ridiculous and
deplorable is the botch of the robbery.

Translated by: Nina

July 23 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=10980

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