Cuba’s Renowned Ice-Cream Parlor & its Notorious “Hollow Scoops”

Cuba's Renowned Ice-Cream Parlor & its Notorious "Hollow Scoops"
September 6, 2014 | Print | 0 110 1 118
Jimmy Roque Martinez

HAVANA TIMES – Cuba's official press and blogs have published several
articles dealing with product thefts at Havana's Coppelia ice-cream
parlor. Specificially, there are reports of so-called "hollow scoops."

A "hollow scoop" is a scoop of ice-cream that's round and full on the
outside but hollow on the inside.

My boyfriend and I go to this ice-cream parlor regularly and we always
have to ask to be served again, because we always get hollow scoops.

This week, I decided to go see an official and hear, first hand, what
those responsible had to say, why this happens and what the managers of
Coppelia are doing to prevent such bad service.

I couldn't see the manager, so I spoke with a Customers Service
representative and the Secretary for the ice-cream parlor's Communist
Party core group.

These officials told me that, when a customer experiences this or any
other kind of mistreatment, they should approach the area manager or the
Customer Services Office. When I specifically asked how the company's
control mechanisms worked and what they did to prevent bad service, they
mentioned a number of things.

According to them, the issue is brought up every morning with the
workers and managers (they have a manager for every wing or area). The
area manager is the person responsible for ensuring the quality of the
service.

The Party Secretary also told me that they are open to any suggestion as
to how to improve services from the population.

I stressed that customers have the right to demand good service and to
get full scoops of ice-cream, but that it was the ice cream parlor's
responsibility to ensure that happens. In principle, the customer should
not have to worry about being conned.

I left that office convinced we would continue to see hollow scoops of
ice-cream, that I would be back to tell them the service had not
improved and to demand they assume responsibility for this. I hope to be
able to go back with suggestions and a printed copy of this post.

We, the customers, must work to stop this practice once and for all. I
did not get the impression that the officials at Coppelia are committed
to offering a quality service.

Source: Cuba's Renowned Ice-Cream Parlor & its Notorious "Hollow Scoops"
- Havana Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=105981