OK Now I am part of the Mexico 99%! We just went thru Telmex hell and they rival AT&T for pain levels and the Dept of Motor Vehicles for making you wait! We have been to Ometepec 3 or 4 times to the Telmex office. Of course the first time was to get connected, so that was ok. Remember this is an hour to hour and a half drive from here. The bills come to the post office in Copala and you can pay there, but if you have any issues, you have to call. Ha ha ha ha call my a**! You have to go there. We got the phone July 4, and by Aug 1 had not had service 15 days of July. We called them and called them from Chela's phone, and they said they would credit us half the month in a future bill, pls just pay this one. (insert ha ha here) Did I mention we paid extra to be able to call the US unlimited for free, but after about the first 2 months, when I called the static was so bad we couldn't really have much of a conversation. Aug was ok, then in Sept stopped working or too static-y to hear. We called them several times in Oct, oh and in Sept they came to "fix" the connection cause it didn't work in the kitchen or the upstairs. After they left I tried it, and then wanted to run down the road after them cause they didn't actualluy fix it...and ha ha we tipped them.
So in Oct we went back for 2nd or 3rd time and after waiting for ever...the office is funny; one side is new customers and options- they have about 6 people walking around to help. The other side is customer service. One person with all the waiting seats (6 or 8) taken and people standing around, so you wait about an hour to talk to someone. anyway they apologized and said they'd give us a discount...hmmm where did I hear that before? But they had no record of the first offer to discount...anyway we said no thanx- we don;t want the phone, just the internet. So we have been going to Copala looking for the bill since last week and finally got thru on the phone yesterday. They said we owed for the phone, they had no record of it being turned off, and no record of any of our complaints ha ha. Everardo called them thieves (yes 2 temper loses in 2 weeks), and we drove to Ometepec. Ha ha there they said they have no record of us in their system...ok then why do you want us pay you? Oh wait, let me get the main office in Mexico City on the phone. It gets confused from there, but we are not in the sytem, but they want us to pay. And to drive back out there to retrurn the box ha ha. So....do we owe or do we not owe? The person on the phone put us on hold and dropped the call. We waited again for the agent who was helping us, and she said what do you want me to do? Oh- nothing I guess. So we left. We'll ask the guy who's gonna take care of the house to drop off the box when he next goes to Ometepec (pls no special trip), and I guess this is free...?
We will try not to contact Telmex in Puerto Penasco. Or if we need them for internet, we'll see if we exist or not, or maybe just put it in our name.
So- we wanted to pay what we owed, but not what we didn't owe. At one point we offered to pay last month and this month for internet, but not phone and someone said you can't do that. Then we ceased to exist...anyway this was all in Spanish so I got bit and pieces and the rest in the car on the way home. But wow! No wonder people are at odds with their service providers!!!!
And the way home was nice. There is this town across a mountian top- well not a huge mountain but bigger than a hill, that I thought overlooked the sea. I always saw it on the way to Ometepec but never saw the road for it. I looked for the town every time we went, someimes I spotted it and sometimes not. But yesterday I saw it, and the road out to it. The name was some like Huehuetan. So we detoured and drove out there on our way home. It does not look over the ocean; I guess the road has a slow turn towards the east and so the ocean is a ways past it. But it was a cute little town, like all of them. Much bigger than Playa Ventura- we could tell that simply by the amount of school kids in the road walking home. But it was nice to have seen it. Oh and on that road was a donkey and her baby. Then we saw a horse and her baby. And closer to home a pig and her baby so it was a baby kind of a day.
Today we paid both our Mexico property tax and our Calif property tax. Yes ouch, as I wrote to someone in an email, that gust of wind I felt was my money rushing by ha ha. But having it on record that we paid our property taxes is important, or could be important down the road if we don;t sell this house too quickly. In Mexico if someone moves into an empty house- simply cause it's empty, not with permission or anything, if they stay 5 years- then the house can become theirs! Wow right? Well we have hired someone to watch it, and until it sells we will keep visiting it, but it's just better to have your bases covered. Your name on the power bill helps you too since they only put your name on it if you give them a copy of your deed, so we should be good. We hope to sell soon, but don't need to, so no pressure there. We have no idea if/when it would sell, here you can ask 50 people the same question and get 50 different answers. So we shall see what we shall see. Mexico has a logic I am yet to understand, I'm sure it makes sense to somebody. But living in a third world country is quite an experience on so many levels.
At least in this area the people are really poor. In some ways the gov't helps alot, and in other ways, not at all. Big companies seem like they are monopolies (I'm not sure) and so there is no such thing as customer service here. Don't like us Go somewhere else- oh wait there is nowhere else...so I guess it's like anywhere, lots of good people working hard, some not so good people not working too hard, some people always running a scam...ha ha I tell you, if you are prone to insecurity, going to a country where you don't speak the language may not be the smartest move.
Right now the plan is leave for Puerto Penasco next Monday or Tuesday. We have been taking care of paperwork, bills, etc, and I even got my nails done today! Yipee! It's been so long, but I live in sand and it just felt silly most of the time! We are in contact with a woman in PP who has some rentals and I think we'll will get something at least for a month, thru her. During that month we can look for something else. I am hearing we can rent for as cheap as $180 month USD for 2 bedrooms! Of course this is not on the beach...but guess what? We don't want to be on the beach! These rents are for local (Mexican) neighborhoods which is exactly what we want. I really hope I like this place, I've been looking at it from every which way I can think of online and it seems good.
