el crispito

The problem started when we didn't receive our electric bill. The truth is that it had fallen down behind someone else's mailbox, but until one of our lovely neighbors brought it to our door, I didn't think we had received it. Not receiving one's electric bill, we are told, happens often. When that happens, one has to go to the CFE offices with a previous bill so they can look up the amount due. The offices are only open until 3 pm, but luckily, they have CFEmáticos, things that are kind of like ATMs for looking up your account and paying bills.

Our regular taxi driver drove us over to the CFE office, and we arrived at around 2:30. When we walked in, I noted that there were several employees in the office, but none of them were doing anything. They were sitting around chatting and one teller was doing her nails. A manager walked up to us and told us that if we were there to pay a bill, that could be accomplished either at a cashier window, or at the CFEmático. We told him that we didn't have our bill, and he said that we could look up our account with the CFEmático. We walked over to the machines where some other people were milling around, and waited behind them, because it seemed they were waiting to use the machines. After a couple of minutes, we scooted around these people and looked at the first of the two machines and saw that it said it was out of service. We moved over to the other machine and it said it was re-initializing. The office was closing in about 10 minutes, but we were told that one could make payments with the CFEmáticos 24-hours-a-day. But of course, that's only when they're operational.

We then went over to the cashier that had been doing her nails and explained that we wanted to pay but didn't have a bill, and she told us that if we had a previous bill, she could use it to look up the account and tell us what we owe. However, 'the system' was down throughout the Guadalajara metro area at that time, and they didn't know when it would be up and running again. Until the system was back online, we would not be able to pay the bill. Why the manager that initially talked to us didn't explain this, I don't know. That kind of thing happens a lot in Mexico, so you get used to it.

They were locking up the office around then, so we left. The next day or so, the aforementioned neighbor found our bill and brought it to us, so I went out to pay it at our local OXXO. Upon trying to pay, the cashier ran the bill over the scanner and there was no response from the system. He told me that I would not be able to pay until the following day, and explained something that I didn't completely understand.

I've also had problems at Home Depot here, where they won't accept payments with my Edward Jones Visa, because it indicates that it's a debit card on the front. In the United States, I have run into this problem with places that use a credit card for a deposit, but never with payment for a set amount at a retail store. Yet in Mexico, the processor that they use for Visa credit cards will not do processing for Visa debit cards. Period. To their credit (no pun intended), when I wrote to Home Depot customer service for Mexico to complain, they wrote back apologizing and explaining the situation, whereas the CC I sent to Home Depot customer service in the United States got only form letter response telling me about how to apply for a Home Depot branded Visa.