Navigating the Service Maze - An Expat's Guide to Business in Ecuador

If you've spent any time at all in Ecuador, you've likely experienced the frustration of a transaction that just doesn't go as planned. You walk into a business, ready to purchase a product or receive a service, and for reasons you can’t quite grasp, something goes wrong. The sale falls through, a promise is broken, or a basic standard of commerce isn't upheld. This isn't a problem unique to Ecuador, but when it happens again and again, and you hear story after story, across different industries—from the local corner shop to a seemingly international brand—it becomes genuinely shocking.

It’s tempting to write these experiences off as simple incompetence, but the reality is far more complex. The consistent challenges with customer service and commercial integrity are often a result of deep-seated cultural factors that are important to understand, not to judge, but to navigate more effectively.

From my ten years living here, I've observed a few key cultural tendencies that frequently contribute to these communication breakdowns.

For one, there's a strong preference for expressing complex thoughts and feelings with broad, even poetic, words. A frustrating or disappointing experience might be called "aggressive" or "violent," not because it was physically so, but because the emotion behind it was so strong. Similarly, something deeply upsetting could be described as "abusive" or "oppressive." This style of communication, while rich with emotion, often lacks the precision needed for business.

Additionally, most Ecuadorians I've met aren't fond of extended, serious conversations. There's often a desire to move from uncomfortable topics to "small talk" or gossip as quickly as possible. Having to interrogate, assess, or debate is not seen as a comfortable way to interact, which can leave you with unanswered questions and a lack of accountability. When you add to this a generally lower command of the Spanish language compared to their northern and southern neighbors, it’s easy to see how simple, avoidable misunderstandings can pile up.

Finally, there is a notable lack of a long-term vision. While Ecuadorians are excellent at dealing with immediate, short-term problems, the idea of contemplating how a decision will play out months or years from now is often a foreign concept. In many cases, "the problem started when the crisis started," which makes it very difficult to proactively prevent issues before they arise.

These cultural nuances have a direct impact on daily commerce, leading to consistent issues with communication and flawed operational standards.

I recently had to use the warranty for a new electric oven I bought back in mid June. Despite my girlfriend, who is Ecuadorian, and I being proactive and foreseeing many of the typical pitfalls, we still spent far too much time just trying to get the process started. We discovered that the people we were in contact with weren't customer service representatives at all—they were salespeople. Their attempts to help were mostly a series of "I'm talking to someone" or "I'm waiting for an answer from someone," with no clear procedure for how to actually process a warranty claim.

Many of the phones found online weren't really working, especially if they said it was a customer support line, they wouldn't work or nobody would pick up. We were lucky the one who facilitated my girlfriend's credit line for that purchase was an acquaintance and she would help us "liaison" with some "unreachable overlords" of the tech and warranty service, until they would finally decided to contact us. It took 4 days to get a response from what I had to assume was a tech service person, as they just began asking what was wrong with the product, even after us having sent plenty of messages and photos to our "liaison", and without properly identifying themselves. Then, 2 days communicating via WhatsApp to know what to do, to then take the product back to the store in the next opportunity I had.

Twice I asked if I needed to bring anything else with me besides the product, and twice I was told "no, there's nothing else needed". I took a copy of my girlfriend's Cedula and the physical cedula anyway, to the drop off. Of course, I ended up needing a copy of the cedula and taking a picture of the original one. I couldn't help to feel grateful I wasn't wasting all this Cuenca experience.

Well, to not leave you without a conclusion, it took 1 full month to get the item back from warranty, and of course I had to go get it to take it with me in a taxi.

In another instance, back in 2018, I was aiding a journalist who was doing some work on the Venezuelan refugee crisis in Ecuador. During her stay in Cuenca she decided for a "regular" 4-star hotel in Cuenca. I am not a hotel connoisseur so, don't expect me to understand what makes a hotel a 4-star hotel. Nevertheless, I would expect it to have a series of services that represent a good chunk of those stars.

She asked about the kitchen hours upon check-in, because she wanted to be aware and she seemed quite careful with her scheduling. Knowing we had some time before her first appointment when having just arrived in the hotel, she ordered a coffee. After nearly a half-hour passed, with no coffee in sight, she called to inquire, only to wait another 15 minutes before giving up. She was given strange unclear answers that didn't really specify if the coffee was done, on its way, or still being prepared. It was a clear sign that the staff wasn't paying attention and was not coordinated. She ended up having to eat nearly all her meals outside the hotel because she couldn't rely on the service.

The fact is, even when you do everything right, you can still get a bad result. And without clear standards of procedure and a culture of accountability, a simple mistake can snowball into a major problem—one that, somehow, can even feel like your own fault.

This isn't about blaming or judging; it's about empowering you to navigate this unique environment more effectively. While you can't change the culture, you can change your approach.

• Communicate Proactively and Smartly. Ask the same question multiple times, but do it politely and not in a confrontational way. When you get a rejection, ask for the reason why—and be aware that many Cuencanos don't like to say a direct "no," so you may need to learn to read between the lines. For those who aren't tech-savvy, mastering WhatsApp is a game-changer. It's the primary way to follow up with people here and creates a written record of your interactions.

• Plan for the Worst-Case Scenario. Always carry extra copies of important documents. I've painfully learned that it’s far better to have an extra copy in a folder you never use than to waste 45 minutes running back to get one. Take your own pictures of products, contracts, and receipts. Keep a paper trail and your own digital record of every important transaction.

• Find Your Legal and Financial Allies. Don't wait for a crisis to find an attorney. Instead, seek out a good legal professional for preventive consultation. They can teach you how to set up a paper trail for civil complaints and navigate a system that often operates on different rules. In a place where you can get an honest legal consultation for $20 to $40 per hour, it's a small investment that could save you thousands in the future.

• Manage Your Expectations. Before you jump to conclusions, take a moment to ask enough questions to understand what's really happening. You may find that the level of service you're used to in your home country simply isn't possible here because the entire economic, logistical, and management structure doesn't exist. There are things that are a great value in Ecuador, such as access to healthy food at a low cost, but consistent, high-end service is often not one of them, regardless of what you pay.

• Make it a priority to know who you give a lot of your business to. If you become too focused on the wrong reasons to support a business, you might be supporting someone who is just using that trade as a means to get-by. Unfortunately, many service providers are just trying to have something productive to do while looking for that something else that they want, and you'd be unfair to those who are trying to specialize and be professional in that field by deciding to give the former most of your business.

Ultimately, navigating business and daily life in Cuenca means being a constant self-advocate and a meticulous record-keeper. It's about building a team of trusted professionals and vendors and understanding that you have a role in shaping the economy of this city with your business decisions.

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