Disgust In Holguin With Broken Induction Cookers / 14ymedio, Fernando Donate Ochoa

Reception desk at the repair shop on Aguilera Street in Holguin (Donate Fernando Ochoa / 14ymedio)
Reception desk at the repair shop on Aguilera Street in Holguin (Donate Fernando Ochoa / 14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Fernando Donate Ochoa, Holguin, 4 December 2015 – Nearly and month and a half after the start of sales of induction cookers in Holguin, the poor quality of the product, which costs 500 Cuban pesos, has disgusted many buyers. The model sold includes a cooker, a pot, a jug, a pan with lid and a coffeemaker.

“The model we are selling is not good because the customers come to the repair shop daily with broken cookers; some of them haven’t worked since the day they were bought,” explained Mireya Almaguer Martinez to 14ymedio. Almaguer is a receptionist at the repair shop located on Aguilera Street at the corner of Martires, which is the one designated for post-sales service in the city of Holguin.

“When the cooker is beyond repair, the mechanic writes it up,” says Almaguer, and with this document, signed by the repair shop director, the customer returns the defective unit to the store where they got it and gets their money back.

The most common failure is a delay in heating up, which the technical repair shop blames on imperfections in the transistors and resistors. The coffeemakers commonly present structural problems, such deformed bases that prevent stability on the cooker.

The products are covered by a 90 day warranty but the repair shop has no way to replace defective parts.

However, Xiomara Ordoñez Rodriguez, National Director of Technical Services of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, told the official newspaper Granma that the repair shops had the necessary availability of spare parts in their warehouses to repair the broken cookers.

One of those affected is Ramon, a customer visiting for the second time with his broken cooker. “The first time I came was the day I bought it. When I got home, I connected it and it began to emit a continuous sound, and now I’m bringing it in because it does not heat up,” he lamented.

In the province, the sale of induction cookers started on 19 October. The number allocated to the territory was 27,800, an insufficient number for a province of more than one million people, causing long lines to the point that places in line were being sold for 50 Cuban pesos.

Omer González Velázquez, Commercial Director of the Commercial Business Group, announced that the sale of 27,000 more cookers in the province is scheduled for next year.