CORERO EN MEXICO

When ever someone tells me they want to mail a letter or something to me in Mexico, I tell them "We don't have mail in Mexico".  That is an exaggeration, but they might as well not have it.  Even the Mexican utility companies won't use it.  They pay an employee to hand deliver the bills to each household.  They also do not bother with envelopes.  You have to know when the bill is due and search for it.  If you are lucky they will stick it under the door, where it gets wet if it is raining (rain runs under my door during heavy storms).  Or, they stick it in the door, or maybe hide it behind the meter.  If you miss it, in 10 days they could shut off your electricity or water.

UPS is really the only way to get something to me and it is also "iffy".  My first experience was when I had to have a new credit card mailed to me after it was stolen in Cancun.  That took forever and since the tracking said it was in Guadalajara the night before, I ran out for my latte in the morning.  Sure enough there was a note on my door when I got back.  I called Saul.  He told me that they only make one attempt and then return it to the U.S.  I had to go to the UPS office and pick it up.  Fortunately he knew where the office was so the following day, we hailed a cab and headed off.

UPS does not have an office in Puerto Vallarta, but uses a shipping company.  So you really have to know where to go as nothing outside indicates that UPS is inside.  It took about for ever  to find it, but I did get it. That was my only experience with UPS until recently.  One Monday morning I noticed that I had a call form a strange 800 number.  I almost deleted it.  For four years I have had collection companies calling me looking for a Maria, or an Edward.  Apparently they had this number four years ago in California.  I have Magic Jack for calls outside of Mexico and got a number local for Laguna Beach so people can call me at no charge.  Each time I speak to the collection company they promise to delete the number from their list, but the calls continue.

Anyway, this happened to be a call from the fraud department at my bank.  They notice "unusual activity" on my care and fortunately called me.  Someone in Seattle had made ten charges on my card all on Sunday night.  My bank knows I live in Mexico.  Of course they said they would credit me for all the charges, but they had to cancel my card and send me a new one.  They would not mail it to Mexico.   They said that someone in Seattle had hacked into my account.  I know no one is Seattle, never use the card for anything but ATM withdraws.  I did use it while I was in the U.S. but that was five months ago.  They said they
 would only mail it to my U.S. address of record. They said it would take a week to ten days.  I had my friend Donna check it after 10 days and the card was there.  She mailed it UPS and got a tracking number.  It cost $75.00 U.S.  for a small envelope that weighed less than half an ounce.  You still wonder why I don't have anything mailed to me?

The tracking showed it arriving eleven days later.  Then it said, that it would be delivered a day early.  With my last experience, I decided not to leave the house all day.  No latte, no gym, no shopping, I just sat and waited.  Of course it did not arrive until 6:30 at night.  The next morning I tried it at my ATM and Thank God it worked.  Without a credit or debit card I am without access to money.   No one takes a check here.
And I do not want to use a credit card for purchases so I was desperate to get the card.  You would think that for $75.00 a small envelope could get here a little faster.

 Why eleven days?  I think once it gets to Mexico, it travels by burro.

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