Chile Forum

admin wrote:.. we would call and they would say they were out of stock of everything and had no idea when they would get more...

Ok, entertain my perfect ignorance for a moment: assuming you are not the only person in the entire country looking for a saw, and you are prepared to pay the asking price, then WHY are not more people importing more items like this into Chile?? What happened to the laws of supply/demand and why isn't someone filling the void?

StevenDC wrote:

admin wrote:.. we would call and they would say they were out of stock of everything and had no idea when they would get more...

Ok, entertain my perfect ignorance for a moment: assuming you are not the only person in the entire country looking for a saw, and you are prepared to pay the asking price, then WHY are not more people importing more items like this into Chile?? What happened to the laws of supply/demand and why isn't someone filling the void?

because in chile we dont do it that way...... we do it the chilean way

StevenDC wrote:

admin wrote:.. we would call and they would say they were out of stock of everything and had no idea when they would get more...

Ok, entertain my perfect ignorance for a moment: assuming you are not the only person in the entire country looking for a saw, and you are prepared to pay the asking price, then WHY are not more people importing more items like this into Chile?? What happened to the laws of supply/demand and why isn't someone filling the void?

Chile is the capital of Good Enough. The cheapest and easiest shortcut solution for anything is Good Enough, especially if you can cheat a little along the way and not reveal that you cut something too short and had to insert a suple. And if you want more than the most basic and sloppy and minimally functional, it's going to cost a lot more and take forever to accomplish because you are going to beat those bastards with a stick as they try and try several times to do what they have never done before and that is Get It Right The First Time. You finally give up because they are costing you a fortune in materials and schedule. There was a Chilean website somewhere called Chile a medias... "Half-way Chile." Never done right, just done sorta kinda. And every NYC chileno knows it. That's Nacido Y Criado. Born and raised here, as opposed to the civilised nations.

Same thing with tools. The most basic Chinese backyard caveman product sells for X and the Makita or Bosch sells for 4 times X. Certainly desire, but not demand enough for the decent tool. Not enough paying demanders and so the shops tend to stock not many quality items. If it was good enough for Bernardo O'Higgins it's good enough for the maestro of today. Maestro, entre comillas.

Yesterday morning I went out and started doing some work on my shed before going to the office. I had the dewalt zipping away none stop working on rafters with 22.5 degree angle cuts. knocked out 5 rafters before work.

There are two houses actively under construction next door (really three, but they ran out of money on the third house and it has been waiting for a roof for over a year). In those two hours I was working, I never heard a single power saw of any sort start up (they have them, I have heard them on other occasions), and I only heard like twice a hammer (forget about nail guns). I doubt they put in more than perhaps 3-5 nails, in the time it took me to do the roof of the shed. Between the two work sites there are at least 10 guys. There is a porch going on one of the houses that they are putting the sheathing on, one sheet of plywood a day it seems.

When I had a construction biz and various work sites to manage in the States, I use to park the truck around the corner and stop and listen to the work site to see if the guys were working or goofing off. If in say 15 mins no one started a saw or made other active work noises (construction sites getting things done have a steady hum to them), then I would pop in and start firing people. If I had decibel meter, I could likely make some correlation about how much work is being done relative to the noise produced.

So, why don't they sell saws? Because the guys get paid by the day in most cases. A hand saw is far more profitable than a miter saw. Especially if you get sent back a few times to fix all the screw ups. Job security.

admin wrote: Because the guys get paid by the day in most cases.

That is why I don't hire them by the day, but by the small-project. Say, "install relleno and volcanita on walls and ceiling for these two rooms within 3 days." The maestros give me a written fixed price bid with a drawing and standards/conditions and list of materials, and no adelantos. If I don't like the bid I just reject it and ask another pair of maestros who know they are competing. Eventually they get the idea. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I had one gasfitter come down 50 percent on his initial bid when I called his bluff, and I was so pissed at his first bid that I never hired him again.

This way,they come in early, work late, work Sundays - because it's fixed price and not hourly, and the sooner they finish successfully, the sooner they get paid. The quality is still chilean, meaning substandard and subject to rework. But they rework things on their own time. If they screw up something I didn't notice immediately on one project, the next opportunity is based on no-cost fixing of the earlier problems (I still have to pay for the materials).

Now these maestros use power tools. Not always the best but they are learning to work faster. Some of them. The ones who won't step up to the plate don't get invited back. The ones who try to give me highball bids get quietly and politely rejected. I've rejected a lot of workers, and word has gotten around. If I run out of maestros then I leave a message with the bosses at the ferreterias where I buy a lot of stuff, and they refer comparatively good ones to come out and bid. I said comparatively. "Good chilean trades worker" is a contradiction.

There are those on this forum and elsewhere who tell me that you can't change the chilean shit-work way of going slowly. I've found that is not necessarily the case. Naturally your mileage may differ.

You can change some, and there are good workers. It is just not like stopping by a corner on the way to a job site to pick up some day labor. It takes time to sort them out.

I got a kid now that actually works in the rain. Imagine that in Southern Chile?

The I have layed floors with him and a bunch of other projects, and he works full time. He is never sitting still, and always looking for something to do. He costs me more, but not more than the guys that do nothing all day.

admin wrote: It is just not like stopping by a corner on the way to a job site to pick up some day labor. It takes time to sort them out.

Very true.

admin wrote:I got a kid now that actually works in the rain. Imagine that in Southern Chile?

I have had guys working in the snow, mud, freezing cold, and local high winds. That is life around here in Patagonia. And then there are guys who won't come in at when it's sunny and warm. The latter guys are called unemployed.

They were building something big in Frutillar this year (parking lot for the theater or something). Housekeeper for a friend of ours said something like, "that is great, but they won't hire anyone from Frutillar to work on the construction". The immediate thought was that she was mad at the big construction company for not hiring locals, but then she went on to add it is because the local workers will get all enthusiastic at first then stop showing up to work or doing the job. Which I have seen repeatedly here.