Ha ha the obvious things are there, but who knows what new thing I'll find out about myself ha ha. It has a population close to our town in Calif, there is English and Spanish, AA meetings, stores, coffee shops, possibility for work for Everardo..., maybe me, too...so pls stay tuned for the next part of the adventure!
So in Oct we went back for 2nd or 3rd time and after waiting for ever...the office is funny; one side is new customers and options- they have about 6 people walking around to help. The other side is customer service. One person with all the waiting seats (6 or 8) taken and people standing around, so you wait about an hour to talk to someone. anyway they apologized and said they'd give us a discount...hmmm where did I hear that before? But they had no record of the first offer to discount...anyway we said no thanx- we don;t want the phone, just the internet. So we have been going to Copala looking for the bill since last week and finally got thru on the phone yesterday. They said we owed for the phone, they had no record of it being turned off, and no record of any of our complaints ha ha. Everardo called them thieves (yes 2 temper loses in 2 weeks), and we drove to Ometepec. Ha ha there they said they have no record of us in their system...ok then why do you want us pay you? Oh wait, let me get the main office in Mexico City on the phone. It gets confused from there, but we are not in the sytem, but they want us to pay. And to drive back out there to retrurn the box ha ha. So....do we owe or do we not owe? The person on the phone put us on hold and dropped the call. We waited again for the agent who was helping us, and she said what do you want me to do? Oh- nothing I guess. So we left. We'll ask the guy who's gonna take care of the house to drop off the box when he next goes to Ometepec (pls no special trip), and I guess this is free...?
We will try not to contact Telmex in Puerto Penasco. Or if we need them for internet, we'll see if we exist or not, or maybe just put it in our name.
So- we wanted to pay what we owed, but not what we didn't owe. At one point we offered to pay last month and this month for internet, but not phone and someone said you can't do that. Then we ceased to exist...anyway this was all in Spanish so I got bit and pieces and the rest in the car on the way home. But wow! No wonder people are at odds with their service providers!!!!
And the way home was nice. There is this town across a mountian top- well not a huge mountain but bigger than a hill, that I thought overlooked the sea. I always saw it on the way to Ometepec but never saw the road for it. I looked for the town every time we went, someimes I spotted it and sometimes not. But yesterday I saw it, and the road out to it. The name was some like Huehuetan. So we detoured and drove out there on our way home. It does not look over the ocean; I guess the road has a slow turn towards the east and so the ocean is a ways past it. But it was a cute little town, like all of them. Much bigger than Playa Ventura- we could tell that simply by the amount of school kids in the road walking home. But it was nice to have seen it. Oh and on that road was a donkey and her baby. Then we saw a horse and her baby. And closer to home a pig and her baby so it was a baby kind of a day.
Today we paid both our Mexico property tax and our Calif property tax. Yes ouch, as I wrote to someone in an email, that gust of wind I felt was my money rushing by ha ha. But having it on record that we paid our property taxes is important, or could be important down the road if we don;t sell this house too quickly. In Mexico if someone moves into an empty house- simply cause it's empty, not with permission or anything, if they stay 5 years- then the house can become theirs! Wow right? Well we have hired someone to watch it, and until it sells we will keep visiting it, but it's just better to have your bases covered. Your name on the power bill helps you too since they only put your name on it if you give them a copy of your deed, so we should be good. We hope to sell soon, but don't need to, so no pressure there. We have no idea if/when it would sell, here you can ask 50 people the same question and get 50 different answers. So we shall see what we shall see. Mexico has a logic I am yet to understand, I'm sure it makes sense to somebody. But living in a third world country is quite an experience on so many levels.
At least in this area the people are really poor. In some ways the gov't helps alot, and in other ways, not at all. Big companies seem like they are monopolies (I'm not sure) and so there is no such thing as customer service here. Don't like us Go somewhere else- oh wait there is nowhere else...so I guess it's like anywhere, lots of good people working hard, some not so good people not working too hard, some people always running a scam...ha ha I tell you, if you are prone to insecurity, going to a country where you don't speak the language may not be the smartest move.
Right now the plan is leave for Puerto Penasco next Monday or Tuesday. We have been taking care of paperwork, bills, etc, and I even got my nails done today! Yipee! It's been so long, but I live in sand and it just felt silly most of the time! We are in contact with a woman in PP who has some rentals and I think we'll will get something at least for a month, thru her. During that month we can look for something else. I am hearing we can rent for as cheap as $180 month USD for 2 bedrooms! Of course this is not on the beach...but guess what? We don't want to be on the beach! These rents are for local (Mexican) neighborhoods which is exactly what we want. I really hope I like this place, I've been looking at it from every which way I can think of online and it seems good.
Ha ha the obvious things are there, but who knows what new thing I'll find out about myself ha ha. It has a population close to our town in Calif, there is English and Spanish, AA meetings, stores, coffee shops, possibility for work for Everardo..., maybe me, too...so pls stay tuned for the next part of the adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment