WOW!

We met some nice folks down here, Bill and Judy, and bonded with them easily.

Just before they went home Rosalie offered to take them to the airport. The weird thing about this is that Rosalie didn’t remember doing it. On the day they were leaving, we got an e-mail asking where we were. This was strange as neither of us remembered saying we would take them. Rosalie checked her e-mail and sure enough, she had made the offer but didn’t tell me as a backup.

If that wasn’t bizarre enough it gets worse! When it was obvious that we weren’t coming, Bill and Judy ordered a taxi. As they were checking out, they were told by their Hotel ‘Casa Leon’, that they owed 43,000 pesos for their stay. They denied this as they had paid half as a deposit last season, with the rest at the beginning of their stay this season along with the receipts. Then they got in the taxi. In the meantime, the hotel called the police who followed the taxi for a while and then pulled them over.

They were handcuffed and after emptying their wallets they were made to draw 16,000 from their bank accounts to give to the police. They then spent 3 hours in jail. Because of this, they missed their flights and instead of flying from Manzanillo, they had to take the bus to Puerto Vallarta a couple of days later.

I hope this was a case of miscommunication but with Mexican record-keeping who knows?

Rosalie’s sister Giselle had a similar problem earlier on. She and Gordon had put down a deposit last year on their room at Hotel ‘Vista Hermosa’, for this year. When they contacted the hotel last September to advise arrival dates etc. they found that the price had doubled. Giselle cancelled the room and booked another one elsewhere, planning to get her deposit back when they returned.

When they did arrive, Rosalie went with her to the hotel but was told the only person who could refund their deposit was the owner, who wasn’t there at the time. Giselle was told to come back. A week later, the owner still wasn’t there with the office staff very resistant in refunding her deposit. However, Giselle had kept all the paperwork: receipts and emails and showed them. Finally, she had had enough and told them that she was going to contact the Consumer Protection people. Well, that changed things rapidly: she got her money back right away.

I don’t know if this is becoming a trend here as we keep hearing stories about prices being raised after deposits are given. If this is so, they are doing a huge disservice to both themselves and the community. There will be a reputation that Melaque is ripping people off and tourists will stop coming.

There are also some disturbing things happening in that some restaurants have started using smaller wine and margarita glasses but have increased prices. We’re lucky because we know which restaurants are fair. The problem is that the tourists don’t know the local prices so they pay up, making things worse.

Anyway, Bill and Judy got home safely and contacted their travel agent who will be looking into it. We sent them the info about the Mexican consumer protection agency that Giselle had threatened and hope they can get their money back from somebody.

If anyone reading this comes down here and has trouble, this is the Consumer Protection website. http://www.profeco.gob.mx/